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.....aaaaaand i just joined that 35% statistic! thanks to a bill from Verizon from 2011 that went into collection earlier this year apparently. just ruined my 800+ score.
when i call verizon, telling them i made sure to pay my balance in full before leaving, they say no you didn't. when i ask what was the last payment you received from me and for how much? they say....uuuummm....we don't have that information.
Stuck! not sure what to do! just pay the $171 'again'? can i typically negotiate with the collection firm?
This happened to me with Ebay. Instead of paying the collection agency I paid eBay directly and told the collection agency. It was (thank God) never reported to any of the credit bureaus.
I got lucky because usually once a debt is sold to the collection agency you can't pay the original debt back to the company. But try that first.
If this fails and you have to go through the collection agency try to get something in writing that they will not report it or remove it from your credit report if you pay in full. DO NO SETTLE! It will be reflected on your credit report as such.
Location: 23.7 million to 162 million miles North of Venus
23,561 posts, read 12,525,568 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thinking-man
35% of Americans facing debt collectors
.....aaaaaand i just joined that 35% statistic! thanks to a bill from Verizon from 2011 that went into collection earlier this year apparently. just ruined my 800+ score.
when i call verizon, telling them i made sure to pay my balance in full before leaving, they say no you didn't. when i ask what was the last payment you received from me and for how much? they say....uuuummm....we don't have that information.
Stuck! not sure what to do! just pay the $171 'again'? can i typically negotiate with the collection firm?
Personally, if I know that the bill had been paid I would never pay it again just to get a collector off of my back. Especially with Verizon, who has a pretty healthy track record of sloppy record keeping and underhanded dealings with their customers.
Order hard copies of your credit reports, to be mailed to you, from each CRA. Look over what Verizon is reporting and what the CA is reporting.
Since it's only been somewhere around 3 years, do you still have your financial records from that period? If so, go through them to dig up the proof that you'd paid. It may not be the exact figure that you stated in your post since fees, etc., may have been added.
Send the CA a debt validation (DV) request. Send it certified mail return receipt. Do not sign your name on the letter, instead you should type your name or print your initials. (signatures have a nasty way of jumping from one paper to another)
When you get the signed green card back from the CA then send disputes to the CRA's. You might base your dispute on the amount that they claim you owe, saying that the amount is incorrect and to please correct it or remove it.
If you are sending the DV within the first 30 days from the CA's first contact with you then the CA must stop all collection attempts (including verifying disputes with the CRA's) until they provide validation to you ... unless you live in TX, where you can validate 'at any time' and they must stop collections until they provide validation.
Check the dates from when you defaulted, or, last payment to the OC (it depends on your state whether the SOL begins to run on the date of first default or the date of last payment). Some states have a 3 year Open SOL and if your state is one of those then the alleged debt should be SOL or should be close to being SOL.
If after that, if you're still having problems with the CA and Verizon, they won't recognize that it had been previously paid and stop collection attempts and also correct what they are reporting to the CRA's, then file a complaint against the CA and against Verizon with the BBB and, more importantly, with the CFPB.
.....aaaaaand i just joined that 35% statistic! thanks to a bill from Verizon from 2011 that went into collection earlier this year apparently. just ruined my 800+ score.
when i call verizon, telling them i made sure to pay my balance in full before leaving, they say no you didn't. when i ask what was the last payment you received from me and for how much? they say....uuuummm....we don't have that information.
Stuck! not sure what to do! just pay the $171 'again'? can i typically negotiate with the collection firm?
File a BBB report and get someone who can help you from corporate.
That worked for me... no one could help until I did that... and threatened to sue.
You can negotiate, but if this is bogus, then you need to stand your ground. I'm all for paying my bills, 100%... but I won't sit around and let someone push me around... not when we have so many tools available.
Just send Verizon, and the agency a debt validation request. These kinds of cases are open and close because they are documented. Just have your documentation of payment ready if needed.
Just send Verizon, and the agency a debt validation request. These kinds of cases are open and close because they are documented. Just have your documentation of payment ready if needed.
exactly. they have to have a record of the debt otherwise how can they send it to collections. it could have been an error, and sadly, the burden is on you to correct it. good luck! PM me if you need any help if it's VerizonWireless.
So, here's an update....after about 3 hours of total time spent (wasted) over the phone with these clowns, they told me this:
you cancelled your bundle account (home phone/internet/tv) back in nov of 2013, but whenever a bundle package is cancelled, it "splits" and the phone becomes its own account. (nobody ever told me this. never received a separate bill. sounds ridiculous!) You paid off the phone/internet portion off...but the phone portion (which is 2.50 a month apparently) kept adding up to a total of ~175 dollars. when i asked how 2.50 goes to 175 in a matter of 10 months, they had no answer. transfered me to Billing because "they would have all the details".....then billing can't even pull up my account even after given the account number.
Round and round and round it goes... where it stops, no body knows...
Good luck with this. Doesn't sound like a fun situation.
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