Should I dispute wrong balance on reported collection

[Anonymous]

Long story short: I canceled my Time Warner cable service but the company continued to bill me. I spent months trying to get them to see that they had billed me incorrectly. In the interim, they sent my account to collections for the wrong/disputed amount. I finally got Time Warner to agree that they had overbilled me, and they adjusted my balance, which I told them I'd pay. However, Time Warner said they won't take my payment and will simply tell the collection agency to update the balance on my credit report. I don't feel I should be dinged with a collection for a Time Warner mistake that took me months to fix. Should I dispute the collection on my report as being inaccurate now that Time Warner has finally admitted its mistake and adjusted my balance? Can I get the collection removed from my credit report on this basis?

[Anonymous]

Will the adjusted balance on the collection be < $99?  If so, FICO 8 will ignore it (whether you pay it or not).  Previous versions of FICO will still count it, however.  If you think it unlikely that you will apply for a home loan (which uses the earlier FICO models) then you may just want to forget about it (assuming it is < $99).

RobertEG is good with these kinds of questions, so perhaps he'll chime in.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. Applying for a home loan is the issue. My mortgage company is recommending I get this taken care of somehow to boost my credit score for a home loan. The adjusted balance would be about $275

RobertEG very helpfully replied to a former thread on this topic, but I wasn't as detailed there as I should have been in explaining my issue. So I reposted with a different question. Thanks to everyone for the help.

[RobertEG]

In order to place an account with a debt collector for collection assistance, there must be a delinquent debt.

If they initially determined that there was a delinquent debt, but later determined that they were incorrect, and there was no actual delinquent debt, then the result is that the assignment of collection authority was improper, as there was no delinquent debt in fact upon which the debt collector should be attempting collection.

Stated in terms of correction, once the creditor was aware of no delinquent debt in fact, they should have immediately notified their debt collector of termination of the assigned collection authority.  Upon notification that there is no debt in fact, the debt collector should have immediately deleted their reported collection.

Thus, if everyone did what was required, the consumer should not have to dispute, as the collection should be deleted by the debt collector based on no debt in fact.

However, if the debt collector does not voluntarily report deletion, the continued reporting of a delinquent debt under collection is inaccurate in fact, and the consumer can dispute its accuracy, providing as evidence the statement by the creditor of no delinquent debt in fact.  The debt collector would then be unable to verify the accuracy as reported or corrrect so as to overcome the inaccuracy, resulting in mandatory deletion by the CRA based on lack of verification of the dispute.

File a dispute with the CRA, with the asserted inaccuracy being the admission by the debt owner of no debt in fact, and thus no resulting legitimate collection authority.

[Anonymous]

Hi RobertEG.  It's not 100% clear (to me) that there was no delinquent debt.  It sounds like one possibility is that the creditor initially thought that the bill should be for (say) $400, and after a long dialogue both sides agreed that the customer should have paid $275.  Still a long time had gone by with the customer (our OP) not paying any of the $275.  The OP is now willing to pay the $275, but it's not clear to me that there's not a delinquency involved.

An example would be if I got a bill from a creditor for $275 + $125 = $400, where the $275 I acknowledged I owed but the $125 I claimed was an error.  I refuse to pay any of it while there is a disagreement as to the final amount.

OP, can you clarify whether I am understanding the actual sequence of events?

It's possible that no part of the $275 can be considered delinquent either, since there was an initial disagreement as to the final amount.  RobertEG knows more about this stuff than I do.  Just thought it would be helpful to be 100% clear on what happened.

[Anonymous]

You are right CreditGuy. I do not dispute that I owe roughly $275 of what started out as a bill of roughly $600. After a couple of months of getting that first bill, Time Warner partially adjusted it. It then took a couple more months for me to show them their full mistake so they would adjust the bill to what was really owed. Until they made those adjustments, I had no idea what the final bill was really going to be because I don't know how they compute daily services, fees, taxes, etc. I just knew they charged me for a couple months of service that I didn't receive. Plus they were throwing late fees in on top of that. Bottom line is I did/do owe something, but it's far from the amount cited in the collection and there wouldn't have been a collection in the first place if Time Warner had been more responsive to resolving the situation instead of repeatedly asserting that I owed an incorrect amount.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, OP.  I am totally in your corner. 

It's just that I don't personally know how "delinquency" gets defined in situations like these.   As in literally, I don't know, but others might..  Just wanted to be sure that RobertEG had the full factual history so he could advise you best.

Best of luck....

[Muzikdude]

Any more info on this? I'm in a similar situation and would love to hear more info about this.

In my case, OC has yet to make any correction but I do have proof that the original amount is incorrect.

[RobertEG]

Thanks for the clarification....

It thus appears that the initial question is whether the account was ever delinquent in the sense that a billing due date was missed, and thus the debt was not paid under the conditions of the account agreement.  An account must be in default to be placed with a debt collector, and thus reported as a collection.  See FDCPA 603 (6)(F)(iii).

For example, if the consumer was billed for $600 and asserted the correct balance was only $400, did the consumer then pay the $400, or did the consumer pay nothing?

If the consumer paid nothing, then there was still a debt due, and thus the account became in default.

However, if the consumer disputed the balance and paid what they asserted to be due under the account agreement, then there would be no default if the consumer is found to be correct.

In my opinion, the initial question appears to be whether the debt was in default, and thus a collection became reportable, or whether the consumer paid what was found to be due, and thus was never in default.

It appears that, under the posted scenario, when the amount was contested, nothing was paid, and thus the account went into default?

If that is the case, then the collection would be proper, and the issue would only be the amount of the debt that is in default.

However, if the consumer paid what they considered to be due, and that was ultimately determined to be correct, then the collection would be improper, and should be deleted in its entirety as improper due to no default in fact........

[Anonymous]

I have a situation that I can't seem to find a solid answer to. I have  an account with Acceptance Now (Furniture leased through Rooms to Go) The account was opened in 2011, and went into default in January 2012. I have disputed the account, which has come back by Acceptance Now as valididated. They also sent a letter with a full payment history, and an updated amount due. The  delinquency amount being reporting to EXP is $3053. However, the letter that was sent in reponse to my dispute states that I owe $1408.They also included a copy of the EXP Bullseye report where it clearly shows that they are reporting a delinquency amount of $3053. The payment history that they included with the letter shows that I paid $2519,68 in rent ($154.99 per month), but on the agreement detail that was included, Acceptance Now shows that I paid $1368.30. None of the numbers add up!  In this case, will disputing it again and asking for it to be deleted even worth it? I have read other threads were I have seen RAC/Acceptance Now have been close to impossible to deal with. Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.