How to make sure Collection removed after dispute won't reappear

[jimjones44]

I will start off by seeking your 2 cents on below matter. I will be very grateful for your help and thanks in advance. 

I requested for my gym membership to be canceled but they continued to charge me. I blocked my card and disputed transaction with my bank who ruled in my favor and credited the amount back to my account. My gym was still trying to charge me every month, I went down in person to the gym, spoke to the manager and showed the proof of cancellation who then sent email to the billing department to stop charging. I thought it was all over, only to find a collection on my credit report. Luckily it's not reported on all three, but just one. 

Long story short, I got in touch with the collection agency and sent the proof of cancellation(emails from the gym). They were supposed to check with my gym but they never got back and I never bothered to check again. 

Now, I disputed it to my credit reporting agency who after a month wait, ruled in my favor. Most likely because the collection agency did respond in the time provided. The collection was taken off my account now. 

Quote

 

Questions

1) What is the likelihood that it will reappear? I fear that at some in point that collection agency will try to sell the debt to somebody, who may report it fresh.

2) Now that collection is out of my credit report. If I call the collection agency and pay off, just to ensure that the collection agency doesn't sell to somebody and that it won't reappear again in the near future. I am just afraid what if after paying, they report it as paid and reappears!.

3) Who is my actual creditor now? My Gym / Collection Agency? (If I decide to pay off)

4) Earlier I tried negotiating with the Collection agency to remove the debt and I would pay them regardless of whether I owe them any. They were not agreeing to it, perhaps I am a bad negotiator. Is it worth hiring a professional service to do this for me? What would the cost be and any recommendations?

 

 

P.S: Even though I feel morally / legally I don't owe these guys any money, the debt is only a couple of hundred dollars and I would just pay it off and get over with it than going through this hassle of credit repair which may cost me more than paying off the collection anyway. Let alone any bag of worms this debt can create later on because I may change my address if  I relocate to another state and I may not get any physical mail which may go unnoticed.  I don't know if they sue or take this legally. I would definitely fight back If I get to know but that is something I want to avoid.

[BV80]

Did you sign a contract? 

If so, what are the cancellation terms?  

Is it possible there was a fee for early cancellation? 

In other words, did you follow the terms in the contract?

The entry could return if the gym decides to verify the debt. 

As long the gym still owns the account, it is the creditor.

Who is reporting the debt?  The gym or the collection agency?

 

[jimjones44]

10 minutes ago, BV80 said:

Did you sign a contract? 

If so, what are the cancellation terms?  

Is it possible there was a fee for early cancellation? 

In other words, did you follow the terms in the contract?

The entry could return if the gym decides to verify the debt. 

As long the gym still owns the account, it is the creditor.

Who is reporting the debt?  The gym or the collection agency?

 

1

 

1) Yes, There was a contract. 

2) Cancellation terms are 30 days prior notice. It was a sketchy one.  During sign up, I paid the first and the last. Let's say I start in Jan, I have to submit the cancellation request in Jan before Feb billing cycle starts. So you will end up paying Feb, then March will also be active because you already paid first and last month. It's an absurd policy, which I overlooked when I signed the contract. Good lesson for me to read the contracts thoroughly in the future. 

3) Nope, no cancellation fee but that 30 days notice is a tricky one by itself. 

4) Yes, the contract said. No 30 days notice required for relocation. I was in CT and traveling back and forth to NJ. This was just a gym that I joined for time being or whenever I am here. I gave the proof well before the next billing cycle and requested for cancellation in the event of relocation. 

5) I honestly don't know who owns the account, the debt was reported by the collection agency, not the gym. When I had a dialogue with the collection agency, I told them I will go down to the gym in person and will talk to the manager but the CA was saying that my gym is no longer responsible for this and they are the ones I should deal with. So I don't know If I still have to go and have a word with my Gym/CA. 

[WhoCares1000]

First off, you cannot make sure it won't reappear. Even if you pay the debt, some JDB's are so unscrupulous that they will sell the debt on anyways and it will show up again. That is why most people on this board will not pay a JDB unless a court orders them to do so (and even then, they make it as hard as possible).

Personally, if you are playing the debt game, you should be subscribing to a credit monitoring service anyways. That is especially true after the Equifax hack. If you have to send a dispute to a tradeline, you can do that via regular mail CMRRR Green Card and it would cost at most $7 for postage and services. There might be other charges if the JDB validates to do MOV's but if things go too far, you can sue to get that money back if a tradeline is not removed.

As for the JDB's themselves, keep the paperwork in the event that you could be sued. We cannot predict what they will do but most JDB's do not sue for a few hundred dollars. Again, it depends on the JDB. If contacted by the next JDB, dispute the debt immediately. If they do a DV and you feel you are correct, send a cease and desist letter. That will force them either into court or to move on. Most will move on.

