I have visited this board many times in the past few months, but this is my first post. My credit report is finally clean after a 6 month battle with Gulf State to get a collection account removed. The account came from a calling card I got in college (1997). The collection amount was only $26, but having the negative account was killing my credit score. My mistake was that I was dealing directly with Gulf State. They wouldn't return calls or respond to letters. After reading a few posts here, I decided to contact all 3 CRA's directly. I sent them letter asking them to investigate the account. I thought that they would just change it to a "paid" account, but I got all 3 reports in today, and the Gulf State account is DELETED. Hooray, and thanks for the help.
