Alright, so I'm a newbie, but I found this forum so I thought I would post my story and see if anyone could help, so here it goes: My fiancee ran her credit report a while back, and found out about a cell phone she thinks she remembers having in 7/2000, she cancelled it, and from all her knowledge paid all fees, early termination charges etc. Since then AT&T has NEVER contacted her. We run her bureaus, and find out there was a 500 charge on her account and that it was charged off as a bad debt in 11/2000, right after she cancelled her service. Now from everything that I have heard about charge offs, it means the company writes the debt off in their books (charge off) and sells the account to a collection agency, and whips their hands free and clear of the account, hence they do not own the account anymore. She called AT&T on this and they claim it has gone to 3 different collection agencies since then, and NONE of them have either contacted her, or reported it to her credit bureaus (which is odd). AT&T refuses to take it off her report, even though AT&T does not own the account anymore and they are not owed the $500, the collection agency is owed that money. AT&T gave her a HUGE run around and tranferred her to like 5 different people, all giving her odd answers, 1 claiming it went to one collection agency first, then another saying it was at a different one. One claiming I would have to pay the collection agency and then the agency would report back to AT&T to have the account taken off (YA RIGHT!) The collection agency it is at now is called Coldata, they are one of the WORST collection agencies out there and are currently in 3 class action lawsuits. I WILL NOT pay them, nor give ANY bank or credit card info to them. I disputed this with TransUnion and Experian (THE ONLY ones who are reporting this AT&T account) and both of them came back claiming it was verified. SO, after all the banter everyone has just read, what can we do? I want AT&T to remove that she owes 500 to them, because she doesn't! Thanks for any help!! -Noah
If she recalls paying off all the fees, etc. what are they claiming the $500 is for? If AT&T charged it off they may report that on her CR's but should read 0$ Balance The CA could be reporting also ( as lbrown59 says "Two for the Price of One" ) She must never acknowledge this debt, since it is from 2000, chances are the SOL has run or will be about to run out She should request validation from the CA (read up on the links for validation process) You need to know exactly what the charges are for before you can attack it!
AT&T claims it is a 0 balance in their computer, but her credit report still claims she owes 500, so THATS what I don't understand! The CA hasnt reported a thing, which is odd too. That is what I want, for AT&T to claim it as 0 balance, and they won't do that, and they DONT own the account anymore. Plus half of the customer service people there have NO CLUE what a charge off is. The collection agency is one of the worst out there, I am not even going to try and get them involved right now since they are not reporting it, and hopefully it will stay that way.
Since the CAs haven't bothered to contact her and haven't placed anything on her credit reports, I'd just ignore them at this time. You need to focus on AT&T. You've tried the nice method, calling them by phone, but you clearly haven't gotten any real help. So first, I'd mail them a Certified Return Receipt Required letter explaining the circumstances, that you don't believe anything is owed, that everything was paid off, and that you talked to them on the phone and they show a $0 balance, but they have placed a negative bogus charge off on her credit report. I'd start out being nice, trying to see how they respond. You may get some information that will be helpful later. If after a reasonable period of time (30 days or so) you fail to get a response or their response is unacceptable, it's time to get nasty. Filing erroneous information with a CRA is against the law. They need to fix the problem, removing the tradeline. Give them one more chance, CRRR. If they refuse to do that, and she is pretty sure that she paid everything off, I'd ITS them. They would need to be able to prove in front of a judge that she owed $500. Dig up any paper work she may have. Make sure you are in the right here...it will go a long way. Good luck!
AT&T refuses to take it off her report, even though AT&T does not own the account anymore and they are not owed the $500, the collection agency is owed that money. what can we do? noah345 ================= At&t still has the rite to report this if you defaulted on paying them. Make Coldata validate ><- <>- ><- <> ~~~ ><- <>- ><- <> ><- <>- ><- <> ~~~ ><- <>- ><- <> Never read the fine print. There ain't no way you're going to like it.
from what I understand here AT&T is the OC and they sent this acct to a CA. but AT&T is still reporting the acct with the CRA. re- dispute the acct with the CRA and tell them that you contacted the furnisher directly and you were unable to verify the acct/ as they no longer have it in their files. the CRA should re-investigate it based on that info and not claim frivilous. I wonder if the CRA actually investigated the acct to begin with, if it remains again contact AT&T by CMRRR ( as it is another violation under the FCRA)and request deletion if you are unsuccesful you have a few options : 1) file a complaint with the BBB 2) write a ITS letter to the VP or CEO of AT&T 3) file suit better yet contact a lawyer for advise lawguru.com
Have you verified that they SOLD the account, or are you just assuming that? Not every charge off is sold, it still could be assigned to a collection agency with AT & T having ownership. That would explain why they know that it has been through 3 different CAs.
AT&T claims they have NO responsibilty for thr account anymore, and that she would have to pay the CA, then the CA would contact AT&T (RIGHT!) and say the debt has been satified, or she could get a bank statement with the paid amount to the CA and send or fax it to them, and then they would satisfy it on the bureaus, and I did ask that question about if they actually sold it or they just assigned it, they could give me an answer. MAYBE I should since the CA isnt reporting it, AT&T is, request from AT&T a validation letter???? If they can't validate what the debt if for, maybe I can get it removed? I mean TU and Experian have "claimed" to have investigated it and validated it, but who knows?
Have you verified that they SOLD the account, or are you just assuming that? Not every charge off is sold, it still could be assigned to a collection agency with AT & T having ownership. jlynn ========== IF THEY DIDN'T SELL THE ACCOUNT why did they tell the poster their computer shows a O ball? Whether they sold the account assigned the account or had it with their bacon and eggs for breakfast there still can not be both a $0.oo and a $500.oo balance left on it. ><- <>- ><- <> ~~~ ><- <>- ><- <> ><- <>- ><- <> ~~~ ><- <>- ><- <> Never read the fine print. There ain't no way you're going to like it.
