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

**Exile** · 12-25-2007, 05:39 PM

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** · 12-25-2007, 07:16 PM

Reply

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** · 12-26-2007, 06:41 PM

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** · 12-26-2007, 07:01 PM

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** · 12-26-2007, 07:37 PM

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** · 12-27-2007, 05:19 AM

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** · 12-27-2007, 05:53 AM

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** · 12-27-2007, 08:20 AM

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** · 12-27-2007, 08:36 AM

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** · 12-27-2007, 05:20 PM

Originally posted by Jerseysoulja View Post

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** · 12-27-2007, 07:54 PM

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** · 12-27-2007, 08:25 PM

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** · 12-28-2007, 05:58 AM

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** · 12-28-2007, 10:15 AM

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?

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