# Letter from a collection agency



## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

My perfect credit is now in shambles, today I received a letter from a collection agency saying that I owe the Insurance Corporation of BC $46, $46 I never knew i ever owed before, no letters, no phone calls, no "Wait before you can renew your drivers license/car insurance there is an oustanding balance of $46 on your account", what do I do?! I'm totally choked now, I'm planning to buy a condo in 18 months and this just won't look good on my credit report. Who should I contact first, ICBC, or the collection agency? Because first step is to pay off this $46, next step is to figure out what I owe $46 for, and the third step is to try to get this darn thing off my credit report...


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## Vexel (Jan 30, 2005)

Call the collection agency, it may not have gone into the credit bureau yet, so things may still be ok.

After that, find out who didn't tell you that you owed $46 and tell them off.


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## capitalK (Oct 21, 2003)

I remember being in Blockbuster when a customer was yelling at the top of his lungs "YOU SENT MY OVERDUE MOVIE TO COLLECTIONS?!? FOR XX DOLLARS? [swear word] [swear word].

I guess it's easier to send $40 to collections than to track down the person which is the reasonable thing to do.


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

A Toronto hospital once tried to bill me when my OHIP card failed to scan. They had the numbers but refused to re-run them, instead sending a $300 bill to a collection agency. The agency kept phoniing to ask me who was going to pay and I kept telling them that OHIP would pay. The hospital argued that they had waited six months and it was now to late to bill OHIP. I refused to budge and oddly enough this never appeared on my credit record.

I once moved and had a car insurance company cut off my insurance without telling me over a billing error. Registered letters aren't forwarded with regular mail, instead returning to the originator. I drove for six months without insurance without knowing it. Only the call from the collection agency tipped me off.


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## zoziw (Jul 7, 2006)

dona83 said:


> My perfect credit is now in shambles, today I received a letter from a collection agency saying that I owe the Insurance Corporation of BC $46, $46 I never knew i ever owed before, no letters, no phone calls, no "Wait before you can renew your drivers license/car insurance there is an oustanding balance of $46 on your account", what do I do?! I'm totally choked now, I'm planning to buy a condo in 18 months and this just won't look good on my credit report. Who should I contact first, ICBC, or the collection agency? Because first step is to pay off this $46, next step is to figure out what I owe $46 for, and the third step is to try to get this darn thing off my credit report...


Credit managers, like me, are living breathing people who take a look at the whole picture, not one $46 late charge. If I denied everyone credit who had one little speck on their credit report, I'd be out of a job.

If you pay the rest of your bills on time I can't see a bank, car dealership or pretty much anyone else, walking away from a sale and interest because of this.

Did they even say they reported it? It is pretty easy to do so, but maybe they didn't.


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## Trevor... (Feb 21, 2003)

I have had UPS badger me for brokerage on things that they had no business collecting on. Usually RMA's that were clearly marked as and declared as RMA's. 

I explain to them that they billed in error, I never pay them and nothing has ever come of it.


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## zoziw (Jul 7, 2006)

> I guess it's easier to send $40 to collections than to track down the person which is the reasonable thing to do.


Third party collection agencies are a joke. I started a job once where one invoice had gone to third party collections, they kept calling me whining about how the guy who owed the money wouldn't call them back (duh).

I told them to give it back to me and not worry about it (didn't cost us anything) and ended up collecting it myself about a month later.


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

> Dear Sir/Madam:
> 
> Creditor: ICBC Total Amount: $46.00
> 
> ...


Basically what it says.


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## CanadaRAM (Jul 24, 2005)

"avoid further action" 

Basically, if yopu pay them now there is no consequence - yet. They just want you to 'think' that they'll @&^&^ up your credit rating.

Assuming that the charge is real (albeit a surprise to you) get it paid ASAP then take it up with ICBC. If you dig in your heels with the collection people, THEN some notice will get taken. Remember the collection agency knows from nothing. All they have is a slip of paper with your name and a dollar amount. 

Pick your battles, mon ami.

If you think the charge is not legitimate, call ICBC right away -- Now there is, of course, a small chance this is a phisher trying to scam you. Do they have all the corroborating information correct -- drivers license number, license plate, type of vehicle?


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## Beej (Sep 10, 2005)

I'd go a little further than CRam. Contact ICBC first to verify (they should still have some record). 

In the past, when I've moved and cancelled a credit card there has been trouble. Some charge that I didn't expect came in late and, unbeknownst to me, the cc company tried to contact me, gave up and something ended up on my credit rating. Given the circumstances it was my fault for not checking up, but I wouldn't do anything without checking with ICBC first.

I don't see this being a major factor for a mortgage though.


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## zoziw (Jul 7, 2006)

> Please be advised that upon receiving your file, a credit check has been completed and an inquiry from our company will be reported on your credit bureau.


I don't currently use Equifax (D&B instead) but when I did use them at a previous job I would get a list of the most recent companies to perform a credit check on someone in the report (and my company's name would be added to the list).

It wasn't a negative mark against a credit rating, just information on who had pulled a report recently.

All this seems to be saying is that they performed a credit check on you and now it will show up that they did so. It doesn't say they reported the $46 as being past due and sent to collections.

Even if they did, I can't see $46 being a big issue if you pay the rest of your bills on time.

