Here's the situation in a nutshell. I had a dispute with Dish Network over a credit I was owed. This was at the end of 2000. They never issued me the credit (it was for one month's service...our box was defective, so was the replacement box and we had no service for one month) and after *many* months of going round and round and getting nowhere we paid Dish Network the $96 to get them to go away. This was mid-2001. Fast forward to March 2003 when I first pulled my credit reports. A collection account showed up from a company called CBE Group. They claim the OC is Dish Network. I have never heard from this company nor was my account sent to collections by Dish Network (although they were threatening it by the end). I'm just getting around to cleaning up my reports and I pulled another report the other day. Of course it's still showing. But this is interesting...is CBE doing something shady in their reporting practices in order to keep my scores down? It says: DATE ASSIGNED; DECEMBER, 2001 DATE REPORTED: JULY 2003 (HUH?) AMOUNT: $96 BALANCE: 0 BALANCE DATE: JULY 2003 (AGAIN, HUH?) DATE LAST ACTIVITY: OCTOBER, 2001 COLLECTION STATUS: PAID STATUS DATE: JULY, 2003 If they are showing the "date reported" and the "balance date" as July, 2003 doesn't this seem like a recent reporting and is therefore keeping my scores lower than they would be with a 2 year old collection account? (FYI, Experian is the only report that shows a balance and status date of October, 2001 which to me is technically the correct date they should be reflecting.) Meanwhile, I'm disputing this collection account as not mine and I am going to be firing off a letter to the CEO of Echostar (who owns Dish Network) in order to have this changed to its correct status, which would be "reported in error" and deleted in its entirety. I'm so angry right now. Thanks in advance for any opinions or advice you have to offer.
Did I get deletion in writing from this CA? No...I never had any dealings with this CA...they never contacted me and my account was never sent to collection, to my knowledge. The only possibility is that during my dispute with Dish Network they decided to send it to collection and I paid them before the CA was ever able to even start collection. It's coincidental but possible. In fact, the only reason I paid Dish Network was b/c I was getting nowhere with them and I was sick of getting a bill every month for this past due amount. It was worth the $96 to never have to talk to them again. I'm not sure what this CA business is all about. I'm just curious if the dates reported by the CA constitute re-aging? And if so, what's the best way for me to proceed from there? For now, I've just disputed as "not mine" and hopefully it will drop off since I'd be *very* surprised if this CA was able to come up with any paperwork on me.
