credit history (collection, union, credit report, buy)

[kewlrekha]

we got a letter from discover identity theft protection that they detected, that i have some unpaid bill claimed by jefferson capital systems LLC, and showing up in my credit history.i have no idea about any bills(i never had any unpaid bill) and didnt recieve any letter from jefferson collections.did anyone face this kinda situation?is this some kind of fraud?i am so worried,since we guys are planing to buy a house in next month.

[trishguard]

If you are certain that the charge is not yours, contact Discover and report it as a fraud.

I just googled the name and came upon this website. Jefferson Capital Systems, LLC

Jefferson seems to be a collection agency. Maybe you can call them and find out who it is you owe the money too. When they tell you, and you determine that you do owe the money pay it. You're supposed to pay it to the collection agency, but what happens is that the person you owe the money never gets paid in full because the collection agency gets part of the money. So you may then want to contact the original creditor and pay any difference too.

Of course this might be bad advice so let's wait for some other opinions. Good luck to you!

[scuba steve]

Do not, under any circumstances, contact a collection agency. It's a great way to have whatever it is stick to your credit report.

In a situation like this, I think that CreditBoards.com - Credit Help, Credit Repair Tips, News, Forums is your best bet. It specializes on things like this. You'll probably need to remove old addresses from your credit reports, order copies of any credit report affected, and write letters (the board provides the text) asking the credit bureau (Transunion, and all) to verify the item in question. The credit bureau will contact the collection agency for proof of the item and if it's not legitimate it will be removed and it's all taken care of.

I helped my fiance go through this about a year ago. Not a fun process, but in her case the item was not legitimate (medical billing error) and we got it taken care of.