PORTFOLIO ACQUISITIONS PLEASE HELP! Duluth Georgia

Okay, here's the dealio. I go to a very reputable property management company to rent a house, and, of course, they want to check my credit. Of course, Because I have one account in collections, my deposit is almost doubled. A now-defunct cell-phone company (NOT AT&T Wireless) is reporting I owe them $218.00. The applicant screening program that the property management company used is showing that this account is in collections to a company named PORTFOLIO ACQUSITIONS.

I ordered my annual credit report, and in the brief synopsis it shows on-line, everything matches what the property management company sees EXCEPT the Portfolio Acquisitions account. It's NOT on my Experian report, although the program that the property management company uses says they got their information from Experian.

I tried to call the collection company, but of course, it's just a voice mail box, and so far my calls have gone un-returned. Here's the kicker-the now-defunct cell-phone company was included among the creditors for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy I filed back in 2003. The bankruptcy shows up too, of course.

Does anyone know how I might go about convincing the property management company that the collections account is erroneous (sp?) and therefore, I should not be subjected to having a double deposit? I have the bankruptcy paperwork, and the credit reports from all three bureaus are in the mail. If anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Ryan_daugherty
Merced, California
U.S.A.