[BV80]

2 hours ago, WhoCares1000 said:

First off, you cannot make sure it won't reappear. Even if you pay the debt, some JDB's are so unscrupulous that they will sell the debt on anyways and it will show up again. That is why most people on this board will not pay a JDB unless a court orders them to do so (and even then, they make it as hard as possible).

Personally, if you are playing the debt game, you should be subscribing to a credit monitoring service anyways. That is especially true after the Equifax hack. If you have to send a dispute to a tradeline, you can do that via regular mail CMRRR Green Card and it would cost at most $7 for postage and services. There might be other charges if the JDB validates to do MOV's but if things go too far, you can sue to get that money back if a tradeline is not removed.

As for the JDB's themselves, keep the paperwork in the event that you could be sued. We cannot predict what they will do but most JDB's do not sue for a few hundred dollars. Again, it depends on the JDB. If contacted by the next JDB, dispute the debt immediately. If they do a DV and you feel you are correct, send a cease and desist letter. That will force them either into court or to move on. Most will move on.

I'm not sure we've established that the debt was sold.   This could be a collection agency collecting for the OC. 

Assuming the debt is still within the SOL, why would you want to force them into court?

 

 

[RockDaddy]

9 hours ago, jimjones44 said:

 

P.S: Even though I feel morally / legally I don't owe these guys any money, the debt is only a couple of hundred dollars and I would just pay it off and get over with it than going through this hassle of credit repair which may cost me more than paying off the collection anyway. Let alone any bag of worms this debt can create later on because I may change my address if  I relocate to another state and I may not get any physical mail which may go unnoticed.  I don't know if they sue or take this legally. I would definitely fight back If I get to know but that is something I want to avoid.

FYI - Even if you pay this, it won't necessarily come off of your credit report, it depends on the CA. You could ask them for a Pay For Delete (browse the board for this), but get everything in writing first, including not selling the debt onwards.

It sounds from what you wrote that you'd rather have this over and done with rather than the hassle of fighting, etc.  If that's the case, try the Pay For Delete route. Personally, I'd fight it.

P.S.  I had this *exact* same thing happen to me, to the point that I had to have my bank manager close that account and open a new one. The gym was trying to charge me every couple of days... however, and thankfully, it never got to my credit report.

[RockDaddy]

5 minutes ago, BV80 said:

I'm not sure we've established that the debt was sold.   This could be a collection agency collecting for the OC. 

Assuming the debt is still within the SOL, why would you want to force them into court?

 

 

This is a good point.  To the Original Poster - why not pull your credit report and find out if it was sold.

Every time I've ever had questions for a Collection Agency about validity they have all said, 'Pay Us', which of course is in their best interest, not mine.

[Clydesmom]

10 hours ago, jimjones44 said:

Questions

1) What is the likelihood that it will reappear? I fear that at some in point that collection agency will try to sell the debt to somebody, who may report it fresh.

2) Now that collection is out of my credit report. If I call the collection agency and pay off, just to ensure that the collection agency doesn't sell to somebody and that it won't reappear again in the near future. I am just afraid what if after paying, they report it as paid and reappears!.

3) Who is my actual creditor now? My Gym / Collection Agency? (If I decide to pay off)

4) Earlier I tried negotiating with the Collection agency to remove the debt and I would pay them regardless of whether I owe them any. They were not agreeing to it, perhaps I am a bad negotiator. Is it worth hiring a professional service to do this for me? What would the cost be and any recommendations?

1. There is no way to guarantee another entity won't get involved and report it.  As others have said keep ALL the paperwork so that if it does you can fight it much easier.

2. It could re-appear but the odds are low if it is paid.

3.  Depends on the contract with the collection agency.  These days many creditors hire a collection agency on contingency which means the collection agency only gets paid if they collect.  That is why an OC steadfastly refuses to take a payment and refers the consumer back to the CA.  They are contractually obligated to have you deal with the CA.  Doesn't mean the gym doesn't still own the account they just assigned collecting the payment to the CA and cannot bypass them.

4.  No it is not worth hiring a professional service for this.  The reality is pay for delete is becoming more and more rare.  In the digital era it is easier to validate and it is in the creditors best interest to report accurately so they can all make clearer decisions on who to grant credit to in the first place.

 

[RockDaddy]

39 minutes ago, Clydesmom said:

In the digital era it is easier to validate and it is in the creditors best interest to report accurately so they can all make clearer decisions on who to grant credit to in the first place.

