West Asset Management claims I owe them $1,800, but It’s only reported to one agency?
Question by C: West Asset Management claims I owe them ,800, but It’s only reported to one agency?
Okay, so my fiancee and I just got all 3 of his reports from IdentityGuard.com, and West Asset Management reported ONLY to TransUnion, that he owes them $ 1,800 for an account opened in September of 2007. He didn’t open any kind of account around that time at all. They are a collection agency so they are collecting for someone else, but the Identity Guard report doesn’t give any of those specifics. The annualcreditreport.com website will not load for me at all, so I can’t do that. We managed to get his Equifax report from their own website, and this collection is not listed on there anywhere. We tried getting his TransUnion report from their website, but he has to call to verify his identity and it’s after hours, so. We have a few questions:
1) I know the best thing to do is write a Debt Verification letter, but is it really a bad idea to just call them to find out what they are trying to collect for? Like, will calling them re-age the account or affect me in a bad way?
2) Why is it only reported to TransUnion? Neither my Experian or my Equifax reports state anything about this $ 1,800.
3) I was planning on getting a car at the end of this month. Do dealerships usually check TransUnion? Or do they check the other two? I don’t want to have trouble getting financed because of an error.
Thanks for any help!
Best answer:
Answer by InquiringMind
They are probably collecting on a old debt these get resold and there are companies out there that try to collect on debt that is already cleared. Fair debt collection info is what you need to research and make sure this is a valid debt, they have to provide the account number and yes the validity of the debt or you are not liable.
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September 10th, 2010 at 1:59 am
Maybe West only subscribes to Trans Union (doubtful).
Maybe TransUnion just made a mistake and added the report to the wrong file. It happens all the time. Contact TransUnion and enter a dispute.
September 10th, 2010 at 2:08 am
I had a problem with a repossesion only being reported to Transunion. They don’t have to report it to all of the credit reporting agencies. I can tell you though that Transunion tends to be the easiest agency to dispute things through. If I were you I would try to dispute with the credit reporting agency because it could get knocked off your report. I hear though that most places check Experian but when we went to get a car loan they checked all of them & saw the repossesion & turned us down. You can dispute with transunion over the phone, online, or in the mail. The internet is super easy.