About 4+ year ago, I had something show up as a derogatory unpaid collection on my credit report. Long story short, I went to the business where I thought it could have originated, but they said the records showed I had paid. I called the CRA, not so much to dispute as much as to figure out what it was, as I would pay something if I owed it. Shortly thereafter, without explanation, it was removed...until showing up 4 years after the fact. Now, (venting) even if it was my bill, the SOL has passed, and I have never been contacted by this CA once the entire time. It is a little bit irritating that this is showing up at all. I am fairly certain it was a mistake the first time, and even if it wasn't (which I doubt) it shouldn't show up now. It was, after all, resolved back in 2007. I went ahead and put in a dispute, and low and behold the CRA now shows I have paid the bill!?! That is fictional, as clearly I have never received a bill from or paid a bill to this CA. Essentially, this just keeps the derogatory item on the Credit Report, showing it has been paid. Obviously, that is not acceptable to me, and I would rather have them remove the item than write 100 words that likely wouldn't make any difference. I am just wondering how folks here would suggest I handle this. First, I was thinking just to check and see if the CRA had a simple input error that could easily be corrected. If that doesn't fix it, I was going to send by mail requests to both the CA and CRA that this get corrected since it is clearly a mistake. Any advice? Also, is it common to see items show up after they have been resolved for 4 years? Scanning through the message board, I haven't seen it. The only similar bit I could find was where items reappear after 3-4 months. I'd like to think that these are honest mistakes, but the situation is still aggravating. Thanks.
Yes, these sorts of things do happen from time to time. That's why it's so important to keep disputes with the CRAs in writing so you have proof of what happened in the past and how it was resolved. Do you have any sort of documentation from the OC that this never was an unpaid debt in the first place? Also, is the CA saying that they own this alleged debt now? I would try taking whatever evidence you can get from the OC to prove that this was never a debt in the first place and then include that along with your official dispute to the CRAs. There's no way they can verify that the debt was paid if it never existed.
I haven't been able to locate the CRA investigation report from 4 years ago. I'm still looking for it, but I guess I suspected after so much time had passed, it wasn't going to be an issue again. I would have thought the CRA would have kept records over past disputes as well. 4+ years ago I went in person to the OC to see if I owed them, but I didn't get anything in writing stating there was no debt. I can ask them for it now if they can provide it. The CA is reporting the debt, so I guess they have claiming to own it. The same thing happened 4+ year ago, as the OC never reported anything to the CRA, it was some CA I'd never heard from. That time it was removed, however. The thing is, these investigation results are clearly false since I know I've never paid the CA. Should I call the CRA to see if this is just a input error, or write to the CRA and CA to try to clear it up? I know this seems to be contrary to the normal DV, but can I ask for proof that I paid since I know they don't have it? (Maybe I should introduce myself to them as well since they've never sent me anything...) Either someone is making a mistake or else the CA is giving the wrong information to the CRA (and the CRA's investigation didn't catch it).
I would try working directly with the CRAs first to clear this up again, and if you can get some kind of documentation from the OC that this was never an unpaid debt then that would be great too. If you want to give the CRAs a call first just to see how they responde, that shouldn't be an issue. However, make sure you follow up in writing and get documentation this time of how things are eventually handled. I would be wary of getting in touch with the CA since they apparently haven't had any interest or enough information to contact you thus far. If you're unsuccessful with the OC and CRAs, then you may need to go direct to the source to figure out why they keep reporting this and causing you such a hassle.
