Transworld Collection

[Anonymous]

Hello All, 

I am in the process of rebuilding my credit and need some help from you all! 

I have a collection that just appeared on my credit from Transworld collection on behalf of Direct Energy. At first I thought it was fraud, immediatley called Experian and they had it deleted from my report within a few hours! 

Today it's been reported to Equifax and again I reported as fraud in hopes to have it deleted as well. 

I called Direct Energy and confirmed it is in fact a debt that I had in 2015 that was just sold in September of this year. First off, is this legal given the time? Secondly, my apartment flooded 3-4 times and I had moved out before the lease. My apartment sent me a letter stating they paid the bill for direct energy and I am not responsible. I also received a letter from Direct Energy stating the bill was paid in full. 

Unfortunately I don't have this information anymore because this was in 2015!! 5 years have gone by and they are now reporting it!

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[RobertEG]

A debt collector can report their collection to a CRA at any time after they are assigned collection authority without any prior contact with or notice to the consumer.  There is no basis for getting it removed other than filing a police report asserting that the alleged debt resulted from fraud/identity theft under the identity theft process set forth in FCRA 605B.

Since you now appear to have factual knowledge that the debt was not fraudulent or a result of identity theft, you now no longer can file a police report asserting fraud/identity theft.

Recourse would appear to be initiating contact with Direct Energy and getting them to terminate the assigned collection authority on the basis that they concur that there is no actual debt in fact due to the prior circumstances set forth in the posted scenario.

If they agree, then they must immediately terminate assignment of collection authority, which then requires the debt collector to promptly delete the reported collection.

Call Direct Energy and attempt to get their agreement that there is actually no current debt in fact.......

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello All, 

I am in the process of rebuilding my credit and need some help from you all! 

I have a collection that just appeared on my credit from Transworld collection on behalf of Direct Energy. At first I thought it was fraud, immediatley called Experian and they had it deleted from my report within a few hours! 

Today it's been reported to Equifax and again I reported as fraud in hopes to have it deleted as well. 

I called Direct Energy and confirmed it is in fact a debt that I had in 2015 that was just sold in September of this year. First off, is this legal given the time? Secondly, my apartment flooded 3-4 times and I had moved out before the lease. My apartment sent me a letter stating they paid the bill for direct energy and I am not responsible. I also received a letter from Direct Energy stating the bill was paid in full. 

Unfortunately I don't have this information anymore because this was in 2015!! 5 years have gone by and they are now reporting it!

Any help is greatly appreciated!

---

It is very important to hold onto any documentation for at least 7 years for reporting and taxes. No proof and it is hard to dispute.

Since the debt is valid, it can come back anytime, even if removed via dispute until the 7 year reporting window is up. That is 7 years from DoFD (date of first delinquency) - so when you moved out.

They can choose to report straight away or right before the 7 years is up. The point is to get your attention. It is absolutely legal. They also do not care what led up to it or the curcumstances. They bought a debt and are looking to collect on their investment.

Now to Transworld - they are the absolute WORST. While they are off your credit reports I would handle it *immediately* so they do not reinsert themselves onto your credit report because under no circumstance do they do PFD (pay for delete) nor are the going to remove themselves at any point after paying them.

This is your window of opportunity to handle the situation while they are not on your credit reports and it can likely stay that way if you do something about it before they come back.

I am in year 6 of 7 of the reporting window with 2 of these CAs from Transworld and they are going nowhere fast until they age off. So I wait them out.

I would handle them in a heart beat if they came off early for some reason, but that is not happening, and it sounds like you easily have 2 years left with them.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Hello All, 

First off thank you for all the help. So I just got off the phone with TransUnion and Equifax and they immediatley deleted it from my credit report. Both of them did mention it would not come back. I reviewed my report after speaking with both of them and it isn't showing anymore. 

I guess I hope just hope for the best that it will not show up again!