In February I discovered on my credit report that for a number of months, my credit was being compromised by a collection agency called Palisades Collection. It was for an unpaid bill for $62.22 through AT&T in May. I had not used AT&T as a carrier since 2003 when I canceled my AT&T cell phone. I tried to write Palisades Collection at their NJ address but there was no response. So I called Cingular (company AT&T merged with), they told me to call Nationwide Credit (NC), who was AT&T's collection agency. NC told me that all debt accounts were transferred back to AT&T when they closed their account with them. I have also tried Cingular's collection agency but they could not help me either.
A month later. I received a letter from Merchants' Credit Guide Co (MCGC). Saying they were representing Palisades Collection and was offering me repayment plan options for the $62.22. Fortunately, MCGC had a phone number to call. They advised me to write a letter disputing the charge and to include any evidence with it. Luckily, I kept my bills from AT&T so I was able to dig up my last bill from AT&T after the service was cancelled. I even had my credit card bill that showed I paid the amount. Strangely, none of the bills from AT&T showed a amount of $62.22. So I just faxed MCGC the last bill and waited.
Going back and forth with MCGC, my credit was finally cleared in April. It was a relief since this was a lingering stress for over a year. My credit jumped back up close to 100 points when the Palisades Collection account was removed from my credit report.
THEN, three months later, July the same account showed up on my report again. I called MCGC and I claim that the case had been resolved and closed. That I should contact Palisades Collection and clear it with them. They don't seem to want to have anything to do with my account, stating that it's not longer their's.
So my credit is down by 67 points since this happened two days ago and I'm stuck at square one again. It is frustrating and stressful.
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