Collections agency pulled my credit before they posted a deliquency

I love your blog. It is so refreshing to get down to earth credit advice. My question is - I have some unapid medical bills. One of the collections agencies recently made an inquiry to my credit report before they posted a deliquency. Why do they do that?
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That is totally illegal
threaten suit and allow no respinse other than total removal they do this normally to find out new addresses
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Well the strange thing is that I have not been contacted by any of them. One of them did post a new credit ding for $800 for which I have no idea what it is and will be sending them a verification. The others I have heard nothing from and havent posted anything to my report. I am thinking the inquiries are hurting my score though since there are about 10 of them from different companies. When you say it't illegal should I dispute it with the bureaus or the company themselves?
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dispute it with the company themselves
and threaten suit if the account is not totally removed due to their illegal activity of pulling your credit report fishing for addresses

If you did not authorize the inquiries. This a is violation of the fair credit reporting act.Excersise you stautory rights

617. Civil liability for negligent noncompliance [15 U.S.C. § 1681o] (a) In general. Any person who is negligent in failing to comply with any requirement imposed under this title with respect to any consumer is liable to that consumer in anamount equal to the sum ofJuly 30, 2004 63 (1) any actual damages sustained by the consumer as a result of the failure; and(2) in the case of any successful action to enforce any liability under this section, thecosts of the action together with reasonable attorney's fees as determined by thecourt.(b) Attorney's fees. On a finding by the court that an unsuccessful pleading, motion, or other paper filed in connection with an action under this section was filed in bad faithor for purposes of harassment, the court shall award to the prevailing party attorney'sfees reasonable in relation to the work expended in responding to the pleading,motion, or other paper.§ 618. Jurisdiction of courts; limitation of actions [15 U.S.C. § 1681p] An action to enforce any liability created under this title may be brought in anyappropriate United States district court, without regard to the amount in controversy, or inany other court of competent jurisdiction, not later than the earlier of (1) 2 years after thedate of discovery by the plaintiff of the violation that is the basis for such liability; or (2) 5years after the date on which the violation that is the basis for such liability occurs.

What deos DOLA cannot overlap on collection accounts

I had a credit card back in 1992 that I stopped paying on. The credit report says: date assigned 6/7/2005 and date reported 9/19/08. How could these dates be so close to now instead of back in 1992 when I first defaulted on it? I think that this card should be removed from my credit report because it has been so long since I have had this account. Please explain.

What does this mean on your website? Collection dates cannot overlap the original creditor dates.
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a collection account which is different than the original account can not overlap on dates some times a collection account will overlap the dates and this is illegal

date reported should be the last time the account was reported to the bureauthis date should not be confused with the date of first deliquency which should signal the date the account should fall offorthe date for statutes of limitations.or the date for collections if sold to one. dates are a big deal in FCR Fair Cedit Reporting

Authorized user getting collection on my husbands account

My husband added my name as a joint or authorized user on an acct. without my knowledge or consent and then at some point he let the acct go to into collections. Now this is reported on my credit report. Is there any way I can have this removed from my credit report?
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I do not have a perfect answer
I would dispute the account as not mine with the bureaus then dispute them with the collection companies then validate the collections looking for your signature
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I have already filed a dispute with all three bureaus and am hoping for a positive outcome. However I contacted the lender today and they said that I was just as libel for this acct. even though I never signed for this credit card. Again I didn’t have a card for this acct. or access to the monies from it. It is my contention that both parties should have to sign if they are equally libel. If I go to my local bank and apply for access to 5000.00 dollars and I became delinquent they would not report my negative payment history on my husbands credit unless he signed to make it a joint loan. I have also looked into filing a complaint with the OCC who investigate practices by national banks. Do you think I should hold up on filing a complaint with them until I see if the bank responds to the dispute.
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I would wait and see
but if you called ... i would expect it to be verified... I do not know the law here.... try this place
see what they say...
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Should I pay American Express or the collection CA

