I have been trying to get my credit back in order after a few years of hard times. I have done well to pay all my debts off since 2008. We cancelled our account with AT&T at the end of 2010, and then they came back a few months later saying that we still owed them almost $900 in cancellation fees and other stuff. long story short, a collection agency got involved a few months ago (even though we have been paying AT&T directly) so we went ahead and paid AT&T the remainder of the balance owed so that we could be done with it. However this collection agency is still trying to get money from us and is still reporting to the credit bureau. the amount that they are saying we owe is the amount that they would have made off of us if we had actually paid them instead of AT&T. We disputed them on our CR after we paid AT&T off, but it still came back saying that it was our debt and it remained on our report. The amount they are trying to get is less that $200 and i can pay it without any problems, but now its more of a "Should I pay them money that I don't owe them just to get rid of them?"
collection agency
No you shouldn’t pay them any money. You have done a great mistake by paying them more. Ask the collection agency to validate the debt in writing. If they don’t give any reply, then forward them a Cease and Desist letter. After that if they are still trying to contact with you, file a complaint against them to the SAG or FTC.