Hi, I have been making payment to Bank of America online credit card account but I did not do that regularly and the payment dues + 29%interests piling up. Last time I made a payment was one month and half ago (May/2013), but now I no longer be allowed to make payment online and the bank said it has "lease off" the debt to a debt collector, but it has not sold the debt and I still own the bank, and I can only deal with that deb collector. I want to continue making payment to the bank and don't want to deal with deb collector. Is my credit will get even worse if I am dealing with debt collector? What should I do. Is settling with the debt collector the best thing I can do? Please help? Thanks CD
It sounds like the debt has been assigned to a collection agency. There is no 'leasing off'. It's either sold or assigned. When an account is assigned, the OC still owns the debt and just uses a business (a collection agency) to try to collect on it. This is better than the account being sold. Are you in a position to negotiate a pay-off of the account with the OC? And yes, your credit will take a hit if the CA reports the account as well. If it was just assigned as well, there will likely be no 'settling' of the debt for anything less than full.
Thank you for your info. Could you help to clarify if "negotiate a pay-off of the account with the OC?" meaning paying in full? or a settlement can be done if I am to deal with the OC? I want to borrow money from friends&family to negotiate a pay-off the account with OC but I was told that I can only deal with the collection agency. Since the OC just closed my account about 2 weeks ago, should I keep calling them?
You may want to try writing a goodwill LTR to someone higher-up. You're likely just dealing with a CSR that has no power and is just doing what they're told to say. You need to figure some things out: What is the current balance? - How much of it is principal, interest, late fees, over-limit fees? How much can you come up with, with assistance from family/friends? Did something lead to the delinquencies on the account (job loss, major unforeseen expense)? - If something did, you will want to put this in your GWL. This is primarily going to be for a reduction in the final amount they want which is why you should break down the balance owed (i.e. bal=$1,000 of which $700 principal, $120 late fees, $100 over limit, $80 interest); this way knowing what is 'real' and what is padded on to the balance can be determined and hopefully you can get them to work with you. Depending on how many late payments you had, you *may* be able to ask for a GW adjustment on their reporting the account late to the CRAs. Is this your only negative? Do you subscribe to a credit monitoring service? Has the collection agency (CA), even called/contacted you yet? If this JUST happened, you should have a better chance of getting it resolved ASAP with the OC. And like I said, the fact that its just an assigned account (vs sold) is a lot better for you. If it was sold, the OC has basically washed their hands of it and you REALLY can't pay them.
