And since he promised to remove the TL, he is now operating under the CRO Act. If anything fails, you might consider the possibility of litigation.
You are most likely going to get a forgiveness of debt slip and taxes are going to have to be paid on to the forgiveness as this is going to be income. Myself I would not be paying such a huge amount, and I don't think the negotiating is a done deal yet, YOU can get lower in the amount they want and you also can get other things you want as well. A payment chunk of 20K is huge on this debt. When did it go to charge off? If it hasn't let it and then you will see how much less they will take! As for your broker, I would move onto another broker as this one is a wee bit too slippery,and you don't need to commit fraud. Good luck Woofer
No, he said the tradeline will still be there, but it won't affect the score. I don't know about this stuff, that's why I post what I'm doing here. So I hope nobody thinks I'm in collusion with anybody. Of course if this is illegal and I do it anyway than I guess ignorance of the law might not help much. bushka
Yes, there is tax on the amount forgiven. It has been written off to collections for over a year probably closer to two, to answer your question. I've been making payments for about that long. I told them I was expecting $20K to come in this week, etc. etc. I can try one more time if I let them know I only got $15K and go from there. Thanks, bushka
I agree with flacorps to the fullest extent possible. This doesn't pass the proverbial smell test. I find this a personal irritant insofar as "credit repair" firms have bad reputations and by extension, we would as well and then the mortgage brokers do even worse things. I digress. In any event, you cannot "turn off" an account tradeline. The only thing in close relationship to this is the "masking" of an account tradeline by virtue of saying it's fraudulent. Nothing wrong with doing so when it is however, in this case it isn't and the statement would be made in explicit effort to raise your scores. Moreover, in this context, your broker is a Credit Repair Organization and is blatantly violating the Credit Repair Organzations Act. I would like to find out who it is and report them to the FTC but, I suppose that will never happen. Another way to mask a tradeline is to simply get it to be marked as being in dispute. This is the legal way to go about it however, some creditors fail to do so. This is a violation of the FCRA and where applicable, the FDCPA. There is nothing illegal about you requesting that they mark it as being in dispute or asking the credit reporting agencies to do so since that is also their obligation under the FCRA.
Today's update: Chase sent me an agreement to accept $19,500 to settle the account, but wouldn't budge on removing the TL. Someone here mentioned that their "final deal" which this was, is never really their final deal. So today I came up with a story and managed to get the agreement reworked down to $16,000, but I had to pay right away, not in installments. So this is what I did. I'm glad to have it out of my hair and move on with life. I understand that it might have been better to pay over three months, but I'm hoping that after say 4 months of aging (without any other account balances jumping up) it will work out OK. I didn't talk to the broker today, but I have heard him use the term Rapid Rescore in the past. Maybe that's what he was referring to recently. He used the term freely and not like (hey, I can get this done, just keep it quiet). Is Rapid Rescoring illegal? bushka
Rapid rescore is legal ... the tri-merge outfits sell it. But it has strict guidelines, and coloring outside them is ... well, fraud.
Is this mortgage broker talking about the "score" effect due to a debt/income ratio? If this mortgage broker's firm use their own credit scoring model (??), and they choose not to "count" this account, that is their business. But..I agree this does not pass the "smell test". Request a copy of this credit report and score they are speaking of, you are legally entitled to it.
I have to conclude the paperwork with Chase first. I would need a letter of satisfaction before anything gets done by the broker. Of course, I want to know what he is proposing to do and whether it is 100% legal. I don't want to be tied up in a $700K loan and have some kind of fraud charges popping up and ruining everything. Thanks, bushka
