I have an old collection from MBNA (now Bank of America). It's paid off. My MBNA records show one account number. BofA is reporting it to the CRAs with another number. I've written to BofA and asked them to validate. Was this the right move? If not, what should I do?
Nothing to be worried about MBNA merged with BOA, the system automatically distributed new acct #'s for a ton of existing accounts, including old accounts. (Especially old accounts) If the the only thing that has changed on your credit reports is the account number, there isn't anything to dispute for that reason alone. If the old collection account was removed before but a NEW one with this new account number is now present, dispute it with the CRAs and say it's the same account that was originally deleted. mbna/boa will have to verify that.
MBNA (now BoA) has a policy of changing account numbers for accounts that are "Charged Off" (to denote a C/O acct.). If this account was Charged Off, most likely MBNA itself recoded the account. Note, the account number is usually changed once it is actually sent to a Collection Agency. It doesn't hurt to request the validation of the account, but MBNA/BoA are not good about responding to these types of requests. Just go in knowing you will likely get no response.
Thanks for the advice. If they don't reply, then I can at least complain "not mine" to the CRAs, right?
Yes you can, but MBNA/BoA is probably the most difficult to dispute/deal with. I would try the dispute (Not Mine), and go from there. But, be prepared as this could be a long battle.
