Not sure what I should do???

[Anonymous]

I check CreditKarma every week just to keep an eye on things and earlier this month I saw that a collection agency had reported a negative account to Equifax, and after checking, to Experian. This was for an old (abt 16 months) utility bill  that I paid in full to the utility company in September last year. I filed a dispute and the negatives were taken off within days. I checked today however and this company has now filed with Transunion. I filed an online dispute and tried to upload supporting documents and I got an error message saying they needed to do a manual review. That's fine- except for the fact that I'm in the middle of a USDA Direct loan and I am freaking out that if this isn't taken care of by closing I am going to lose the house. I'm not sure what to do. I've never been contacted by this agency either by phone or mail (even though the utility company has my current information) so I don't know if I should contact them and explain that the bill was paid in full months ago or talk to the utility company? How can I be sure this won't pop back up every month or so?

[Pinkyde]

First of all, I am not an expert; however, I have had luck getting things removed from my CBRs. If you did not have any luck doing a dispute online then I would suggest contacting the creditor directly. This may be your fastest approach if you are under a crunch. Explain your situation and if you have verification of the account being paid, send it to them. Generally speaking, I have had creditors say they are unable to send anything until the day that they make their 30 day reports to the CBR. If you get any resistance be sure to remind them that this is their mistake, not yours. You the removal sent now. I would like to add that when going through loan processes vs. a revolving line of credit, you do have better luck of explaining your situation with the lender. If you have verification of the payment that should mitigate the concern.

Is USDA looking at all three CBRs? If so then they should be able to see that that one reporting may be in error if you can show them that you've paid. Hopefully this can be mitigated. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. I will call the utility company Monday and see what they can do. I hesitate to call the collection agency because I'm afraid that may validate the claim. USDA pulled all 3 bureaus for the full credit check but only Transunion from what I could tell on the preapproval. If they only pull one at the time of closing I assume it would be Transunion. The first 2 reports to the credit bureaus was the 6th of January. The new report to Transunion was dated the 23rd. I'm beginning to think this is going to be a problem creditors that I will have to keep a constant check on. I have no other baddies, no lates ,nothing negative on my reports so the fact that this is coming up now, and was paid months ago, is infuriating!

[Anonymous]

I just bought a home with a USDA Direct loan. They didn't pull credit again at closing. I don't know if this is how it works everywhere, but it was my experience. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you, that's good to know. I was concerned that they would since it may be awhile before this house closes and they may need to pull some info again.

I did contact the original creditor and they stated that they notified collection agency of the payment on 1-15-16 and that her deparment didn't recieve notice of payment in full even though Webuser took the payment. Leads me to wonder A) What took so long to record the payment and B) Why did that company report me if they had verification that the bill was paid in full?

[RobertEG]

Does the collection show an Open date prior to the date that you paid the debt?

[Anonymous]

I tried to check to see what the open date was and I couldn't get back in to view the dispute on Transunion. However, this morning on CreditKarma it states the account has been removed. I hadn't thought to look at that date so if this becomes an issue again I will definitely check! TY!