Hello everyone. A friend is working on his credit score and found a collection for an old gas bill. After reading several posts, I believe he should first do a debt validation on the old bill. The TA appears as a collection from Solomon & Solomon and nothing appears from the utility company. We think it has been assigned to collections rather than sold. The amount listed as owed is around 1200. My friend is willing to pay in order to improve his score. He has not been contacted by the collection law firm or even the gas company. But he has moved a few times since he even had an account with the gas company. The question is would it be best to: 1. Send validation to collection law firm OR 2. Send validation to gas company OR 3. Work with gas company to settle debt and ask that it be removed from credit report I am leaning towards #1 but would appreciate anyone's advice on this matter. Thanks.
If he hasn't been contacted by the CA yet, he might want to make an attempt to convince the OC to pull it back from collections and deal directly with him regarding payment. If it's been sold to the CA, I would go straight with the DV letter.
