Opened an account for my sister

by Elizabeth
(Fort Worth, Texas, USA)

Yes, I know that was my first mistake.... She never told me that she didn't pay the last months bill. As soon as I found out about it I payed it immediately, but by that time it had already been reported to the collections agancy. It was reported to collections on Oct. 31 and I paid it today, Nov. 15. Is this going to make my credit (which is very good) go down in score?

Reply from DebtCollectionAnswers.com:

If they report the collection account - they may not since you paid it right away - your scores will go down, and probably significantly. The best time to negotiate with a collector not to report these accounts is before you pay them. But if you check your credit reports (annualcreditreport.com) and it has been reported, you may want to ask them to remove it given the circumstances. If that doesn't work, you may try disputing it in a few months. If the collection agency doesn't verify it, it must be removed.