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I'm sure we've all been there, at some point. Private utility company's lovely customer service practices and inability to rectify the situation. I wanted cheap internet and semi-expensive TV channel lineup. I got expensive internet and the low-budget TV lineup. One of the support reps assured me they wouldn't charge me for the month. My bill was supposed to be reset to $0 balance and my TV/internet was supposed to be replaced with the proper packages. Never happened. Not to mention modem lease fees for an owned modem where they insist it belongs to them and a whole bunch of E/N bullshit issues which aren't important. Basically I wound up spending a combined total of 10 hours on the phone with support across multiple months and in the end. gently caress Comcast. I just wanna know how this will effect my credit. I'm an idiot who doesn't know a whole lot about how credit scoring works. I have a Visa credit card, which I use quite frequently and pay off at the end of the month. I've never gone over my spending limit, nor have I ever not paid off the balance before the billing cycle ended. I've been late on paying the electric bill here and there, but have no outstanding balances with any company. I'd assume I have pretty good credit, so far. Basically... -I didn't sign anything. A contract was supposed to arrive in the mail. I never got it and even if I did, I wouldn't have signed it until I was positive I was getting the service I had requested. -I didn't give them a dime. -I owe about $300 which is a complete crock of poo poo. -I'm gonna toss their modem and cable box in the trash. They haven't lifted a finger for me, so why should I return their equipment? -I DID confirm my identity by giving them my SSN. Not sure how this factors in, just thought I'd give as much info, as possible. But really, I'm simply unsure how credit works. If my credit score takes a hit from Comcast, can I just keep on spending with my credit card and paying off the balance to sorta "fight" the bad points from Comcast? Will Comcast even be able to do anything aside from refuse to do business with me in the future? liquorlanche fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Dec 2, 2014 |
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Dec 2, 2014 18:15
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You mean *affect* your credit. Non-comedy answer: yes, it will affect your credit if they send you to collections. An account sent to collections is kind of a bad thing and for the sake of future credit card applications/job applications (where they will check for delinquent accounts)/buying a house you might want to fix it. I definitely wouldn't throw their equipment in the trash - they'll probably add to what you owe if you don't return it. It won't destroy you, but it will be a pain in the rear end and you'll be getting calls from collections for a few years. Probably it's worth your time up front to avoid the hassle down the road. Hufflepuff or bust! fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Dec 2, 2014 |
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Dec 2, 2014 19:30
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If you are buying a house or car in the next 7 years, pay off the bogus $300 charge or hit the phones again and try to get someone sympathetic and get it to something less than $300. I spent over 10 hours on the phone with PayPal in a dispute over $550. I can relate. It was miserable, and I thought many times that if the dispute was for a lesser amount of money, I would have just dropped it and let them keep the money.
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Dec 2, 2014 19:42
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How does it work where you go to buy a house or car in 7 years and one tiny black mark on a golden record would literally botch the deal? What would be a practical example of how this would affect a house mortgage or car lease? Can I not keep raising my credit score, despite my outstanding Comcast balance going to collections? My logic is if I keep spending/paying off my credit card balance, my credit score will keep going up and up. Isn't there some point in which it's like "Ok, his credit score is sky high. Honestly, are we really gonna give a poo poo about that $500 it says he owes Comcast from 15 years ago?" When you say "An account sent to collections is kind of a bad thing for the sake of future credit card applications/job applications" what do you mean, by this? The closest comparison I can think of is a straight A student getting rejected from a college because of a B- in 4th grade gym class. In all practicality, wouldn't this be extremely unlikely? I'm willing to gamble on "extremely unlikely" but I'll probably try and settle up if the chances are "more likely than I'd assume." liquorlanche fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Dec 2, 2014 |
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Dec 2, 2014 19:44
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An account in collections isn't a B-, it's an F and has a large impact on your credit score as it basically is a giant flag saying that you don't pay your debts. It may not kill getting a loan, but it will almost certainly effect the interest rate you get which can be pretty expensive. Also credit scores don't work how you think they do.
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Dec 2, 2014 19:54
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asur posted:An account in collections isn't a B-, it's an F and has a large impact on your credit score as it basically is a giant flag saying that you don't pay your debts. It may not kill getting a loan, but it will almost certainly effect the interest rate you get which can be pretty expensive. Also credit scores don't work how you think they do. So it's really more of a "history" as opposed to score?
