I just got a letter from a collection agency...

[datalink7]

That I didn't pay a $20 subscription fee to Money Magazine.

I had a sub. freshman year of college. WHen I moved out of the dorms, I cancelled a bunch of magazine subscriptions that I didn't want. I thought I did this with money as well, but I guess I forgot.

Can I just pay it and my credit report won't be damaged? What should I do? Obviously I forgot to cancell it, so I am willing to pay the charge but I just don't want to hurt my credit rating.

 

[Antisocial Virge]

Call the collection agency and ask. I thought that once it went to collection your credit was already marked but I'm not positive.

EDIT: Its too bad the magazine couldn't find your address to mail a bill to but the collection agency sure did.

 

[conjur]

Check here and here.

Lots of people in similar siutations.

 

[Kelemvor]

Did you ever get a bill from Money Magazine or no because it would have been sent to an address you weren't in any more? I'd call Money first and see if you can work something out. But they may tell you it's out of their hands. THen call the Collection agency and be nice and friendly etc and they can tell you what has already been done and what hasn't.

But a $20 bill for a magazine isn't going to affect you credit rating much if at all.

 

[sciencetoy]

Document, document, document. Keep records of everything - letters, when you called & who you spoke to & what they said, copies of your checks, letters, etc.

It doesn't matter much with this $20 thing but it's a good habit to get into, you'll appreciate it when you get to a larger dispute.

BTW, what I usually do in this situation is call/write and say very cheerfully, Thank You for contacting me, I really want to get this taken care of and I can use all the help I can get. Wow, can you fix my subscription (whatever) for me?

These dudes get so many nasty responses that they bend over backwards for the rare happy responders.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: FrankyJunior
Did you ever get a bill from Money Magazine or no because it would have been sent to an address you weren't in any more? I'd call Money first and see if you can work something out. But they may tell you it's out of their hands. THen call the Collection agency and be nice and friendly etc and they can tell you what has already been done and what hasn't.

But a $20 bill for a magazine isn't going to affect you credit rating much if at all.

Au contraire!!

The amount doesn't matter. Having something in collections can most certainly affect your credit!

 

[edro]

When I was in high school, it was the "funny" thing to do if you took all the magazine subscription cards and filled in your friiend's name... then sent them in. 😀

Well, I ended up getting like 10 different random magazines, but I didn't order any of them myself. I just ignored all the bills and they eventually stopped coming. They can't give you bad credit for an unpaid magazine subscription... How can they prove that you even signed up for it? The "Collections" card you got was probably their "collections" department, not an actual collections agency.

I would just forget about it.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: edro13
When I was in high school, it was the "funny" thing to do if you took all the magazine subscription cards and filled in your friiend's name... then sent them in. 😀

Well, I ended up getting like 10 different random magazines, but I didn't order any of them myself. I just ignored all the bills and they eventually stopped coming. They can't give you bad credit for an unpaid magazine subscription... How can they prove that you even signed up for it? The "Collections" card you got was probably their "collections" department, not an actual collections agency.

I would just forget about it.

Have you ever pulled your credit report?

You know why the bills stopped coming? They probably wrote them off as a chargeoff and were reported to the credit agencies under your name and the address at which you lived at the time. They don't necessarily need to have your SSN to report credit problems to the agencies.

 

[edro]

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: edro13
When I was in high school, it was the "funny" thing to do if you took all the magazine subscription cards and filled in your friiend's name... then sent them in. 😀
Well, I ended up getting like 10 different random magazines, but I didn't order any of them myself. I just ignored all the bills and they eventually stopped coming. They can't give you bad credit for an unpaid magazine subscription... How can they prove that you even signed up for it? The "Collections" card you got was probably their "collections" department, not an actual collections agency.
I would just forget about it.

Have you ever pulled your credit report?
You know why the bills stopped coming? They probably wrote them off as a chargeoff and were reported to the credit agencies under your name and the address at which you lived at the time. They don't necessarily need to have your SSN to report credit problems to the agencies.

Yeah, I got a free credit report about 6 months ago (I am 21 now, the magazines were like 5 years ago) and there were no bad accounts on there... just my Sears account and my school loans.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: edro13

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: edro13
When I was in high school, it was the "funny" thing to do if you took all the magazine subscription cards and filled in your friiend's name... then sent them in. 😀
Well, I ended up getting like 10 different random magazines, but I didn't order any of them myself. I just ignored all the bills and they eventually stopped coming. They can't give you bad credit for an unpaid magazine subscription... How can they prove that you even signed up for it? The "Collections" card you got was probably their "collections" department, not an actual collections agency.
I would just forget about it.

