letter from debt collector.

[Ideo]

Quick question.

Had some issues with getting gas connected at the new place. Change of company from previous tenants.

Got a bill from energy Australia, paid it and switched to origin.

Came home today to a letter from a debt collector demanding payment of $77. From energy Australia.

I never received this bill. I have no idea what it is for. I am furious. Not at the amount but at the first notice I get of this being from a debt collector.

I think the amount relates to gas used between the bill and switching companies. No issue with paying it but what are the implications for such action on my credit rating and what can I do about it?

Cheers.

 

[Rolf Latham]

Quick question.

Had some issues with getting gas connected at the new place. Change of company from previous tenants.

Got a bill from energy Australia, paid it and switched to origin.

Came home today to a letter from a debt collector demanding payment of $77. From energy Australia.

I never received this bill. I have no idea what it is for. I am furious. Not at the amount but at the first notice I get of this being from a debt collector.

I think the amount relates to gas used between the bill and switching companies. No issue with paying it but what are the implications for such action on my credit rating and what can I do about it?

Cheers.

startwith pulling your file from a crdit file provider

eg

www.mycreditfile.com.au

its unlikely that this has hit your file at this stage

ta
rolf'

 

[weg]

Quick question.

Had some issues with getting gas connected at the new place. Change of company from previous tenants.

Got a bill from energy Australia, paid it and switched to origin.

Came home today to a letter from a debt collector demanding payment of $77. From energy Australia.

I never received this bill. I have no idea what it is for. I am furious. Not at the amount but at the first notice I get of this being from a debt collector.

I think the amount relates to gas used between the bill and switching companies. No issue with paying it but what are the implications for such action on my credit rating and what can I do about it?

Cheers.

I got one of these not long ago, and got concerned as well.

Mine was for $16 for an overdue DVD from the video store which I paid a couple of weeks before getting the letter because I went into the store to rehire - there was no phone call or letter from the DVD store telling me I had this debt either.

Rang the debt collectors who told me not to worry about it, as it would not show on my credit rating, as did the DVD shop owner after I enquired with him.

Following that I rewrote a loan with the bank, and they said nothing, so I'm assuming it's OK, and a 'letter' doesn't mean a black mark.

Surely a bank would always mention it, wouldn't they?

 

[Aaron_C]

Hmmm it probably won't appear on your credit file - and even if it did you could dispute it and have it removed.

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

I think there's a minimum dollar limit that can be put on your credit file. I doubt a $16 problem would ever show up.

I've seen the odd letter from a debt collect myself. A quick call can usually clarify the problem and gives you an avenue to solve it if necessary. Ignoring it gets you into trouble, even if you're not at fault.

 

[Aaron_C]

I've seen the odd letter from a debt collect myself. A quick call can usually clarify the problem and gives you an avenue to solve it if necessary. Ignoring it gets you into trouble, even if you're not at fault.

I get a few from the ATO
Love dragging them.

 

[Ideo]

I think there's a minimum dollar limit that can be put on your credit file. I doubt a $16 problem would ever show up.

I've seen the odd letter from a debt collect myself. A quick call can usually clarify the problem and gives you an avenue to solve it if necessary. Ignoring it gets you into trouble, even if you're not at fault.

Cheers all.

First one of these ever. I've had a sheltered life

Very busy week so not what I wanted on a Friday night.

 

[coastymike]

The credit reporting provisions do not provide for any minimum amount in respect of debts that may be listed, except in the case of presented and dishonoured cheques.

Veda Advantage, however, currently only lists debts over $100 and credit providers generally do not object to such a limit.

 

[handyandy]

Interesting point as we still have the power on at our factory unit but the tenant has now been gone a number of months and I certainly haven't bothered changing over the power.

Even if we want to change over the power or my prospective tenant wants to how do we achieve this if we don't know which company the previous tenant was signed up with.

Cheers

 

[thatbum]

I didn't think anything could be listed against your credit file unless its part of an express agreement, or an actual court judgement debt.

 

[BMan]

when you move in you just sign up with who you want they do the rest

as for you getting a letter from debt collector if the power was in the other tenants name why are you getting the letter/ paying for it?
if you switched to origin you only need to pay origin bills

 

[Hysteria]

I never received this bill. I have no idea what it is for. I am furious. Not at the amount but at the first notice I get of this being from a debt collector.

I know how you feel. Last year I recieved a number of bills from telsta for an account I never ever had or opened. I tried and tried to sort this issue out with telstra and they said it would be taken care of.

I had been working away for a few days and I came home to find a telegram from Dun & Bradstreet debt collectors. I had to pay the debt that day as this was the final demand payment. If I didnt pay my credit file would have taken a hit.

I paid the $600 bill. I was furious. I then had to contact the Telstra Ombudsman to recover my costs which they eventually paid after 4 weeks.

The most annoying thing was the amount of time to sort this account out. I would have spent at least 4 hours on the phone to telstra and half a day spent driving back and forth from there stores. My blood still boils

 

[Aaron_C]

Telco/utility defaults are annoying but they don't affect you too much unless you are already a borderline/weak case. If all else fails make sure that the broker directs you to a non-credit scoring lender.

 

[Shaneelastic]

Telco/utility defaults are annoying but they don't affect you too much unless you are already a borderline/weak case. If all else fails make sure that the broker directs you to a non-credit scoring lender.

agreed aaron i had a paypal one which i disputed, banks didnt blink an eye. ive also got a client now going through my mb who has a $120 default its absolute crap. refinancing 600k against 2.8 milliom of property with 220k income and they still ask questions. mind you, hes a fifo worker and the bill was lost once when he moved, bank finally agreed that was probaly right

 

[DaveM]

I think there's a minimum dollar limit that can be put on your credit file. I doubt a $16 problem would ever show up.

I've seen the odd letter from a debt collect myself. A quick call can usually clarify the problem and gives you an avenue to solve it if necessary. Ignoring it gets you into trouble, even if you're not at fault.

Some of the collectioni agencies used to get around the $100 veda minimum listing limit by adding a $80-100 administration fee onto the debt to push it past $100.

This practice was stopped a while ago due to to its abuse where a $10 fine could end up on a credit file. Its my understandinfg that admin fees now cannot be included in the debt amount, and also have to be relative to the actual cost of the administration and not some stupidly high number.

 

[Ideo]

Sorted,

Paid it, and gave Energy Australia a hard time about it. They claim a bill was sent, but I never received it. Probably heard that one a million times, but as the nice lady I spoke to said, you've been a customer for 9 years and never missed any payment or had to have any reminder letters sent out, so I think they believed me.

A lot of fuss for such a small amount.