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Dec 2, 2014 19:58
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Someone doing a credit check on you isn't going to analyze it and then weigh everything against everything else. They are going to see a score. A delinquent account brings a score down. Sometimes there are interest rate cutoffs that can be missed when buying a car or whatever if your score isn't good enough. Also something like a cable bill sent to collections will show up as an entry on your credit report saying it's not paid, whereas a paid off cable bill simply doesn't show up on your credit report at all. Basically the question is, do you want to take the risk that this will pull your score down enough to harm something in the future, or do you want to fight it more, or do you want to just pay it so that it is nonexistent on your credit report. Comcast isn't going to give a poo poo if you don't pay them, it isn't going to hurt their feelings or teach them a lesson. Also you might want to think twice about not returning their equipment, that will be even more fees. beejay fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Dec 2, 2014 |
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Dec 2, 2014 19:59
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Their customer service doesn't really care about you, they care about their metrics. You can use that to your advantage. Call them up and patiently wait to get a human being. Once you have a human being on the line tell them that you want to cancel your service. At this point; canceling your service, hanging up, or staying on the line are all bad for this person. Haggle with them until they erase all of your monopoly money fees in exchange for not canceling. It's pretty likely to work since no person who works on your account cares about you or the $300, just the subscriber numbers. You can always call again and cancel later because Comcast is a giant corporation that doesn't care. Whatever you do, don't throw away their equipment. They have every legal right to charge you for that and ruin your credit.
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Dec 2, 2014 20:07
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/\ That's probably what I'll wind up doing. At this point, I'm just asking questions, because I'm genuinely curious. I'm just trying to understand how one's credit score can go up and down. A deliquent account would bring a score down, but at the rate I spend/repay my credit card balance, wouldn't that bring my score back up, over time? Or would the numbers gently caress me over in the end in a sense of "Deliquent account = -1000 points | Paid his balance off before the end of the biling cycle, this month = +1 point." Where I wouldn't realistically be able to compensate for the delinquent account. Lets say I do wanna take the risk that this will pull my score down enough to harm something in the near future as long as I can repair the damage, over time, without paying Comcast back. Would this actually be doable or would the delinquent account forever be a black mark on my credit report? My question is, if I continue to spend responsibly, will the damage repair itself over time, or will this drag me completely down, until I pay off the delinquent account? liquorlanche fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Dec 2, 2014 |
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Dec 2, 2014 20:10
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You can eventually pull your score back up again, but it will never be as high as it could be if you had just not gotten sent to collections. Now, theoretically, after a given amount of time it should drop off, but collections agencies have all kinds of tricks to keep these things alive. Read this: http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/debt-management/credit-score1.htm The biggest piece of your score is payment history. Again, cable bills, electric bills, phone bills, don't show up on your credit report UNLESS you didn't pay them. So paying many other bills on time doesn't help. Here's something interesting as well:https://www.creditkarma.com/article/accounts-in-collections "The degree to which a collection hurts your credit score is generally correlated with how high your credit score is when the collection agency reports the debt. The higher your score, the more points you can lose." beejay fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Dec 2, 2014 |
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Dec 2, 2014 20:15
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Thanks for those articles!beejay posted:Here's something interesting as well:https://www.creditkarma.com/article/accounts-in-collections debts in collections article posted:As with other types of credit report errors, you may file a dispute with the credit bureau if you believe the collections account reported is false or outdated. For example, if it is not your debt or if it has been seven years from the original delinquency of the debt, you could request to have the collections information removed from your report. Funny because seven years was the exact sort of time frame I had in mind. Does anyone have any experience with filing disputes with the credit bureau? Right now, the balance I owe is completely false with no way for me or Comcast to prove it. I figure in 7 years, I could make the argument that it's both false and outdated. Questions... -How would a dispute work wherein neither party has concrete proof that the given amount is owed? Would they look at past transactions with that company? I had Comcast internet last year and paid every bill the day they came. It's as though I was a model customer and then things completely went to poo poo when I decided I'd subscribe to a TV package. -How much of a pain in the rear end is it to file a dispute? I'd assume it would be more annoying/time consuming than just fighting with the company, but who knows, it could be easier. Figured I'd at least ask. What's the typical steps one needs to take to do this? -Do they tend to favor the business's side of most dispute cases? liquorlanche fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Dec 2, 2014 |
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Dec 2, 2014 20:28
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Here's a tip from a guy with lots of stuff in collections: Just pay it and move on. I've learned this exact same lesson being bitter towards companies before. Often they'll tack on huge collection fees on top of what you "owe", and just because it falls off your credit report in 7 years doesn't mean the debt goes away. That only happens if you pay the debt or get it removed in bankruptcy IIRC. Edit: but definitely try to negotiate the amount owed.
