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Hi Everyone!

Just asking for a bit of advice to perhaps save me some time and effort. This situation seems somewhat apropo considering the recent web freakout about Comcast. I thought it would be good to check out my credit report because I haven't done it in two years and I've moved and had a lot of changes on the credit front. Everything looks just fine except I have a $46 account with some collection agency by way of Comcast. I had comcast at my last place and I was pretty sure I had closed down my accounts correctly. In fact I just went to Comcast's website logged back into my old account and they say they owe me $12! I've never been called by this collection agency but it seems like I should do something about getting this stupid thing off my credit record. Does anyone have any advice about how to go about it? Do I just dispute it with each of the three credit agency individually. Do I (I shudder at the thought) contact Comcast and be all WTF? Would my life be made a 1000x easier if I just contact the collection agency and just give them $46 as terrible as that is.

Thoughts?

Related rants?

I think it depends on how much your time is worth to you. I had a similar situation with a phone company where they said I owed even less than you, about $20. I just paid it. I hadn't kept enough records to bother trying to prove (or disprove) my situation, and figured it was just easier. Was I charged some kind of disconnection fee or other nonsense? Who knows.

Sounds like you can prove, by logging into your old account (which presumably has the service address and all that), that you owe them nothing. I would guess that engaging with the collections agency would probably the path of greatest resistance---they treat everyone they deal with as deadbeats. Comcast customer service would probably also be horrendous. While disputing it, they'd probably try to upsell you on more services. You'd probably have the best luck trying to show the credit agencies your proof.

Sigh... $46 to me is kind of on the edge of "pay it to make it go away" versus "fight it". Let us know what you do.

The problem is not the amount, but that it shows on the credit report at all. Even if you pay it off it will stay on the credit report for up to 7 years. If you do not believe you owe it, definitely dispute it.

Unfortunately Comcast will not be much help. Usually if it has been turned over to a collection agency they will refer you to them. So I would start with the collection agency.

I would contact them and ask that they provide details on why they think you owe $46. They are required by law to do that. If they cannot provide sufficient detail (or if you can prove it is not yours) that should be enough to get it expunged. More details here: http://nedap.org/hotline/fdcpa-disputing.html

I'll just relate my own personal history. I once changed my phone number with Verizon about 12 years ago. I didn't realize (nor did they make very clear to me) that doing this essentially created a new account. I had some charge ($40 or something) left on the old account, which I was never aware of, since I kept the new account current (and, again, didn't realize it was a new and different account). I was never contacted by Verizon about it, and about 9 months later I was contacted collection agency - the old account wasn't linked to the new account (or number) in any way, so apparently they had been trying to contact me at the old number (Verizon couldn't figure out to contact me at the new one, funny, eh).

I might have been able to contest it, but I just paid it and dealt with the mark on my history - maybe I was young and foolish to do that, but it's gone now and I think the biggest effect it had on me was I needed a co-signer on a car I bought in 2005.

So, I guess the point of relating this is that they might just be working with old information and don't have a means of contacting you (yet).

I'd start with the collection agency to find out where the charge came from, and either pay it (if it's legit) or contest it with either whoever put it there or the relevant state/federal regulators.

The relevant information that you should read is the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

The Federal Trade Commision is the federal agency charged by Congress to enforce this legislation. You as a consumer has rights. Unfortunately, I can't tell you or advise you in how you should proceed because it would be the practice of law. You should contact a duly licensed attorney in your state competent in this area and ask him how to best proceed. This is a legal matter, and I feel it is better that you be best served with competent counsel.

Practice of Law- (17c) The professional work of a duly licensed lawyer, encompassing a broad range of services such as conducting cases in court, preparing papers necessary to bring about various transactions from conveying land to effecting corporate mergers, preparing legal opinions on various points of law, drafting wills and advising clients on legal questions. The term also includes activities that comparatively few lawyers engage in but that require legal expertise, such as drafting legislation and court rules. Black's Law Dictionary (too lazy to give citation, shoot me).

Good luck.

Thanks for all the replies!

It looks like I am going to have to contact the collections agency at some point. I didn't even realize it at first because it seemed ridiculous but the charge is not for my "current" comcast account but rather for one I held from 2007-2009. I'm assuming this because the source of the Collection is "Comcast Baltimore" which is where I lived then. The implication is that they decided over 4 years after I held that account to turn the $46 over to the collection agency. I can't seem to find any of my account info from that account though I may have a bill or two buried somewhere. I must have incorrectly assumed at some point that comcast bills from more than two moves ago would no longer be relevant.

I did try to contact comcast through their chat box thing. The person on the other end was somewhat helpful in trying to track down any information although for some reason they couldn't find anything about my previous account that seems to be the one of issue. As far as I can tell the next step is to give the collections people a call though I hate the fact that I will inevitably have to hand over some contact information to them (which to be honest they should already have).

I'll let you guys know what happens!

Definitely Fight it since its on your Credit report. Also did you check all three credit reports? Make sure you check all three. Screenshot your online Comcast account and dispute it with the Credit reporting agencies. I would suggest ignoring the Collections agency but that's just my opinion. Even if they call. If they do call send them a drop dead letter.

It's imperative to clear it off your Credit report or else it may come haunt you when you try and make a big ticket purchase. e.g. Car, house, land, etc.

I was under the impression that FICO did not factor in debts under the $100 amount. I have had a few issues like others have cited above - creditors saying I owed small amounts that I didn't recall and/or flat out knew they were lying. I've always just done a drop dead letter and ignored it. As my credit score is nearly 800, it certainly hasn't caused me any harm.

HorseIicious wrote:

I was under the impression that FICO did not factor in debts under the $100 amount. I have had a few issues like others have cited above - creditors saying I owed small amounts that I didn't recall and/or flat out knew they were lying. I've always just done a drop dead letter and ignored it. As my credit score is nearly 800, it certainly hasn't caused me any harm.

"MOST" of the time no it doesn't. But they are still there as a listing for anyone running a CR on you. Remember there is a human that is doing the analyzing of your CR to see if you qualify for their credit. (FICO is an algorithm unto itself, some lenders run the CR through their own algorithm) Just because you have a FICO of 800 doesn't necessarily mean you can get credit anywhere at anytime. Enough small blemishes can affect what percentage rate you get or even if the lender puts you in their "high risk" bucket.

The small debts probably wont affect you for things like a Credit Card, store Credit Card, or same as cash deals. But it really comes back to haunt you on those big ticket items like a car loan, mortgage or even a construction loan.

This is why you need to check your Credit reports yearly and with all three agencies. And dispute when you notice errors.

File a report with the three credit agencies disputing the report. They are required by law to investigate it in a timely manner. If the collection agency does not provide proof within that timeframe (30 days?), they are required by law to remove it from your credit report. The onus is on them to prove that it's valid, not on you to prove it's invalid.

Something similar happened to my older sister with Charter cable. She turned in the equipment at their store, got a receipt and everything, and they are still coming after her, saying she never returned the cable boxes. After futile efforts in fighting it, she just said "screw it", and lets her rich husband put everything in his name. Bunch of bullcrap, but good luck fighting that monopoly.

Pay the 46 bucks, then dispute it with the credit bureaus. It's not the way it's supposed to go, but from my experience with them, they won't re-report it once you pay it off...same applied to pretty much all collections accounts that I've came across.