"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion)
10/12/2019 at 10:26 • Filed to: None
1
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"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion)
10/12/2019 at 10:26 • Filed to: None | 1
| 18 |
I checked my credit report a few weeks ago and noticed a bill had gone to collections. That bill was not mine, but my mom’s. We haven’t talked in years, and having my credit negatively affected by her chronically poor financial choices was a good reminder of why I left my childhood home in the first place.
What really pisses me off is that the bill is for $40 dollars. Forty freakin’ dollars. Paying it is no problem, but that would be accepting the debt as my own, meaning that even after it’s closed the collections account would stay on my record for seven years, visible to anyone who checked my credit. At least that’s what I understand from what I’ve read.
I’ve started the process to dispute it. Two weeks have gone by without a response and I don’t have high hopes. The process is super convoluted, as apparently nothing in writing is considered official and trustworthy unless it’s done via mailed letter. Remind me again what year this is..?
This frustrates me greatly. It’s also why I’ve been dragging my feet on the bike thing. The plan was to take advantage of an interest-free (or close enough to basically be interest-free) loan and finance a bike with the lowest possible down-payment to keep as much cash in the bank as possible, but now I’m leary of attempting that until I fix the collections issue.
[UPDATE] transunion removed the collections account from my credit report just three days after I filed a dispute. That leads me to believe that filing through Credit Karma gave me some extra pull, or at the very least expedited things. Still waiting to hear back from the others, but man. I was not expecting any good news on this front. Now I can get back to vehicle shopping!
Anyways, have some car content.
My work parking lot is home to a multitude of enthusiast cars.
My boss drives a gorgeous Mitsubishi GTO. My coworker has an M5. There are multiple Evos, multiple Civic SI’s, V70R, S60R, no less than four Land Cruisers, tons of cool older pick-ups, some new vans outfitted for living/traveling out of, a C63 AMG, and... Lots more. Not bad for a lot that probably holds 70 cars. Oh, and an MT-09, CBR500, etc. Seems like FedEx drivers skew heavily towards enthusiasts based on my time here.
Nick Has an Exocet
> AestheticsInMotion
10/08/2019 at 00:27 |
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What happens if you mail them $40 cash with your mom’s return address?
Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
> AestheticsInMotion
10/08/2019 at 00:31 |
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I once had a 35 dollar parking ticket go into collections as it sat on my wife’s desk or a month too long. Needless to say, I learned that a good credit score is about as durable as single-ply toilet paper.
I don't know if you can dispute that effectively... If the bill is somehow in your name, that's all they care about. I say pay it and move on.
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AestheticsInMotion
> Nick Has an Exocet
10/08/2019 at 00:37 |
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Judging by how things are going so far, it will be sent back to me 6 months later, and a further 12 months after that I’ll receive a letter reminding me of my $100 fee for improperly sending the $40 in the first place. Which is now a $300 fee, because I didn't pay it within 2 hours of the sender mailing it out. Payable only in person at the most inconvenient location imaginable, office hours open only on Wednesday between 11:00am-3:00pm, but closed for lunch that starts at various times and often runs long
Maybe I’ll just mail them a glitter bomb so they’ll at least feel some of my irritation.
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AestheticsInMotion
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/08/2019 at 00:42 |
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They’re supposed to send notices before a bill goes to collections, and this is a three-year old bill that I’ve never had any record of until this month. You’re probably right about paying it and moving on , but that’s just even more frustrating as a lack of notification and a bill in a family member’s name are two of the main grounds for a dispute, according to equifax .
vicali
> AestheticsInMotion
10/08/2019 at 00:44 |
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Not worth the headache. Call it a $40 Miata tax and move on..
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Nick Has an Exocet
> AestheticsInMotion
10/08/2019 at 00:49 |
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Wow, that’s a pain.
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Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
> AestheticsInMotion
10/08/2019 at 00:51 |
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But if the biller... is that a word?... can claim they sent notification, even if it went to your mother of a previous address. I feel your pain. I'm just saying... Maybe just pay and then contend the credit hit in the same stoke. Get rid of the bill and collections ASAP.
ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
> AestheticsInMotion
10/08/2019 at 00:54 |
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I’ve done the credit bureau dispute thing for identity theft related issues more than once, and it isn’t fun...
Generally, they seemed to take the deny the initial dispute as a matter of course regardless of how obvious the issue might have been. Once that played out, I ended up sending them via certified mail essentially legal demand letters citing relevant statues and threatening further legal action ... (along with attaching another copy of my supporting documentation of the original dispute). Those letters seemed to get routed to different folks in legal departments who always quickly got the fraudulent information removed from my reports as was supposed to have happened in the first place. It was an unreasonable pain in the ass, but that was usually the only way I got them to do anything. The SOP otherwise seemed to be denying most disputes and figuring some number of folks will give up and stop bothering them.
The different agencies varied in how much of a pain in the the ass they were to deal with. Equifax was the very worst, and TransUnion was sometimes almost reasonable to deal with, although I may have gotten that backwards. Good Luck.
At least back when I was having to do all of this, the FTC website had some pretty decent documentation that summed up a bunch of the relevant statues and regulations, which was handy for developing citations in the legal warm regards letters I was sending the credit bureaus.
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AestheticsInMotion
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/08/2019 at 01:17 |
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I just want to go camping with a fluffy doggo. Why do things keep getting in the way of that dream
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Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
> AestheticsInMotion
10/08/2019 at 09:38 |
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So what you’re saying is...
TheRealBicycleBuck
> AestheticsInMotion
10/08/2019 at 10:20 |
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Always ask for proof of the debt before paying anything. You have legal rights and the debt collector has obligations to meet in order to be compliant with the law.
https://www.thebalance.com/debt-validation-requires-collectors-to-prove-debts-exist-960594
HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
> AestheticsInMotion
10/08/2019 at 10:24 |
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1 that red V70R is amazing.
2 I feel you pain. It’s sucks having shitty family memener who don’t car about anyone. Earliuthis year I paid for my sister to stay in a hotel room for 2 nights because she couldn’t afford it. And then got a 500 dollar cleaning feel because her lazy ass couldn’t walk outside to smoke her medical marijuana.
Nothing
> AestheticsInMotion
10/08/2019 at 10:26 |
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If the dispute doesn’t work, offer to pay the debt for removal from you credit report. I get that it’s not yours. It typically take 1-2 months for a response through a CRA if that’s how you’ve started the dispute process.
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AestheticsInMotion
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/08/2019 at 10:28 |
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Yes
SBA Thanks You For All The Fish
> AestheticsInMotion
10/12/2019 at 10:36 |
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He’s definitely correct if you want to try to keep your record squeaky clean.
However, a s you get older, you’ll find it’s like trying to keep all the rock chips off your windshield... it’s tough to keep a completely chip-free windshield if you drive cross country much. Some astronomically high percentage of reports have material errors on them. It’s a whacked game and the rules are stacked against you. So, if you check in 24 months you’ll likely find more extraneous crap on the report. It’s whack-a-mole.
The reality in this case is that they’ll never sue you for this amount of money and, assuming they don’t have your phone number to ring day-and-night , they’ve already reached their limit as to what they can do... which is post a listing on a different guy’s report.
Either way? Don’t lose sleep about it. This game is rigged.
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SBA Thanks You For All The Fish
> Nothing
10/12/2019 at 11:01 |
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Sadly, although it’s the most work, it’s also the way to deal with them. Don’t play the game on their rules (“please remove this”), Play it on yours (“this ain’t mine but I will pay you to get this off the report— no sign, never happened”)
Usually they take that latter deal, but it’s a pain. It’s like negotiating with terrorists.
SlideshowOhNO - Fixit Union, Chapter of Kinja
> AestheticsInMotion
10/12/2019 at 14:40 |
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Good to hear it is sorted .
Pretty sweet lot of cars. The FedEx office (big shop) near us seems pretty hum-drum, save for an unfortunate BMW E36 that was paint stripped and forced to rust, for style?
What sort of car are you considering?
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SlideshowOhNO - Fixit Union, Chapter of Kinja
> SlideshowOhNO - Fixit Union, Chapter of Kinja
10/12/2019 at 14:41 |
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J ust realized the NA is yours; neat! Hopefully it is sticking around?