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Dec 2, 2014 20:39
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I'm gonna wind up calling when I have the energy to negotiate and settle but at this point, I'm just curious as to how all this stuff works.Knyteguy posted:just because it falls off your credit report in 7 years doesn't mean the debt goes away. What makes you say this? What do you mean the debt doesn't go away? If nobody aside from me and the company I owe knows it exists, is it really there? (If a tree falls in the forest.) So what? I'm still in debt on a moral level? It all just sounds like if I didn't bother, my debt with Comcast would be a drop in the bucket, 10 years down the road, provided I don't gently caress up by spending more than I make. Or does that drop in the bucket create more of a ripple effect than I assume? If so, how so?
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Dec 2, 2014 20:43
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Refer to this thread also: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3234974
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Dec 2, 2014 20:45
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liquorlanche posted:I'm gonna wind up calling when I have the energy to negotiate and settle but at this point, I'm just curious as to how all this stuff works. Well for example: here in my city our cable company Charter Communications has a deal with Dish Network that if a previous customer owes either company money, neither company will provide service. Also I've heard that old debts have a way of showing up on credit reports even after they should be off. People with 10 year old debts have went to get a mortgage for example (which is a point that your credit history should be extremely stable for the months leading up to the mortgage, and during verification) and all of sudden those debts show up on a credit report and the mortgage company freaks out. Look if you want to save yourself a huge headache I recommend you pay it (which it looks like you intend to do). Not on moral grounds, but just for peace of mind. I wish I would have, even with debts of mine that have fallen off. It will always be a concern of mine when I want to apply for a loan. If I didn't have such an attitude about paying companies I felt were in the wrong I'd probably have a 700 credit score right now, instead of slowly clawing my way out of a 530 (currently 598) while paying 11% interest on one of my loans.
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Dec 2, 2014 20:51
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Knyteguy posted:Well for example: here in my city our cable company Charter Communications has a deal with Dish Network that if a previous customer owes either company money, neither company will provide service. So basically highly unlikely, but I really don't wanna risk being the rear end in a top hat it happens to. Thanks for the info everyone! I now realize that credit reports and scoring is far more obscure than I could have ever imagined. Rules say I'm not allowed to close the thread, but I'm pretty much all set.
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Dec 2, 2014 20:57
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I've dealt with Comcast on 3 different accounts. They're easy to deal with. Tell them you want to cancel. Could you give more info on how you obtained service and hardware without signing a contract? I verbally authorized (aka signed) a contract over the phone with them once and via the Internet a second time. I have never even heard of anyone setting up service in person so I have never heard of people ACTUALLY signing said contract. How do they think you have rental equipment if you don't have it, also? It's pretty straight forward here: their equipment = rental; yours = yours. You need to call and talk to them. Or better yet, chat with them via the web. This won't work to cancel sadly but it probably will to sort your current issues out...it's basically zero effort. I saved $35*6 in as long as it took to write this post (word wise, and typing/reading time wise - took 30min all in all, partially while I was 'doing my business'.
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Dec 3, 2014 04:51
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When my wife and I applied for our mortgage several years ago, at the time I had a ~$100 bill owed to a dental clinic. The accountant at the clinic assured me that whatever procedure was covered by my insurance, claimed she had called my insurer and verified. I come to find out a few weeks later that it was not covered by my insurance. When this happened, I was something like 20 years old and didn't give a gently caress about my credit, but I very much cared about the $100 and the principle of it. So we are talking with the mortgage guy and he asks me about it. At this time, the account was something like 6y10m old. I explained the situation and told him we would simply wait the extra 2 months to apply for a mortgage if that's what it came down to. Ultimately, by the time we found a house we liked and got financing and such, the debt had been dropped from my credit report. Also, since then, I have never missed a payment on anything so my credit score is very high. But I remember reading, at the time, that if I had simply paid the debt off, there would be some status saying that the debt was settled on my report and that such a status was only marginally better than not paying it off at all - that if you're going to go this route, then you contact the debt company by writing and guarantee they will remove the debt entirely if you pay some portion of it. Is this still the case?
