Charge-offs - Help please!

[kitkat]

Back story. Last march DH and I merged our Verizon accounts to be on a family plan. After we merged accounts, I was unable to retreive any info prior to that date in the store or online. When that happened I just assumed the few days of usage from before the merge would just be added to our bill. I just left it alone, since every time I went to the store to pay no one knew how to handle the situation.

Well, fast forward a few months. I get a phone call from Verizon, saying I'm super past due and that if I don't pay right now they'll send it to collections. I explained the situation, *****ed about them not sending notice sooner (considering I was still a client of there's, with the same exact phone number!), and agreed to pay but only if that meant it wouldn't be on my credit report. I didn't know much about credit at the time, and I know now it was a huge mistake to let them bully me into paying over the phone and not handle everything in writing.

So, I checked my credit report today. I have a charge-off on my report because of this situation. I paid them their $30 the first time they contacted me! I'm really frustrated and don't know what to do. This is the only negative mark on my report, and it's dropped my score about 100 points! I don't know much about these sort of this, but I really feel like Verizon listing this as a charge-off is incorrect. How do you dispute things, and what would I say? Do you dispute directly with Verizon, or through the credit report agency? I recognize I don't have much pull, since it's paid... but my husband and I are still with Verizon, would threatening to end our agreement because of this give me more arguing power? Help.... I really don't want to wait 7 years for good credit over $30!

[petsparkle]

There should be a dispute link right on your credit report. You file the dispute and it is sent to Verizon. I believe the notes about it are appended to your credit report too (that an item is under dispute). You could certainly go directly to verizon but I doubt you'll have much luck. A dispute coming through Experian or Equifax will go straight to the right department.

Good luck! You can also put a letter on file with your credit report explaining the situation.

[ProudArmyWifeD]

Send written disputes to each of the three credit bureaus (if they are all showing it) with proof of payment in full, and an explanation. Also dispute them online.

Then send a dispute to Verizon with an explanation of what happened, the date that you were finally contacted, and proof of your payment. If they are claiming it is a "charge off" they are saying that you NEVER paid and they "charged the debt off" which means they claimed it as unpaid for the year (a tax break for businesses). So basically, the fact that you can show you PAID it, proves them wrong.

This letter is a great template - has all the legal stuff - just take out the parts about validating the debt or disputing that its yours and instead add in that you are disputing that it is a charge off because you PAID the bill.

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/form...eletter9.shtml

Send all the letters Return Receipt Requested and when you get back the signed green card from Verizon mark it on your calendar and then mark 30 days from then. If they do NOT send you a reply within the 30 days then by law they need to remove the listing from your credit reports no matter what. So if that happens you write them back again with the legal stuff (see the letter above) that says they needed to respond within 30 days and enclose a copy of the signed green card and the date of your first letter and request that they remove the listing immediately.

Again send that letter RRR and wait to hear back. In the meantime you may have heard back from the credit bureaus. If they removed the listing, great. If not, send another letter. Keep trying and you will eventually get someone who removes it.

If Verizon does write back within the 30 days, and refuses to remove the listing, write another letter letting them know that you are disputing through the credit bureaus, complaining to Better Business Bureau, considering canceling your current account with Verizon, and are prepared to take this to the next level and take them to court because they've falsely reported this on your credit report for (however long its been reporting) and its illegal for them to do so. Then wait. Same thing, send RRR and keep the green cards, keep dates written down, etc.

I know it sounds like a huge PITA and really time consuming. If you are lucky it will resolve quickly. But if not, you just need to keep at it. Keep writing the letters and go to both Verizon and the bureaus and eventually it will be removed one way or another.

If you have questions, you can PM me.

[Southern-momma]

I have a question.

I thought a charge off is when you and the company you are in debt to agrees for you to pay a lower amount by a specific time and usually in payments. If that is not a charge off what is that called?

And whatever that is, it does go against your credit in a negative light.

[ProudArmyWifeD]

Originally Posted by Southern-momma I have a question. I thought a charge off is when you and the company you are in debt to agrees for you to pay a lower amount by a specific time and usually in payments. If that is not a charge off what is that called? And whatever that is, it does go against your credit in a negative light.

http://credit.about.com/od/creditrep.../chargeoff.htm

A charge off is when a company writes off your debt. That doesn't mean you aren't responsible for it, but the company benefits from declaring the debt as a loss.

When you and the company you are in debt to agree to a payment plan or paying a lower amount, that's just an agreement, and is not called a charge off.

And yes, that also goes against your credit report, unless your agreement includes a "pay for delete" which means that the company agrees to stop reporting the debt altogether once you have paid. (This is the only way I recommend paying an old debt, because if you agree to pay the debt without getting them to agree to delete the listing, your credit will still be marred for seven years.)

[LSC12]

Originally Posted by ProudArmyWifeD http://credit.about.com/od/creditrep.../chargeoff.htm A charge off is when a company writes off your debt. That doesn't mean you aren't responsible for it, but the company benefits from declaring the debt as a loss.

Additionally, they can then sell that bad debt. There are companies who buy bad debts for pennies on the dollar in hopes they can collect it themselves.

I personally never "got" that; how it can be legal for someone to buy someone else's charged-off debt and collect it. But obviously it doesn't matter if I get it or not, lol.

[kitkat]

Thank you so much for that info and especially for the link!

I had no clue what a charge off even was. Then when I looked it up, the explanation made no sense with what actually happened. I never refused to pay it, or even had trouble paying it. It was $30 freaking dollars!

Again, thanks for the advice. Everything I was looking up about charge-offs didn't seem to fit the situation right, probably because it shouldn't be one.

[Aunt Sponge]

You can argue with your company that reported this to have them reverse or otherwise update the report - they might, and it might take awhile.

And you can contact the credit report agency and discuss the possibility o them removing it ... but it's likely they'll tell you that you'd have to handle it with the company you reported you.



Everything can be worked out - but it's always a pain in the tukus.