topic Re: Unique National Collections - Incorrect Information in Rebuilding Your Credit

Unique National Collections - Incorrect Information

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:38:45 GMT

My husband has a collection currently listed on his credit report from a late library book. The collection agency is UNC. The late fee was assessed in Nov, 2008 and my husband paid it IN FULL in early 2009. Now it is being reported as a collection and that $77 is still due. What should my first step be? Should I send the PFR letter that's floating around the boards - dispute the debt, state that is is paid, but offer to pay 50% ad a goodwill gesture? We would happily pay $40 to have this off of his credit report.

Has anyone else had UNC collecting an invalid debt that was already paid? Has anyone else taken the PFR approach with UNC? Any success?

Thanks in advance!

Re: Unique National Collections - Incorrect Information

MarineVietVet — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:11:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My husband has a collection currently listed on his credit report from a late library book. The collection agency is UNC. The late fee was assessed in Nov, 2008 and my husband paid it IN FULL in early 2009. Now it is being reported as a collection and that $77 is still due. What should my first step be? Should I send the PFR letter that's floating around the boards - dispute the debt, state that is is paid, but offer to pay 50% ad a goodwill gesture? We would happily pay $40 to have this off of his credit report.

Has anyone else had UNC collecting an invalid debt that was already paid? Has anyone else taken the PFR approach with UNC? Any success?

Thanks in advance!

I would send them a DV request. Make them prove you owe the debt and that they have the legal right to collect on any debt. Unless you live in Texas they don't have to respond within a certain time period but they will have to stop collection activity until they do validate.

Can you prove you paid the debt in 2009? Keep that paperwork close in case you hear back from them. My guess is that they will not be able to validate this.

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Re: Unique National Collections - Incorrect Information

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:17:20 GMT

Thanks for your advice.

I don't think we can prove we paid it. We literally strolled into the library branch a few months after the book was due and paif the late fee and thought that was the end of it. This was just our local library. I dug through our old bank statements and couldn't find a debit or check, so we may have even paid cash.

Re: Unique National Collections - Incorrect Information

MarineVietVet — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:25:36 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for your advice.

I don't think we can prove we paid it. We literally strolled into the library branch a few months after the book was due and paif the late fee and thought that was the end of it. This was just our local library. I dug through our old bank statements and couldn't find a debit or check, so we may have even paid cash.

I would still send that DV and see what happens.

Re: Unique National Collections - Incorrect Information

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:28:08 GMT

I was planning to just send a PFR in hopes that we can just get the darn thing off, but are you saying you would actually start with a DV?

As a side note, there is also a debt on my husband's credit report that we believe is 100% inaccurate. Would you start that one with a DV as well?

Re: Unique National Collections - Incorrect Information

MarineVietVet — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:31:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I was planning to just send a PFR in hopes that we can just get the darn thing off, but are you saying you would actually start with a DV? Absolutely send a DV first. Make them prove you owe this. Don't pay it twice if it can be avoided.

As a side note, there is also a debt on my husband's credit report that we believe is 100% inaccurate. Would you start that one with a DV as well? What kind of debt are you talking about? Just a late payment? A charge off or collection?

Re: Unique National Collections - Incorrect Information

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:36:42 GMT

For the second issue - it's a $400 cable bill from DirecTV. When we cancelled service with them about 2 years ago, they were 100% paid in full. I have no idea where this bogus bill is coming from and it's certainly not legit.

Re: Unique National Collections - Incorrect Information

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:37:11 GMT

So to actually answer your question, it's a collection.

Re: Unique National Collections - Incorrect Information

MarineVietVet — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:42:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
So to actually answer your question, it's a collection.

So have you received the dunning letter from the CA? If you have send them a DV also. You have the legal right make them prove you owe that debt. Can you prove you've paid this?

Re: Unique National Collections - Incorrect Information

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:49:49 GMT

I did not receive a letter from the CA - I only found out about this through a recent pull of my credit report (same with the library issue). Again, I don't think I have any way to show I paid this in full. I can show that we made lots of payments to DirecTV, but no way of showing that the last payment was to pay the account in full. I just personally know that to be true because I handle all of the bills and specicially recall paying it. Also, it wasn't like we moved or anything at the time, we just switched cable providers, so I don't even have the doubt in my mind that maybe the last bill was sent to the wrong address, etc. I know it was paid. Unfortunately, these items are all on my husband's credit report and he has totally neglected it, so these things were piling up without him any the wiser.

Re: Unique National Collections - Incorrect Information

MarineVietVet — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:15:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I did not receive a letter from the CA - I only found out about this through a recent pull of my credit report (same with the library issue). Again, I don't think I have any way to show I paid this in full. I can show that we made lots of payments to DirecTV, but no way of showing that the last payment was to pay the account in full. I just personally know that to be true because I handle all of the bills and specicially recall paying it. Also, it wasn't like we moved or anything at the time, we just switched cable providers, so I don't even have the doubt in my mind that maybe the last bill was sent to the wrong address, etc. I know it was paid. Unfortunately, these items are all on my husband's credit report and he has totally neglected it, so these things were piling up without him any the wiser.

Contact DirectTV and ask them for copies of all your past account activities. I would think you could match payments and dates that way to try and prove this was PIF.

I was just like your husband for many years. I hoped if I ignored the problems they would go away. They don't.

Re: Unique National Collections - Incorrect Information

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:46:06 GMT

For the late fees from the library, many times if you contact them, and they can verify payment, they will have it removed from the CA.