About a year ago I accidently signed up for a trial subscription to TV Guide through some crappy lotto website. They sent me some issues and demanded payment from me through the mail, I never payed them and they stopped sending me issues or writing warning letters, do you think this could have screwed up my credit rating? I have never had a credit card or gotten a loan yet, so I’m not sure and I don’t feel like paying for a credit report.
I think they have to attempt to collect on the debt first before reporting it anywhere. Also, I don’t think it can be reported until they’ve taken you to small claims court and you still don’t pay. I’m not positive about the second sentence but pretty sure about the first.
Also, you have a right to one free credit report per year through TRW or I forget the other company. Just do a Google search for TRW and credit report and you should come up with lots of web sites. Be careful though because the free one I don’t think you can do online, you have to do it through the mail. The online ones cost money.
And stay off those crappy Lotto web sites!
I disagree with Alitalia about attempts to collect and small claims court. If you look at your credit report, you’ll see that it has payment histories for each account, and the number of payments that were 30-60 days late, 60-90 days late, etc.
But it’s unlikely that an unpaid magazine subscription would end up on your credit report. For one thing, without your social security number, it’s hard for them to make any kind of report. For another thing, reporting to credit agencies would cause magazine companies a lot of headaches due to prank subscriptions etc.
In any event, as Alitalia said, it’s easy enough to get a copy of your credit report. Just order it and see.