Debt Removed from Collections by Original Creditor, Paid Off... Does Collection Agency Have to Remove Record?

For over a year, I have had a medical bill showing up on my credit report by a collections agency. In an attempt to clean up my credit, I figured it was time to do something about it. I contacted the collections agency to get more information where they told me that once the debt was paid it would be marked as "settled" on my credit report, and not paid-in-full. So, as a precaution, I sent a letter to them requesting them to send me verification of the debt. Last week, the "proof" arrived, only I noticed that on the billing statement sent as verification that there was an entry the same day that the bill was printed as "Removed From XXXX" (XXXX = Debt Collector). So I called the physician group where the bill was from, and paid the bill in full right over the phone. The debt collector is refusing to take any action on the credit report entry other than to mark it as paid. Can they do this, since the debt was removed from collections to begin with, don't they have to delete the entry?

1 month ago - 3 answers