Redline Recovery / Switched debt?
Date: Thu, 05/27/2010 - 01:33
Hello,
As a result of my divorce almost 3 years ago, I ended up with 2 accounts going to collection. One, for a credit card debt, ended up being charged off back in January '09, and we settled for something like 66%. The other was a cell phone debt, and I was unable to to deal with that until Dec '09/Jan '10. I knew it was a debt I owed, however, as I'd bounced around between a few addresses while getting back on my feet post-divorce, the bills/CA letters never reached me. I ended up contacting the cell phone company in question in December, and got the number of the CA which was handling my case. Upon calling the number for that CA, I got a recorded message saying that my case was now being handled by Redline Recovery, and it gave me the number to contact them. I called, left a message, and a week later got a letter in the mail, stating that I owed $224, which was roughly half of what I owed. I hopped on their website, filled out my information and paid this debt in full.
Now, a week ago, I ran my credit report again, only to find out that my cell phone debt was still on there, listed as being still in collections. I called Redline, left a message, and waited for a callback. This was on a friday afternoon. On monday, the credit monitoring service I was test-driving alerted me that I had a new debt on my report, which I immediately checked out, and saw that that cell phone debt had been transfered to a new CA. The timing on that seemed a little suspect, so I called back again several times this week, and finally ended up getting a person on the line. We looked up my account with the data from my receipt, and she stated that the debt was showing as settled, and that the creditor was the credit card company with whom I'd settled my other debt - the one that had been settled nearly a year before. The conversation ended abruptly after that, before I could figure out what the heck'd happened.
Now, I'm moving this week, and I've packed up all of my paperwork, and I'm terrified to think that I may have thrown away the letter that Redline sent me which clearly declared my debt to be with the cell phone company. I'm going to call Redline back again tomorrow, and see if there's been a mix-up on their end, but barring a miracle with that - what are my options? Is there any way I can trace down the path of CAs that my debt has traveled? I.e., some way to prove, barring finding that letter, that the debt paid was in fact one that originated with the cell phone company? Or, do I write letters to the 3 credit reporting agencies, with a copy of that receipt and as detailed an account of what happened as I can? Ideally, I suppose, I'll find that letter when I unpack, but I'm just preparing in case that I don't. I'm just super angry tonight, as I'd been thinking that I'd been out of debt for the last 6 months and that my score'd be going up, only to find out that it had, in fact, tanked another 50 points on something that I thought had been dealt with.
Thanks in any advice!
Matt
As a result of my divorce almost 3 years ago, I ended up with 2 accounts going to collection. One, for a credit card debt, ended up being charged off back in January '09, and we settled for something like 66%. The other was a cell phone debt, and I was unable to to deal with that until Dec '09/Jan '10. I knew it was a debt I owed, however, as I'd bounced around between a few addresses while getting back on my feet post-divorce, the bills/CA letters never reached me. I ended up contacting the cell phone company in question in December, and got the number of the CA which was handling my case. Upon calling the number for that CA, I got a recorded message saying that my case was now being handled by Redline Recovery, and it gave me the number to contact them. I called, left a message, and a week later got a letter in the mail, stating that I owed $224, which was roughly half of what I owed. I hopped on their website, filled out my information and paid this debt in full.
Now, a week ago, I ran my credit report again, only to find out that my cell phone debt was still on there, listed as being still in collections. I called Redline, left a message, and waited for a callback. This was on a friday afternoon. On monday, the credit monitoring service I was test-driving alerted me that I had a new debt on my report, which I immediately checked out, and saw that that cell phone debt had been transfered to a new CA. The timing on that seemed a little suspect, so I called back again several times this week, and finally ended up getting a person on the line. We looked up my account with the data from my receipt, and she stated that the debt was showing as settled, and that the creditor was the credit card company with whom I'd settled my other debt - the one that had been settled nearly a year before. The conversation ended abruptly after that, before I could figure out what the heck'd happened.
Now, I'm moving this week, and I've packed up all of my paperwork, and I'm terrified to think that I may have thrown away the letter that Redline sent me which clearly declared my debt to be with the cell phone company. I'm going to call Redline back again tomorrow, and see if there's been a mix-up on their end, but barring a miracle with that - what are my options? Is there any way I can trace down the path of CAs that my debt has traveled? I.e., some way to prove, barring finding that letter, that the debt paid was in fact one that originated with the cell phone company? Or, do I write letters to the 3 credit reporting agencies, with a copy of that receipt and as detailed an account of what happened as I can? Ideally, I suppose, I'll find that letter when I unpack, but I'm just preparing in case that I don't. I'm just super angry tonight, as I'd been thinking that I'd been out of debt for the last 6 months and that my score'd be going up, only to find out that it had, in fact, tanked another 50 points on something that I thought had been dealt with.
Thanks in any advice!
Matt
Send the company who is now reporting you owe them money a lette
Send the company who is now reporting you owe them money a letter (via certified mail) requesting that they verify you owe them money. By law, a creditor is supposed to notify you when they sell your account, but rarely do. You can also send a letter to Redline requesting a new copy of the letter they sent you if you can't find the old one. People loose things all the time so it shouldn't be a problem getting a new copy.
