I had a notation on only my Trans Union report from a collection Agency called Coldata for an old Sears account I stopped paying on years ago. Periodically they would mail me settlement offers that I would just trash. Lexington got these guys deleted from my TU report. They never were on any others. Today I got another mailing from them offering to settle the $736.83 I owed Sears for $221.05. What do I do with this thing now that it's been deleted? I'd love to pay it and not have any chance of these guys popping up again, but what happens when I do. If they go to update their entry on TU that isn't there any longer to the new status of "settled" will this effectively equal a reinsertion? I was also thinking of maybe sending them a letter offering payment in full for a deletion, but I really don't want to give them a chance to discover they've already been deleted. My tentative decision is to ignore this letter and to see what happens. Am I right?
If you ever pay them a crying dime, they will be very likely to be nice to you and report that you finally paid them to the credit bureaus, thereby making sure that the report stays on your credit history for another 7 years. Happens almost without fail as far as I know. Anything you "normally" do with creditors/ca(s) usually ends up that way. Some people advocate making a deal with them to pay up provided you get a written agreement from them that they will delete the listing completely. I've never seen that come to anything but grief either. What I do is to "force" them to violate one or more FDCPA laws and then meke them think I'm going to sue them. So far, it's worked every time and they end up offering to either forgive the debt or pay it themselves rather than take a chance of having to defend against a lawsuit they already know they can't win because it won't be about the debt, but about their having broken the law and thereby denied me my rights under the law. I've taught a lot of people how to do that, and they all report the same results. They win. That's the best way to go about it as far as I am concerned because once the debt is eliminated, the credit bureaus won't have anything to report so it goes off with no hassle. That's the way I'm starting to teach people to do it. It seems to work out much better although I don't have all that many reports back on it all yet.
You said "years ago" ..does that mean it's past the SOL? If it is, forget it! If not, I would wait and see if they make another move. breeze
Your advice is exactly right, Breeze. Coldata can be a real booger to deal with. Their favorite trick is just to ignore you. I've got one student right now trying to deal with them and so far they just ignore everything he tries to do with them. Looks like he may end up having to sue them if they don't answer in the next few days. Oh well, that's no biggie either. He's well equipped to handle that little matter.
Yep -- past the SOL. I guess I'll leave it alone and see what they do. Sometimes I get this strange urge to do the right thing and pay something I shouldn't. Funny that the system is geared to making it against your best interest to pay something you owe. Oh well -- I didn't design it.
I admire your integrity. However, the SOL was designed to protect people, just like the bankruptcy laws. If integrity was rewarded by the "system" many of us would go out and pay some folks. However, all things considered, the SOL is the law. You'll just have to learn to live with it breeze
Re: Collection Agency Advice-Do I P DaveLV, I got those collection letters from time to time from ColdData,Credittrust etc.. You don't have pay them if the debts is over 7 years or it is not on your credit reports. If you pay them or settle with them, you just renew the debt. It will re-appear the new debt or settlement account in your credit reports and it will hurt credit ratings. Throw in the trash. Ignore it! Ron.