11 hours ago, jimjones44 said:

I requested for my gym membership to be canceled but they continued to charge me. I blocked my card and disputed transaction with my bank who ruled in my favor and credited the amount back to my account. My gym was still trying to charge me every month, I went down in person to the gym, spoke to the manager and showed the proof of cancellation who then sent email to the billing department to stop charging. I thought it was all over, only to find a collection on my credit report. Luckily it's not reported on all three, but just one. 

I would hardly say this is 'accurate' reporting. Not sure how this helps the creditor make clearer decisions about credit worthiness / risk.

 

[jimjones44]

3 hours ago, RockDaddy said:

This is a good point.  To the Original Poster - why not pull your credit report and find out if it was sold.

Every time I've ever had questions for a Collection Agency about validity they have all said, 'Pay Us', which of course is in their best interest, not mine.

First up. Thank you, All, for posting in this thread. I get tons of useful information from this forum. 

I do not see the collection currently on my account. So I did try to pull my previous report. What I see is

Collection Agency  : Agency Name
Original Creditor    : GYM Name here
Status                             : Open
Opened Date             : MMM DD, YYY
Closed Date                : --       
Responsibility            : Individual
Balance                          : $XXX
High Balance              : $XXX
Remarks                        : Account information disputed by consumer meets FCRA requirements

Creditor Contact Details: CA Details

I assume my debt is still not sold. So do I ask my gym to agree to "Pay for Delete"?.  Even though it doesn't reflect on my account still. 

My guess is those guys will agree if I tell them I will give the money because they may know its otherwise difficult for them to collect. But I can only speculate, it can go totally south for me too. I remember these guys had some other financial services taking care of their billing kinds of stuff. So no idea who owns this account even though it shows the gym name in the report. 

Also, my gym is notorious for these cancellation frauds, I just read about others complaining about it as well in Google reviews. I believe they try to hire CA once but may not pursue because more often they see a lot of people walking out because the gym is not good. They only benefit from operating for long hours which is why I signed up as well. And I assume, in each cancellation case, they are doing what they exactly did to me. Perhaps 50/50 suffer this. So there will be a lot of cancellations cases that they may have to follow up.  

Because my gym is OC, Can I go hold their collars and ask why they did this. When I clearly have emails from their manager that I have requested for cancellation well in advance?

Moreover, I clearly told my CA that I will not pay them a dime because I was reluctant due to having all the proofs that are required. They said they would contact the gym and get back. They never did. I haven't even received one phone call from anybody after that.

Is it safe to rest this in peace and wait till the ghost comes back for the haunting?

 

 

[Clydesmom]

2 hours ago, RockDaddy said:

I would hardly say this is 'accurate' reporting. Not sure how this helps the creditor make clearer decisions about credit worthiness / risk.

The statement was not about the original post but about why creditors don't do pay for deletion as much anymore.  Sheesh.  Work on your reading comprehension.

23 minutes ago, jimjones44 said:

I assume my debt is still not sold. So do I ask my gym to agree to "Pay for Delete"?.  Even though it doesn't reflect on my account still.

If it isn't reporting then there is nothing to delete.  What is on an old credit report is irrelevant.

24 minutes ago, jimjones44 said:

Because my gym is OC, Can I go hold their collars and ask why they did this. When I clearly have emails from their manager that I have requested for cancellation well in advance?

Waste of time and energy.  Let it go.  They do it because they make money.  Not rocket science.

25 minutes ago, jimjones44 said:

Is it safe to rest this in peace and wait till the ghost comes back for the haunting?

 

My opinion:  Yes.  Let it be.  If they come back and try again my response would be to simply sue them for deceptive business practices, slander, libel and defamation of character along with FDCPA violation(s) and have them pay ME.

[RockDaddy]

2 hours ago, Clydesmom said:

The statement was not about the original post but about why creditors don't do pay for deletion as much anymore.  Sheesh.  Work on your reading comprehension.

 

My comprehension is just fine. I read what you wrote and thought it was pretty laughable IMO. 

[jimjones44]

On 2/18/2018 at 2:22 PM, Clydesmom said:

The statement was not about the original post but about why creditors don't do pay for deletion as much anymore.  Sheesh.  Work on your reading comprehension.

If it isn't reporting then there is nothing to delete.  What is on an old credit report is irrelevant.

Waste of time and energy.  Let it go.  They do it because they make money.  Not rocket science.

My opinion:  Yes.  Let it be.  If they come back and try again my response would be to simply sue them for deceptive business practices, slander, libel and defamation of character along with FDCPA violation(s) and have them pay ME.

Thanks. I think at this point. I am going to take the chance and see what they do. IDK if they would sell that debt to some other person because the collection agency hasn't bothered to contact me. But, let them come back and let's see what happens then.

I want to thank everyone here who posted in this thread. I have a much clear picture than before on how the process works and how to handle it. Credit goes to this forum and you all.