conversation: User (Normandy117): "My credit score turned out to be "very poor" at 570 due to an unpaid Comcast bill from a few years ago. The thing is, I only just graduated college, am still living at home and have never had a Comcast account in my name. Turns out my parents had decided to put my name on the account since their credit was so bad already and then left $160 unpaid and never told me about it. I can't really expect my parents to pay it because we're all struggling to keep the household running, so the only way it's going to get paid is if I save up and do it myself. I'm just worried about starting my adult life with bad credit. How much can I expect paying it off to help my credit score and what else can I do to bring my score back into good standing?"
  Self: "Paying it off won't help your score. You can dispute it, but it may require reporting your parents for fraud.\n\n&gt; I can't really expect my parents to pay it\n\nYes you can. If they didn't have the money for cable they should have gone without. Cable TV is not required to live. Instead they choose to break the law to get something they didn't need."
  DontKnowChrono (DontKnowChrono): "This is really important.  This is serious and wrong, and the responsibility of the parents to fix.  OP may be able to negotiate a lower pay-off amount and removal of the collection account in return for paying it, but ultimately, the parents should pay the amount needed to clear this up."
  