My charged-off account is with American Express; I owe $1,074 and can pay it in full. I have received letters from a CA willing to settle for $700. My Credit report lists only Amex. I was planning to reopen the account to replace the bad credit by paying in full. Would it report the same if I just settle with the CA for $700 and find an alternative source of credit (like Old Orchard). I spoke with Amex and inquired about any good will policy that could be implemented with payment in full – they referred me to their credit department (which I haven’t contacted yet). Since this will fall off in 2009, I want to avoid any re-dating by Amex, but I would also like to take care of my obligations.
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It would be better to do business with amex
they will blackball you forever if you do not pay them no matter what your report says
and
you can get new good credit with them.
bypass the ca, but ask amex about the ca and if you pay will the ca go away
get something in writing, on business letter head before you pay
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New collections found on my Equifax Score Watch report and score

I'm coming to you b/c you helped me once before and I was able to get 3 medical collections off my account and of course my credit score has been building ever since. 2 years and I'm very proud of my score. I watch my credit report monthly and even sign up for alerts and this morning one just came in about a collections. It's with Oxford Collection Agency. I don't know anything about this and never rec'v anything from them. It doesn't show what creditor they are assoc. with and if they are assoc. with a creditor, it has to be a very aged acct b/c everything past my college years are current.
1. How do I find out what old credit account this is w/o getting balled up in their fraud attempts to collect?
2. Isn't there something I can doing in regards to the statutes of time or something like that?
3. It's obvious they don't have my home phone number or house address so if I send them a letter I surely don't want to help them harrass me; should I go through an attorney? I just want to make sure my credit remain clean and definitely not be affected by old debt.
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I would dispute the account with the bureaus as "not mine" remove from my report.
then if the account comes back verified.
use the address and account information to validate the debt legally.
then follow up validation
You do not know how many years it has been on the account until you dispute it and get moe information.
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On my credit watch with Equifax I can do an online dispute, would you say this is wise or it may get hairy as well; I don't know what company this is with. It has to be ancient! I just hate this unknown collections has come up on my report.
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you want to dispute with whatever bureau the account is on
sometimes the account is on all three
but if you wish to dispute with equifax online. by all means do it. but make sure it is not on the other bureaus also i like to mail disputes myself
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Actually b/c this collections places something new on my report, I was able to pull a new report and see more details. It's showing something w/ Lab corp. a medical billing issue. Which is what I'm experienced w/ handling... thanks to you! Anyway, I contact Lab corp this morning and they are not showing any bills for me; then I noticed the collections said 1st report was Jan '04 and passed over in 2006. At any rate she said I will need to find an acct. number from the agency so she can do some research, but the amt. the debt is $98 sounds familiar to me but was paid so I'm contacting Bank of america to try and get a copy of payment. I think I'm going to be fine. Again, I have not rec'v any bill notices, which is strange for a collections to pop up w/o a letter. right?
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depends on wheather or not you have the same address as 2004 i guess.
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ok, this is really getting weird! I have spoken w/ Lab Corp 3 times today and also Oxford, neither show me but the oddest thing and I know an error on my part was when I called Oxford they couldn't locate anything under my name; then they asked for my ss#; he said he didn't see anything under that either; asked for my number I told him I don't like to give this out, he said it's his search method; then said he didn't see anything and maybe they had sold my acct to someone; when I called Lab corp afterwards they asked for my last 4 digits, which after I thought about it is the norm; Could I have just given Oxford something to validate an old bill? I told Labcorp if I owe something I had no problem paying, I just have not rec'v any information from them or credit agency. Do you know if I can have this removed, if I did in fact owed them but the address they had on file was incorrect and I never rec'v it? Thanks again for your help! by the way....I have equifax investigating now.
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just dispute the bill at all three bureaus
they cant find it
neither can the bureaus
it is that simple
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Settlement advice needed on old credit card collections

