I just printed my free credit report and I have a collections account on it that I thought was never going to be reported. Here is the story. I purchased an item with a credit card for around $250 from an online retailer. The retailer shipped the item but I did not recieve it. The shipping company claimed they left it on the front step but it was not there. The retailer filed a claim with the shipping company. After numerous documented calls the retailer still had not heard back from the shipping company. Then came time for the card to be paid and since I pay my balance every month I called the credit card company and asked them if they could hold the payment to the retailer but they had already paid them so they said I could dispute the charge which I did and recieved a conformation letter from the credit card company saying that the dispute was resolved. Everything was fine and then almost 1 month later I get a call from a collections agency saying I owe this retailer money. Since I did not know what to do I called the retailer and they said the account was settled. I called the collection agency back and gave him the name of the person whom I spoke with and he said he would give it to his supervisor and he would mark the account as disputed cool. Not I then get a call saying that their client (retailer) has not settled the dispute. We went back and forth and finally after sending the collections agent the credit card letter he said that they are going to drop the case. I have heard nothing about this issue until today when I pulled my credit report and it has this collections account on it with the status of unpaid and comments of consumer disputes this account information. So my question is where to go from here to get this off of my credit report. Sorry for the long post and thanks a lot.
dispute the tradeline and see what happens also send the agency a validation of debt and a cease and desist letter. if you have the proof from the credit card company saying this was settled, in writing not verbal, then you will be fine.
Great advice, collectman! Send them a cease and desist letter and let them know you aren't going to work with them to resolve the dispute. Then sit back and see if they sue you or not. Really great advice!
if you'll notice, "if you have the proof from the credit card company saying this was settled, in writing not verbal, then you will be fine." if he were to dispute the account and request VOD within the first 30 days, then it is the ca's job to provide all docs to the account. provide the ca with the letter from the credit card company and it will be resolved.
Collectman, I faxed the ca a copy of the letter from the credit card company. After that I did not hear back from the ca for a few days so I called him and that is when he told me they as in the ca were going to drop the claim. That is why I was surprised to see the collects on my credit report. Thanks for the advice so far.
send them a certified copy of that letter, dispute the account and mention to them in the letter that on such and such date you have provided this information to them. also advise them they have 10 days from the date of your letter to respond with proper proof of the account or they must delete the tradeline. failure to do so will result in your filing of a lawsuit.
and it would surprise me to see a credit card company go after and sue someone for a measley 250.00. they have much bigger accounts to sue on that would be worth their time in doing so.
I sent out my letter to the CA with a copy of the letter from my credit card company. So my next question is what will happen next? Will I haer back from the CA or will the collections account be removed from my credit report and I just have to check it to see if t was removed. Again thanks for the advice
I think your question is not one that can be answered with certainty. Much depends on what the collection agency wants to do. As collectman has pointed out $250 is a sufficiently small amount that they may not feel it is worth taking legal action to get. They may forget about it or they may add charges to it for a sufficient length of time to make it worth taking legal action. One would think they ought to just forget about it but they haven't shown much interest in doing that so far. I'm sure others will post their opinions but just like my answer, most will be pure conjecture.
What exactly would they be able to sue for? I have provided them proof that I owe the retailer nothing and they then told me over the phone they were goig to drop the collection. To me it would be like the retailer would be double dipping. They would sue me for the money and also collect the check from the delivery company that lost the package? That does not seem right. I guess it does not matter since as a matter of principal I will spend a couple thousand to go to court then to pay them their money for nothing might be stupid but I want this off my credit report.
Give a little boy a hammer and everything needs pounding. Collection Agencies and Collection attorneys are about the same as little boys with a hammer. No, it does not seem right. [/quote] Quite frankly, I think that once you send your proof to the credit bureaus the matter should be deleted from your credit file with no problem. If not you may think about filing a federal case against them for defamation of credit or something. You might also end up with a federal case against the credit bureaus. It is always better to be the plaintiff than to be the defendant in any court.
