Paying off Electric Company - How to Remove from Credit Report?

[Anonymous]

Hi guys! I've been reading this forum for a while working to get my credit back up to a good score and I have a simple question: I left a terrible apartment a few years ago in a very sudden way after my landlord started showing up randomly and letting himself into my apartment for no reason (I'm a young woman, and it was pretty scary to me) and I didn't pay my last electricity bill/gas bill without really realizing or thinking about it. Well, fast forward to a few years later, I'm working to fix my credit and I'm finally moving into my own apartment again, and I can't get my electricity/gas turned on until I pay the owed amount plus a deposit. No big deal of course, but I noticed that the bill had been sold to a collections company a while back.

So my question is, after I pay my electric company directly for the owed money, how do I get that collections to remove the debt from my credit reports? Thank you guys in advance for the help! I've used so many of your tips and tricks to bump my scores up slowly but surely.

[FireMedic1]

If the utility company would take your payment directly to pay the past balance to get service. The CA has nothing to collect on any longer and ask the util co. to recall the debt from the CA.

[RobertEG]

Deletion of a collection is only mandated if the debt collector has their collection authority terminated while the debt remains unpaid.

That is a CRA reporting policy, and not a requirement of either the FCRA or FDCPA.

CRA reporting policy additionally instructs debt collectors not to delete their reported collection based on payment of the debt.

If you pay the debt while the debt collector still has active collection authority, there is no basis for requiring the deletion of the collection.

That is true regardless of whether you pay via the debt collector, or the OC agrees to directly take payment.

You must thus get the creditor to terminate the assignment of collection authority before they take payment.

Once they take payment, there is no longer a delinquent debt for them to "recall" collection authority on an unpaid collection.

If you pay the creditor, then subsequent deletion by the debt collector of their collection is voluntary, and would be pursued via a good-will request to the debt collector.

[Anonymous]

Does this mean I should ask the electric company to  terminate the assignment of collection authority before I pay them? Is this an easy process, or will they give me a hard time over it? Is this something they'll send me in writing?

[FireMedic1]

In person would beat letters and such. Can you visit a local branch?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi guys! I've been reading this forum for a while working to get my credit back up to a good score and I have a simple question: I left a terrible apartment a few years ago in a very sudden way after my landlord started showing up randomly and letting himself into my apartment for no reason (I'm a young woman, and it was pretty scary to me) and I didn't pay my last electricity bill/gas bill without really realizing or thinking about it. Well, fast forward to a few years later, I'm working to fix my credit and I'm finally moving into my own apartment again, and I can't get my electricity/gas turned on until I pay the owed amount plus a deposit. No big deal of course, but I noticed that the bill had been sold to a collections company a while back.

So my question is, after I pay my electric company directly for the owed money, how do I get that collections to remove the debt from my credit reports? Thank you guys in advance for the help! I've used so many of your tips and tricks to bump my scores up slowly but surely.

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Are you certain that the debt was "sold" to a collection agency and not just "assigned" to the agency for collection?  If it were assigned, the original creditor should recall the collection once the past due amount is paid to them directly.

I experienced a similar situation when I forgot to pay AT&T for the last month of a landline that I cancelled.  The debt was assigned to a collection agency, but my online account with AT&T was still active.  So I logged in to my account and paid AT&T directly.  As soon as the payment was credited my online access was terminated and the collection was removed from my credit report about 2 weeks later.  

[RobertEG]

After a debt is paid, such as paying directly to the original creditor, there is no longer a delinquent debt.

Thus, there is no debt to "recall" from an assigned debt collector.

Paying to the OC terminated collection authority, and thus there is no ability to "recall" a non-existent debt after it is paid.

You must get the creditor to terminate the assigned collection authority prior to paying the debt to them in order to impose a requirment for deletion of the formerly assigned collection.