PSEG/Convergent during mortgage approval

[Anonymous]

 I've been on a credit rebuilding journey for the past year and used a lot of advice and guidance from this community. From around this time last year to now I went from 580s to low 700s. This was in part in prepartion for purchasing my first home. Since my credit profile was as good as it was going to get I applied for a  few pre-approvals about 2 months ago. I ended up deciding on a new build and applied to the builder's mortgage company. The house won't be ready until early fall but I was able to secure a conditional approval with the basic requirements. I thought I was in the clear since I worked hard over the past year to clean up my report and haven't had any new negatives pop up in over 2 years.
 
Unfortunately, this week I got an alert from CK that a new collection from convergent reported to Equifax for a PSE&G bill from '15. As far as I knew I left that address with a paid bill but never thought of it since I never got a letter or call from them. I immediately disputed it on Equifax online dispute website and attached my last bill from them that I can find which showed nothing owed. Well today the results came up as verified with a new comment saying as such. I called PSE&G to find out the truth and after some back and forth it looks like I forgot to actually cancel service and previous landlord took their sweet time in transferring it. So now here I am in the middle of buying a house with a new collection to deal with. I've been reading past posts about PSEG and Convergent, but couldn't find a consistent strategy to get this removed. The only slightly good news I got from my call with PSEG was that they would accept a payment directly and notify convergent about it. However, they couldn't guarantee that Convergent would remove the account from my credit report. So far I haven't contacted Convergent at all. I was thinking about calling them for PFD but I was hoping to get some advise here first.

[Anonymous]

I JUST got done dealing with Convergent. The collections account showed up last week and said it was in collections since Jan 2017 but they just decided to report it, this only happened after I applied for a few credit cards so I assuming they do SP to see your credit activity. I always notice heavy collection calls after I get a new credit card or loan. 

Ordeal lasted about a week but here's what I did 

I received mail from Convergent concerning a past due account I had with Gas South at an old residence I lived at almost 5 years ago. I decided to put it aside because it was only $278 and I have been pushing it off for the longest, everytime it hit my CR I always disputed it ending up having it removed by multiple CA's.

As of lately I have been trying to rebuild my credit profile so this time I decided to contact Gas South directly via email and resolved the account paying it in full directly through them. They sent me a PIF letter and I requested that they halted all collections by informing Convergent that this account has been resolved. After I did this I sent Convergent an email saying I resolved the account through the OC and their collections account is basically invalid, needing to be deleted.

Never heard back from Convergent, called them today and they had trouble finding the collection account. The CSR I spoke with said that the account was marked inactive yesterday with a $0 balance, once this happens they report it to the credit bureas and ask for an immediate delete. He told me to wait up to 45 days for it to report or I can speed up the process by disputing it through the all three credit bureaus and they will reply with the proper information to speed up the deletion process.

This was pain free, but I think you should do the payment through PSEG and ask for them to assist in halting collections from Convergent then follow up with a dispute online and call them explaining you PIF through the OC. I was surprised that they had already put in for the deletion without me directly communication with someone from Convergent for a delete because I never received a response back on my email to them via their website.

Good luck!

[rmduhon]

Be aware that if you pay the OC the CA is s not required to delete the account, just update to paid with a zero balance.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing. I'm glad it worked out for you in the end. I wasn't able to find an email for PSE&G so I called them back and asked if I could get a PIF letter or receipt and the rep said the only receipt I would get is the payment on my bank statement. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. I'm going to try calling back later and get someone else on the phone.

[Anonymous]

rmduhon's comment stuck with me so I decided to give Convergent a call to see what they would be willing to do before calling PSEG back. Very nicely I asked if they'd be willing to do PFD. To my surprise they said it was not a problem and sent me a letter (to my email) stating the account is paid in full and will be removed from the credit agencies. The only downside is they said it could take up to 30 days to update. I was wondering if anyone knew a way to speed that up.