ATT Cellphone Collection

[Anonymous]

I recently pulled my credit report in May of this year. I noticed a collection account from Enhanced Recovery for an ATT bill I was not aware of (from 2012). I sent a DV letter to the collection agency. I finally had to complain to the Consumer Protection Bureau to get a reponse from them 3 months later. They took the collection off my credit report but then they sent a simple bill from att. I have called ATT and they stated that I attempted to make a payment in 10/2014 but it was returned. This is a lie. I closed the account in 03/2012 and have never received a bill since. ATT has also reported the phantom payment to the collection agency. Neither one can tell me what type of payment this was; over phone, credit card or check or what banking institution was used. Why are they allowed to make false accusations. I'm worried this will be put back on my credit report before I get to the bottom of it.

[RobertEG]

Neither the DV nor the FCRA dispute porcesses require submission of proofs to confirm a verification of accuracy.

The issue of whether their verification is knowingly false is one that must be shown before a court.

Your remedy after they have veriied the accuracy via a dispute is to bring civil action, and thus get a full consideration of the evidence and a ruling by the court.

You can then use the pre-trial discovery process to compel production of their supporting evidence that was relied upon as basis for their verification.

[Anonymous]

thank you. maybe i should just pay it and hope they dont put it back on

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

Well if the collection is off your reports and back in ATT's hands, that is a good thing.  You can work it out with ATT and not a collection agent.

The fact that they say there was a payment and the payment was returned is a wash in terms of your debt with them.  I have no idea why they are talking about this payment -- maybe it got posted to the wrong account and then the payment bounced.

Do you owe them money?  Can you pay them?  If you can, just pay ATT directly and be done with it and be glad you have no collection reporting.

Make a big deal with ATT that you are paying them off directly and there should be no collection showing on your reports!!  I did this and it worked fine with a collection from Enhanced Recovery.

People on here will split hairs about who owns the debt and whether ATT can settle it, etc., but the fact is that ATT is in the driver's seat and what they say goes.  Enhanced Recovery gets millions in business from them and will do what they say -- whether they have to or not.