I have a debt from Citibank ($5,000) that was charged off and was transferred to United Collection Bureau. I don't want to do the debt validation thing, I know the debt is mine. I got a new job and I want to start making payments on this debt but I've heard so many bad things about UCB. I got a letter saying that they want the full amount, which I cannot do. *Can they take payments? I can't do a settlement, I only have saved up $400 so far for this month. 1) Anyone have any advice before I call them? 3)What information are they going to ask for? 4) Is it true they cannot take money orders? 5) Do I need to give them my ssn? Can I just give them the reference number on the letter? Thanks for the help
Chayo, Hey, Dont call them!!!!! Dont give them your SS, Name, birthday, account number, your moms name, your dogs name or nothing. Don't do nothing yet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don't want to do the debt validation thing, I know the debt is mine. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We all hear bad things about collection companies. The irony of your statement is We all know the DEBT IS OURS!!! LOL!!!!! Look, these collection agencies don't care and are not gonna loose sleep if your doing the morally right thing or not. They just want money. The original creditor charged it off, it's a tax right off to them - a loss! No biggie to Citibank. They sold it to some guy that sits in his underwear pickin his nose hopping that he can make you feel bad and muscle you into paying him, so he makes money off of you. This collector guy is full of crap. I would NOT pass the opportunity to Validate this debt. Chances are he doesn't have all the paper work to prove that he has the right to collect the debt, and it gets removed and he stops calling you and it just goes away and then he writes off as " DANG, I couldn't get this guy ". If you really want to pay 5 grand to mess up your score feel free too! But i would do the validation and dispute it!
Depends whether it was sold or assigned for collection. Just because they charged if off doesn't mean they sold it. Chargeoff is an accounting term. It means they consider the likelihood of collection very low so they have removed it from their books (it was an asset, but if they can't collect they can't consider it an asset). They can still try to collect. If they are successful in obtaining payment, they simply reverse the entry they made to write if off. In other words, they "write it on" the books and it is again an asset.
So Hedwig, can you please break it down for me regarding: How can a company (any credit card company) "write it off" and take a tax break on their taxes and then "sell" it to a CA? What kind of accounting is that? If they take a tax credit, then how to they earn income on that same written off account? What are the "rules" on this -- IRS and/or State laws.
If this is the UCB out of the Ohio/Indiana area, they provide the most clean and crisp and new verification materials that have EVER been obtained from the Original Creditor. Do the validation, even if it is yours. Make sure that their demands are correct, because the clean and crisp and new verifications they sent me on a matter had a whole host of errors. Their verification materials are like the Allison B. Moon affidavits without Allison's signature. Not very reliable.
If you think paying this debt collector will improve your credit it won't.If this account was sold ask yourself this question.Should i pay back someone who never loaned me any money? If you were not able or not willing to pay the original creditor why are you now willing to pay back some debt collector who bought this debt?
An account receivable (which is money that someone owes the company) is an asset, because it's worth money. When it is apparent that it will not be collected, accounting rules say you can't count that as an asset anymore, because it's probably not worth anything. So you decrease the value of your accounts receivable (the write-off). It isn't necessarily a tax break. Taxes are paid on income, and there isn't any income here. The amount is "moved" (written off) to an account for bad debts, which decreases assets. It has nothing to do with income flow (because there wasn't any). They can sell that reduced-value "asset" to anyone who will pay money for it. NOW we have a taxable event. The money that they get for the account is income and they will pay taxes on that value (not the full value of the debt, only what they received for it). Too many people think that everything is a "tax break." That couldn't be farther from the truth. Moving assets from one account to another, or to a contra account (reducing the value) has no income consequence. Taxes are paid on income. That's the money they get when they sell the debt. If they didn't sell it, and later collected, again we have a taxable event. They have received income and will pay taxes on the money they collected.
A little more info on the FAQ's regarding debt verification letters and disputes: Credit Learning Center - Credit Tips, Credit Tools, Finance Help & Credit Repair
Debt validation is more than... Is the debt ours? It also prevents them from tacking on thousands of illegal fees onto the account, without providing you an accounting of why the amount of the account is the amount that they say that it is.
