How to DELETE collections after bankruptcy

Hi All,
I just received my discharged chapter 13 notice and I am currently trying to clean up my Credit Reports. Thanks to this site, I have a lot of information on how to dispute negative items on your report. Well, I disputed some items 30days ago with Experian and finally got the results. I have the credit monitoring from CreditExpert and check my report everyday. When I finally got the results, all of a sudden there was a collection account on my Experian and TransUnion reports. Its not on Equifax, yet. It's a collection from Anderson Financial Network Inc AFNI for Sprint. It just showed up Tuesday the 22nd. Its for $197 dollars. I initially called Experian back and disputed with them that its not my account. Now, I am not sure If I did the right thing. I am currently reading up on this site about Validation Letters.

Question: Since this just showed up on my report 1 day ago. What is the best course of action for me to take. I am positive this is not my account, but from what I read on this site, it seems like the best course for me to take is to first dispute with all credit agencies, then when it comes back as being verified, then send a Validation letter to the collection agency via the fax service. Is this the best way for me to dispute this collections account? I haven’t called or faxed them yet. I wanted to get some help from this site before i do anything. Since it was just posted to my Credit Report, I was about to send them a validation letter today, but decided to wait. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks for any advice.

woaini

Moved your posting to the Bankruptcy forum.

You want to make sure that the collection does not STAY in your reports as "discharged" - as it will still count against you for scores.

AFNI is very good about deleting. Send them your dispute, you don't want to request validation, simply write:

"Please immediately delete this collection as I filed for bankruptcy on ... and this is not a valid account"

Don't give details, it should do the trick.

If you dispute with the bureaus as "discharged" - that's what you'll get. So for the bureau dispute state: "This collection is not valid and disputed with AFNI."

You want to dispute with the bureaus AFTER AFNI got the dispute.

Thanks for the advice.

Would it be safe to fax this from work and include my home address & work number in the dispute with AFNI?

As soon as they (AFNI) receives the FAX I will immediately dispute with the other 2 Credit Agencies. I am just not sure if I should call them or not. I was prepared to send the validation letter. I'll see what happens next. Let me know if there is anything else I would need to do. Thanks.

Don't give them your phone #! Just include your home address and the account # as on the credit report.

I wouldn't fax from work either, as it'll probably have your company name and fax #.

I use Faxaway (http://creditforum.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=843)

With Experian you can do your "specific" dispute online (copy/paste for your records) and with TU and Equifax you can fax it.