Being contacted by a debt collection agency over $45 bill from AT&T, have not heard of this until now. What do I do? Don't want to ruin my credit over $45.

Received a letter from IC Systems for a $45 debt for apparently a bill from AT&T. I have not had AT&T in a couple of years, and was never contacted about this prior to that.
From what I could tell IC System does not buy the debt from AT&T, it only collects it. So as I understand it's still owned by AT&T
Should I:
Contact AT&T collections department?
Contact IC Systems and offer to pay for deletion?
Contact IC Systems for proof of debt first?
I don't care about the principle of the thing, I just want my credit to be ok. What's the best course of action here?

original posted by Sac-Kings to r/personalfinance on Mon, 15 Apr 2024 06:08:03 GMT.