Hi, I leased an apt for my friend, and apparently put gas under my name. Apparently, he did not receive the gas bills from January and he moved out March 31st. Owing $76.41. So Cal Gas was mailing me, I did not live there, till June 2016 and trying to collect debt. Unfortunately, I did not receive it and since my friend did not live there he did not either. The collection agency, mailed us in August, again we did not receive since we did not live there. Now in September I pulled my credit report and I see a debt collection. I contacted the credit agency they said too bad, i should had known and if I pay now they will only tell the credit Bureau that it has been paid in full. I never ever miss a payment and never knew about this until 1 hour ago. What are my options?
Welcome to Creditnet amousavi, and I'm sorry to hear about your issues with the gas bill. What collection agency are you dealing with? And do you know if the debt has simply been assigned to them for collection or did they actually buy the debt from the OC?
Hi Josh, The CA is Torres Credit Services. I do not know if they bought the debt or not. I know the Gas company said I can pay at a local branch and they will tell the CA that it has been paid, but this will not get it off my credit report. I can call the gas company and find out.
I called the gas company they said they have NOT sold the debt. When I called the CA yesterday, they said that as of January 1st, they cannot remove the debt collection from my credit report, the law does not allow them to do that anymore.
There was no change to the law; if it was me, I would see whether the fear of having to pay me $1,000.00 for lying about the fact that Federal Law changed to prohibit deleting the trade line, would provide motivation for them to settle the matter quickly.
Shouldn't I demand a validation letter from them. Remind them they violated the FDCPA, and such they have to remove it from my Credit report until the debt is verified. In other words, wouldn't be best to fax this letter(with proof of receipt) then immediately open a dispute with the 3 credit agency bureaus?
Nothing says that they HAVE to delete until they verify, unless you dispute the trade line with the CRA, and they have 30 days to obtain and mail yhat validation to you, before deleting the trade line. But some accounts are easier to obtain the validation than others, and recent utility bills fall into that category. The real traction here is making them fear paying you $1,000.00 on an account that they stand to gain $76.00. You can demand validation in an ITS letter, and that is the part that stands a better chance of making them disappear on a recent utility bill.
You might also consider making a call to the Gas company to ask for a supervisor in the finance department, and then see if you can get him/her to agree to pull your account back from collections so you can directly pay the bill in full. Explain the circumstances that lead to the bills not even being received, and you might get someone to agree.
okay I contacted them and told them I will take legal actions against them. They gave me a offer(written in fax) that upon payment "to have the account updated with the credit reporting agencies for deletion". I just want to make sure that if they report it for deletion after 30 days if a lender pulls my credit report they will not see it correct?
Yep- shouldn't be seen ever again on your credit reports! When you say "they", are you referring to Torres Credit Services?
Great. Thanks for you help guys. As soon as I told them I will take legal action against them because of them giving me the wrong information about the law they were willing to settle. Really appreciate your help.
Glad to hear a positive success from the JAM237 school of aggressive consumer debt collection retaliation.
Just curious - were you ever able to get a settlement done and in writing with Torres Credit Services?