I am getting conflicting advice from several debt counseling companies and websites, and so I am writing to you. I read all the archived posts on your website and admire your common-sensical and practical approach to debt reduction / credit enhancement.
I have accumulated about $32,000 in charged off credit card debt. Recently, I paid off 2 cards in full (original creditors) and still have $26,000 debt left.
The rest of the cards are with collection agencies and they are offering settlements. My confusion is whether I should opt for the settlement or pay the debt in full. If I pay in full, it will be reported as 'paid in full' on the credit report but the 'charge off' notation will still remain. If I settle, it will be reported as "Settled", but the 'charge off' notation will still remain.
My other problem is that if I opt for a settlement, they want me to settle in 3 monthly payments, which I cannot afford.
My question is, should I settle and save some money or pay in full and get a better score on my credit report - which will hopefully help me when I buy a car or a home.
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there is really no difference on your credit report between settled and paid in full if the charge off notation still shows
which it probably will.
most collection companies pay .30 to .40 on a dollar for the right to try and collect anyways
unless they are in house collection companies and the collection is less than 1 year old. if i could setle I would. the reason they offer 3 payments is because once they offer a settlement or payment plan an you take them up on it. They cannot take you to court over what might remain if you fail to pay in full.

Dispute Validate negotiate and pay collections

I have a collection on my credit report that is actually my wife's. I did not sign the contract, so is there a way to have it removed from my report?
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i would validate that legally
i would dispute it with the bureau legally
if they cannot provide all the details
including all itemized bills and work done plus all your personal information and signature i think i would threat suit
do not call them.
do not give them your personal information if they ask you to verify who you are
make them prove that
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Thank You. I think your web site is great, it has been a big help to me. I was also wondering if the creditors or collection agency's will not agree to have debts erased from my report will paying them off in full still help raise my score?
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i did that myself
read this
---------------------- I "Bo Majors" had a charge off for 345 dollars in 1990 with BO Oil credit card. In 1992 I called them and told them I needed good credit and that I would pay the 345.00 and add and extra 300.00 down payment to start new good credit. They agreed. I charged gas and paid extra each month for 12 months. I called and asked them BP Oil to remove anything older than 24 months which was a charge off, 5, 30 days late, 2, 60 days late and 1, 90 days late and they did. My I checked my credit report and everything with BP Oil now said 400.00+ high credit limit with 0.00 dollars owed and a perfect "no lates" payment record. My score jumped huge in less than 13 months. The best fix bad credit move I ever made. Negotiate and pay. I "Bo Majors" also had a bad credit collection from getting stitches at the local medical clinic. The medical clinic sold my bad debt to a collection agency within 120 days. After about 1 years I called the collection agency and asked if I paid the bill off in full would they remove the bad credit from my report. They said only the medical clinic could authorize that. I called the clinic and got an ok for the collection agency to take the debt off if I would pay the debt in full with fees right now to the clinic. I called the collection agency who called the clinic and we had a deal. I paid in full and the collection agency removed the bad credit. My score jumped right then.
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first it may hurt your score with a new date
in one year or less it will help because your debt / credit limit ratio for that account will go from 100% to 0%
the main thing to raise ones scores is to have some open credit that is reported to a bureau and is older than 12 monthsthe number one best way to raise your score these are all great cards and the applied visa will appove anyone with a downpayment
Get a free credit report---
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Simple credit question

In a phone conversation with Bank of America I was shocked to learn that some collection agency has me owing someone $365.00 from 2005 that has not been paid. Otherwise I am blemish free, but this black mark has by credit score at 676. I know my score was 720 in Jan 08.I feel sure this is the work of my ex-wife. How do I pay the bill & get rid of black mark?
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dispute it as not yours
if they find it
legally validate the debt
if they can do that
negotiate to pay if they will remove it
you need to know if thery have your signature and legal chain of ownership

