Quick question... How do I know how much is left on my Discover Card? Hoping for any answer. Another question... We recently checked our credit report because of fraudulent charge on a Discover card (which was taken care of quickly, fortunately), just to be sure there was nothing odd showing up. We were stunned to discover we had a "charge off" from Verizon. We have never had anything negative on our report and have always had excellent credit scores.

After speaking with Verizon reps, we figured out that we did owe a bill. We had cancelled our Verizon landline in July. In August (I have the exact date, time, name, etc.), we made a first call because we could not get online to see if we had a "final bill", to pay it - it would not recognize the account number. The Verizon rep was unable to locate our account (apparently because it had been closed, but she still couldn't find anything else) and told us we should be receiving a Verizon bill in September if we had a final bill due. We did not ever receive a final bill, still could get online. We called again in September, they still could not find our old account..

Now we see this credit report, and they have a "charge off" on there, first listed in September! Apparently we did have a final bill, but they never sent it. So we did owe this money - we thought we did but they couldn't tell us how much, etc., and then charged it off. Perhaps we made a mistake doing this, but because we are honest and know we owe this (again, we knew we should have a final bill, but no one could give us any information), we paid it to Verizon about two weeks ago once they FINALLY told us how to get online and do it (you can't with the usual account number if the service was already cancelled by the consumer).

We are going to dispute this with the credit reporting agencies online, but yesterday we just received a call from a collection agency! Since this had already been paid to Verizon, albeit a couple of weeks ago, do we just send a cease and desist letter to the collection agency? Or what should we do first?.

We are so upset. We don't know if we can even get Verizon to take this off, since technically to them I guess it was "late' - even though no one could tell us if we even had a final bill. From research I've found others are having a similar issues with these final bills. In the meantime, whom or what do we address first?.

Thank you!..