When I was cleaning up my Equifax report, correcting accounts that were closed, but showing open on the report, Equifax would not take the letters I had from the stores on COMPANY LETTERHEAD... stating "how sorry they were I had closed my account. It would be reported to all three CRA's that it was closed, paid in full, and in good standing". They wanted the CREDITORS to say that it was all those things. I had no trouble with getting them to do that after I called. I am sure that I could have sued or threatened to sue somebody and gotten it all settled. I had great accounts. BUT, I don't know if someone with a lot of charged off delinquent accounts would want to start suing the CRA's/ CA's and creditors while they have all this un-paid debt lying around. It was my assumption that they might want to lie low. The poster said a FEW were under 500.00 and then the rest were 1000.00, 5,000 and 10,000. I counted 5 at the minimum. That's opening a HUGE can of worms there. I know that if you get everything in writing it's supposed to work. All I am trying to say is that I wouldn't waste my time counting on a piece of paper from some CA saying sure, sure, we will delete everything! Just send that check. Like someone said above. The CA might not report, but all the original creditors sure will. I would, wouldn't you? You borrow my money and promise to pay it back. Then you skip out, never pay, come back 2 - 3 years later and offer to pay half if I will forget that I ever loaned you money. NO WAY BUDDY.
I think you have missed the point. If you have a letter or an agr. between you and the agency, the original creditor can still report if they choose. If its a collection account, then most likely its the CA that is reporting you and not the original creditor. If its a charge off on a credit account, that is a whole different story because there will most likely be two tradelines for the same account. You would need to deal with both the agency and the original creditor. Although you may be able to enforce the letter against the agency, the letter would be meaningless against the original creditor. Cyprigirl
Thanks everyone for their input. It has definitely helped me refine my strategy in dealing with the CAs. Having read your comments and I have a couple of questions. First, if I do get written agreement that the CA will delete negative listing on my account and they do it after I pay them, why would they go back and re-report. As far as the CA is concerned they have their money and account is closed. Why would they go to extra trouble and paperwork to re-report later on. They gain nothing and open themselves up to liability and possible lawsuit hassles. The second question is if the CA has not bought the debt, but only been hired to collect then wouldn't it be best to insist the written agreement be between me and the original creditor to delete CRA listing? Bill , George, Penquin- would like to hear your comments. FYI - I live in CA
Well, one thing you may or may not know is that a very common excuse of collecion agencies is to say that they cannot remove without the permission of the creditor. So I think it would behoove you to demand the written agreement to remove come from both of them just to be on the safe side. Personally, I would make them agree to remove the offending reports within a reasonable period of time such as 60 or 90 days after receipt of payment or pay about 3 times the amount of the debt as damages. They might not want to go for that, but if they didn't want to go for that, I'd tell them that they should have nothing to fear from signing such an agreement if their intentions are honorable and they fully intend to abide by the terms of the agreement. And if they still refuse, then I would tell them that absent the penalty clause, you have no valid reason to believe them or pay off.
