Question regarding a collection given to 2 differnet agencies for 1 account

[Jerseysoulja]

Hello,

In 2006 I cancelled a sprint cell phone account as I was deploying overseas. I got back early 2007 to find out a collection was taken out in my name for the sprint account. Apparently I had a balance on the account when I cancelled it and didn't realize it. A collection of over $300 was given to an agency called ASNI. I paid off the balance as soon as possible and my credit report was not affected. However, a couple of months later I recieved a letter from a different collections agency called RPM in regards to the same sprint account, but this time I only owed them $40.
Unfortunately, this negative is in on my credit report. I have been back and forth with sprint and rpm and either they dont understand, or don't want to even try to find out what happened. I did pay rpm, i dont know if i should have, as i didn't know anything about credit and collections agencies at the time. I haven't been able to get in contact with the ASNI agency, i'm assuming because they had a long holiday. When i do get in contact with them i assume there will be no problem in getting the proof that i paid off the collection. My question is once i do have this proof, what steps should/could I take in finding out what happened? Also, if the collections with the rpm agency is not legitemate (and it doesnt look like it is) in the first place, how would I remove this negative from my credit report? I would appreciate if anybody could help me out with this situation. Thank you

[Exile]

Jerseysoulja, have you determined that you actually owe the $40.00? If not, Sprint obviously had no business turning that item over to an agency and you may be able to file action against Sprint and RPM as well. A couple sources to go to for help would be your local and state Consumer protection agencies, and the FTC as well.

Meantime, as for the $300, contact Experian, Transuion, and Equifax. You can insert an explanation in your credit po profile explaining that you had overlooked that debt, and paid it off as soon as you became aware of it (but honestly, Jerseysoulja, how could you be unaware of that you still owed a bill of that amount in the first place?)

[Jerseysoulja]

As far as how I could be unaware, I say the same thing to myself. I remember I was in a rush to cancel it at the airport, I wasn't even thinking at the time. The bill itself was around $120-150, something like that. However sprint kept billing me while I was gone because I had a balance. When i came back to the collections letter I said ok, i messed up, i'll take this loss, and keep my credit clean. And as far as the ASNI agency was concerned, it was clean. I had a $0 balance with them, and a $0 balance with sprint. So to me the $300 I paid took care of the account with sprint. RPM is the agency that put a negative on my credit report for $40. I dont know where they came from.

[Exile]

OK, the picture is a little clearer now, so let me refine my advice from my previous post: In addition to entering an explanation about the $300 oversight into your credit bureau reports, include a dispute about the $40 while you follow up with Sprint. If Sprint can't document that you that owe that additional amount, then the burden is on them to cancel the collection agency and correct your credit rating entry. So stay on top of them and be sure to document all contacts. If they won't cooperate, then contact the aforementioned government agencies. Good luck.

[sounderella]

I would file a dispute with the credit bureaus. T-Mobile did that to me several years ago....long story but in a nutshell they extended my contract by mistake when replacing a phone (1 month before end of contract) but didn't tell me then when I was canceling my service they gave me a bunch of crap.....anyways several months later it showed up on my credit. I disputed it saying what had happend and it was removed. Then it showed up on my credit again about 6 months ago (I guess it was sold to another company) and I disputed it again saying I'd already disputed and resolved it so they removed it again for me.

The way I look at it is, it's always worth a shot. The worst that can happen is that it stays on there.

[Jerseysoulja]

Thanks for the replies. After hours and numerous phone calls with sprint i finally got through to someone in the front office who actually cared, and apparently there were 2 accounts made in my name. He told me that happens sometimes and either the first collections agency didn't charge me for the full amount, hence a $40 difference from what I originally paid, or they didnt update the information accordingly. Either way he told me to dispute it with the credit bureaus. He even gave me the numbers to all three and told me to send them the statements that i have with RPM and ASNI ensuring proof of payment along with my dispute. He also told me if I want I can put a fraud alert on my credit report. I didnt even know this existed. Anyway, once again I appreciate the responses to the people on here who took the time out. My next question is how should i send this dispute? I found some websites with good sample letters, I will use them. How should I send the mail though? A regular envelope, one of them large yellow envelopes? Also I read somewhere that everything should be sent certified mail. Is this a pre-requistite for sending a dispute, or is it just that it would be better to send it out this way? On a more professional level.

