Collection Removed from Equifax!!!

[pkosheta]

Over a year ago I had a collection placed on Equifax from a then 2 year old Comcast bill.  It was in all fairness my fault for not paying the last bill.  I should have been on top of it as the account was in my name, but my roommate told me he took care of it and I was way too trusting.  Here is how it went down.

Rewind to last year I app'ed for a new credit card and was denied and informed my FICO was just over 600.  I have had mid 700's for a while (since i was in grade school) so panic set in and I pulled my 3 reports.  On Equifax was the collection and my heart fell.  It was reported deliquent in 11/2011 and first reported a month before my app.  Years of careful work ruined and like the proverbial broken mirror. I felt doomed to 7years of bad credit luck.  However, I refused to give in and worked hard to fix the problem.  After scouring the FICO boards I used every trick it suggested.  Pay for Delete.  No response.  Called Comcast and told them I owed them money and offered to pay.  It's amazing how friendly they were when I told them I wanted to pay the bill; I handed over a credit card # to pay it and as it was processing they told me there was en error, or the system was down, or the computer froze etc... Several of these calls made me realize they discovered there was an issue with my account and payment could not be taken.  In fact there was, the account was in collections, but I knew if I paid them and they recalled the debt i'd have a chance!!

On the 4th try over a few months I said it was my last and final and told the guy on the phone about the previous freezes, and restarts, and process errors.  I think he knew of no other excuses or it was my lucky day, he took my payment!!!  Having satisified my debt with the originial credior I knew (thanks to myfico!) I could dispute the debt as the reporter of the debt no longer could report it as comcast had taken the payment and the debt to the orginial owner was fulfilled.  While that sentence makes my head spin from its circularness, Fast forward to today I got an email from Equifax telling me the tradeline had finally been deleted.  Happy Dance!!!

[gdale6]

Grats on getting it removed

[savagetyler]

I have payed comcast and this has still not been removed and it's been over a month. How did you do this?

[pkosheta]

The collection was being reported by Stellar Recovery, not Comcast.  By paying Comcast (the original holders of the debt) and not the collection company = Stellar Recovery, aka the guys Comcast sold it to for pennies on the dollar, the 2ndary collectors could no longer could report the debt as unpaid or paid.  Essentially, they no longer have a basis to report the unpaid debt as I no longer owed them or Comcast money.  It would be like me reporting to Equifax that you had a debt to Comcast, I have no standing to do so and no interest in the debt that would allow me to report it.  Comcast could report it in some fashion, but have no reason to, they got paid and are quite happy to keep taking money from my family on our other accounts.  It took at most 5 days before I got a favorable return on my dispute, so Stellar was quick to say 'UGH UMM ERR yeah were outta here'.  

The debt I had also been paid to Comcast for a while, so Stellar had be damaging my credit for quite some time without the authority to do so claiming an unpaid debt that had been paid.  I basically told Equifax in my dispute that the original creditor (Comcast) had been paid so Stellar should not be claiming I have an unpaid debt originating from Comcast and reporting an unpaid debt to them (Equifax).  I hope this helps, I got the tip from an old thread from 2012 on myfico!  A total oldie but a goodie!!!  I hope it helps, removing a nuisance collection can make a huge difference if that is a recent or only blemish. back in the mid 700s across the board.

 I may celebrate with apping for a new card.  Ill just have to be sure to put VA, not VI, as my state, because apparently a lot of banks wont approve me if I live in a made up place in the Virgin Islands, I learned that one the hard way a few years ago and it was quite embarrassing >-<

[Anonymous]

Truth be told, you got lucky. Simply paying the OC does not in any way relieve the collection agent of their right to report. Only when the OC 'recalls' the bill prior to its being paid is the CA 'required' to delete their report. If Comcast had actually sold your bill, they could not legally accept payment, and Stellar would have sued their pants off.

Most of the cable and satelite TV providers do not 'sell' your debt, what they do is use a short list of 3-5 CA's they use as 'hired guns' to do their collections. They cycle the collections from one to the next about every six months. You very likely simply 'caught them' right after they pulled from one collector in preparation for moving it to the next.

Thats why Stellar was required to delete.