Expert: David McArthur - 3/24/2009

Question
I had land line phone service with Verizon and switched to Comcast. In order to keep my number, I had to pay my bill in full with Verizon. I went to a pay station and paid the bill of $110.24. I then called them with the receipt number. This was done in April of 2006. In November of 2007 I got a credit monitoring service and saw that Verizon had placed derogatory on my report.  I called them and was told that the bill was not paid.  I told them I had paid the bill and had given them a receipt number.  But unfortunately between moving and the death of my mother, I had misplaced the receipt during this time.  I then thought it was best to just pay the bill again to avoid having the derogatory on my credit report.  I paid Verizon by phone through my personal checking account.  I have this receipt.  I was then told that within 30-45 days, this would be removed from my credit report.  I waited the 45 days and found that this was still on my credit report. I have called four or five times since and have been given misleading information.  As of March 9, 2009, I contacted my credit monitoring service and they told me to call Verizon and ask why it was still on my report as my monitoring service was disputing this.  That is when I was told by Verizon that this account had gone to a collection agency, KCA Financial.  I contacted KCA and I was told that they would fax me a letter stating that the account had been paid and I could send this to all three credit bureaus. I waited four days and called KCA back because I did not receive the fax.  This is when I was told by KCA that their office had nothing to do with this account since I had paid Verizon directly.  They told me to call Verizon back to see what could be done.  Verizon told me at this time they would update the status to Paid Collections.  I was not happy about this, because I was never notified that this account had ever gone to collections.  It shouldn't have gone to collections in the first place since I had paid Verizon directly.  As of today, they have this now listed as a charge off, paid collections, and delinquent on the three credit reporting bureaus.  I am thinking of hiring an attorney to have this issue resolved, however it seems senseless for a bill that was paid two times.  This is hurting my credit, as I have been denied several applications for this derogatory on my report.  I have even been told by Comcast, my current phone service that I will need to pay a deposit for an upgrade on my service specifically because of this report by Verizon.  Is there anything you think can be done in this matter?  I would appreciate any advice you can offer me at this time. Thank you.

Answer
Chuck-

I wish there was an easy answer for you but unfortunately there isn't. If you do file a lawsuit against Verizon they will only be liable for a $1000 fine as laid out in the FCRA for erroneously reporting credit items. So I'm not sure you'd want to pursue a correction that way.

Check out www.financialscoringsolutions.com to learn about the best way to handle the negative trade line.  Feel free to call me directly if you have any questions.

David McArthur
219-718-8566