S L I C K

First, I apologize for this thread not being in the right forum, but I really didn't know where to post it. I recently applied for a new credit card and I got a letter in the mail saying that "after careful review, we are unable to approve your request because you have delinquency and a public record or collection account(s) appearing on your credit file and you have current or past delinquency with one or more of your creditors." The company said that they're "credit decision was based in whole or in part on information obtained in a report from Experian, National Consumer Assistance Center." At this point, I'm thinking to myself that I've never missed or been late on a payment in my life so what the hell is going on? I went on www.experian.com and got a free online copy of my credit report. It stated that I have one (1) potentially negative item on my credit report and when I clicked the link it said that I have a collection account with OSI Collection Services and I have a balance of $148 that was past due as of February 2007. The original creditor is listed as Varisol II, LLC. I've never had a bill for $148 in my life and this is the first time that I've ever heard of this company or balance. I've never been contacted via phone or mail by this company before either. I filed a dispute through www.experian.com and hopefully this crap can be taken off my credit report. Will this hurt my credit? When www.experian.com takes this off of my credit report on www.experian.com, will this account show up on reports that aren't received through www.experian.com? Any other suggestions on what else I can do to get this resolved?

P.S. - Other people seem to be having trouble with OSI Collection Services too: www.osieatspoop.com.

Ron A

Ramblings