Do I pay the CA or the OC?

Anonymous · ‎11-20-2019

Hello everyone!
4-5 years ago I opened a gas bill in my name for my mother. She went delinquent and the gas company has now assigned (I believe) the debt to a CA. The OC still shows I have a balance if I call their automated system which leads me to believe it’s assigned and not sold. The CA is who is reporting on my credit bureau. Who do I pay here to get this resolved as quickly as possible?
Thanks everyone!

simplynoir · ‎11-20-2019

This depends on confirming who still owns the debt. If its the OC it is a better situation for you since you have more room to negotiate the terms of settling the debt which can possibly include having the collection notice removed from your credit reports. Contact the gas company to verify they still own it and go from there on getting it paid and the collection removed

Anonymous · ‎11-20-2019

The lady on the phone kept reiterating that she doesn’t know much about how this works. But she said she could take a payment today and I guess I’d get a receipt to dispute with the CA? But I was wondering if they were trying to get me to pay them and then I’d end up having to pay the CA as well. Clearly I don’t know much about this either.

KLEXH25 · ‎11-20-2019

I would try to call back and speak to someone else, or maybe escalate to a manager. It would definitely be better to resolve it directly with the gas company, which also means they won’t have to pay the collector. I really don’t think it means you’d have to pay twice, but if they indeed don’t own the debt anymore then it might make things a little more complicated.

Remedios · ‎11-20-2019

Call the OC and ask them to recall collection in exchange for payment.
If they cannot/wont change, pay CA. CA has the authority to collect on this debt, and process is simpler that way.
Do not pay then dispute, you'll crash your scores when it updates, albeit corrected.
Good luck

Anonymous · ‎11-21-2019

How likely am I to have this removed from my reports? Everything has been going great for the last two years for me. This really has me bumming. Let’s say I pay the OC, do they have to tell the CA to remove the collection? Or maybe they will, maybe they won’t? I’ve just heard nothing but horror stories working with CA’s.

coldfusion · ‎11-21-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
How likely am I to have this removed from my reports? Everything has been going great for the last two years for me. This really has me bumming. Let’s say I pay the OC, do they have to tell the CA to remove the collection? Or maybe they will, maybe they won’t? I’ve just heard nothing but horror stories working with CA’s.

At this point you don't need to focus on hypotheticals. You first need to learn from the OC whether they still hold the debt themselves or if they sold it to the CA.

Once you've confirmed who is the actual current debtholder we can help outline an appropriate course of action for you to follow.

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Remedios · ‎11-21-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
How likely am I to have this removed from my reports? Everything has been going great for the last two years for me. This really has me bumming. Let’s say I pay the OC, do they have to tell the CA to remove the collection? Or maybe they will, maybe they won’t? I’ve just heard nothing but horror stories working with CA’s.

By disputing legitimate collections while OC still has all the necessary documentation to validate it? Not very likely.

While disputes may work in those instances where debt has been sold multiple times and CA is unwilling to take the risk at validating without a proof, in most other cases best thing that can happen is you pay, balance is zeroed out, and derog starts to age because there are no more updates

If majority of credit problems were solvable by disputes, things would look quite a bit different.

In order to dispute, you have to have grounds for dispute. Putting "not mine" wont work.

Even if you miraculously got CA to remove their reporting, OC will not.

So, you can wait it out, pay it and stop it from hurting even more entire time it's on your CR, or you can take a chance at frivolous dispute and see what happens.

Anonymous · ‎11-21-2019

Sounds like a plan. I’ll call them. Does the gas company saying they can take payment on the account mean they still own it? Or could they still take payment even if they don’t own it?

Remedios · ‎11-21-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
Sounds like a plan. I’ll call them. Does the gas company saying they can take payment on the account mean they still own it? Or could they still take payment even if they don’t own it?

If you make payment with gas company, they should in theory let the CA know that payment has been made.

If you pay to them, make sure to follow up with CA in about 30 days if they are still showing a balance. Save a proof that you paid.

If gas company says they can take payment, that most likely means they still own the account and CA is only collection on their behalf.

If you pay to CA, they will zero out the balance and that will be the end of that story.

It's up to you. If you'd rather not deal with CA, go with OC, but do check periodically if balance is updated to reflect $0.00 owed.