| credit report notification question |
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ltfrox
First Time Poster
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Joined: 03 Oct 2007
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| credit report notification question |
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Hi everyone,
Is there any kind of obligation for a company to notify you before they report something to the credit agencies or before they move an account to collections? Is there an obligation for the collections company to contact you before they report your account to the credit agencies without notifying you? A couple of years ago, I switched my phone service to my family's plan and I thought I had paid all the bills related to the old account, which turns out not to have been the case. I know now that I should not have assumed that the phone company would in some way notify me of any outstanding obligations.
Regardless, the phone company never sent me a bill, didn't transfer the charge to the new account, and now they have turned it over to collections who has reported it to the credit agencies. I obviously would have paid this bill if I had any idea that I owed the money, so I was upset that the company turned it over to collections without ever contacting me. Do they have an obligation to do notify me before they do that? And is this a valid reason to dispute the bill showing up on my credit reports?
Thanks in advance for any help!
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Wed Oct 03, 2007 3:09 am |
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pf101
Senior Member
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Location: Portland, OR
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| Re: credit report notification question |
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No, not really.
You may offer to PIF if they'll remove it from your report or mark it paid as agreed but that doesn't always work.
The best forum I know for credit questions is creditboards.com so if you don't get a solid answer here you may want to check there.
Personal Finance 101
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Wed Oct 03, 2007 3:28 am |
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Apollo
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Location: New York
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| Re: credit report notification question |
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No, they don't have to notify you.
The phone company (or any other company) is required to send you the monthly bill and what they do after that really depends on the company.
I share coaster's curiosity about the timeline.
Some companies only leave an unpaid bill at their office for 30 days and if payment has not been received they will send it to a collections agency. If that happens the company usually has a 'contract' with the collections agency. The contract states (among other things) for how long to seek collection of the debt.
The collections agency is required to contact you as well. After the expiration of the collections-timeframe as stated in the contract they will turn it over to a third-party (usually takes a few weeks if not months) and it will be reported on your credit.
The above could vary (but usually that is what happens). You may want to check with other sources to get an accurate answer.
It is not smart to play it safe but it is safe to play it smart.
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Thu Oct 04, 2007 8:06 am |
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dstern
Contributing Member
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Location: UK
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They don't have to notify you before reporting to credit agencies..
however, you seem to have been treated harshly by the phone company, usually when you fail to pay your bill they send you notification and wait a while before forwading the debt to a collection agency.
maybe there's some mail that was sent but you never recieved..
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Fri Oct 05, 2007 9:12 pm |
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efflandt
Senior Member
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Location: Elgin, IL USA
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| Re: credit report notification question |
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quote:
Originally posted by ltfrox
Regardless, the phone company never sent me a bill, didn't transfer the charge to the new account, and now they have turned it over to collections who has reported it to the credit agencies.
Are you saying that you changed plans at the "same" phone company and they did not notify you of outstanding charges from the old account? You certainly cannot expect an outstanding balance to be transferred to a different phone company, but unless the primary name or address for the account changed, it seems very odd that charges would not follow you.
At any rate there is no requirement to advise you what they are putting on your credit report. But you can check each of your 3 main credit reports once per year for no charge (maybe check a different one every 4 months).
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Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:28 pm |
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