Verizon Charge Off

This has likely been discussed elsewhere in the forums (although maybe not specifically regarding Verizon). I closed my account with Verizon in June of 2008, received my final bill and paid it closing the account (have copy of the final bill stating "Final Bill" which shows the credits for the partial month and thanks me for being a Fios customer.

In October, I received a bill for $107.90 from Verizon (for the same account) claiming that it was my final bill and that I was 60 days delinquent. I contacted Verizon, spoke to their Billing Department and was told that it was an erroneous bill and that I could ignore it. I asked for documentation (which was never provided). In November, I received a letter from a Collection Agency stating that Verizon had hired them to collect on an unpaid debt (the $107.90). I called them and they told me that I needed to respond in writing within 30 days of my dispute of the validity of the debt, and that it would be investigated. I submitted a letter and recived a follow up letter in December indicating that the debt needed to be paid immediately, but no acknowledgment of the letter that I sent disputing.

To prevent collection action from showing on my credit report, I paid the $107.90 (plus $5 handling fee) on the internet to teh collection agency (it has shown as processed), and tried to call them (but this was December 24, and they did not answer the phone).

Now I conducted my early January review of my credit report and it notes that I have a "Derogatory" mark from two of the CRAs and a "Charge Off" on the third for the amount of $107.90.

I have all of the paperwork required, but am curious as to whether anyone has a recommended contact, or an approach that I should use to get this corrected with Verizon. I have read some posts that indicate that getting a Charge Off removed is difficult since it is a valid accounting practice and the creditor can do it whenever they choose, yet the charge wasn't even valid to begin with.

I have also seen something on the web from the Lexington Law Group that shows that they have been pretty successful in getting this stuff removed, but again, it seems crazy that I need to spend any money to have something incorrect removed from my report.

I wouldn't sweat it, but the overall impact to my reports looks to be between 75 and 100 points off of my FICO!

Any suggestions or advice appreciated.

Regards

well, I would actually fight that, to be honest. going to be hard now because you paid it, but you do have a bill from them stating "final bill", and you have proof that you paid that amount. From that point, it's going to be up to them to prove exactly why you were charged more money after the fact.

But like I said, youre going to have a harder time fighting this, I think, because they already got your money. When you sent the debt validation request to the CA in november, did you send it by certified mail? If so, and if you still have the green signature card from that letter, then you have sufficient evidence to proceed with an FDCPA violation case against them. you see, once you send them a DV letter within that first 30 days, they are not allowed to conduct any further collection activity at all until they provide you with the validation. Once they got your letter, they ignored it, and then sent you a payment demand letter in December....that's a direct violation of the FDCPA.

here is another thing--if this were me, I would be comparing the dates on your credit report for when they reported this to your report, to the date they signed for your DV letter. if they reported this or updated it as valid at any time AFTER they got your letter, you will also have them on that violation of the FDCPA. that is also considered collection activity and as such is prohibited until they respond to your DV request.

now, i would also be contacting verizon ASAP, and I would explain to them that you want every last detail on that $107 they sent you to collections over. it seems to me that they should still own this account, since we are only talking about a few months time. Something else strikes me as very odd here....you said that in November, verizon still owned the debt, because the CA's letter stated that they were hired by Verizon to collect the debt. So, it seems VERY strange to me that you would have had THREE collection agencies reporting this same debt on your credit reports between November and january. that simply does not seem right at all.

for this reason also, you need to contact Verizon ASAP and inform them that you paid _____ collection agency, and verify that the money you paid did in fact go to Verizon. You may have been defrauded by that debt collector, since in two months time you had three CAs reporting the debt on your credit file. Debts do get sold, but in November Verizon still owned it, and I dont think Verizon would have sold the account that quickly.


----contact Verizon, inform them that you paid ___ debt collector and verify that they got that payment from them.
----at the same time, verify with Verizon why they were charging you this extra money, tell them that you have the final bill they sent which does not show this amount, and tell them that you want to know exactly what you were charged for.
----if you find out that this was a bogus charge, inform them that you want your payment refunded immediately.
----send a DV letter to each and every debt collector on your credit report that put this debt on there. be sure to check all three reports. make sure to send the DV letters certified mail, return receipt requested.

Once you get the signature cards back proving that they got your letters, I would wait a week or two, and then I would dispute every entry on your credit reports that is for this account, no matter what creditor put it on there(except for the original verizon one as long as it is accurate). if any of the CA's verify the debt as accurate, then you will have grounds to file suit against them for violating the FDCPA.

Great info. Thanks for the detailed reply.

I spent about an hour on the phone with Verizon this morning being passed around between various people with no resolution, but did at least mine the folliwng piece of information:

The amount charged was for a wireless router that I retunred in July that they claim was not returned. I now have to dig up the receipt for the shipment (UPS Store scanned each piece into the system, so there was a detailed account of each piece of equipment).

