Please help. I need to know what to do next with a charge off that is being reported by MBNA/BOA, but not the CA. Should I try and negotiate a PFD with MBNA/BOA? They verify when I dispute with the CRAs, and when I disputed the charge off directly to them, I received a letter from the CA. I then requested validation from the CA and received another letter indicating they would accept $50 a month for 6 months as payment in full. Since the CA is not reporting, I'm not sure I have any incentive to pay the $300. The charge off was in September 2004 and the amount was about $1600. I'm fairly sure the account was sold to the CA. I'm willing to pay the full amount but I need this deleted from my reports. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
My charge offs are also listed with the OC, not the CA so I have only written to the OC. I would be surprised if they say no to your money
Jenstart, thanks very much for the reply. Have you received any responses from the OCs yet? I have called and sent them several letters and they keep directing me to the CA. Since I think they've sold the account, I wasn't even sure they could accept payment at this point. But I will try a PFD letter.
OCs do not respond as often as CAs because the laws are not the same for them as for CAs. Try to find the right person to send your letter to a manager or VP of billing as they are more likely to act on your letter than just sending it to their general address. Explain your situation and that you would like to pay it off, a sob story won't hurt (why you were unable to pay before etc). HTH
Typically, FIA Card Services (formerly, MBNA) will work out an arrangement with you directly. This is not always true if Wolpoff & Abramson is the collection entity handling the matter. While they will settle at times for 50% of the balance, they usually will not comply with PFD requests. Also, they will sell off small balances so make sure that this is paid before they do so.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but if they won't comply with a PFD request, should I pay any portion of it? Since the account is a charge off, it is showing a $0 balance on all 3 reports. I thought a paid charge off is not any better than an unpaid charge off. And neither MBNA or the CA has been pursuing me about this. Thanks for your help.
A paid chargeoff is better than an unpaid one, especially with a credit card. A chargeoff with a balance significantly affects your utilization. Despite reporting balances of $14k, when I paid a $471 chargeoff, my FICO score increased 18 points because that small account was no longer overlimit.
But they are reporting a $0 balance and the CA is no longer reporting this at all, so I don't think it is affecting my utilization? The status reported by MBNA is 'Account charged off' and only one of the three reports indicates the amount written off. How is a paid charge off typically reflected on the report? I'd be happy to pay this if it will improve my scores, even if it's not deleted, but I've read that doing so may not have any effect, or possibly even a negative effect. Again, thanks for everyone's feedback.
