So, I think about five years ago, I switched my cell phone service from Cingular to AT&T (which were separate companies back then). I had three days or something left on my contract, so I got a letter advising me that I had been charged a $600 early termination fee. I called and complained, and they waived it. But six months later, I got a letter from some dickbag collections agency trying to collect it; they’d apparently charged it off without saying another word to me, and, conveniently, it was too late to do anything about it. So I paid it.
Present day: I just applied for a sorely-needed credit card, and I’ve been informed by my credit union that I can have it, they just need proof that this debt has been settled, because it is still listed on my credit report. That’s right: the dickheads never bothered to take it off. And I don’t have any contact information for them. Fantastic.
In my experience, you need to call the collection agency, ask them to remove the account from your credit report AND mail them a certified letter requesting the same. I was amazed to find out that collection agencies often won’t report that a debt has been settled unless you specifically request it.
Well assuming you really can’t find a way to contact the collection agency, your only recourse is to get it removed from your credit report by contacting the agencies directly:
You’ll still be able to get items removed without supporting documentation (I was able to at least). It’s probably going to take like a month or two to get this all worked out though.
When you get your credit report, there is usually a way on the website to dispute the charge. So just dispute it. The credit reporting agency will investigate and if it is found to be bogus, they’ll remove it. If the creditor says it is still valid, typically they will give you their contact information. You can then call them and discuss the charge with them and explain that it was paid. You might have to fax over a copy of the cashed check, etc.
But generally I’ve found that if you just dispute it, it ends up getting removed.
You should ask your credit union which of the three major credit reporting agencies they checked your credit with, get your free annual report from them online (go to the official site, google it, don’t use a service that’s not really free) and file a dispute online (in your credit report there should be a dispute filing link). This is assuming you haven’t already gotten your free annual report yet from the reporting agency in question. If you did, they still have to give you a new free report anyway because you’re being denied credit based on information in their report and that entitles you to a copy of the report.
You should really dispute the charge on all three major credit report agencies if it shows up on all 3 reports, but the one that the credit union is using as the basis for your credit decision is the most important one for you to worry about right now.
The contact information for the collection agency should also appear on your credit report, so you may also give them a call or write them and tell them you’re formally requesting a debt validation. If the debt is actually paid this compels them to take action and make sure the debt isn’t being reported as open on your credit report. Note, though, that it is entirely possible your debt was resold and the credit agency that is now listing it on your credit report isn’t the same one you paid before, so make sure you send the debt validation letter to the collection agency that is actually currently reporting it. Under no circumstances should you really trust or be particularly polite with the collection agency. Don’t be an asshole, either, but from everything I’ve read and my own limited experience dealing with people who work at collection agencies, they are all soulless bastards who really will screw you to the full extent they are allowed by law, and often they will step over the lines of the law if they think you aren’t familiar with the laws. You should read up a little bit about the FDCPA and FCRA before contacting the debt collectors and drop information that makes it clear that you know you have a pretty decent set of rights in dealing with them.
Just disputing the debt with the credit reporting agency is probably enough to get it removed, but if you request debt validation it should move things along faster and you may get a letter back from the collection agency that is sufficient evidence for your credit union prior to the reporting agencies getting around to fixing your report based on your dispute.
I went through something similar to this in the past when I had a temporary AOL account I was using for on-the-road dialup back before everyone had free wifi everywhere. I called AOL, canceled my account, got the run-around from the customer service guy, persisted until he “cancelled my account”, didn’t get bills for over a year and then one day got a collection notice from a debt collector working for AOL for the entire past year of monthly AOL charges, all from months after my account was supposedly cancelled and hadn’t been used at all. It took about 2 weeks to clear everything up, not too bad, but super annoying when it is for a debt that really just shouldn’t ever have existed.
They do this all the time. You practically have to report them to the authorities to have them do their publically stated job, which makes me wonder what their internal instructions are.
Not only do they drag their feet with reporting debt as collected, but the “system” here has a minimum time of 6 months before it’s guaranteed to have trickled down to all arms of the octopus. There are probably similar delays in the US.
