Hello all, this is my first post here though I have been reading for a little while. I recently sent for my credit reports and while Experian and Equifax were excellent, I have a collection on Trans Union. This is for an emergency room visit I made in 1996. I had (and still have) insurance and am positive that I paid my share of the bill. I can't find any proof of that unfortunately. My employer has changed insurance companies numerous time since then and I can't remember which company we had at that time. The last time that it was updated was 8/97 and the bill is for a measly $122, which is definitely not worth screwing up my life. I know that I never received any type of collection notices at that time as I have kept my credit great since the beginning. What can I do and what are my chances of just disputing it? I appreciate any help you can offer. parallax
Make them validate the debt. Remember the burden of proof is on them. Did you send them a validation letter? If not, I suggest thats the first thing you do. More often than not, they will send you a letter telling you they're removing the notation from your credit report. It worked for me, with NCO. They were reporting 3 emergency room bills. I sent them a letter to validate the debt. Two weeks later, I received a letter in the mail telling me they're removing the tradelines from my credit reports. The bills were from December of '96. The sol had run out so it was uncollectable. Try it, you have nothing to loose. Do not under any circumstances call the collection agency. Correspond with them by mail only (certified return receipt of course).
Thanks Terry, I was just about to call the collection agency. It seems that the collection agency is an arm of the same company that does the normal billing for the hospital. I have been going through my cancelled checks from that year and found one that could be the payment for that hospital visit. I wrote down the account number on the check but it's different from the number listed on my report. Would they have given the new account a different number when it was turned over to collection? I'm not sure how to go about finding out the original account number so that if this is the payment I would have proof. I'll probably wait until the validation letter situation clears up. Speaking of that, did you mean that I should send the validation letter to the collection agency or to Trans Union? Thanks, parallax
Para: Send a request for validation to the creditor..then sit back and wait. Let us know what happens and we'll go from there!
Well, I first tried to have TU verify it and got those results today. Surprise, surprise it was verified. Got the infamous "new information below" and of course it was the same as before. Shows that the account was verified 8/1997. I called TU to ask them how if it was verified then, does that qualify it as valid now. They told me that that was the last time that the CA had updated......no, really? Could have fooled me. I then asked for the phone number of the CA, which they gave me, and it is out-of-service. They also tried to say that the name of the CA listed on the report has changed (if so, why wasn't that part of the "new information"?), why are they trying to mislead me? Anyway, I have the validation letter on the way to the CA listed on the report (which is listed in the internet yellow pages) so I guess I have another 30 days to complain about it. One interesting thing about my TU report though, my score went from 683 (before dispute) to 714 (after dispute) even though nothing changed. I don't understand that at all. I have learned a lot from you guys in the last month and really appreciate the knowledge that you share. I will keep this thread updated as things change. why didn't I mail the validation letters first.........................
