Last summer, I moved into an area serviced by a different power company, and called old company to cancel my service and to have them send a final bill to my new address. I never recieved a final bill, and with all the hoopla moving into the house, plus never hearing from the power company, I forgot about it. Last week I got a letter from a collection agency seeking payment on the final bill. Now, I have no problem paying the bill, but I would rather pay the power company, NOT the collection agency. I have my C&D letter ready to go to the CA and will be calling the power company tomorrow to try to get this settled, but what if they tell me "ma'am, we have already sent this account to wanky collections, and you will have to pay them". I just want to make sure I have my bases covered.
You have NO contract with the CA!!! Call the power company and DEMAND to pay them the final bill...IT IS THEIR FAULT YOU NEVER GOT A FINAL BILL...NOT YOURS!!!
I am sending a C&D letter to the CA, and a check to the electric company, along with a letter stating that their depositiing of the check states they agree to list the account in good standing, stop all further collection attempts, and to not be reported to any credit reporting agency. I'm closing on my house this month - I cannot deal with this crap!
Let us look at the situation realistically, not in what you would like to do or would not like to do. OK? First of all if the utility company has chosen to give about half of any money collected to the collection agency that is not your problem. Once the original creditor turns the account over to the collector he may not normally accept any money from the debtor. Utility companies often have a little different twist because they often own the collection agency and there is a reason why that is so. They use the collection agency to attempt to enforce collection but if you walk into their officed and want to pay the bill, any deposit demanded and want the service turned on at some new address they really have little or no option but to comply. If you are not turning on a new service address with their company then they can still do whatever they want. You may possibly be able to pull a "scam" on them by walking into their offices and tell them that you want to settle your old bill because you are buying a home and will be ordering service in the next week. If they fall for that it's a done deal but if they don't then so what? You will just have to pay the collector or go to war with them. Utility companys don't always put collections on credit reports. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I would strongly advise that you put that C&D in the round file and just leave it there. C&D won't stop the collection agency from doing a number on you. In fact it probably would be more likely to get them to sue you than it would to get them to leave you alone. They can do either one, sue you or send it back to the original creditor but it is up to them which they do. One person has recently posted that he had great success using C&D to run collectors off but my opinion it is a very dangerous practice. Much like playing Russian Roullette. If you call them up you can count on them doing just that. If they are close enough to you so you can go walk into their offices they would be much more likely to accept the money although they may give you some minor amount of guff about it. Do what you want but I would most assuredly be very frightened to send a C&D to a collection agency because of the danger of getting a judgment out of the deal. That would go on your credit report.
