Hi All,
I recently received a letter from CBCS Collections regarding a debt owed on a utility bill. I thought that I had set up auto-payments at my old residence (when I lived there), but apparently it did not work, so I had past due debt from October-Jan (when I moved out). To complicate matters further, my landlord told me that she contacted the utility company and put their name back on and took me off once I moved out (at the end of January). However, it turns out that she did not do this and that my name is still on the account. Additionally, I called the utility company on Friday after being called by CBCS and was told by the utility company representative that it had not yet been sent to collections. Today, my fiancee (who we didn't think we put on the account, but I cannot confirm this with the utility company until Tuesday) received a letter from CBCS saying that the "debt had been placed with this office for payment." The letter had the correct name of the utility company and our account number for the utility company. Does this mean that it will be reported to the credit bureaus and end up on our reports?
My main concern is keeping this off of our credit reports, so I would rather just pay all of it and then get the money from our old landlord afterwards (she is slow about getting anything taken care of). After talking to the utility company Friday, I went online and paid part of the debt (the part that I owed from Oct-Jan), which upon reading further on here may not have been a great idea. Does the fact that I was still able to make the payment on the utility company website indicate that the debt has not yet been given to CBCS?
How should I proceed? Do I call the credit agency to see if they own the debt or do I call the utility company and ask if they still own the debt?
Thank you very much for any help.
