Alright, I pulled my yearly credit reports last month. With the exception of my on going battle with Afni (another long, long story), everything seemed to be alright. I've made a lot of mistakes in the past, paid up on everything that was showing and I knew I owed (or so I thought) last year when we bought our house. Except when I got my TransUnion report in the mail I noticed an account with a balance on it still. When I looked at it more, it was for a cable bill that I paid under a different agency last year. When I looked back the the credit report our lender gave me a copy of, I noticed it had been there too but I had missed it. According to my TransUnion report it's going to fall off my report early next year any way. So my question is this: is it worth trying to dispute this bill of $129 and possible open myself up to a whole other can of worms if the thing is going to go away on it's own in less than a year anyway? My FICO is 693 right now according to that agency. And these yahoos have never tried to contact me about this collection. Should I just wait it out and let it fall off? Or should I dispute it with TransUnion and see what they say? Should I try contacting this collection agency with a DV letter? I kind of feel like I'm battling enough right now with two bogus accounts with Afni (one for me, one for my husband, neither one of them are anywhere near being true). Thoughts? Opinions? Thanks for any advice! Kristin
Well if you have your hands full for now, I would just let it fall off. You can always dispute it with TU and see what happens, but 6 months goes fast when you have you're wrestling with another CA.
Let it go If you dispute it, the CA will get a fax with all your current information and they'll know you want to make it go away. So, they'll update the record in the credit report making it look more recent (and validated) and they'll start pestering you. If it didn't cause you any problems (and a 6-yo collection for a hundred bucks is only worth a few FICO points, anyway) save yourself the hassle and ignore it. It will go away. Now if they contact you, first, then go through all the verification/validation motions, but, if not, just leave it be.
I was kind of hoping that letting it fall off would be the response from everyone. No, they have never contacted me about it so I was kind of surprised to see it there. But the odd thing is that Afni has never tried to contact me either about my "account" with them. I even gave them all my contact info when I got in touch with them about because I wanted the stupid thing gone. Weird.