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Dec 3, 2014 05:19
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johnny sack posted:you contact the debt company by writing and guarantee they will remove the debt entirely if you pay some portion of it. Is this still the case?
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Dec 3, 2014 07:01
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Your "score" is not the only thing that is reported. It will be reported that you have an account in collections, which as others have mentioned is the biggest red flag possible: "DOES NOT PAY DEBTS". Stuff that "lowers your score" is stuff like missing a payment here and there, carrying too much debt relative to your available credit, applying for a bunch of credit all at once, only having new accounts with little history. Delinquent accounts slash your score. And yes, it is more of a "history" than a score. Re the seven years thing - the debt can't be reported after seven years, but it doesn't mean that you don't still "owe" it and that people will stop trying to get you to pay it back. The phone won't magically stop ringing on the exact day seven years rolls around. And for the jobs thing, a lot of companies these days use something called "ChexSystems" which basically looks at your credit history for red flags (super indebted, delinquent accounts) and can make recommendations for or against hiring you based on your credit history. It sucks I know, but "unpaid accounts" translates to "unreliable" and could potentially cost you employment. You can file a dispute later on claiming the debt isn't yours, but a) this will involve more certified letters than you probably care to send and b) isn't guaranteed success. Comcast will probably just send your first bill and say "you signed up, here is your bill, you didn't pay" and then the credit agency will have to be like "well, your name is on it so...huh". It might work, it might not. Not a good thing to bet on or want to deal with. Sounds like you're going to just call and yell at them, which is correct. Yell for all of us! Comcast blows.
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Dec 3, 2014 07:15
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Late to the party. Don't gently caress with Comcast. They will send you to collections. I did this my senior year of college over Comcast bullshit charges and the ensuing collections notice hosed my credit for years. I have to chase down Comcast to prove they still had evidence of my debt (they kept everything on paper files at the time) . Luckily for me Comcast gave up and the note was removed from my file. Pay the bill, that poo poo ain't worth $300
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Dec 11, 2014 06:06
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Surprised nobody has said this yet, but file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. It looks like Comcast has an enormous (surprise) amount of complaints, most of which were resolved to the complainer's satisfaction (i.e. you) While I don't believe they would simply forgive the debt (though they honestly might over such a small amount), you will be able to contact someone who actually has the power to help you with your situation (unlike the CS reps who get $10 an hour to get you off the phone as quick as possible). I've had great success using the BBB, it's basically the golden ticket to get someone in charge who can help. Barring that, usually a big company has a decent facebook and/or twitter where the customer service is competent as well, much more than any phone rep.
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Dec 11, 2014 07:42
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I've made two calls since starting this thread. First call, the guy agreed to credit my account $100 which never happened. Second call, the lady agreed to credit my account $150 which DID happen. Her exact words were "I'm going to credit you with $100 today because that's my daily limit. Tomorrow I'll credit you another $50." Which brings me to the assumption that each account exec has a certain amount of money they're allowed to credit accounts with, on a daily basis. I'm also relatively sure there's huge incentives associated with customer retention. I'm getting the idea that it's totally "worth it" for an account exec to blow their entire daily credit allotment, in order to be able to put down that they retained a customer. Can anyone confirm/deny this?
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Dec 12, 2014 15:07
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I made Bank of America eat 120k from a short sale on my underwater mortgage. My credit score dipped 150 points across the board from 800+ to about 650. I also had $3200 in collections from a line of credit to buy a PC and was horribly late on paying student loans for years... (paid them both off before getting a mortgage....) No one is going to give two shits about not paying $300. Regardless, pay it and walk away. Get proof you returned their equipment and keep harassing customer service until you find someone that can close out your account properly.
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Dec 17, 2014 01:47
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