Great news! Persistance pays off with collection agencies

[daddyaddy]

A few years ago I let some medical accounts go to collections. I paid the collections in full and GW'd the CA. The CA honored the GW and removed the collection accounts from all the CRA's...or so I thought. It removed them TU and EQ, but not Experian! It was actually showing a balance on Experian. Ugh.

Long story short, I've written letters (that went unanswered) and called the CA, but the people on the phone said there was nothing they could do...They had told Experian to remove it and now I needed to dispute the error with Experian.

So I hatched a plan. I wanted proof that I'd paid off the account, so I planned to drive to the collection agency and request a statement showing my PIF balances.

When I got there today, the person I spoke with told me it was removed last week and that she would call them today to make sure it was gone, then call me tomorrow to confirm. She even gave me a printed letter with her signature saying I had paid the balances in full. Triumph! 

Now if only I could check my Experian report to verify....But at least I have my letter!

Lesson learned: Be persistent and keep asking for what you want...Eventually you just may get it!

[annielorie]

You can check your report for free with credit seasme or sign up for a anti id theft progam which allows you to see your credit report . I use eliminate id theft at 12.95 a month daily pulls all three Credit bureaus

[Epcot]

Wow.. you have to really stay on top of things.

[daddyaddy]

Thanks for the tips Annie...I already use creditsesame.com but it only updated once a month, and I just checked last week!

And Epcot, I totally agree. Checking your reports is only the first step. You really have to really committ to getting baddies off your reports, and even then, there's a lot of luck and chance involved.

I've been lucky because my only baddies were a bankruptcy and these collection accounts. I've also been lucky that I was able to successfully GW my collection accounts. Now the collection accounts are gone and all I have is a bankruptcy that discharged in February 2006 (set to come off late 2015!). Oh, and years of paying on time and trying to keep my balances low.