Ok, long story short....a DirecTV account was still in my name in the house my ex stayed in. I was unaware of this, because I had called to cancel it (this was way back in 2008). I moved around a lot during that time, and he actually paid it faithfully, unbeknowst to me.
He moved out eventually and I hired a property management company, who forwarded me anything that was still coming to the house in my name...and one of those things was a DirecTV bill that showed up as overdue after he'd been gone for two months. The service was still on, and since he wasn't paying for it, it went into overdue status.
At this time I was getting ready to buy a house with my husband, so I called them up, explained the situation, and they were actually quite helpful. I paid the balance to get it to go away, and they still owned the debt, it wasn't in collections. This was back in March or so of this year.
Fast forward to this month, and suddenly I have a collections account showing on my credit report for Nationwide Credit, Inc. There are no hits from DirecTV on my credit anywhere, so they weren't dinging me for the time it was delinquent and I was unaware - this just shows up suddenly as a Collection for this month. They're listing a collection amount of $254.
So here are my questions:
1. Should I bother calling DirecTV?
2. Should I dispute with the credit bureaus?
3. And/or should I send a DV?
Just strange, I paid this months ago, and suddenly here it is. I'd do a PFD, but I already paid this.
Starting Score: TU: 550 EQ: 556 (pulled 6/2010)
Send the DV as it would be considered timely. See what they send back. If it is for the same debt, do a direct dispute with them as paid.
July 2013 score: EQ FICO 819, TU08 778, EX "806 lender pull 07/26/2013
Goal Score: All Scores 760+, Newest goal 800+
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Current scores after adding $81K in CLs and 2 new cars since July 2013
EQ:809 TU 777 EX 790 Now it's just garden time!
June 2017 update: All scores over 820, just pure gardening now.
I have a similar situation. Who or how do you do a direct dispute? Is that with the CRA, the OC or the CA?
Starting Score: 585