I just signed up for (and promptly canceled) my membership to MyFICO. I saw that I had a small $40 collection on my EQ report. I had AT&T service several years ago and paid it in full when I canceled. I'm sure they left my account active for a little extra (I had two accounts when my DSL got moved to Uverse and they were all supposed to be cleared up when I canceled). My main goal is to get the line item removed and will pay it if I have to, but I do not mind sending letters since I know I cleared this debt up. So how can I maximize my chance of tripping them up? Should I (in what order): *Send written DV notice to CA? *Send written DV notice to AT&T? *Call AT&T and bitch out the reps? (nice at first but threaten to make everyone I know leave AT&T, threaten to file complaints with BBB, carpet bomb executive emails, etc) *Send written DV notice of dispute to CRA? How bad does a small collection hurt? The only way I found out about this debt was by checking MyFICO. I never received any notice from them and do not need them to "stop collection activity" as I never even got a phone call or letter. What sort of "proof" will AT&T need to provide? Can a company literally put whatever they want in their file and claim you owe it such as "technicians charges", an account you "never" canceled, or claim you "never returned equipment" and your choices are to pay or have a collections report on your CR? Their defense is it's in OUR computers that you owe this. Do they have to provide a signed document or recorded phone call or something? As far as my credit "hack" is concerned I am pretty young and held a low limit card for several years. I do not use credit that much and always have on time payments. I have about 4-5 inquiries so far in the past year (some drop off soon) including a CC I applied to. My idea is to apply for a bunch of credit cards. I will take the hit on hard inquires for a year and run very small balances just for the sake of using credit and keep the accounts active. After a year when the hard inquiries drop off I will have several aged accounts with great credit utilization and great debt/limit ratios + all the rewards the cards offer. Good idea?
Yes. No. OC's aren't bound by the FDCPA. Don't bother. If you're going to make any direct contact with ATT, it should be in writing and starting a lot higher than Customer Service. Not yet. You'll want to send a DVL to the CA first, certified. Wait till you get the green card back indicating they received your LTR. Then, dispute the account with all 3 CRA's. It can hurt, especially if it is your only negative. A clean report typically has a score between low/mid 700's and 800, and just one negative mark (30-day late, collection account, C/O) can plummet a score up to 150 points. It will be 'collection activity' if they verify the account to the CRAs during the DV process. If they've been updating the account all along (since reporting it), that too is defined as collection activity. You don't necessarily need to load yourself up with a bunch of CC's. Hard inquiries stick around for 2 years, not 1. I would suggest handling the collection account first. If this is your only negative, once deleted, you will have a far greater chance at obtaining a prime card with a nice high CL (good for your ratio, and usually the best rewards cards), which would in turn reduce the amount of inquiries you'll take, and one prime card looks better than three sub's anyway.
