Well, I consider myself to be pretty savvy at avoiding money scams. But I received the 'typical' AFNI collection letter. It was for a Verizon NY bill from 1996. My original thought was scam. I checked their website and it looked like an actual company and not just something set up to collect money. I read some of the stuff on the FTC website that they had linked and it looked pretty legit.
I fell into the trap because I did live in the town their records indicated. Although I don't have specific memories of the exact address or phone number, they weren't totally wrong. And I was about to go through a divorce and my ex-wife was terrible at paying the bills or just throwing them away. So it was easier for me to believe that there is some final bill out there that just never caught up to me. I was in the military and have had 8 different mailing addresses since 1996. The amount was 98.24. And that didn't seem too far off base.
My first thought was to just send them a letter. I have never had a collection notice before, and didn't know the importance of communicating in writing. So in an effort to get the thing resolved I called them. I spoke to Frank around 8pm on 6/08/07. He seemed to be very nice and understanding that I was pissed about an 11 year old bill. We talked for a while and I eventually got them to settle for $50. I paid by check over the phone. He said because it was resolved quickly, it will not be reported to the credit bureaus.
Then when I was going on their site today to print out my receipt showing that it was closed, I noticed all these usacomplaints.com in the rearch results.
So now I need to help to find out what will happen to my credit. Or do I need to change my bank account number? Who do I complain to? Any information would be a help at this point.
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