Outstanding Bill, should i pay?

Should I pay an $80 dollar cell phone bill, when I don't think I owe anything to save my credit?

• Last spring I switched cell phone plans from AT&T to Verizon. I was on a month to month plan at that point. I paid AT&T the amount that was left on my account, and went on with my life. A couple months later I get a call from AT&T saying I still owe them 80 dollars for service. I explained that I had cancelled, and paid my account off, the lady who I talked to went over my account, and agreed an error had been made, and said that my account will be updated as it looked like an error on their end. A few months go by, and then I start getting collection calls, I explained to the creditors the same situation, and they pretty much left me alone on the point. I even got a letter, and I replied back about the conversation, and included in the letter I would gladly pay any money owed if they can show me proof of where I owe them money, nothing came. Today I get another call from a creditor, and at this point I am getting a little tired of the calls for something I don't think I owe, I told them they will have to take me to court and prove I owed the money, and I am sure that phone conversations can be obtained where AT&T said my account was cleared. The lady replied back that in my contract I still owe since they bill 1 month behind schedule, and told me to read the contract and it says it there. She may be right since I don't have the contract anymore, but then again it doesn't make any sense since I have always paid them every month, for years, and AT&T told me I was caught up when I settled. I told the lady I talked to I won't pay them since I was told my account was clear, and they would have to prove that I owe the money. Their reply was that I am going to be reported to the credit bureau and my credit rating will suffer, which now I am a little concerned. I have worked very hard to get my credit rating to where it is now, and would hate to destroy it on a trivial bill, but then again in principle I don't want to pay money that I don't think I owe. So I am not sure if I should just pay and get it over with, or if I should fight it with the risk of hurting my credit, but sticking to my guns. Just hoping to get some advice on this situation. Thanks for the help.

• Answer:

  Since you don't seem to have the proof that you have completely paid off your account balance, you are going to lose here when it comes to having to pay this $80. Let it go to collections and you can bet that $80 will turn into $150 or more pretty quickly. I guess if you wanted to take a chance, you could ignore it until it is on your credit report and then dispute it with the agency they are reporting it to and see if they can supply a valid contract/bill that shows you still owe this amount. At that point, you would have to pay. But, you would be paying a lot more, and your credit would have already been affected since it is in collections.