This is unbelievable. In 2003, I had a sprint phone bill for $595. I paid it off as my last bill and closed the account and switched to cingular. Sprint said they never got the payment and sent it to a collection agency called Risk Management Alternatives. I finally proved to them that I had paid it, but it still went onto my credit report. I finally got it removed from the credit report and then a year later, I got contacted from NCO financial saying that Risk management alternatives Sold the account to them. I sent in all the paperwork to NCO financial showing that I had paid this a long time ago, and they said ok this account is paid in full, well I have a service that monitors my credit report and I got a new alert today for $595 collection from NCO financial. Now i have to go through the whole dispute thing again to try to get this removed. Who is to say they won't sell the account to someone else. And another thing, when you call a collections agency you get the most stupid, unintelligent people. How can such stupid people have this much power over people's credit? My score dropped 90 points by the way over this.
The Houston Public Library also send accounts to collection companies. So if you don't return your library materials in a timely fashion, they may send it to a collection company called UMS. Unique Management Services. I think that is who they send it to. They also add a ten dollar collection fine to your library account.
Several years ago, someone in Colorado got my name and SS#, ordered a cell phone by mail and ran up an $8600 bill in 6 weeks. From the time I got the first collection call from the agency and fax the signed affidavit to them, it took almost a year to get it off my credit reports from the three major bureaus. The collection agency guy was a total knucklehead with a low IQ. It nearly cost me buying a car.
It sounds like you have but have you contacted the credit agency directly? You can add a comment to any item through the credit agencies. It is then up to the creditor to prove the charge is valid...once challenged by you. That would probably be easier than dealing with the collection agency directly. If you completely remove the item from your credit report, then it can be readded. If you dispute a charge but leave it there, its up to them to prove its valid.
