So I've been late on this card and just called them to see how I could bring the account current and they said the account is not charged off yet but is being handled by an outside agency. I called them and they were typical CA rude and said I needed to pay the entire balance or else. Of course I can't do that so my only option is to sit tight. Anyone have any Citibank charge offs, and if so, do they sue? The amount here is for 3500.
If the account is not charged off as a bad debt.. Look at your statement.. if you are able to "make up the past due payments" then your account will be current. Also a lot of creditors offer a "re-aging program." If you make three consecutive payments they will reage your account to a current status. Being sued is luck of the draw. If they feel they can get something from you then expect a suit. If you have no assets what-so-ever then maybe not.
Well, I talked to Citi yesterday and they referred me to an outside agency who demanded full payment. I basically laughed and the lady said they were going to contact my employer to verify income (FDCPA violation?). I'm going to call city again today to try and talk to them about a re-aging program but if they still won't talk at least the record will show I attempted to deal with them before charge off. Not much else I can do. If I could afford to pay the whole thing I wouldn't be in the toilet with them in the first place.
so you're saying that a CA can contact my employer and ask for my income? From what I understand they can only call 3rd parties to question about my whereabouts and can't say what they are calling about.
"Good morning Mr. Employer, we are calling to verify the income of one of your employees, Mr. Timmyq, concerning a credit transaction of his" There is nothing illegal about them doing this Also Citi is the original creditor, NOT a CA!!! Unless your state law restricts OC's as much as CA's, OC's can call unless they have been advised that the employer does not allow such calls
I guess that is true. And really, as long as they don't identify themselves I don't really care I guess. I'm just a little suprised that the account isn't charged off yet but it is already being handled by an outside agency who is demanding full payment.
So would the best thing to do here be to write to the collections dept. at Citibank and attempt a goodwill effort to re-age the account? Otherwise, my only other option seems to be to just let it go and see what happens as I can't pay the CA anything near the full amount.
Writing a letter could not hurt. Hopefully others here who have had experience dealing with CITI can advise your best course of action good luck!
update: I called Citbank again and the collections dept. once again refused to discuss anything with me, opting instead to direct me to what I believe is an external CA. So all I could do was get a correspondence address for them and I wrote a goodwill letter in an attempt to do something to re-age the account. I guess there isn't much else I can do if nobody will talk with me about it. I won't deal with the CA so if the letter doesn't work then the chips will fall where they may.
Why not ask the CITI collections department if they still own the debt or if it has been sold, since they refuse to talk to you about it. That bit of information will help you in handling the situation in the future if you choose to do so
they still own it as it hasn't been charged off yet. I'm not sure why they turned it over to the CA before it was 180 days past due. The lady at the CA was a real bitch too so I think I will just send them a validation letter.