DOLA credit report question

I just received a collection letter on a credit card charge-off that I hadn't seen any activity on for the past 5 years. My question is this: My credit report lists a Status Date of 08/2003, but no activity date. I believe that my last payment on the account was about 12 months earlier, perhaps more, but I have no documentation on it.Although I'd like to get to a point where I can negotiate this old debt, my immediate concern is the legal options of the collection agency, and if the last activity was indeed a year or more before the Status Date, the SOL would be close at hand. Is there a way to get that information from the reporting bureau or original creditor?
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status date is the last time the creditor reported the status of the aforementioned account the date of last activity is a whole nother matter you you can tell i see i real am afraid to advise you on this as it seem you would like to debt to go away after 7 years and not pay it
i guess if i were trying thati might leave it alone the next thing is i might dispute the account as not listed with correct date of last activity
which could possibly stir up some hornets howeveri always assume debts will be sold at some point and a new date may show up
which could be newer and moe troublesome.usually if sold, debt go for .20 or less on the dollar.so if that happened i would try to settle for much less you do not say what the debt is

Can a collections agency add themselves to your credit report?

Can a collections agency add themselves to your credit report? I've already got the original "charge off" from the creditor, but now I'm dealing with an upset collection agency who was upset my last check bounced. They're the ones who forced me and harrased me into writing post dated checks to begin with, they called my work and when I told them not to they laughed at me and told me that I couldn't tell them not to. Now that balance for the amount of the third check is on my credit report too, is this legal?
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the original charge should be marked as zero balance if it was sold to a collections agency you have verified the debt now that you have paid them monies
the collection agency CANNOT sue you as they are not the original creditor
I know they cannot harrass you or call your work over and over and laugh at you I would try to settle the account for much less than the full balance.
most collections are bought for pennies on the dollar. I would try to settle for 50% of less not including any fees or interest.
demand account validation Explain you will talk to them no longer if they do not properly validate the debt.
explain you fill like they are violating your rights and plan to contact your state attorney general if they insist on calling you at work after you have asked them not to
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I've paid 2/3 of the full amount of money the collection agency wanted. The last payment I made was in 2006 and I've changed jobs and gotten a new phone number so they haven't bothered me anymore. But they are still on my credit report. Should I contact them and offer to pay the remainder if they remove themselves from my credit report? Or will doing so only re open the whole 7 year cycle again? The first date of delinquency was 01/2005. I don't want to restart the cycle now that I've "lost them." Thanks so much for having a real website for real people.
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if you want them off your report for good
and you can pay and the account is honestly yours yes
call them and ask them to remove if you pay in full
call from some anonomous phone number one can always take the chance of "losing them"but one also takes the chance of the virus showing up later somewhere else some other way. I always like paying to be done
remember that after 2 years the account will not hurt your credit score
ifyou have good reported and rated lines of non maxed out credit

The collection agency and the orginator never notified me of my requirment

I sent the attached debt validation letter to an agency. The collection agency and the orginator never notified me of my requirment to pay this debt. I was never sent a letter or notice. When I sent the letter to negotiate with the orignator they said they showed I owed the money. They did not have any documentation that I did not pay or for the book. They said they had the incorrect address and when it came back to them they just sent the account to collections without trying to find out another address. The collection agency sent me a letter back with computer printouts of the school showing I owed money for the book, that my tuition was paid, and that I took the class, but no real proof that I owed the money for the book. What would you suggest I do now?
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was the book honestly not paid by you
how much is the collection you could negotiate payment and removal if you pay in full.
if the account is small i would suggest this route to be done with it sounds like they may not have validated the debt
also
might send the debt validation follow up letter
moving and finding addresses is one reason they have credit reports
that way creditors do not have to spend more than it is worth to hunt some one up they just slap it on your report and it goes where you go

Charged off old credit card. Validate

I have an old credit card that was charged off back in 1994, with my credit score in the low 800's now, I received a letter from Portfolio Recovery trying to collect. I sent certified mail asking them for VALIDATION as you recommended...? and they sent me a letter showing my current address. Then this past Friday they sent me a letter saying they were going to continue to pursue with collection. Would you recommend I pay it off or...?
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that is too old
i would try to avoid that in a big waylegally i do not think they can collect
to give only your address is not validating the collection
i would use the validation follow up letter
then call the state attorney general

