I have an interesting one. Or maybe not. I am new to this, so this could be a common problem. I contacted a doctors office regarding a bill that is very small - $33. It is not very old - from last year. I wanted to see if I could pay it and get it removed from my credit report. They told me that they would not be able to take payment, that I needed to contact the collection agency. What is this? They are refusing payment from me! Is this common? I don't see how they can be reporting it if they don't even want the money! By the way, they did validate this one. Any thoughts?
Yes it is very common, I have ran into that myself. Maybe you should do a cease and desist letter to the collection agency so that they might send it back to the original creditor. What does someone think, I am kind of new at this too.
I've also gone through this with a small debt at a collection agency - it was for a hospital bill. I decided to see what would happen if I mailed a check to the original creditor's billing address - low and behold they cashed the check, which clearly indicated the account number in question. I then got a copy of the check from the bank (front/back) and mailed it certified r/r to the collection agency with a letter the debt was paid, payment accepted by the original creditor, and they no longer had a valid claim. They deleted the entry from my report. You have a 50/50 chance this will work, but for a small amount it is worth a try - if it doesn't and the check is uncashed, you are out nothing. I think the conversation between the collector and the hospital must have been quite amusing about why they accepted my payment.
