I just called to try and negotiate two collection accounts with no luck. 1) I signed a 1yr contract for a pager, paid in full for the whole year, with the agreement that at the end of 1yr it would be disconnected. I stupidly did not keep my paper work and the company sold out. I also stopped using the pager after about 10 months and forgot about it. Well, they kept it activated for some time and now have me in collections. 2) A gas bill. No story or excuse, just didn't pay. It is almost 5yrs old now. I tried to settle and have them take these off my report completely for payment in full and was told no. They said it is illegal to do so and would not. They told me my best bet is to just pay them.(surprise) I'm sure I can go to the pager company and offer the same deal to them with cooperation from them but I'm not too sure they would follow through. I highly doubt the gas. Being as the gas bill is almost 5 yrs old, should I just let sleeping dogs lie? He told me it be a positive impact on my score to pay it but I heard otherwise. I also have another account through a different CA that I need to work out. I've heard of a lot of you people doing what I just tried to do. Are there any secrets to this? -Om
I always get this type of response: "It is illegal to delete accurate reporting from your credit profile." I respond: "I understand your position. I would like to ask that you provide me a reference to the statute which legally requires you to report anything whatsoever." I can just picture them reading this as a reply and thinking (In the immortal words of Emily Latella) "WELL, THAT'S DIFFERENT......NEVER MIND!"
Did you talk with a supervisor or just the yahoo who answered the telephone? Those people have no power to nego a settlement. Try again if you didn't. Otherwise, it will not really help at this point. You could either wait for the 7 years or go ahead an have it disputed with the CRAs.
I just talked with the first person to pick up the phone. He was saying something to the effect that because of the agreement they set up with their client, it would be illegal to remove it. They are both in dispute status, although I only disputed the pager bill. If nothing else, I will call the pager co. and at least have this removed if I can't negotaite with the CA. It was more of a moral issue for me than a financial one on this account. -Om
My personal opinion.... Never deal with a CA. Send a C&D letter and work with the original creditor only. If you have to work the CA, make them validate the debt with a contract bearing your signature. You're not disputing that they have your name, your address or your ss#, you're disputing that you ever signed a contract with their company.
Bkev- Could you clarify a little more for me? A) What is a C&D letter? B) I didn't really understand what you were saying about dealing with the CA. I know for a fact that they cannot get a contract for the pager with my signature. I never signed one. -Om
A) C&D- http://www.budhibbs.com/cease_communication_letter.htm Just a letter saying that you're exercising your rights not to work with collection agencies, you will only deal with the original creditor. Do a search, there are several versions flying around this board. B) Exactly! So they have no proof that you authorized the account and legally have to delete it. There are also some good validation letters if you search creditnet.
Let me clarify it for you a bit, please. Always deal with a collection agency if at all possible and if you must deal with the original creditor, you want to do everything you possibly can to get him to send it to a collection agency. The reason is that original creditors are not bound by the Fair Debt Collections Act to the extent that 3rd party collectors are. Therefore you can make demands of 3rd party collectors who will quite often be unable to validate the debt in a timely manner and also quite often make many other errors for which you can seek relief if you have to. Usually that is not necessary. Learn to love those 3rd party bill collectors because although they harass you half to death, which you can easily put a stop to, they are the high road to getting rid of the debt completely and the adverse listing on your credit bureau files as well. As far as trying to dispute that you ever signed a contract with the 3rd party collector goes, it's a dog that won't hunt very well. That's because they can collect the debt under any conditions, they often buy the debt and that's legal too so long as the contract (if there was one) has a transfer clause and you are notified of the transfer prior to it's having happened. If they didn't notify you, it's dead, gone, of no force and effect even if it did have a transfer clause in it. But the answers to that lied in the courtroom and usually don't effectively enter into the collection process nor the fighting of it. There are much more effective ways of fighting off the collection agencies than trying to tell them they have no contract with you so they can't collect. Stay with the collection agency and beat them to death if you can. It's not all that hard to do.
Well.... like I said, it's my opinion, so you can not tell me it's wrong. It's been very successful for me personally as well as most of the people who use this board. Bill has a different approach to things. He is entitled to his opinion also. I'm not CEO of a corporation trying to sell you a method of credit repair. I'm giving advice on what has been personally successful for me and not charging a dime.... and I'll leave it at that.
