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Dealing with old collections account

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sxa001
Valued Contributor

Dealing with old collections account

I wasn't sure the best place to post this.  In 2013 I made the not so smart decision to ditch Sprint when I was under contract with them and then ignore their requests to get paid.  They sent the account to collections in 2014.  

I made two poor choices after that, I didn't know about PFD when I did pay, nor did I keep track of the payment.  Looking back at old statements I made a payment to this collection agency in September 2014 for $394.  The High Balance on the report is $385.  The report doen't show the account number.  

Here is the challenge, this collection account shows on my Equifax score, bringing my Equifax numbers down.  I finally signed up to MyFICO as I am hoping to start applying for mortgages in November.  While I have no worries on approval I want to try to get the best rates possible.  FICO8 alone is 736 on Equifax where it is 811 and 804 on TU and EX. 

One thing of note, it shows the account closed in January 2016.  If in fact this was the account I paid in September 2014 (and I looked at bank statements from the remainder of 2014 and 2015 and see no other payments to this agency).  Is the fact that it shows closed over a year after I paid it worth of dispute?  

What date should I be looking at for this to fall off?  The "Date Opened" which is March 2014, or the date Closed of January 2016?  (so either March of 2021 or January 2023).   Are my hands just tied and I have to deal with this bringing me down?  Is it worth it to call the collections agency and try to get them to remove it? 


Message 1 of 9
8 REPLIES 8
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Dealing with old collections account


@sxa001 wrote:

I wasn't sure the best place to post this.  In 2013 I made the not so smart decision to ditch Sprint when I was under contract with them and then ignore their requests to get paid.  They sent the account to collections in 2014.  

I made two poor choices after that, I didn't know about PFD when I did pay, nor did I keep track of the payment.  Looking back at old statements I made a payment to this collection agency in September 2014 for $394.  The High Balance on the report is $385.  The report doen't show the account number.  

Here is the challenge, this collection account shows on my Equifax score, bringing my Equifax numbers down.  I finally signed up to MyFICO as I am hoping to start applying for mortgages in November.  While I have no worries on approval I want to try to get the best rates possible.  FICO8 alone is 736 on Equifax where it is 811 and 804 on TU and EX. 

One thing of note, it shows the account closed in January 2016.  If in fact this was the account I paid in September 2014 (and I looked at bank statements from the remainder of 2014 and 2015 and see no other payments to this agency).  Is the fact that it shows closed over a year after I paid it worth of dispute?  

What date should I be looking at for this to fall off?  The "Date Opened" which is March 2014, or the date Closed of January 2016?  (so either March of 2021 or January 2023).   Are my hands just tied and I have to deal with this bringing me down?  Is it worth it to call the collections agency and try to get them to remove it? 

 


 Mortgages take you middle score to set the interest rate, so since your other 2 scores are high, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Srill, you can try reaching out to the CA with your proof of payment (date/amount) and try to have them correct it from their end.

 

To look for fall off date, go to annual vredit report. Credit reports are free to pull weekly through 4/2021 (no scores). Most comprehensive credit reports around.

 

EQ will have listed "date of first delinquency". Add 7 years to that date and that is when the account should fall off.

 

I would guess it will fall off sometime this year since you said you ditched them in 2013, which was 7 years ago.

 

Lastly, you need to look at your mortgage scores, the FICO 5, 4, and 2 scores. That is what sets your interest rate, not FICO8 scores.

 

Good luck!

Message 2 of 9
sxa001
Valued Contributor

Re: Dealing with old collections account


@Anonymous wrote:

Lastly, you need to look at your mortgage scores, the FICO 5, 4, and 2 scores. That is what sets your interest rate, not FICO8 scores.

 


Thank you for the detailed response.  I did sign up for MyFICO to get my mortgate scores.  TU has me at 776 (FICO 4), EX is showing a FICO 2 of 819, but EQ hates me and is showing a FICO 5 of 707 (YIKES!!).  Oddly enough, trying to get my reports I was able to get my Annual Report from the AnnualCreditReport.com for TU and EX without issues, Equifax was unable online and it pointed me to a paper form that I need to fill out to request.  I am certain I answered all the security questions correctly, so that is pretty odd and a little concerning.  I am going to have to fill the form out and send that in, I really want to see what that "date of first delinquency" date is.  

