Help! - what are my options?!

[Anonymous]

so, on 12/23 I received a credit monitoring alert that 2 new collection accounts had appeared on my credit report. Upon reviewing them they were midland funding accounts for $2044 and $760 something. They both appear to be 4 years and 4 months old but just now showing up. They’ve never been on my credit before. All it says is OC was comenity. That doesn’t help me much as I don’t immediately recognize the accounts at all. I don’t necessarily want to reach out to comenity in fear that it could make the situation worse. What can/should I do about these new accounts popping up on my report? They are only on transunion if that makes any difference. 

[thornback]

You can reach out to midland and request a debt validation -- they should be able to provide the original account information so you can see if it is, indeed, your debt. 

If you determine that is is your debt,  you're kind of lucky it's with Midland as they will delete their collection tradeline from your report(s) upon payment - whether it's paid in full or settled -- so long as the debt is at least 2 years from the first date of delinquency.  They are also usually willing to negotiate a settlement -- you may even already have an offer on Midland's website if you look up your account.

[Anonymous]

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@thornback wrote:

You can reach out to midland and request a debt validation -- they should be able to provide the original account information so you can see if it is, indeed, your debt. 

If you determine that is is your debt,  you're kind of lucky it's with Midland as they will delete their collection tradeline from your report(s) upon payment - whether it's paid in full or settled -- so long as the debt is at least 2 years from the first date of delinquency.  They are also usually willing to negotiate a settlement -- you may even already have an offer on Midland's website if you look up your account.

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Is that a “thing” that they could have had this alleged debt all this time and just now reporting 4 years later? I’ve never received anything from them and it’s never been reflected on any of my reports even under different CA’s. I did call in to gather details on this from TU and the rep confirmed that it does say 4 years and 4 months old and he was confused as to how it just reported a week and a half ago. 

[thornback]

Yes, it happens. A collection can be reported at anytime prior to the exclusionary 7 year reporting mark and notification beforehand is not necessarily required.  

Midland may not have had ownership of the debt til recently or the debt may have transferred through several other collection agencies prior to arriving at Midland - and if the debt is already out of SOL (statute of limitations) for debt collection in your state, then reporting to the credit bureaus would  the best way to nudge payment as other collection efforts could be ignored.

Since the addition to your credit report is, apparently, your only notification, I suggest you request validation of the debt within the next 30 days so you can determine when it originated  and whether or not it belongs to you. 

Do you have any recollection of defaulting on any Comenity accounts?  Do you / did you ever have any closed Comenity tradelines on your reports?

[Anonymous]

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@thornback wrote:

Yes, it happens. A collection can be reported at anytime prior to the exclusionary 7 year reporting mark and notification beforehand is not necessarily required.  

Midland may not have had ownership of the debt til recently or the debt may have transferred through several other collection agencies prior to arriving at Midland.  Since the addition to your credit report is, apparently, your only notification, I suggest you request validation of the debt within the next 30 days so you can determine when it originated and whether or not it belongs to you. 

Do you have any recollection of defaulting on any Comenity accounts?  Do you / did you ever have any closed Comenity tradelines on your reports?

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Yes several years ago I defaulted on a comenity account, however it was handled and pulled off of my credit. 

[thornback]

Do you have proof of payment or a letter stating the debt was cleared? This could all be an error due to lack of updated info from Comenity but you need to show the debt in question has already been resolved. 

You need to reach out to Midland -  it's the only way to move forward other than disputing with the bureau--- but that in itself can take up to 30 days to be resolved and they may validate the debt based on the info Midland provides, which would mean the collection remains and you'd have to deal directly with Midland anyway.

Contact Midland, find out exactly what the debt is first. If you have proof of payment, great. If not, then contact Comenity and see if they retained a record of payment and go from there. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@thornback wrote:

Yes, it happens. A collection can be reported at anytime prior to the exclusionary 7 year reporting mark and notification beforehand is not necessarily required.  

Midland may not have had ownership of the debt til recently or the debt may have transferred through several other collection agencies prior to arriving at Midland.  Since the addition to your credit report is, apparently, your only notification, I suggest you request validation of the debt within the next 30 days so you can determine when it originated and whether or not it belongs to you. 

Do you have any recollection of defaulting on any Comenity accounts?  Do you / did you ever have any closed Comenity tradelines on your reports?

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Yes several years ago I defaulted on a comenity account, however it was handled and pulled off of my credit. 

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How was it handled? Did you pay for it or did you dispute the account?

[thornback]

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@Anonymous wrote:

How was it handled? Did you pay for it or did you dispute the account?

^^ Good Q.