Collections agency upset my last check bounced

Can a collections agency add themselves to your credit report? I've already got the original "charge off" from the creditor, but now I'm dealing with an upset collection agency who was upset my last check bounced. They're the ones who forced me and harrased me into writing post dated checks to begin with, they called my work and when I told them not to they laughed at me and told me that I couldn't tell them not to. Now that balance for the amount of the third check is on my credit report too, is this legal?
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the original charge should be marked as zero balance if it was sold to a collections agency you have verified the debt now that you have paid them monies
the collection agency CANNOT sue you as they are not the original creditorI know they cannot harrass you or call your work over and over and laugh at you I would try to settle the account for much less than the full balance. most collections are bought for pennies on the dollar. I would try to settle for 50% of less not including any fees or interest. demand account validation Explain you will talk to them no longer if they do not properly validate the debt. explain you fill like they are violating your rights and plan to contact your state attorney general if they insist on calling you at work after you have asked them not to

New collection from 1998

I have been working on my scores for years, and with your advice, got my score raised to 670 -680 plus. We had got approved for a mortgage when all of a sudden; a new collection pops up on my credit report. And now my score is to low to get the loan. When I called, the collection agency told me it was an old AT&T bill from 1998!!!!!!! Well, I don’t remember having this, this has been TEN years ago for crying out loud…….. and I have had a good account with AT&T for years….. Should I just dispute this with the credit beaurol, or pay, and then dispute it even being on my collections. This is most unfortunate….. $170.00 is going to keep me from getting a home loan…… What can I do to get it off my report fast? The agency can’t even tell me what the balance is for.
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demand debt validation "more than address name dob, doucument"
and debt validation follow up
explain you do not think this debt is yours
and
even if it was, it would be too old to go to collections
plan on following all your legal rights concerning this matter

The other route of course
is
offer to pay it
if the account is removed
then we can all be done with this matter.

you might post this question herehttp://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/credit-repair/ there are some legal people here who might be of even more help

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Debt coming back up after 7 years by a collection company

I had a debt sold to a collection agency and put on my credit report, it was removed after the 7 years, now that I am trying to reestablish credit, the collections agency wrote me a letter demanding the money or they would report to the credit bureau again, can they do this again?
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validate that debt legallydemand accountability with chian of ownership aqnd your signaturecontact state attorney general if they fail to validate properly

My credit card went to collections and now two entries are on my report

i have a credit card on my credit report, but they sold my debt to a collection agency. i called the agency and have made arrangements to pay off this debt. my problem is i have two enteries on my credit reporting the same debt, that of the original credit card and that of the collection agency. what can i do to get one of these removed?
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you should validate the debt then
negotiate before you pay
then pay even if they will not negotiate
i would try to re open the credit card and, go for good credit with themNext: dispute one account then, the other and hope one falls off, and if it does not, call and try to get a signed letter with company letterhead that says you paid as agreed and were never late. most of the time, this part does not work on the original creditor, but can work many times with the collections company
get and keep good rated credit at least 12 months, that reports to a major credit bureau.

Local doctors office bill went to collection. Not notified

I had a bill with a local doctor's office. They only claimed to have one person working in the office and when my husband and I called to request statements - it was always an issue of they'd print it out and mail it that day. Well - we never received the statements - time passed and we finally received one that said we were being sent to collections.

So now here we are trying to get in touch with a well known collection agency. The number we dialed never worked and would always cut off. Finally my husband went through several prompts and said we had 4 months to pay the total - which was only 180.00. We decided to break it up into 3 months and send payments. When they woman finally called - she said I would not like the letter I requested with the remaining balance. To sum it all up we could never get in touch with the agency and now it's showing up on my credit report.
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you made a mistake by paying without confirmation
its ok though
what to do now.

dispute the account as paid in full zero balance
get the results and mail your payment copies to the address provided from the dispute if the dispute is verified and they say you still owe money. if not its over.
then validate the debt with certified delivery mail
go all the way to state attorney general if needed.

you said you paid and it still shows up
so that is the assumption i am making here

really one should try to negotiate with the doctors office first. Read what I did on that page.
but in this case someone has taken your money and something has to be done with them

