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Collection Agency for $13.00 ?!?!?!
Akilae729
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I got suckered into subscribing to a local newspaper for a few months. (I had a local route as a kid, thought it was a good idea...)
Cut to now, after refusing to renew my subscription, I get a letter from a collections agency for the renewal cost of $13.00.
I don't care about the $13.00. What I care about is that my credit report will show I've been "taken to collections."
What should I do about this? I could not be more angry.
Cut to now, after refusing to renew my subscription, I get a letter from a collections agency for the renewal cost of $13.00.
I don't care about the $13.00. What I care about is that my credit report will show I've been "taken to collections."
What should I do about this? I could not be more angry.
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I kind of doubt it for $13 but I guess anything is possible
$13 shouldn't be a big deal in the context of your credit report unless you've had a bunch of previous collections actions; if it's a legit debt you should just pay it
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
You should call them, and talk to their billing people. If you don't get it erased that way, you might want to try talking to them in person. It's best to assume malice on their part, though. I'm not saying you should yell or anything like that, just don't take them at their word for anything.
What he said. Note that if you call the newspaper they'll tell you to call the collection company. And if you call them, guess what'll happen? that's right. So just explain to the newspaper that it will cost them about hum, 20x what you owe them to get the 13$ back. You might have to repeat that step a few hundred times. Hopefully they'll drop it.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but over $13 I'd just pay it to the agency and get a receipt saying you paid, and then make damn sure that you aren't still subscribed to that paper and they never darken your doorstep again. The receipt is so that if they hit your credit anyway, which has been known to happen, you have documentation to contest it.
At this stage, it may not have been reported as anything yet. A lot of people are more likely to pay with the threat of damaged credit than if they've already taken the hit, so sometimes companies will give it a month.
If the latter then it sucks, but you probably still legit owe them under the terms of your subscription.
If the former, then on the one hand it is pretty much extortion to pay them and make it go away, but on the other hand, $13 will make it all go away. I guess you need to weigh that up against the value you place on your time fighting it.
What Ceres said. I can't emphasize enough to GET IT IN WRITING that your debt is squared away and that the information is to be removed from your credit reports. Without the letter in writing, there is a damn good chance that, even after having paid the debt, the black mark on your credit report will not be removed.
I have a fairly common name, and one that is the same as my father who does not handle his debt well. For the entire time that I lived in the same state as him, I had to regularly check my credit reports monthly to make sure that his bad debts were not being reported on my account. I've had several accounts of his go into collections, his bankruptcy, etc. etc. etc., as well as some other person entirely unrelated to me and of a documented different race (I'm not saying anything about anyone here, just that it was proof that this was not me) show up on my credit reports. I've spent countless hours over the years trying to keep my credit report clean. It's a righteous pain in the ass, but document everything you can within reason and whenever you get them "saying" they will remove something from your credit report, GET IT IN WRITING (I really can't emphasize this enough).
In regards to the issue with the person of no relations to me, I had to get the hospital records for the bill which proved it was not me, then I even had to take a day off work and drive to the collections agency to finally get someone to speak to me because they were ignoring my faxes with the corrected information. Once I spoke to a supervisor face to face in person, I was able to get the documents I needed to clear up my credit report.
And yes, the $13 sucks to get sent to collections for, I had Blockbuster Video threaten me with collections once for an $0.82 in back late fees. I paid it and then cancelled my membership with them. In the end, if you owe some nickel and dime stuff, it might be easier to pay it and be done with it if you legitimately owed the debt for whatever reason.
This whole thing feels really wrong and stupid; i bet if you scour consumer protection and debt collection laws you will find what they are doing is illegal.
And i dont want to get your hopes up or anything, but if they ARE breaking the law here it is within the realm of possibility to sue them and get a judgement in your favour for a few thousand dollars.
Really though in terms of the path of least resistance, paying them off and getting then to ensure in writing that the debt is cleared is the easiest and fastest thing to do. If yu really want to dig your heels in, then lookup the laws and figure it out.
They said that since the debt is under $25, it is not reported to credit agencies. I don't know if this is an internal policy or a legal one.
I'm going to write them tomorrow and get that policy in writing, and if I do, I'm going to pay the $13 and be done with it.
What a pain in the ass
Exact scenario with me too. Called them, waited patiently for them to "fix the problem". Problem solved. Probably the same for magazine subscriptions if you get those watch out! (Btw I used to sell stuff that required a credit check...we didn't give a flying GOOSE about newspapers or magazines on the report. We know those fees are goose)
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