I have 3 small collection items on my report and have a few questions 1. $50 with LLC-CA 2. $65 with NCO Financial in PA 3. $297 with NCO Financial in TX they are all fairly current within 2 years Question: Should i just pay them off? Being that they are low amounts i not sure if they are worth negotiating?? The $297 is on TU Twice once from the original credit company and once with the CA. They are on all three reports. any advice would be helpful Thanks Mark
If you just pay them off the accounts will still be listed as negatives. If you can pay 100% of the money owed, that great. But it is worth a shot to get the accounts listed as neutral or have them deleted.
You COULD call to ask if they will accept payment in full for DELETION of the account since these amounts are so small. However, do NOT believe anything they tell you over the phone unless they are willing to put it in writing. Do NOT send them any money until you have a document in your hands that says "we will remove this tradeline from all credit reporting agency profiles." CA's will lie and tell you anything over the phone. I prefer dealing in writing myself. The basic tone of the letter is "while I don't acknowledge this debt and you haven't provided the legally required validation, I'm willing to pay in full for deletion since the amount is so small." Look for posts on "payment for deletion." This is the fastest method to correct these small accounts. If they say NO, go through the whole validation / estoppel sequence with them. It's unlikely they'll bother to validate for small amounts and you'll probably catch them in FDCPA violations. It's just that this approach takes more time. Greg