Have you ever pulled your credit report?
You know why the bills stopped coming? They probably wrote them off as a chargeoff and were reported to the credit agencies under your name and the address at which you lived at the time. They don't necessarily need to have your SSN to report credit problems to the agencies.

Yeah, I got a free credit report about 6 months ago (I am 21 now, the magazines were like 5 years ago) and there were no bad accounts on there... just my Sears account and my school loans.

Consider yourself lucky then. There are several situations that I've read on other forums with people having to fight w/CAs to remove entries from the credit reports for items as small as $15 magazine subscriptions that went to collections.

When dealing with something that can affect your credit, the WORST thing you can do is ignore mail/bills!

 

[Viper GTS]

It's highly unlikely that a magazine subscription would go on your credit report.

They don't have your social security number, & they simply stop sending them when you don't pay.

As has already been mentioned, it's probably Money trying to get you to subscribe again.

Viper GTS

 

[Gand1]

Also magazines generally do not make money from the people who buy them. The get the their bills payed by the adds in the magazine. Do you really think they will go after $20?

 

[Nitemare]

The words of Shaggy come in to play...

It wasn't me

Unless you used your social or paid with something that has your social on file then you can deny that it was you and they can't prove it. If they persist then you can tell them that they have been warned and you will sue the next time they call you.

 

[Thegonagle]

Just pay it, and you won't need to worry. It's only $20, hardly enough to cause anyone a major long-temp hardship. If I had to guess, it's nowhere near hitting your credit yet, but sooner or later it will, if you ignore the bill.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
It's highly unlikely that a magazine subscription would go on your credit report.

They don't have your social security number, & they simply stop sending them when you don't pay.

As has already been mentioned, it's probably Money trying to get you to subscribe again.

Viper GTS

Thats correct. They can not hurt you. Just thorugh it away and move on.

 

[mpitts]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
It's highly unlikely that a magazine subscription would go on your credit report.

They don't have your social security number, & they simply stop sending them when you don't pay.

As has already been mentioned, it's probably Money trying to get you to subscribe again.

Viper GTS

Exactly. Columbia House is the same way. They can't put anything negative on your credit report because they don't have your social security number.

 

[Eli]

I was getting a 15$ collection agency bill for a Popular Mechanics subscription a while back.

I signed up for the 2 free issues thing. It said if you don't pay after the 2 free issues, you won't recieve anymore.

Seems silly that they billed me for like 6 months though.

 

[Kev]

it's just a fancy gimmick that they use to get idiots to pay for their free subscription. i've gotten these before and i always ignore them and have no problems at all.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: mpitts

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
It's highly unlikely that a magazine subscription would go on your credit report.

They don't have your social security number, & they simply stop sending them when you don't pay.

As has already been mentioned, it's probably Money trying to get you to subscribe again.

Viper GTS

Exactly. Columbia House is the same way. They can't put anything negative on your credit report because they don't have your social security number.

BS!!

A company does NOT need your SSN in order to file an item on your credit report. Name/address are sufficient.

Beware!

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: conjur
Au contraire!!

The amount doesn't matter. Having something in collections can most certainly affect your credit!

You should take that info you get at creditnet with a grain of salt, conjur. The amount does matter. Obviously some damage will occur if it hits his bureau but, depending on the rest of his credit, it should be minimal.

My suggestion would be that he contact the agency and make payment arrangements. If this was the "you have 30 days to respond" letter, then it should be fine and it will never touch his credit at all.

edit: just read the rest of the posts... beware that this isn't a renewal or re-subscription attempt disguised in collection form. Read the letter very carefully.

 

[mpitts]

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: mpitts

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
It's highly unlikely that a magazine subscription would go on your credit report.

They don't have your social security number, & they simply stop sending them when you don't pay.

As has already been mentioned, it's probably Money trying to get you to subscribe again.

Viper GTS

Exactly. Columbia House is the same way. They can't put anything negative on your credit report because they don't have your social security number.

BS!!

A company does NOT need your SSN in order to file an item on your credit report. Name/address are sufficient.

Beware!

Well, if a magazine company or Columbia House reported negatively to your credit report, I would certainly know about it.

They don't.