Well, I called my first collections company today. I had a collection on my credit report for $17.00. The total amount that was owed was $777 which I had paid several years ago. They never showed it paid, rather, they simply changed the balance to $17.00 even though I had paid the full amount. When I called today the person who answered the phone told me that it was because they charged a $17 fee for using a credit card to pay the balance and that the person I spoke to did not tell me that so they deducted that fee from the $777 and showed that I still owed $17.00. I told them I would pay it if they agreed to remove the record from my report but they said "We cannot do that, all we can do is show it paid in full". The person was adamant about it no matter how hard I pushed. I went ahead and paid it so that it at least shows "paid in full". I also tried calling another credit collections company that I have four (4) bills with and tried to negotiate for them to remove the records from my credit report if I paid in full and they said that their client would not allow it. I did not pay these yet. I am wondering if I should try using regular mail and send an offer for settlement in full if they remove the records from my credit report. What do you guys think? Also, How hard do you have to fight to get them to agree to remove from your credit report? Is it more common for them to not remove or to remove? Just looking for some guidance. Thanks
The collection accounts are all from 2009, very new! I live in the state of Maryland and the SOL is three years.
Ok, If you are set on settling the debts it is best to do it via mail that way you can have a paper trail. As far as the first CA debt there's little that can be done except wait for a while and dispute the debt with the CRA's and see if it comes off. When you make a payment on an old debt it restarts the SOL. So you could have actually not paid the $17 9unless your trying to get a house) and waited for a little while longer, disputed it and it may have come off. Look on the board for settlement letters, try not to talk with them over the phone because there will be no way to prove what was said.
This is not necessarily true--it depends on the state. I'm not sure if a payment restarts the SOL in Maryland or not. But you should check the law to find out. There is no requirement for them to delete anything. For a while, it appears that there was some success with this method. However, like many things, when everyone tries it then it won't work anymore. Creditors are required to report ACCURATE information. As long as the information is accurate there really isn't a way to force them to delete. That's why you should always dispute certain items that are incorrect, such as the balance or dates, instead of just disputing the entire tradeline.
