I have been very gradually re-entering the miles and points game after a long stretch of years out of the loop. Today, I have an embarrassing story to share that I’d much rather keep to myself. But on this journey to re-enter the miles and points game (and even graduate from “player 2” to more of a player 1), I’d like to share the nuggets and fumbles I come across along the way.
In this post, for example, I’ll highlight an important step I took to check up on my credit score (and what I found when I did this).
Do you have any forgotten debts (like I did)?
Like many who start out in this hobby, my overall percentage of credit usage has decreased thanks to increasing lines of credit and increasing credit limits. But while I had seen a credit score boost from these efforts, it had plateaued in a way that confused me. So out of curiosity, I took advantage of Experian’s free credit report to see if there was anything I was missing.
Sure enough, there was a collections account balance of roughly $225 attributed to Austin Energy. Apparently, when I closed down one of the Airbnbs I’d managed in Austin years ago, a final energy bill was posted to my account that I never knew about, or assumed I’d resolved. And since I moved on from Austin to another stretch of nomad time shortly after, any letter Austin Energy had attempted to send was likely lost. 8 years later, the debt was still just sitting in a collections account without my knowledge.
Frustrating as it is to discover a debt you didn’t realize existed, it’s a huge relief to me that there’s a way to catch and resolve it. I simply logged into Experian and downloaded my credit report for free. Within that report, there was a “Debt” section which clearly listed the collections debt. There was also a “Collection accounts” page with more details, including the original creditor (Austin Energy) and a phone number for resolving the debt with the collector. I was able to resolve this with a simple, 15-minute phone call to that phone number. Then, a week or so later, my credit score jumped up 33 points.
This is easy to avoid if you regularly check your free credit report
Obviously, this is a humbling story because anyone in this hobby knows that taking care of your credit score is paramount, and it’s embarrassing to let something like this slip. But I wanted to share it as a healthy reminder that even the most well-intended of us may have random little debts like these, which are easy to miss. And a debt doesn’t have to be very large for it to go to collections. I remember a $17 Verizon charge that got missed in a similar way years ago, which also ended up going to collections.
As a nomad, it was particularly difficult to receive mail in a timely or reliable way, and I realize many people don’t have that same problem. But I can’t be the only one who finds it hard to keep up with things in a move, and finds themselves moving every few years. I’ve moved apartments within a city, moved across the country, moved from one phone provider to another, moved from one internet provider to another…and so on and so on. This seems to be a trend with my generation, so I’m sure I’m not the only one doing all this hopping around. And these are all opportunities for those easy-to-miss debts.
For me personally, the solution is simple. I’m not going to magically become a more organized person when I move physically, or move my patronage from one company to another. But I’m now going to make it a routine to check my credit report every so often, just to make sure there’s nothing like this I’m missing. Don’t forget, this can be done for free in a multitude of ways, which you can read about here.
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Hi Carrie,Thanks for sharing your experience, and I’m glad you were able to fix the issue once you found it. I would also recommend signing up for all the free credit monitoring services that almost every credit card provider offers. Between the five or six credit card issuers out there, any credit card related activity usually triggers a slew of email alerts right away.
Looking forward to reading more of your posts in the future. Have a great weekend.
Great advice. Thank you for sharing, Caroline!
The same goes in the other direction too. Check for unclaimed funds. I found an escrow refund after the sale of a home 6 years ago. We moved from one state to another with a one month stint in an AirB&B while we waited to close on the new house.
Just google “unclaimed funds” and click on the first link with .gov domain.
Or just… dispute the debt. It is older than 7 years so it should have been automatically removed from your credit report. There was no need to pay it.
Unless a lien was recorded. Those expire 10 years after they were recorded (not from when the debt was assessed). And the lien may be renewed after 7 years depending on the state law. I work in collections and can only tell you about my state’s law, but your comment is incorrect in almost all cases in my state. (Sorry, wish it were true though)
While your statement might be true in general, you aren’t considering the relatively low amount of the debt. Unless the money is owed to the government, no collection agency is spending anywhere between $100 and $350 dollars (more in some states!) to file a lawsuit, provide service multiple times, and than file a lien. I’m not aware of any state where it costs less than $100 in total.
I’m not talking about a lawsuit or the dollar amount a corporation might use as their threshold to pursue collection activity. Only about recording a lien, which is what is discovered by credit agencies because liens are a matter of public record. In GA filing a lien costs $7. I have personally seen liens with a remaining balance of $25.
Thank you for being strong as its always hard to mention our moments of weakness. Literally just this week I MS’d a card and the money that came in I accidentally counted it alongside my wages. A few days later I checked the balance and was surprised to have made such a simple error. We live and learn. Thank you Caroline.