Expert: Apex Credit Services, LLC - 5/24/2008

Question
We moved from Virginia to California in 2005 and closed all of our active utility accounts as always.  In December 2007 we received a letter from a debt collector indicating that we had a judgment against us for a debt to Verizon (less than $40) for an unpaid bill from when we lived in Virginia.  We disputed this because we feel that we closed our account with Verizon appropriately, and never received a bill or notice of late payment from Verizon.  We never heard from this debt collector after sending them this written dispute.  Today we got a letter from a different debt collector attempting to collect on the same mistaken claim of debt.  We have chosen not to pay this bill so far for three reasons: 1) We don't believe it is a valid debt; 2) Since it had gone to collections by the time we first heard about it, our credit report was smeared anyway; 3) We felt that it might make it worse from a credit standpoint to pay because we would be admitting that we had a legitimate bill that we did not pay.  What is your recommendation?  It would be easier in some sense to just pay it to get the harassment to stop, but we don't believe we actually owe the money.  This is a concern to us because other than this we always had, have, and will have perfect credit.  We're the types who pay bills early just in case.  Any ideas you have on this would be appreciated.

Answer
Marc:

  I would recommend the following:

  1) Request validation from the new debt collector,

  2) Dispute the account tradeline by Verizon through the credit reporting agencies conveying your sentiments espoused herein,

  3) Contact Verizon directly adopting the same posture.

  If it is verified, you may need to consult an attorney.  However, you're right that if you pay it, it can actually harm your scores insofar as the date of status will reflect the date paid.

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