It was a checking account that we closed in April....or so we requested to have it closed. In September, one of my credit cards tried to draw a payment out of the account. It was an electronic payment (auto pay). I did not setup to have any further payments made from this account, so I don't know how it happened. The credit card company could not explain it either. It shouldn't have been a problem if the account had been closed properly, but it was not. So it resulted in nsf charges.
So in the midst of me applying for a mortgage, I was looking for a copy of a check and just happened to check this old account. I was surprised that I could log in and was even more surprised to see a statement showing a balance of -$78. When we called the bank, they said they only did a "soft close" instead of a "hard close" and that's why the charges resulted. We asked to have them reversed but was told by the rep that she could not access the account, that it had charged off. We NEVER received any correspondence whatsoever. She gave us the number to the collection agency. We called and the rep said she would send us a letter saying what to do to dispute, etc. etc. We haven't seen anything. The phone call was our initial communication with the agency and this was almost a month ago. Nothing is showing on our credit reports.
The fact that the bank did not close the account properly is why I don't feel the debt is valid. I just need to know what to do next. I'm afraid that if we pay it, will still show on our credit reports eventually. Maybe I should just write a letter to the bank asking that they pull it back to the branch level and give us the opportunity that we never got to deal with it there. Should we also go ahead and write a letter to the CA letting them know that we dispute?
Any suggestions?
Oh and BTW, keep copies of everything you send and keep what they send to you.