Verizon Collection Account

[Anonymous]

Hi.  New to the forum.  Working on rebuilding my credit.  Several years ago, had a medical issue that resulted in my credit taking a hit.  Only baddie on my report is a collection account from Verizon from 2009.  Had two accounts with them.  Got second account for ex.  When relationship ended, allowed friend to use the line.  He bought all kinds of equipment without my permission.  When I found out,  I closed the account.  Contacted Verizon about unauthorized purchase of equipment, to no avail.  Offered to pay early termination fee and phone charges, but not the equipment.  Was told to pay all of it; told them to take a flying leap.  Needless to say, past due bill is affecting my score.  Would like to get it off my report, but from reading other posts, seems Verizon doesn't remove collection accounts, even if paid in full.  Ultimate goal is to try to obtain a new mortgage in a year and qualify for a prime card.  Question is-what do I need to do to get my credit score up to 720.  Have students loans from 11/13 and recent truck payment. Purchased new truck in 08/14.  Payment history 92% since 2009.  Current score is EQ 665, TU 658, EX 665. 

Current cards-USAA Platinum Visa, Capital One Platinum MC, Capital One Quicksilver MC, Amazon Store Card, WalMart Store Card

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi.  New to the forum.  Working on rebuilding my credit.  Several years ago, had a medical issue that resulted in my credit taking a hit.  Only baddie on my report is a collection account from Verizon from 2009.  Had two accounts with them.  Got second account for ex.  When relationship ended, allowed friend to use the line.  He bought all kinds of equipment without my permission.  When I found out,  I closed the account.  Contacted Verizon about unauthorized purchase of equipment, to no avail.  Offered to pay early termination fee and phone charges, but not the equipment.  Was told to pay all of it; told them to take a flying leap.  Needless to say, past due bill is affecting my score.  Would like to get it off my report, but from reading other posts, seems Verizon doesn't remove collection accounts, even if paid in full.  Ultimate goal is to try to obtain a new mortgage in a year and qualify for a prime card.  Question is-what do I need to do to get my credit score up to 720.  Have students loans from 11/13 and recent truck payment. Purchased new truck in 08/14.  Payment history 92% since 2009.  Current score is EQ 665, TU 658, EX 665. 

Current cards-USAA Platinum Visa, Capital One Platinum MC, Capital One Quicksilver MC, Amazon Store Card, WalMart Store Card

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If you cant get Verizon off with the PFD you should settle it sooner rather than later and especially if its updating monthly so it can age in the eyes of Fico. You have plenty of cards to boost your Fico, you only want one of them reporting a small balance 9% of its CL or less to the CRA and the others at 0 to get your best utilization boost.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice.  I think I will probably garden for the rest of the year, get my utilization down and work on credit line increases.  Verizon will fall off in November 2016, so if I can't get a removal for PFD , then I'll be patient.  Got a denial from Citi cards and the Verizon bill was the reason for being turned down, so i won't try for anymore prime cards.  Again thanks for the advice. 

[RobertEG]

CR exclusion will remove the collection from your CR, but does not discharge the debt.

Just letting it age off your CR wont ensure that it will no longer affect your ability to get new credit.  That is particularly true with a mortgage, where it is common to request a disclosure of any unpaid, delinquent debt.

[Anonymous]

BD63, I think you should just pay it.  I tried MANY times to negotiate a PFD with them and it was always no.  Could I have kept pushing?  Maybe, but after my 5th or 6th try I just simply PIF and will let it be.

Curious, does Verizon show up on all (3)  of your CR's?  Mine only shows on TU.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it shows up on all three.  My dilemma  is paying it off and it still showing up until next year.  I've gone this long, but I don't want it affecting me getting a mortgage next year.  My pay history since 2009 has been perfect with the exception of Verizon. 

[Anonymous]

Hadn't been on forum in a while.  Got credit alert from Credit Karma this morning about Verizon Collection Account being removed from Equifax credit report.  Got FICO Equifax this morning and no Verizon. Not sure what this means?  Date of last activity was May 2008.  Account closed November 2009. Does this mean that Verizon is gone?  I know that they can still bother me for payment, but is it gone from my report now?  Have four 30 late payments in last 5 years.  Perfect payment history since 2013.    On a side note, got Amazon store card in December, $900 limit-went up to $1900 today.  Maybe I'm finally bouncing back.

[Anonymous]

My goodness your lucky on the Verizon! I ended up contacting the CEO's office, in which they routed me to executive customer care. I ended up getting about 50% of the bill reduced, but they still wouldn't accept me to pay the rest in full for a delete. So it's still sitting there, updating monthly. I probably should pay the remaining off so it atleast updates to zero balance.

I am also working on getting a mortgage next month or June at the latest.

[Anonymous]

Years ago, I offered to pay for phone service charges, but not for equipment I never signed for, but they would not work with me.  Since I have been trying to clean up my report to get a mortgage, I wasn't sure what to do since it was getting close to 7 years.  Still don't understand why it fell off when the last activity was May 2008.  Thought it was suppose to be 7.5 years? 

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Years ago, I offered to pay for phone service charges, but not for equipment I never signed for, but they would not work with me.  Since I have been trying to clean up my report to get a mortgage, I wasn't sure what to do since it was getting close to 7 years.  Still don't understand why it fell off when the last activity was May 2008.  Thought it was suppose to be 7.5 years? 

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While the law allows 7 years plus 180 days from the DoFD the CRAs will typically remove them at the 7 year mark to stay within the law so it has been excluded by the CRA most likely.