[sounderella]

You get a free credit report each year from the credit bureaus. I actually pulled mine from annualcreditreport.com. There it lets you go to each bueaus website and pull it there. Once you pull it, each website has a form to fill out for a dispute. That's how I did it. It wasn't anything super formal....I just told the story in clear english. I think it takes them 30 days to review your dispute. Hope that helps

[InDebtInDC]

Sprint is the worst company I've dealt with when it comes to collection. Even when I did everything they asked I was still being harassed by people from different departments trying to track down the same ticket that has already been closed.

[Jerseysoulja]

The credit report i received that had the negative was from Equifax. I did dispute it with them. I assume the collection was reported to the other 2 credit bureaus. Would I need credit reports from Experian and Transunion to file disputes? The reason I am hesitant on requesting my credit report from these 2 agencies is because I've heard that requesting it too many times in a small amount of time looks bad. Is this true? If it is, thats crazy. They collect information about me and now i'm hesitant on requesting to look at my own information for fear it might look bad? Wow.

[sounderella]

Yeah you would need to pull the other 2. Sometimes they report it to all 3 and sometimes they only report it to one. In my case it was only one. It only looks bad when other companies pull your credit. You can look it over as many times as you want....of course be prepared to pay $15 each time after your free one (I think that's how much it is). True Credit Online Personal Credit Reports & Credit Scores - TrueCredit offers the service where you can see all 3 credit reports and you can update the info as much as you want for $14.95 a month...it also gives you your credit score. There's no fee to cancel either. After that collection showed up for a 2nd time I signed up for this service. I watch it for a couple of months then cancel it then a lil further down the road I pick it back up again just to check.

[Exile]

Originally Posted by Jerseysoulja

My next question is how should i send this dispute? I found some websites with good sample letters, I will use them. How should I send the mail though? A regular envelope, one of them large yellow envelopes? Also I read somewhere that everything should be sent certified mail. Is this a pre-requistite for sending a dispute, or is it just that it would be better to send it out this way? On a more professional level.

A regular envelope should be fine as long as the contents don't make it so bulky that it might tear. You don't have to worry about impressing anybody. But do send it certified to show proof of delivery.

Speaking of impressions, I for one am very impressed by the way you're handling this situation.

[Jerseysoulja]

Exile and Sounderella, thanks again for the information and I appreciate the praise. No point in getting frustrated over this, i'm past that, you just have to handle it. I found out you can dispute your credit file over the phone and I did with all 3 credit bureaus. (probably a bad idea i know upon further research). The last of the three bureaus I called was Transunion. Their rep asked me for detailed information of the previous collections agency whom I did pay that was not on my credit report. Regarding Experiean and Equifax they did not. It seemed too easy. I was on the phone for less than 5 minutes. Anyway I called them back and asked if I could give them more information to help with the investigation. I was told that they could only investigate what is on my credit report, which is the RPM collection. To me the only way to validate that this shouldnt be on my credit report is through the proof that I did pay the original collection with ASNI before the RPM collection was taken out. So as of right now I dont think the investigation will get anywhere. What I am doing now is sending a letter to all 3 bureaus plus RPM asking for them to remove the negative remark. Also i am including the statements from both collection agencies saying that I did pay. That's about all I can do that I know of. Hopefully this will be resolved. Sprint could not explain to me how my account went to 2 different collection agencies, hopefully they still can't explain it to the bureaus. Also, if and when this matter is resolved, how would I go about getting a refund from RPM if that collection is deemed illegitemate? Is that possible or is it too late?

[Jerseysoulja]

It's crazy how these people collect personal information about us and then charge us to even look at our information, besides the 1 free annual report. It's almost a scam. The credit bureaus then share this information, even sell it for a profit. And you have no say, unless you file a dispute which from what i have read about other people, is a long and drawn out process. But then society says, unless you have the cash which most people don't, having good credit is necessary to get a house, car, whatever. I've read that 1 in 4 reports contain errors serious enough to hurt access to loans, and some jobs. Then there are numerous companies that charge alot of money to clean up these reports. Sounds like it is all set up just to take our money. Maybe the case, maybe not. I mean looking at it from a lower level, say your boss collected information about you, and this information would be valuable in getting a loan, or a low mortgage rate, would you pay him for it? No, to me that would be blackmail. (Please excuse my rant as i'm new to this whole credit thing)

[sounderella]

No worries...I get on rants quite often. It may be a little time consuming....but you know the time period when this happend....could you get your bank to go back to that date and see if they have a canceled check on file? (some banks keep scanned copies).....Or maybe go back in the statements for the amount. You can give them the check # or even better the scanned copy. Same goes for if you paid with a c.c. just go back and see. Hey, it's worth a shot.

