credit payment question

[happy buyer]

Hello my question is my wife recently paid a collection she had with sprint. It was originally about 300.00. We received a letter a few months ago saying they would settle for 126.00 dollars. When we called to pay in good faith the agent said we needed to pay 226.00. Ok fine after some back and forth we did. When we checked our credit report it stated the debt paid and only at 126.00 what happened to the 226.00 we paid. Where does that show? please help.

happy buyer

[fontanaman]

Hello happy buyer, welcome to the forums.

Did you deal directly with Sprint or with a collection agency? Is the debt balance on your credit file for this debt $0 or does it still show a balance? If it does you need to call them again and let them know it’s their obligation to update your credit file with the amount paid. Be prepared to send them a letter with: a copy of the check used or a copy of the credit card transaction if they didn’t send you a receipt, and a copy of your credit report showing the wrong amount. If they don’t update, you can always dispute this information with the credit bureaus.

But most importantly, if I were you, I would try to get this debt off my report altogether. Offer to pay the full amount in exchange for a deletion (in this case the other $74 you didn’t pay). Why? For credit scoring purposes, it makes no difference having a debt report as paid or unpaid, it will dent your score in the same way, and it will stay on your report for 7 years. The only positive thing about a paid collection, is when a lender personally checks your report, they can see you took care of your debt. In this case having a paid collection is better than an unpaid one.

I have a paid collection on my report and I now wish I would’ve negotiated a pay for delete as it has been very difficult for me to get approved for anything. After this, I managed to negotiate two other deletions from my report, so I know it’s doable.

Don’t trust collection agencies, they’ll do and say whatever they can to convince you to pay. Once they have your money, they’ll forget everything they offered. So, get everything in writing before paying.

[marco_salinas]

try to go the agency and verify your record why you still have a debt there although you paid it already. This is important to clear your credit history. Or maybe you owe your payment to collection agent for your payment, if that’s the case then maybe that collector did not remit your payment in full.

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