Moved and didn't get utility bill. Paid collection will not remove account

Jn. 2007 - I moved from Sacramento to Costa Mesa on a temporary basis until I could find a place in Los Angeles. I had my mail forwarded fromSac to Costa mesa. I own a house in Sacramento and rented it out, and I still own it.
Feb. 2007 - Moved to a new place in Los Angeles. I completed another forwarding mail with the post office. This is where the problem occurred. I didn't get all my forwarded mail from this address. Apparently I had a utility bill that went unpaid for $172, which I was unaware. They had sent me a bill on three different occasions in Jan, March, and Aug, 2007.
My mail never was forwarded! I thought I paid the balance owned before I moved. It wasn't until I was looking into refinancing my house when myExperian credit score dropped from 756 in July, 2007 to 620 in August! I was told I had an unpaid account. I called PG&E right away. But I made the huge mistake of paying the bill at that moment instead of negotiating to have it removed from my report.
In the mean time, I was given the advise to report it to the creditbureaus as "not mine." And if they don't respond in 30 days, it will automatically be removed. This didn't work, as they verified it to bemine. Today I called PG&E and spoke to a representative (I was very nice and professional). I explained to her that I was never made aware of the collection...that I would have never jeopardized my great credit as a deadbeat customer and not paid a $172 bill. I have always paid my bills on time. I said by law they have to ensure that they contact me, that I never received any letters nor a phone call. She actually put me on hold (probably to talk to someone) and came back to basically tell methis "unfortunately was can't remove it because it has to be an erroron our part.
" I asked why I didn't get a phone call. She said they don't make phone calls. This just doesn't seem right that they just send out automated letters then report you to the credit bureaus. I'm sure those letters were returned to them, so they can at least call to inform me as a good faith gesture.So, I left a message with the supervisor on his voice mail in hopes that he will help me remove it.
Here are my questions:
1) I don't believe her when she said, the credit bureaus wont let herremove it unless it is their error. Can they have it removed?
2) How do I get this removed? This is not by my neglect and I workedvery hard to get my score over 750.
3) If they don't remove it, what is my next step? What would you do?
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1) most utilities will not negotiate. Actually they are telling the truth. Is is against the law to lie about credit both ways. They see you didn;t pay and it was not their fault so thats thats. Utilities do this as a means of pretecting their interest in further matters with past bad debtors which they have thousands i am sure.
2) You probably cannot have this removed and you should forget about it if possible and go on. In 2 years it will be a zero balance collection and your good current credit will swallow this bad apple and your score will go back up
3) shoot for 2 years behind thee satan.

in the end you paid your bill and did the right and honest thing. More than likely they would not have taken the bad mark off even if you had called before you paid. That's just the way they do business. I know it happened to me with Nashville Electric Service. They wouldn't even talk to me yea or ney and didn;t really care if i even paid them which i did. behind the satan.
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Collections have to notify me before put on my credit report

Does a collector who buys an account have to notify you before they put it on your credit bureau?
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Normally a collections company will try, with a letter.
BUT
most cannot find the customer without some difficulty.
so they send a letter, then they put the debt on the consumers credit report and wait.
One letter, to one address, where ever that may be.
Always have second party collections debt validated. Then negotiate before you pay.

Credit counseling and past late payments paid off.

I have two credit cards that i went through credit counseling, and even though i paid every month, I paid lower monthly amounts that my credit counseling told me to pay but they didn't finalize the agreement with my credit card companies yet. I didn't catch this right away and now I have late charges on my account for not paying enough. I have been on time for the last three years and know they are paid off, but I still have negative reporting. Also, i was late on my student loan, but know paid in full three years ago. Is there anything I can do to get the negative off my report. Two years ago I was at 520 now I am at 670 but I can't get any better. I have three credit cards with little balance and higher credit limits. I haven't missed a payment in over three years, but two years ago I paid of two collections, and I didn't negotiate with them before i paid them off. If you could help I would really appreciate it
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you can dispute those old accounts and hope
but more than likely you have done all you can for now other than wait

oh
a 670 fico score is pretty good