What to do about a collection from Enhanced Recovery?

[Anonymous]

About a year ago I got dinged for an old ATT bill from a collection company, I don't recall the name of it. However, back in April it seemed to have been deleted from my credit reports without me doing anything. Then, yesterday, I got an alert that Enhanced is now reporting the collection for the ATT account. A couple of questions:

If I paid ATT directly would ATT remove the collection?

Would Enhanced Recovery do a PFD? I don't even know my account number with them as I never recieved any letter in the mail from them. I'd hate to call and give them my SS#.

Not sure what to do here..

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I dealt with a TMO collections (not actually my fault) but I was told that you had to pay the collection company directly. If ATT sent to collections I am wondering why they accepted payment directly? They usually will not remove the collection hit, unless they did something wrong (as was the case with TMO). The collection may have fell off if the collection company closed down, looks like your records were transferred to the new collection agency. 

[Anonymous]

This wasn't my fault either, while the ATT acount was in my name, my mom was responsible for paying the bill. Well, she decieded not to pay and I never knew about it until it popped up on my report, by then it was too late and being it's my mom, I can't get too mad

I called ATT yesterday and they will accept payment. I'm going to call them again today and see if they can remove the collection. If not then there would not be any point in me paying for anything as the collection will still show, even if it is a $0 balance. 

[Anonymous]

I'm in the same boat with ERC. was there a particular number for AT&T you called?

[Anonymous]

Just their normal number and ask for billing department. 

[RobertEG]

Only the party who reported information to the CRA can therafter report its deletion.

The OC cannot assure or agree to deletion of reporting they did not make.

If the debt collector will not agree to a PFD and you elect to pay the OC, then deletion would be totally voluntary on the part of the debt collector.

Perhaps the OC can pursuade the debt collector to delete their reported collection, but the debt collector is instructed in their credit reporting agreement with the CRAs not to do so.  CRA policy is that a debt collector should delete if their collection authority is terminated prior to payment of the debt, but that they should not delete if they had collection authority when the debt was paid.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This wasn't my fault either, while the ATT acount was in my name, my mom was responsible for paying the bill. Well, she decieded not to pay and I never knew about it until it popped up on my report, by then it was too late and being it's my mom, I can't get too mad

I called ATT yesterday and they will accept payment. I'm going to call them again today and see if they can remove the collection. If not then there would not be any point in me paying for anything as the collection will still show, even if it is a $0 balance. 

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If there is no rush to remove this you can wait them out - ATT will rotate their bad account through a list of collectors about every six months. Once they move it to a new collector, you can pay it before the new collector reports it. I got rid of DirecTV that way. I would have gotten rid of ATT as well, but I didn't realize the CA had changed and I waited too long.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

This wasn't my fault either, while the ATT acount was in my name, my mom was responsible for paying the bill. Well, she decieded not to pay and I never knew about it until it popped up on my report, by then it was too late and being it's my mom, I can't get too mad

I called ATT yesterday and they will accept payment. I'm going to call them again today and see if they can remove the collection. If not then there would not be any point in me paying for anything as the collection will still show, even if it is a $0 balance. 

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If there is no rush to remove this you can wait them out - ATT will rotate their bad account through a list of collectors about every six months. Once they move it to a new collector, you can pay it before the new collector reports it. I got rid of DirecTV that way. I would have gotten rid of ATT as well, but I didn't realize the CA had changed and I waited too long.

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Interesting, so maybe that's why the first CA stopped reporting and it fell off for several months. So if they rotate every six months and I make a payment to ATT while iT is off, then it cannot go to collections again, correct?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

This wasn't my fault either, while the ATT acount was in my name, my mom was responsible for paying the bill. Well, she decieded not to pay and I never knew about it until it popped up on my report, by then it was too late and being it's my mom, I can't get too mad

I called ATT yesterday and they will accept payment. I'm going to call them again today and see if they can remove the collection. If not then there would not be any point in me paying for anything as the collection will still show, even if it is a $0 balance. 

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If there is no rush to remove this you can wait them out - ATT will rotate their bad account through a list of collectors about every six months. Once they move it to a new collector, you can pay it before the new collector reports it. I got rid of DirecTV that way. I would have gotten rid of ATT as well, but I didn't realize the CA had changed and I waited too long.

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Interesting, so maybe that's why the first CA stopped reporting and it fell off for several months. So if they rotate every six months and I make a payment to ATT while iT is off, then it cannot go to collections again, correct?

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That is correct. In my case, with DirecTV, It was being reported by Diversified Consultants, and I got a dunning notice for the DirecTV bill one day from AFNI. It said on the bill that I could pay DirecTV directly if I wished. I did that, then I disputed the item from Diversified as "collector does not have collection authority" and it was deleted. AFNI never reported because I paid the bill before thery did so.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

This wasn't my fault either, while the ATT acount was in my name, my mom was responsible for paying the bill. Well, she decieded not to pay and I never knew about it until it popped up on my report, by then it was too late and being it's my mom, I can't get too mad

I called ATT yesterday and they will accept payment. I'm going to call them again today and see if they can remove the collection. If not then there would not be any point in me paying for anything as the collection will still show, even if it is a $0 balance. 

---

If there is no rush to remove this you can wait them out - ATT will rotate their bad account through a list of collectors about every six months. Once they move it to a new collector, you can pay it before the new collector reports it. I got rid of DirecTV that way. I would have gotten rid of ATT as well, but I didn't realize the CA had changed and I waited too long.

---

Interesting, so maybe that's why the first CA stopped reporting and it fell off for several months. So if they rotate every six months and I make a payment to ATT while iT is off, then it cannot go to collections again, correct?

---

That is correct. In my case, with DirecTV, It was being reported by Diversified Consultants, and I got a dunning notice for the DirecTV bill one day from AFNI. It said on the bill that I could pay DirecTV directly if I wished. I did that, then I disputed the item from Diversified as "collector does not have collection authority" and it was deleted. AFNI never reported because I paid the bill before thery did so.

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You want to watch for a notice from a new collector - sometimes the old one does not delete right away.