You'd have to find out who they report to and then pull a report on yourself to see if anything else is there.

Also, is this a legitimate collection agency? You say you didn't know you owed money. Maybe check with ICBC to see if they sent your account to collections. Also, and I don't know your specific circumstances, wouldn't you be paying ICBC every month or so anyways for insurance? If so, why wasn't this tacked on to your monthly bill?

I live in Alberta and insurance is all private and I'm not sure how ICBC works.


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

Just paid for my $46 bill this morning... it was a Skytrain ticket I got 4 years ago that I completely forgot about. Ugh. I still remain firm that ICBC really should've notified me before sending the bill to collections and let them know clearly how angry I was at them, but the nice lady at the collection agency said that because this was taken care of really quickly and they didn't actually do a credit inquiry on me yet, this likely will never show on my credit report.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

Don't worry. If you ever track down a responsible person at Skytrain (e.g.) no doubt they'll claim they tried to notify you, and even cite a paper trail.


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## RevMatt (Sep 10, 2005)

Glad you got it resolved, although I'm puzzled what ICBC has to do with the Skytrain. But yes, as However says, I think you can be assured that there is a paper trail somewhere for CYA purposes, even if it is fictional.


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

Well ICBC is the one who handles collecting fines for the transit company Translink so that's why they're involved... the reason I got my ticket in the first place was that I forgot to buy a new monthly pass and they gave me a ticket for it when they were doing a fare check. (Darn Proof of Payment system, why can't we be normal and do a gated system). I was always under the assumption that they would ask me to pay the fine next time I had to renew my drivers license but nothing to that extent.


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## guytoronto (Jun 25, 2005)

Be aware that not all companies can affect your credit rating.

My Petro Canada credit card has never appeared on any of my credit reports.

I have 2 HBC credit cards. One of them is on my credit report, the other is not.

I have screwed Blockbuster out of late-fees numerous times. I've received many "collection" letters from them. Never once has any of it appeared on my credit reports.

My university once screwed up billing to me, to the tune of $1000. They kept hounding me. I got the collection letters from a 3rd party company. That was years ago. Never appeared on my credit reports.

Columbia House? Who HASN'T screwed Columbia House. Not on my credit report.

The list goes on and on.

I would have bet that $46 wouldn't have hurt you. Credit card companies and banks are the ones that usually affect your credit report.


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## zoziw (Jul 7, 2006)

dona83 said:


> Just paid for my $46 bill this morning... it was a Skytrain ticket I got 4 years ago that I completely forgot about. Ugh. I still remain firm that ICBC really should've notified me before sending the bill to collections and let them know clearly how angry I was at them, but the nice lady at the collection agency said that because this was taken care of really quickly and they didn't actually do a credit inquiry on me yet, this likely will never show on my credit report.


Glad it worked out for you, but what they did was unethical. Their letter implied action had already been taken when it hadn't.

They should have said if you didn't clear this up they would do that...if they actually ever do.



> Be aware that not all companies can affect your credit rating.


It depends if they report to a company like Equifax. It is remarkably easy to do so but not all companies do it, even if they say they do.


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## maccam (Jun 28, 2006)

Equifax - If ever there was a company that should be forced out of business it's them. I can't believe that with the record of errors and mistakes they make that anyone uses them and they are allowed to carry on. 

Having a bad report from them means nothing, they've screwed up so many peoples credit reports/files it's an industry joke. tptptptp Unfortunately it's up to you to waste countless hours fixing the problems they create.


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

I got my credit report from Equifax and it looks clean. I did have another collection back in 2003 regarding a dentist bill I was disputing. Basically 6 months after cleaning and checkup services, the dental office found out that I did not have insurance under my parents' name anymore and to fork up money for it -- I was bent that they should've notified me immediately and not just suddenly find out 6 months later. Somewhere during the middle of that dispute they sent my bill to a collection agency so that stands in my credit history.  My credit score is still pretty good despite it but I just didn't want a second one going into my credit report. I'm all R1s and I1s besides that.


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

Remember there's Transunion too, seems some companies use Transunion and some use Equifax and some use both.


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## Ohenri (Nov 7, 2002)

*dona83*, hope all is well now. 

*Guytoronto*, pls remind me not to ever do business with you. 

Overall, credit is such a touchy issue, but it seems to be the key to all we need to do - that's substantial anyhow. A few years ago, I decided to take a hard look @ mine after watching Susy Orman's show over several months (and bought one of her books - YFB). She also advised to take a look @ it x2 a year to make sure that all is good, and to catch irregularities... well what would you know??

@ the top of this year, I noticed that one of my creditors erred somewhere, and suddenly I had this credit score that had taken a BRE-X dip. 

I was just on my way to NYC the next day (useless info to most, I just recalled all details suddenly as I was running around town getting ready), and I called that creditor ASAP and was all over them until they resolved it. No need to mention that I had the contact @ that creditor on speed dial/emailed her regularly for progress updates. I demanded an immediate correction of the erratum/deletion of the credit entry, assurance that my score would go back to _where it should have been_ void all of this quagmire, AND *a statement in writing acknowledging the error on their part *- as I too was in the property purchase process.

*zoziw* - do you have some bytes of wisdom that you can post here?? Things that we might not know other wise?? I try to guard my credit like Patrick Roy in his prime...


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