Collection

[Anonymous]

About 4 years ago I was going through a rather lengthy divorce process/ bankruptcy and moved out of the house into an apartment. At the end of my lease I purchased a home and thought all was fine. About two years later I sold a vehicle and purchased another and at the time I thought my not so great interest rate was due to my bankruptcy. Well recently I have looked into purchasing a new vehicle and have found that my credit score is still not that great. My ignorance in that I always had good credit before so never really looked at my own reports. Well now I am and have found out that I have a collection from a debt collector from my apartment years ago for $175.00. I had no idea, was never aware of this and never received any notification of such. Always paid my rent and left on good terms. So, I disputed it through equifax to no success and to my amazement, I received a letter from the same collection agency stating that the past due account has been turned over to them for collection. How can a collection agency turn it over to themselves? Can they do this?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
About 4 years ago I was going through a rather lengthy divorce process/ bankruptcy and moved out of the house into an apartment. At the end of my lease I purchased a home and thought all was fine. About two years later I sold a vehicle and purchased another and at the time I thought my not so great interest rate was due to my bankruptcy. Well recently I have looked into purchasing a new vehicle and have found that my credit score is still not that great. My ignorance in that I always had good credit before so never really looked at my own reports. Well now I am and have found out that I have a collection from a debt collector from my apartment years ago for $175.00. I had no idea, was never aware of this and never received any notification of such. Always paid my rent and left on good terms. So, I disputed it through equifax to no success and to my amazement, I received a letter from the same collection agency stating that the past due account has been turned over to them for collection. How can a collection agency turn it over to themselves? Can they do this?

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Send them a DV letter asking for the original credtor and itemization of the debt. That way you can at least find out what you are being billed the $175 for. Did you put down a security deposit? Was that deposit refunded to you? Do you have any paperwork from that rental at all to verify that you moved out on good terms owing nothing?

What else is on your credit report? You said your credit still isn't that great, but one collection from 4-5 years ago shouldn't hit you that hard.

[Whitneyy]

If you're simply trying to get your credit score up, you could always try and get some secured credit cards and that will help you over time.

But as stated, how old are the collections on your account? Maybe if you share a little more history everyone will be able to chime in and see what other options you possibly have.