Collection Agencies are Scum

Posted by creditSET (68.8.94.224) on June 25, 2003 at 18:00:37:

OK, trying to take of credit issues but never trust a collection agency. Even though I've educated myself over the past two years I've still got a lot to learn. I am in the process of trying to buy a home in the next three months. I wanted to get the one collection account on my report taken off. Background, I'm in California, the account is four years old (12/1999). It has been validated and I've offered to compromise but never recieved a response. But every year they "update" the date on the account as "recent" so it makes a big dent in my credit score.

So I thought I would go ahead and pay the darn thing to get it off my report. So I did the thing I shouldn't have done, I called the CA. I asked to speak to the person I had been dealing with a year ago. They informed me he was no longer there (stupid me didn't realize this was not a law firm as they represented themselves as but a major telemarketing CA) so anyway the woman on the phone was rude and told me she could help me. I told her no thanks I wanted to speak to so and so. Well I thought I would call the OC to get info, they said they couldn't help me but gave the name of someone over there that could. So I called him, he was pleasant and told me the account had been cancelled by the OC. He told me to dispute it with the reporting agency. So I have along with two other incorrect items on the report. And I'm sure the other two will be removed because one of the companies listed on the account does not have any current working phone numbers.

Anyway, I ran another report to get my FICO score and magically the account I'm talking about appeared "updated" the current month, June 2003. So it says it was reported now and just a month ago it was reported in Feb 2003.

The amount of the account is 194.00. I sent them a nice letter stating I tried to resolve this matter several times in the past. I would like to take care of this issue with the agreement this item is updated on my report as "Pays as agreed". So lets see what they say! I am truly annoyed with their practices and want to get this taken care of asap.

I just wonder what my rights are if they accept my offer to pay off the debt. What if they don't take it off my report. Is there another way I can go about handling this?

Thanks in advance

getting creditset to buy a home

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