I, being 20 and naive, started 2 months ago paying CA because I was offered an 80% settlement and wanted to get it paid off. The settlement letter they sent was fairly vague and didn't state clearly that to be honoured, the 80% had to be paid in a lump sum. I called and offered to pay $100 every 2 weeks, which I did 4 times. The balance should be $634.00, but is actually $1034, because: I called CA to find out my balance and found out it was 100%, not 80% that I was paying towards. CA woman told me she "felt bad" for me (yeah right) and she could do $800, which is higher than 80% by far, or "try with the OC for lower". She strung me along for two days and then (of course) said OC wouldn't budge. They were willing to accept 80%, now they're not? I got suspicious. I was going to pay out this account to get an "amendment" on my CR - now that I've been reading posts on here and talking to people online, I've realized I shouldn't be paying anything until they agree to remove it altogether from my report. I spoke to the OC the other day and found out the woman at CA has been outright lying - they don't need to authorize a lower amount - they authorize a percentage when they send it to the agency. Now I'd rather pay them off because they've never reported this to my CR and if I settle with them I can dispute and CA can't do much. (I think this is how it works). Thing is, OC says they don't really deal with anything after it goes to collections. I haven't asked them explicitly if I can pay them off, but they did give me a fax number to send a written settlement offer to. Problem is, I want to make my offer for the remainder of what I'm willing to pay - including what I've paid the CA (which I've just kind of stopped paying for now) - if the OC close the account with the CA, do they get the money I paid the CA too? I was hoping to include in my settlement offer that I've paid $400 to CA, so here's another $300, now bugger off kind of thing - If they'll even look at it. Have I screwed myself by paying CA even a little bit? What should I do now? Sorry if this is a topic that's been covered already... N
With respect to your question about money paid to the CA going to the OC, it depends on who owns the account. In most cases, the OC owns the account and the CA collects on it under a contract with the OC. Usually, the CA keeps a portion of the money collected and sends the rest to the OC. A standard split is 30% for the CA and 70% to the OC. Under these types of arrangements, the CA has an incentive to collect as much as possible--and the collector on the phone probably gets a commission. The OC is probably hoping to recover anywhere from 10-30% when working with the CA. This info is from my experience in dealing with collection agencies through my work--so others may have very different experiences.
George -- I agree about buying the debt, but I usually only see that done as part of a large portfolio. That's why I think it is always important to know who owns the debt.
So, I sent an unsigned letter of my settlement offer ($200, adding to the $400 i've paid to make 600, or a little less than half) to the CA with a space to sign and return it. I made full removal of any record of this on my CR a stipulation of my payment. We'll see what happens....
NateRobb ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Have you received validation from the CA? Who owns the debt? How much is it? THE END ** *** ** LB 59 """""""""```~~~```'"""""""""
Validate? Didn't I vailidate the debt by making payments??? I'm in Canada, I'm not sure how similar our laws are to you guys in the US, so I'm not about to send some letter quoting the "Statue of ___" and make myself look like a goofball 'cause it doesn't apply here... It's for 1394. I'm not sure who owns the debt - I think the OC still does.
