Okay so I DV'd RJM Acq for 4 accounts they said I owed them. 2 of them came back. One is for a debt from 2001 which is out of SOL but just so I understand, they can continue to send letters, but they can't put it on my credit report or any of that, right? Should I do anything at this point? The other one is for an old Wachovia checking account. They sent me my last bank statement and from what I can gather this constitutes validation (PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong). The bummer is that this account just had a landslide and ended up like $500 in the hole over a silly mistake and one that I could not afford to fix given the NSF fees that piled up on me. To be honest, I don't think I should have to pay that much, but that is neither here nor there. So, assuming that the statement is validation, what should be the next step? I have read about PFD and NDA but it scares me to try to put a legally binding doc together and then I'm not sure what I think is appropriate to offer them considering they probably paid a few bucks for the whole dang account. This account was in 2008 so it's not that old unfortunately. Yes, I was still making mistakes just 2 short years ago! So my questions are: 1. What is the best thing to send next? 2. What is a reasonable amount to offer to settle? I am being vigilant on this stuff so I want to make sure I don't get in my own way and mess something up. Any advice is welcomed and appreciated! Thanks! dbaby91
Just because the first debt is past the SOL doesn't mean it's gone forever. It can't be reported on your credit reports because it's too old, but they could still sue you for it. If they do, you have an absolute defense and should win if you can prove the SOL has expired. Don't forget - we're talking about 2 different SOLs here. In regards to the second debt, I would offer a settlement in writing somewhere in the 20% range and then negotiate upwards slowly if necessary. Don't give in too easily. What's the total amount they're asking for now?
Thanks! They haven't sent anything giving me a settlement amount yet...or if they did I didn't get it. I just got this because I moved a few years back and I guess they couldn't find me. The total I saw from my credit report is $596. So should I try to settle with a pay for delete or a non disclosure? I mean if I pay now then it will stay on my credit longer. I don't mind paying for this, but at this point this account is going on 3 years old and I don't want to start the clock over. Thanks for any help!
Just out of curiosity, did you send a single DV letter for all 4 of these accounts, just listing each account number, or did you send one letter for each? They are reporting 3 seperate debts on my credit report, and I wasn't sure but assumed I should make one letter for EACH debt...?
I did send a seperate one for each account but that is also so I could keep things strait. I made a spreadsheet to track everything and I wanted to have seperate tracking numbers for each thing I sent. Hopefully someone else will answer you too. It is more expensive but I thought it looked kinda wierd to talk about all the accounts in one letter. Not sure if that's helpful...but I tried
Nothing you can do will start the clock over from the FCRA reporting standpoint. Paying it will lower yours score and quite possibly the amount of the drop might be severe. You would get a slight boost in score because paying would reduce your overall indebtedness but the fact of the recent payment activity would overshadow any gain you might get from the small boost in score. The end result would be a reduction in score. So from that standpoint you should mind paying a great deal. As an adverse listing ages it has less and less effect on your score. The older the less impact it will have and once it gets past the 2 or 3 year point paying it off might get you a point or two but the adverse result of the recent collection activity report will probably knock you a lot harder than that.
Thanks for that info. I knew that paying it wasn't the right thing to do - just based on reading this forum but now it makes sense even more. So just let it hang around on there till it falls off basically? I can do that. I am not in a rush to buy anything and my credit score is coming up little by little with low balances on my revolving accounts. Thanks! dbaby91
I don't want to get all preachy here, but if the debt is truly yours and it was due to your mistake, you may want to give some more thought to actually doing something about it. While paying it off/settling may not improve your credit score in the short run, taking care of our debts is the "right" thing to do in my personal opinion. Of course, the final decision is yours. Many people feel no moral obligation towards paying off their old debts.
I have to agree with Joshua to some extent at least. Paying debts should be looked at from 3 different perspectives not necessarily in the following order. (1) From the moral standpoint. If you can pay it off to the original creditor (even in payments) then you have moral obligation to do so. If it has been turned over to a 3rd party debt collector then I think the moral obligation is reduced or erased entirely. (2) From the business standpoint. If you get to keep the merchandise you bought and the amount of additional charges such as interest and tack on fees is reasonable then it might be good business to pay it off depending on how it will affect your credit scores or benefit you in some other tangible way. Another thing that must be looked at is whether or not you have the funds available to pay off with. If you have no job or reduced hours or pay scale or are on some kind of retirement or government pension or disability then using what little money you derive from pension or unemployment benefits would never make sense. (3) From a legal standpoint. Is the debt still within the statute of limitations or has the SOL in your state ran out on them. All of the above depending, of course, on rather or not you really did incur the obligation and are not being wrongfully targeted for someone else's debt.
