FALSE collection question!

[lizabeth]

i have a false collection from feb of this year from at&t.
due to their OWN internal billing error, they were charging me for two internet accounts
i was phoning them for over a month trying to explain what was going on. i talked to at least ten different agents. needless to say they dont communicate with each other and they sent me to collection.

i immediately called and finally got someone from at&t to help. they acknowledged the error. refunded me the previous leftover funds that i had paid for this fake account, and said they would contact the collection agency and have them delete.  at&t paid the 'collection'   ($68)

i phoned back last week to make sure that they were DELETING the collection from my report and they said yes. i called the collection agency to make sure they did THEIR part, and they said they sent an e-mail to the reporting agencies telling them that they no longer associate with me, etc.

my question: ive had lates deleted in one day.  collection lady said she sent this e-mail to the reporting agencies nearly a week ago but yet it hasnt been removed from my report.  what is the hold up? is this wait normal? do i need to take extra steps to make SURE this false junk was deleted?

also, what kind of jump in my score can i expect from this? since it was indeeed a fault of at&t.

[Anonymous]

I'm waiting on the same thing...for a collection account to be deleted from the CRA...after receiving a letter from them...when I first paid the CA...they said they report to the CRA with in 72 hours...so it has to be the CRA not updating fast enough...you said they told you they already sent the request to the CRA...so it has to be them not updating it...maybe you can call and find out if they got the request...or wait...won't hurt to call...

[Anonymous]

Lizabeth-

It depends on how often that CA reports to the CRAs. I have some CAs that report weekly, and some that only report once a month. Call back & ask when they report, so you can check to make sure it does fall off within about 5 days of their reporting date. If it's still on after that, then I would start to worry.

[llecs]

As far as score bump goes, your score would go back to where it was before the CA did its thing, assuming nothing else has happened to your CRs.

If you don't know the score before all of this happened, then roughly you might get 20-80 point gain. If it is your only CA, and have no other baddies, and considering the newness, then you'd get closer to 80 points, if not more.

[lizabeth]

i called the collection agency again today. they said it was indeed 'cancelled' out of their system on april 17th and they reported to the bureaus on the 23rd. 

i wasnt able to speak to a single person from any of the burueas except for Transunion. They said "no, its still on your report".. and basically blamed the collection agency all over again... she then let me do a dispute over the phone as well.

So i called back the collection agency again and they said "well the bureaus have 30-90 days to post by law and theres no way to speed the process...but its definitely been cancelled..theres nothing more we can do...its up to them"...

this is a NIGHTMARE.  am i missing something!? if something has been reported cancelled or deleted to the bureaus, why is it not deleted IMMEDIATELY?

and since this wasnt even my fault to begin with why should i have my credit reflect poorly for many many months. ive been patiently waiting to apply for my first real credit card and this is just nuts.

am i really left to WAIT up to 90 days? is there ANYWAY i can get ahold of these bureaus and ask WHY this hasnt been deleted ....when the collection agency has said a billion times they've sent the information over? why should i have to dispute something thats already supposedly been DELETED??

[Anonymous]

It gets worst. If you dispute something that was submitted for deletion it might void the deletion by the lender. But have no fear, if that's the case the dispute will remove it in 30 days!!!!

What you could have done was get a letter from the CA or ATT that this was an error and this account should not be on your CR. If you faxed that letter to the CRAs it should be removed with in 5 days. Try and get this letter it will speed everything up!!!!! Other wise if the lender really wanted it off your CR they can always make a phone call to their rep at each CRA and have it removed with in 24 hours. It's not hard. But all you need is this letter that states ERROR - REMOVE and you can fax it to the CRAs and all will be dealt with right away in your favor. This way you won't have to wait 30-90 days. If not off with in 30 days I doubt it was actually coming off. Your dispute or fax will be enough to force it off in this case. One way or another it will come off... Don't worry.

Message Edited by ilovepizza on 04-28-2008 12:19 PM