I’m very new to credit management and thought I was doing well building my file but now I find a wrench thrown in the works.
I had two delinquent tuition bills for my university which apparently were sent to a collection agency in September. The agency reps called and left voice mail and also sent me 30 day verification letters. I didn’t respond to the letters nor did I answer their calls. Last week I paid the tuition due directly to student accounts at school and am cleared to register for new classes. I assumed that the school would notify the collection agency that the debt was paid and cleared.
This morning I find that the collection agency has reported the account as an open collection account from September and a balance is outstanding. The balance they report is what I paid directly to school.
Not sure how to address this now. The school still owned the debt (as far as I know). I don’t know who to contact first regarding this situation. I also don’t know what I should be asking them to do.
So my questions:
1. Do I contact student accounts or the collection agency?
2. What do I ask them to do? Delete or update the derogatory to show paid in full?
3. How do I minimize effect on my FICO score? TU vantage on credit karma shows a drop of 89 points from these two derogatories. I will get my TU FICO update from Experian Creditworks in three weeks so not sure what it will show.
😢