[jasanderson]

You should ask Sprint to provide proof of all the billings. I would imagine by law they need to be able to provide details to you of how the bill became so much. Maybe they charged you cancellation fees? In which case if you were deployed maybe you can get some of your $$$ back?

[Jerseysoulja]

Sounderella, i'm not sure I understand what you mean. Are you saying I should get proof that I did pay the collection agency through my bank? Would I need that information plus the statement from the collection agency stating that I paid as well? As far as Sprint, i'm done with them. Everytime I call them its like talking to a wall. They dont know what they're doing. Their rep accessed my billing information and all it says is that the account was closed in August of 2006. She couldnt find anything about collections. It seems like every time I call I get a different answer about my account. Hopefully thats good news for me, as far as the investigation from the credit bureaus is concerned.

[sounderella]

Yeah Jersey...that's what I'm saying. When we bought our house we got an FHA loan and with those loans you cannot have ANY collections. Well my dh had some back from when he was a lot younger.....although there were some he had paid. So we had to go waaaaaaay back and find canceled checks. I wouldn't trust Sprint at this point. They were quick to send you to collections even though you paid, I would just do everything to cover my butt at this point.

Although if Sprint doesn't show anything regarding a collection, the dispute will probably prove fruitful. When you dispute something the collection agency must have proof that you indeed owe the debt.

[Saving in So Cal]

Somewhat off point -- you mentioned you were "deployed" at the time of the collections. That suggests to me that you might be in the military service. If so, do you have access to any free basic legal services through the military? For some reason, I thought a company could not send the debt of a military service person to collections while the person was stationed outside of the country. In my experience, military legal personnel are very aggressive in protecting these types of rights and will sometimes write letters to offending companies. You may wish to inquire at your base. It could help you get things resolved more quickly.

Also, IMHO if a Sprint representative has acknowledged that something has been reported inappropriately, then Sprint should be doing what needs to be done to rectify the problem. It irks me when company makes a mistake and then takes the position that it is the customer's obligation to fix it.

[Jerseysoulja]

Saving in So Cal, yes I am in the military and you have a good point. I didnt even think of involving the military, or at least seeking advice from them. Also, in a previous post I stated I filed disputes with the credit bureaus over the phone, which after the fact I realized wasn't enough, as they can only investigate what is on your credit report, and any other information helping with the investigation would have to be sent to the credit bureaus themselves. I dont know if you read my situation but it involves 2 different collection agencies, AFNI and RPM. I paid AFNI in full, they didnt report anything. RPM sent me a collections notice later for the same account, they did report it. That is my dispute. My plan was to send the bureaus both statements to help with the investigation. AFNI did send me theirs, however it seems RPM is giving me the run-around. They said they sent the statement over a week ago, now they are saying it wasnt sent until earlier this week, and it will take 10 to 15 days to recieve it. My question is by that time would it be too long in sending this information to the credit bureaus, as I originally filed the dispute at the end of december? Could I just send the credit bureaus the statement from AFNI, as they could access the information they need from RPM directly, as they are on my credit report? I hope all of that was explained clearly. Thanks.

[Saving in So Cal]

I honestly don't know how long a credit bureau keeps a complaint file open, so I can't help you there.

Also, the fact that you've paid the $40 does not necessarily mean the matter comes off your report. It has been awhile since I've dealt with such matters, but I believe there is some type of "late, but paid" category.

The reason I've suggested you talk to your base legal services is that, even assuming you owed the money, which is not clear to me, the items probably should not have been sent to collection while you were overseas. If I am right, then you may be able to resolve the whole mess by simply providing the bureau with proof that you were deployed at the time the collections activity occurred.