I have a charged off account from AT&T Universal card from a long time ago. The account was opened back in 1997. Like I said, I was still in college and made a couple of late payments back in 1997. When I left school, I stopped paying on this account. The account has since been charged off and sold (to NCO I think). I recently received an offer from Cap1 where they will take the balance and apply it to a "special purchases" portion of a Visa card with 0% interest and after 3 billing cycles of on-time payments, the debt will be marked as a "paid charge-off." Is it worth it to take Cap1 up on their offer? From what I've read, 7 years after the first derog, the tradeline should be gone anyway as I have not made any payments or tried to contact the original creditor or the current owner of the account? After 7 years, how would I go about attempting to get this trade line removed? This one line has been the largest obstacle to me getting back on track. I hope I explained my situation well enough. If not, please ask and I will try to explain the situation better. Thanks in advance for your help!
Cap1 is famous for this type of offer. This has been covered numerous times here on CN. Do a search and you should be able to find plenty of posts. Personally, I would NOT take Cap1's offer, since it's due to fall off your reports in a matter of months anyway. A paid chargeoff is JUST AS BAD as an unpaid chargeoff! Also, this could start the 7-year clock all over again! Let it fall off your reports before you do anything like what Cap1 is offering.
actually it is better to dispute the item about 2-3 months BEFORE it falls off the report. A deleted can't be seen like a fall-off. might come back and haunt you someday (employee credit, huge loan amounts). best to have deletion
NEW MEMBERS READ THIS. http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=410243#post410243 ************************************************************ It's a scam to sucker you into paying a legally uncollectible debt. This subject has come up on the board many a time over the years. Was a rip off from the first and is still a con job today.
You're right. The debt has apparently fallen off of my credit reports (I did a 3-in-1 from one of those credit check sites). Now I simply have to keep tabs on my report to make sure that it doesn't reappear. I ripped up that super offer from Cap1 btw. Thanks for the info guys!
