I began receiving collection letters about an account I had no idea about. Since my credit is very good, I called up right away. They told me the account was for Viatel, someone I had ever heard of.
After several back and forths, I found out it was a long distance account I had in 2001 when I used Econophone. They said that Viatel was the parent company of Econophone, Voicenet, Destia, and some others. They said the company went bankrupt in and the records were now being taken care of by Mapnad, which owned all the accounts now.
*here is the secret to get away from this*
I know this trick from someone that works in collections, and it will guarantee help you with the skeleton from the past.
These type of accounts can just be disputed to the credit buereaus, because all they will do is ask the collection agency if they are valid, they will say yes, and then the account is on your credit for 7 years. IT COST ME 15 POINTS ON MY RATING FOR A $14 ACCOUNT!!!
Here is what you have to do. Call the agency, and tell them you have no idea about the debt. Then say that you never got a bill before. Then you can tell them that you will pay it, but only if they remove it from your credit. NOT MARK IT PAID ON YOUR CREDIT, REMOVE IT! They can do this since you don't know anything about the account til now. MAKE THEM FAX YOU A LETTER SAYING THAT THEY WILL REMOVE IT, and they pay it that day so they can't back out or say the time expired.
This saves lots of points on your credit. It is easy, and then you have the letter proving that the account will never come back again.
Hope this helps everyone out. Seems that everyone is getting snuck up on by Viatel's back bookkeeping, and this is the best way out. Otherwise, leave it on your credit for 7 years, cause this is the only way off.
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