So, not over yet - but I at least have something to go on. It seems that this will likely take a lot of my personal time to get cleared (unfortanuately)....

i could literally type the same story
it all took place today for
same exact thing with the wireless router they "never recieved"
unbelievable
I am waiting for a call back from the supervisor from the billing department
if the billing department notes on your account "to delete" this charge, then verizon credit services can contact the credit bureaus on your behalf, with letters, stating that it was a mistake on verizon's part

un real!!!
im so pissed,
knocked 100 points off my credit score

I'm in the exact same situation, except I didn't get the call from the CA until 18 months after the router (that I never even had) was not returned. They called this morning.

Did anyone get this resolved?

Same exact situation...word for word. But my call was from my mortgage lender the day that I was to sign my loan application. They dropped my score 140 points, and I can't get the loan I was shooting for with this credit.

I spent 8.5 hours on the phone with Verizon to get the situation resolved. They fax me a letter stating that it will be taken off of my credit report.

Does anyone know how much your credit score goes back up?

i to had the same problem with verizon. have my copy of return router. found out it was the form they used, they put the router in the remarks area and no computer would see it. so it ended up on our credit reports. still trying to fix my credit
thanks all

I ended my wireless contract early because I wanted a Blackberry. Verizon offered me full retail price in 2006 of a new BB for $499. I asked what it would cost to get out of my contract and they told me $279.00. When you ask the Verizon people why I would pay more to stay with them and get what I want than less to leave them to get what I want they shrug helplessly. I pay to get out, get the documents signed and port my number to AT&T, then Cingular. Never hear a word or letter. Now in 2009 my banker says my FICO dropped 100+ from a Verizon Charge Off. Wow...

I just noticed a charge off of $126 from Verizon Northwest on my Credit. Drop my Fico 150 points.

I still spend an average of $400/mo with Verizon but it appears it is from an account that I closed when I moved. The charge was $10.30. The problem is this was in 2004. Now with late fees it is $126. I do not have a problem paying the original charge but they claim the could not find me????

I have said I started service with them at my new place the same time I canceled which also shows on my CR.

Again, I have not received one letter, etc on this. I get a paper bill every month the shows a $0 balance since I use auto pay. My current Veizon services are FIOS Internet, Phone, TV, EVDO Data Line, 2 cell phones ...

BLAH! Any tips will be helpful. I plan to call their collections in the morning.

I have the same story as everyone else. My score dropped 165 points with (2) charge offs from Verizon from (2) phone lines after I ported to Comcast.$59 and $159. I did not know I owed this charges as i paid my bills when they came in and the final bill. I even called to make sure everything was ok at that time. I applied for morgage and my morgage company called and asked about theses charge offs. I called Verizon and asked about theses bills. They said i owed them and morgage company said i needed to pay these off to get the loan. I paid them and was assured that this would be remove totally off my credit files. They lied. They changed credit report charge off /paid with a rating of 9 (thats bad)

I paid them off completely as well after being stuck in contract and not using the phone at all for like a year.. And its still on my credit report that I didnt pay.. Don't trust them.. Guess I'll be on phone looking for solution for hours now as well.

I had a long distance call billing distpute (an over $1000 long distance call which we did not make) with Verizon. Even though I paid later via collection company I.C. System, Verizon still continously report to Equifax as "account charge off" and my credit score droped a lot. I.C. Syetem has sent me the receipt that the account balance has been settled. I called Verizon credit department, financial service department, file department, try to find what's wrong with their payment tracking system, but all of them are so evil...... No one cares about customer at Verizon!!!

I have contacted Verizon's corporate office for a similiar situation & they were more than willing to work with me & have an item removed. I'm still in fact, with Verizon. Email them through their website and/or the BBB website. They will take care of you!

Kristy:

I think a lot of your success has to do with the fact that you are still a current paying customer with them. Those of us who are not with them anymore (for any number of reasons) encounter many more difficulties, because at that point we pose no continued profit for the company other than settling a debt they've likely already decided won't be coming in. (When companies close out their books at the end of a fiscal year they update THEIR records to reflect whether or not they actually expect payment on that account or not. If it's not expected- due to past payment history, credit report, lost income, etc... -then the company cuts it's losses and assumes it's lost that money. If they eventually get it back, it's like a nice little surprise. Therefore, nobody really wants to help you out. The more they can collect from you, the fatter THEIR check is since almost all collections agents work on commission)

Anyway- Thank you for the suggestion, and I'm sure other current customers sincerely appreciate it as well.

My account - was closed in October 2010. I have over payment -$48.87 and every month Verizon send me bill with remarks- don,t pay. For what is this stupid case ??????

Contact Verizon and clarify the matter. They will be of better help to you.