Collection bully

[Anonymous]

I recently transferred for a job. I spent 3 months in an apartment before moving into

a fixer-upper I bought. Before leaving i changed addresses with utility companies.

It has been 4 months since i lived in the apartment and I noticed on my credit a

collection notice!!! It was from an electric bill for $38. I called the utility company and

paid the bill. I then called the collection agency. I explained myself and how the bill

was paid. They said they wouldnt accept that as paid in full. And it would stay on my

credit till i paid them. I called and the utility company to ask for help. And was told

they couldnt help. 

How long can i expect to see this on my credit? 7 years? I surely hope not..;(

Any info is appreciated!!

[annielorie]

If the utility company accepted payment then there is no outstanding balance and the collector does have the right to collect on a debt that doesnt exist.

[diabla]

ROFL!  They can't make you pay THEM when you've paid the OC!  (not laughing at you, OP, just the audacity of some of these collectors is incredible!)

Your utility company is full of it too.  It's their responsibility to report to the CA that they've been paid and pull back the account.   It should be deleted from your report too and not marked as PAID.  I would escalate it with the utility and include that "request" that not only is it taken back but deleted.  I have had original creditors tell me that they can't even collect on a debt because the money had to go to the CA, due to whatever contract they signed.  And I recently dealt with TMobile who told me it didn't matter whether I paid them or the collector, they were still going to report to the collector what I'd paid and vice versa.  So different types of contracts I guess.  But I bet there is none that says you still have to pay the collection agency even after the creditor took your money.  Don't forget about the BBB.  People have had great success with them.

Last note, I read somewhere - I think on one of the CRA forums - that amounts under $100 aren't figured into your score, so there's that, at least.

[scarrollprint]

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@diabla wrote:

Last note, I read somewhere - I think on one of the CRA forums - that amounts under $100 aren't figured into your score, so there's that, at least.

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I doubt that is totally true. I had a $50 collection removed that was fraudulent. I got a handful of points on my TU when it was deleted...nothing else (balances or drop offs had occured)

[Shogun]

Send a DV to the CA that is trying to collect.  See what they send back.

[diabla]

I'll have to find where I read that, and not sure about posting links but I'll try to direct everyone to it, unless someone else knows it directly.

What I keep seeing is something about a rule in FICO 08 that ignores collections under $100 for the purpose of scoring.

 In August 2009, Fair Isaac rolled out to all three credit bureaus its newest general-purpose FICO score, dubbed FICO 08. With this new version of the credit score, FICO says its will disregard collection accounts and other dings on your credit file when the original balance owed was under $100.

“The logic there,” says FICO’s Tom Quinn, “is that for small dollar amounts, like a collection notice from a public library system, the (credit scoring) model will now bypass those and not consider those to be negative. Any kind of derogatory public information that’s less than $100” will be excluded, Quinn adds. This certainly has the potential to help boost your FICO score if it was impacted by such a blemish. But beware: amid the credit crunch, every single account you have, and every single financial transaction you engage in is being analyzed to determine your credit worthiness.

(If you google it, you'll find lots of links to sites/blogs discussing it.)

[RobertEG]

Paying the OC requires two things.  One, they update their reporting to reflect a $0 debt balance, and two, they notify the debt collector that the debt is paid.

Notification of payment of the debt similarly requires the debt collector to do two things..... one, update the debt remaining under collection to $0, and two, close their collection account.

There is no such thing as an OC "pulling back" the collection such that the debt collector is required to delete their reporting.

If the debt collector had legitimate collection authority, the reporting of that fact is not negated by termination of the collection.

As for sending the debt collector a DV after payment of the debt, that will serve no useful purpose. 

First, a debt collector is not required to respond to a DV request, they are required to cease collection on the debt until they have done so.

With collection having been terminated as a matter of fact, the DV accomplishes nothing.  They arent continuing collection, and thus could care less about any cease collection bar. 

Additionally, I presume that more than 30 days has expired since their dunning notice, so any DV at this point would most likely be untimely, and thus impose no restriction on them.

Even if they did choose to verify, that would be simple.  "We verify that the debt is $0."

[diabla]

Of course you're right, Robert, the CA does not have to delete - that's why we PFD, basically asking them to be nice and delete.  However, they do have to stop collecting and update your account to zero, if you've paid the OC.  They can't demand that you pay them too, that's absurd.

I think from what I've read is that while the amount under $100 does not figure into your score, the fact that its a collection does.  Notice how your reports shows the number of collections, and also the total amount of debt?  So I guess there's a way that's configured into your score.  So dropping the collection report would probably boost you a little, because that's one less collection account.  By the same token, having a collection account of $80 show up would penalize you much less than having a collection account of show up of $500.  That's my take on it but its still pretty complicated for me to figure out!