I moved from Los Angeles to another state, and apparently forgot to pay my final water bill. I realized this when my credit monitoring sent me an email alert. I later checked my Experian score, and it dropped me down to Moderate Risk.
So, I paid off the collections agency who acted on behalf of the LA Water department -- the rep initally told me I could talk to her boss to remove it. I tried my best for some sympathy with her.. but the supervisor didn't seem to want to deal with it.
"you just have to wait 5 years for this ..." is what I got back from him.
I figure I can try contacting the three reporting agencies -- but is my situation valid? The way I see it is $50 could cost me thousands in the loan rates I'll be missing out on. Any advice?
Before paying off the debt, you should have negotiated with the CA for pay for deletion agreement. Now, since the debt has already been paid off to the CA, it will stay there in your report for seven years and 180 days from the date you became delinquent and affect your score. Can you tell me your present score.
for experian it's at 678. Unfortunately I don't remember the exact previous score, but I'm quite certain it was med-low risk or low. Creditexpert.com breaks it down into 5 categories.
I've looked over some other threads and people have alluded to investigating "other options" ... any tips? Or then again, I've paid it so I've backed myself into admitting or accepting it onto records? Is that how this game goes?
For me, I pay off my balance on 2 cards about 90% of the time for the last 4 years. I guess my only option now is to keep a balance and just regularly pay. This all seems so silly because my online banking lets me schedule automated payments.
This may be your best option. As Carol said you have already paid the debt. Once a debt get s so old it doesn't have such a negative effect on your credit. I would let time take its course and just keep all your payments timely. Good luck