Fashion Bug Credit Cards Payoff Not Posted Flint Michigan

A word to the wise:
Stay away from a Fashion Bug credit card!!!!
I opened an accout with Fashion Bug in 1999. After having the account for a couple of years, I knew that I wasn't using my money wisely, i.e. charging everything, and got behind on my payments. I decided not to use the card anymore and struggled to make my payments. At the time that I terminated my account, it was past due by about $200.00 (I will admit that I was young and irresponsible with my money).

My account had been charged off and was sent to collections. About 3 months after this happened, I was finally in a position to pay off the card and I did so in May of 2001 (as I did not have a checking account, I sent the payment in by money order). It was my understanding, at the time, that this account was paid off.

Unfortunatley for me, I did not follow up with Fashion Bug regarding the payoff of the account. Now, it is 5 years later and I have pulled my credit report for the first time (shame, again, on me). Low and behold, my Fashion Bug account is still showing as unpaid! I called the company to try and have this sorted out and basically, because I paid by money order, which they have no record of, I will now have to pay this account off again (this time by check, no doubt!). The reason for the rip off report is not because I was irresponsible and want to complain, but because I find it odd that my account has been "delinquent" for 5 years but I have never, not once, received any kind of communication from the company regarding collections.

I have never received a call from a collection agency or had anything sent to my house from this company that is trying to recover the debt, yet on my credit report, it shows that the account has again been submitted to collections. It strikes me as odd that, if they never received payment from me, that they wouldn't have sent me a collections letter, or worse yet, turned my account loose on a collection agency. Now, in order to have this cleared off of my credit report and out of my life for good, I must send them full payment all over again (or find my store receipt for the money order, along with the money order stub, call the store that issued the money order and have them find the cancelled slip from 5 years ago and then forward that to Fashion Bug).

I understand that I screwed up with the late payments all of the those years ago, but when I tried to make good on my end of the bargain, the post office, the company or whoever "loses" my payment so that it doesn't get posted, and I have no idea of the discrepancy because the company never sends me a collections notice, so the issue stays unresolved on my credit report for years and the only time I even have a clue was when I had my credit report pulled a few days ago. Shame on me for my lack of follow through, but shame on Fashion Bug for the same thing. Fashion Bug is a fine store to shop at, when you pay cash, but I would not recommend using one of their credit cards.

Tyra
Puyallup, Washington
U.S.A.