Consumer complaint received 2022-07-22
Product: Debt collection — Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt was paid
Company: SUNRISE CREDIT SERVICES, INC (KY)

On XX/XX/XXXX of 2022 XXXX  issued an account statement indicating that I had a balance of {$150.00} due before XX/XX/2022 for services dated XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XX/XX/2022. The account number referenced ended in XXXX which differed from my current and/or previous account numbers for XXXX  services. I called the number listed on the statement regarding billing inquiries and was reassured that I didnt have an outstanding balance. Concerned, I reached out to XXXX  through mobile chat and again was told that I didnt have a past due account balance. I requested an itemized statement of my account and was provided with something via email from XXXX. Later I received two prepaid Debit cards that appeared to be from from XXXX  along with statements suggesting that I had overpaid and was being refunded the amount of over payment. I was suspicious and didnt activate the cards. I reported the incident to the XXXX XXXX attorneys office and to XXXX  and was advised to check and freeze my credit reports. In XXXX I received a phone call from someone claiming to be with XXXX  who claimed I had debt w/ them but refused to disclose the details unless I provided them w/ details of my personal identification. I declined and called XXXX  to report the incident. It was suggested that I contact XXXX I did so. I blocked the number that the caller called from. In XXXX I received a letter from a sunrise XXXX  services stating I owed {$150.00} to XXXX XXXX. I called XXXX to inquire about the debt. I was told that it was incurred in XX/XX/2022. I explained that it wasnt valid debt. I sent an email disputing the debt and printed the email and mailed a hard copy to sunrise collection US mail address. In XXXX I received a follow up call from sunrise XXXX  claiming I owed money. Concerned about the validity of the caller/debt, the possibility of ID theft and my credit rating, I called XXXX  and provided the account number ( XXXX ) and billing dates that the caller claimed debt was owed for. The representative located a past due balance associated with my name and provided me with dates that differed from the dates provided previously from sunrise. I reviewed my credit card statement from that time period and noted that a payment in the amount of the collection claim was issued that day. The XXXX  billing account number differed from my XXXX  account number from that time period AND the payment was issued to XXXX  NOT XXXX. I doubted the validity of the debt but was told that if I paid the collection agency would NOT place damaging remarks on my credit reports. I Agreed to pay and was provided a confirmation number and reassured that Sunrise would be notified immediately to prevent them from reporting it to credit bureaus. The following day I reviewed my XXXX credit report and noticed that Sunrise reported me as having an unpaid collection. I called sunrise and was told that they couldnt refute the allegations. I disputed it through XXXX. Later I learned that it was reported to XXXX as well. The allegations resulted in an increase in my auto insurance rates because it lowered my XXXX XXXX score. Ive spent hours trying to gather adequate documentation to dispute the charges. XXXX  responded to a complaint I made with the FTC and offered to answer questions I may have about the debt. They reassured me that the negative rating would fall off of my credit reports soon. I explained the financial consequences of the actions and asked for the estimated time it would take before the statement was removed. I was told that it would be 7-10 years