Credit Repair - Self Help

A funny thing happened the other day. My father calls me and tells me that a collection agency called his house looking for me and left a number. I thought this was sort of peculiar considering that their number is unlisted AND I have not lived with my parents in over 22 years. I call the number he gave me, lo and behold it is AFNI. For those that don’t know AFNI is the collection agency used by most of the mobile phone carriers. I have only had service with 1 cellular provider since I started using a cell phone back in the early 90’s, and that is Sprint.

I call AFNI and ask what this is in regards to, they ask for my phone number. Of course I do not give them my phone number, I tell them that they phoned my parent’s house and I want to know what the hell they want. I give them the number they called (my parent’s). They say I owe Sprint $300 from 2006 and that they have been sending me letters for the last year concerning this debt. I explain to them that not only do I not owe Sprint any money, but I am also a current Sprint customer and always have been in good standing. Of course I get the normal threats that this is going to effect my credit report if I do not pay immediately, etc. I laugh and tell them they better figure out what is going on unless they are prepared for a lawsuit. The lady then tells me to hold on and she places me on hold for several minutes. She comes back and asks if I live at a certain address, not only do I not live at this address, I don’t even know of this address. She puts me back on hold for a few more minutes and comes back wanting to know my SSN and my current address, again I laugh and tell her no way am I giving you that information. Finally I tell her that she better figure out what was going on and in the meantime I was going to call Sprint and find out what the hell was going on.

I call Sprint customer service and explain what has just gone on with AFNI. They assured me that I did NOT owe any such amount and that they would contact AFNI to find out what the hell was going on.

I have not heard back from AFNI and don’t suspect I will. If they so much as do an inquiry on my credit report I will pounce on them in a heartbeat.