Although I have to work on some of my own credit issues as well, I'm trying to help my son who is in his early 20's. Currently he has his own auto loan now - first one co-signed - both with excellent payment history. He has only two issues: 1. A collection placed by the apartment complex he used to live in. His former room mate did some damage and while my son tried to fix as much as he could, when he moved out, they not only kept the deposit but then apparently charged him another $700+ for damage / repairs. His roommate had moved out some time before so he was on his own and got stuck with the damage. My son was unaware of the collection until we started getting calls at our house (he had moved back home). This may be due to him not putting in a change of address. I've pulled his credit reports and it appears to be an active collection but have not gotten any calls. Can the apartment management legally do this - i.e. place a collection like they did? I don't have the contract or anything so have no idea of the wording in it. I'm assuming I should ask for validation but am somewhat afraid to stir the pot up again. 2. He has a medical bill which went unpaid and is also a collection. Should we dispute with the credit bureau first or validate with the CA? These two dings are preventing him from getting school loans, credit cards, etc. despite the two good tradelines. Any help would be appreciated.
