Prologue - I have for years held a high credit score, regularly monitor my reports, and believe in paying what you owe.
On Jan. 13, I checked my credit monitoring website and was shocked to see that my score had dropped 61 points. I hadn't received any phone calls, letters in the mail claiming I owed any debt, so my heart stopped, thinking my identity had been stolen.
Then when looking at the details on my credit monitoring site, I quickly saw that a company called Aargon Agency, Inc. Had reported a collections debt of 59 dollars to my report. One, I haven't heard from any collection agency, much less this one, since I was in my twenties, and that is a LONG time ago. Two, how in the world could such a trivial amount cause a 61 point drop in my credit score?
Next, I called Aargon, got a service rep., immediately asked what this debt was for, and all she would tell me was that I owed 59 dollars dating back to 2008 for an emergency room visit. I remember that visit, remember paying every bill I'd gotten as a result of that visit, relayed this to her aswell as the fact that I hadn't heard from Aargon or any other collection agency regarding this alleged 59 dollars until now, and requested a detailed invoice of this debt... Validation of it sent to me viaUS mail.
She immediatelyasked 'Validation?', as if she'd never heard of this. I explained what 'validation of debt' was, and she respondedunbelievably with 'But you already have validation. I'm telling you right now that you owe this, what hospital it's from. That's your validation'. Swallowing my disbelief, Iinsisted she send me viamail proof of this debt, that I wasn't about to pay anyone for anything until Isaw for myselfvalidation that I owed something, and just as importantly, that it was owed to Aargon Agency, Inc.
Finally, she told me thatI could view the details of my billif I went to payaargon dot com, but as she was reading to me thereport number/code I would needin order to log in and see this 'proof', the phone suddenly/conveniently went dead on her end three digits in. I went to this address, and after several attempts, I was finally able to access my account by entering/hyphenating/fiddling with theaccount number filed on my credit report. Lo and behold... Nodetailedinformation at all.
All too long story short, I spent the rest of the day researching this company, found other complaints similar to mine, researched my options, considered just paying it off in order to get this done and over, ultimately deciding tothenofficially dispute this charge through my credit monitoring service. Additionally, I filed a complaint against Aargon with the Nevada BBB, and with my state's Attorney General's office.
It's only six days later, but as of today, Aargon's charge has been deleted from my account, my score is back to the normal I worked so hard to get it to, and if it were just me, I'd let this go at this point. It's not, though. I believe that this collection agency is preying on people with good credit, bypassing any actual attempts to contactus for paymentand going straight to reporting because they know that our type are the most likely to just try and pay something off without questionin order to protect our credit rather than risk disputing it. I believe that this companywould've contacted me ultimately with this strategy in mind had I not foundout and responded as quickly as I did. Therefore, I plan to share my experience with this company on any and every forum I can find that might help someone else fight back.
If you hear from this company about any amount they claim you owe, I cannot stress enough... Request validation of the debt, call and send them a letter if the phone call's not enough, immediately dispute this with the three Credit Reporting Agencies, if they rule against you, disputeagain, and if you honestly feel that unethical or illegal practices on the Collection agency'spart are being used, complain to the BBB, your state's Attorney General's Office... Even to your local new station's consumer reporter. You have rights... Use them!!
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