Equifax seems to also be dinging me (according to MyFICO) about my auto-loan.  I have actually been debating just paying it off before we apply for the Mortgage.  Currently owe $9,800 on it (original loan amount of 16.9K).  That is perhaps a topic for a different thread. 


Message 3 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Dealing with old collections account

@sxa001 Welcome to the forums. I had a similar issue that I have not been able to resolve on annualcreditreport.com with my Equifax report only. 

 

You can create an account on the Equifax website and pull your report up to 6 times. You can find your date of first delinquency displayed on the account there.

 

Since the account has been paid off, you can look into the goodwill saturation technique. Basically reach out to the collection agency by email or old school mail and ask politely if they will remove themselves from your report. This method takes time and patience though. 

 

I will be keeping an eye on your post if you do create one regarding your auto loan. I'm  interested if it would help your mortgage scores (but the account is in good standing so I don't see why paying it off early would help). 

 

Good luck!

Message 4 of 9
sxa001
Valued Contributor

Re: Dealing with old collections account


@Anonymous wrote:

You can create an account on the Equifax website and pull your report up to 6 times. You can find your date of first delinquency displayed on the account there.


I appreciate that information, according to them I already have an account but I have no idea what my password is.  It has a number I can call but they are closed on weekends, so I will call Monday and see if I can get in.  I guess I set this up before when I was starting the rebuilding journey a few years ago but then after everything was paid I stopped paying attention to the reports outside of the Credit Card FICO (and FAKO in some cases) numbers and alerts for any new activity.


Message 5 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Dealing with old collections account

"TU has me at 776 (FICO 4), EX is showing a FICO 2 of 819, but EQ hates me and is showing a FICO 5 of 707 (YIKES!!)"

 

776 is the score they will use. Unless you think your EQ will go higher than that and become the new middle score, I wouldn't sweat them too much. If it were me, I'd see if i could get that TU 776 to jump up (it may already be high enough to get the best rates though?)

Message 6 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Dealing with old collections account

If I understood this correctly, this is a collection that was paid (you have evidence of this) and this is a debt from 2013 (nearly 7 years)? If this is correct, have you considered sending a letter to the collection agency and asking for a goodwill removal based on the payment evidence and this being nearly obsolete? I don't see why they wouldn't comply.

Message 7 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Dealing with old collections account


@Anonymous wrote:

If I understood this correctly, this is a collection that was paid (you have evidence of this) and this is a debt from 2013 (nearly 7 years)? If this is correct, have you considered sending a letter to the collection agency and asking for a goodwill removal based on the payment evidence and this being nearly obsolete? I don't see why they wouldn't comply.


because it is with EQ lol they are the worst when it comes to EE. That is also why we were trying to have OP get a copy of his EQ Annual Credit Report to determine exactly when it should be falling off anyway to see if it was worth a try, as they kinda have 1 month EE.

 

OP has an excellent middle mortgage score, so I truly do not believe it should be too big of an issue. Hopefully it should fall off any minute, anyway.

Message 8 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Dealing with old collections account


@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

If I understood this correctly, this is a collection that was paid (you have evidence of this) and this is a debt from 2013 (nearly 7 years)? If this is correct, have you considered sending a letter to the collection agency and asking for a goodwill removal based on the payment evidence and this being nearly obsolete? I don't see why they wouldn't comply.


because it is with EQ lol they are the worst when it comes to EE. That is also why we were trying to have OP get a copy of his EQ Annual Credit Report to determine exactly when it should be falling off anyway to see if it was worth a try, as they kinda have 1 month EE.

 

OP has an excellent middle mortgage score, so I truly do not believe it should be too big of an issue. Hopefully it should fall off any minute, anyway.


I was refering to sending a GW to the OC/CA directly, not the CRA. But I also agree his scores are already where they need to be. 

Message 9 of 9
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