I am currently in the process of trying to negotiate a debt with Capital One. A little history, this account was a secured account with a $200.00 secured deposit. I became ill and bedridden, thus becoming delinquent on a number accounts. After months of futile attempts to make payments on this account, (the o/l and past due fees, overrode the $20.00 payments I was making)I let it charge off. My last payment was 1/98. The ending balance is $1175.00. UNBELIEVABLE!! I wrote Capital One Collections and offered $500.00 to settle and explained the reason for the delinquency. I told them I thought $500.00 for a $200.00 card was very fair. They responded with a payment of $500.00 but a "paid by settlement" with a rating of r9. Did they think I was crazy? So I wrote them again..and told them again explaining the reason for delinquency and advising them that there are no laws that point to the issue of changing, removing a debt. The reply I received in the mail today read: "We are unable to ALTER the original settlement offer" because "a review of the rating on your account and the circumstances which led to your delinqency shows to OUR satisfaction that we have conformed with the requirements of the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. As a result, we are unable to change your rating." What are they talking about? What should my next step be? I was thinking maybe offering the $500.00 with a confidentially clause, but I do not know how to word a letter. I am not talking to these people, they INSIST on having my telephone number. But I will only correspond in writing. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
I think you deserved a reply to this posting, and one better than I can give you. But it looks as if the fact that you mentioned the law, even to point out that the law doesn't apply, made them extremely defensive. So they immediately took a legalistic approach and refused to discuss anything but their own legal rights. They may also have misunderstood what you wrote about the R-9 rating. They probably thought you were demanding an immediate change rather than a negotiated settlement that included payment on your part. I think the best approach would be to wait 60 or 90 days and then approach them afresh, without even mentioning the previous exchange of letters. You want them to drop their legalistic pretensions and simply discuss a deal.
