Maybe I just talked to 3 really nice collection agencies and then one really bad one, but 3 agencies are providing me with letters of "approved removal" on paid collections. They said no problem and are mailing them out with just a simple request over the phone. The fourth however, will not. The guy refused stating that it was actually illegal for the collection agencies to provide those letters to consumers for their paid collections. Super frustrating. Do I have a leg to stand on for some sort of recourse against this agency to get the letter? Chris
Once a collection is paid, the bureau(s) will not remove the paid collection from your credit report unless you can provide a letter from the collector "approving" the removal of the paid debt from your report.
I'd say that all 4 broke the law and gave you a cause of action against each of them. All you have to do is sue each of them in federal court and you should easily come out with a nice piece of change. The three nice?? ones violated federal law by offering pay for delete. I certainly hope you got that in writing. Did you? If you can get that offer in writing so you can prove that they offered you a pay for delete deal I'll tell you how they broke the law. The bad guy refused? He broke the law by telling you that it is illegal for them to do a pay for delete. It is a violation of their terms of service with the credit bureaus but that is all. On the other hand, what is their permissible purpose for being in your credit reports in the first place if they have not proven that you owe the debt? Debt collectors are losing cases right and left for having placed listings on consumers credit reports without having permissible purpose for doing so. And you want to take those nice folks up on their illegal offers thereby proving the debt was yours through your own admission? Paying will do just that and show recent collection activity which will lower your score even more. We are a credit repair forum, not a credit wrecking forum here so advice that you should take them up on their offer would be teaching you how to wreck your credit instead of teaching you how to fix it. The way to fix it is to take them to federal court and sue the pants off of them instead of thinking about paying them. That's the real way to fix your credit. Would you like proof of that statement? I posted an article yesterday telling how many people sued debt collectors in federal court last month and what they sued them for. More than 300 people sued debt collectors last month. The number is down from most other months by at least a hundred or so. Normally it is up around 400 to 500 a month. What would be most likely to happen if you broke the law somehow and got caught doing it? Chances are you would end up having to pay a heavy price for your crime or illegal act. Right? So why should debt collectors be allowed to go scott free and even get paid for breaking the law?
None of these places offered me "deletes" in turn for payment of the debt. I RIGHTFULLY OWED these unpaid medical bills and paid them without asking for anything in return at the time of payment. There was no bargaining on my part or the collectors. I simply called them out of the blue and said, "I owe you money and I want to pay it." Now back to the issue, these collections are now showing as "Paid" on my bureau. My goal is to have these negative marks (paid collections) removed completely. So, I called TransUnion and a rep there told me that the only way to do that was to get a letter from the (now paid) collection agency "APPROVING THE REMOVAL" of the paid account from any/all credit bureaus. This brings us to my original post. The first 3 agencies I contacted agreed to mail me the letters with no problems whatsoever. The fourth threw a hissy fit and would not even consider it. Man you are a douche bag. I wasn't coming here to teach anybody anything. I didn't come here before paying these off, I came here after. So your ranting is helping no one. I came here to tell my case and get advice, not listen to some pompous ass talk about how great he/she is at fixing credit. Oh yea, after paying these debts my mean score jumped 42 points to a 605. Now I'm just trying to get the negative marks removed completely so it can go even higher. (You should check your personal issues at the door. This will help, I promise.)
Wow! So instead of paying the debts that people owe, you suggest they spend their time and money (that could be used to pay their debts) on a lawsuit?!? How about a time wasting forum?
It's reporting correctly and if the 4th don't comply with your wishes.Then its there for 7 years.You have a issue with some of the answers,Because of ? you wanted advice you got pro and con.You rejected the ones you don't want to hear.By calling people names.The last 5 letters match up well with ? you think about it.
JJ, I wasn't the answer I had an issue with. I guess I had a problem with the delivery. Not everyone coming here is as seasoned with credit as cap1sucks, and he appeared to come across as condescending. Cap, I apologize for the name calling and thank you for your input.
If their money was actually going to pay their debts then that would be a different matter. What most people don't stop to think about is that most banks now sell their delinquent accounts to a junk debt buyer for a few cents on the dollar. They no longer own the debt and even if the consumer pays the creditor who gave them credit won't get a crying dime of what the debt collector gets out of the consumer. It all goes to the debt collector so the consumer isn't paying his debt at all. That's not to say that the consumer don't owe the debt because legally speaking the debt is still owed but simply to someone other than who the money was borrowed from. That other party has no respect for the consumer or his rights. They often abuse the consumer in any way they take a notion to. By making the consumer believe things that are simply not true they even take whatever steps they can to further wreck the consumer's credit standing. Even if you do pay you are simply paying to get your credit wrecked even more because they will mark the account as a paid collection account which is not good for the consumer. So what is to be gained from paying vs. knowing what your rights are under the law and defending them to the fullest extent of the law? As far as spending money, what money would the consumer spend in the process of defending his rights under the law? Yes, there is a filing fee of about $350 to $400 depending on which federal jurisdiction you happen to live in but when you win the debt collector has to pay that back plus any damages they have caused plus at least $1,000 per violation plus attorney fees. So how would the consumer be spending money they could use to pay their debts? Please explain that if you can. If not, OH WELL! OK! How about a time wasting forum? Do you believe that it is a waste of time trying to educate people that they have rights under the law just as their creditors have a right to collect what is owed them? Do you believe that it is a waste of time teaching what those rights are so they know when their rights are being trampled on? Do you believe that it is a waste of time teaching people how to defend those rights and make the other fellow obey the law? Do you believe that it is a waste of time teaching people that they can not only defend those rights for free and without having to hire an attorney to do so? If you believe those things to be a waste of time then obviously all the money we taxpayers have ever paid out to all our representatives at both the federal and state levels is also a waste of money and time. Billions of dollars over the years just wasted by state and federal governments who were trying to be certain that you know what your rights are and how to defend them. Isn't that a crying shame that government should be so wasteful? In fact, our government has been trying to make sure that you have rights, that you know what those rights are and how to defend them ever since they sat down to write our Constitution and our Bill of Rights and even hundreds of years before that. Seems like some bunch of fools back in the year 1215 A.D. got together at a place called Runnymede. They didn't like what debt collectors were doing to people even way back then so they caught their king and pinned him to a tree with a sword and forced him to sign a silly document now known as The Magna Carta. Translated, that means The Grand Letter. It proclaimed that among other things, citizens could no longer be jailed just because they owed a debt. It abolished debtor's prisons and many other abominal practices. Our forefathers carried that forward when they sat down to write our Bill of Rights and our Constitution and the United States Supreme Court has even ruled that it is the duty of every citizen to know and uphold the law. Maybe all those people who believe that should start a massive campaign telling their representatives to back off and just let the banks and the debt collectors do their damnedest. Do I make sense? Are we just wasting our time here? What do you think now?
Cap 1 is like that so we know his style,he is quite informative you just have to wade through it,Most of us have dealt with ca's in the pass who say and mail out different things then what they do in real time.My question is why deal with a ca who paid pennies on the dollar,when you have no contract with them.I would be glad to settle with the oc if given the chance.Most oc's refuse to settle and clear your record as a form of punishment when all they would have to do is not report it when you dispute after payment.I think most of us would settle with the doctor or credit card if given the chance.If cap 1 didn't answer like that i would worry about his health and mental state.Anyway welcome to the forum.Some of us forget that a lot of people don't have a clue at what to do to help there credit.So some times we have to apologize to the poster.
We're not fans of name calling around here, but thank you all for playing nicely without any admin intervention!
