Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Collection - Mortgage - Settlement How could I make sure, before I make the payment, that they will send me this letter? Won't their offer letter and my proof of payment be enough? Great idea.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Collection - Mortgage - Settlement BUMP Would you please respond to my last 2 posts in the thread?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Collection - Mortgage - Settlement Perhaps others in the mortgage lending business can comment on what would be adequate to substantiate clearing of a reported outstanding debt. You can't make someone do the right thing, let alone in a timely manner. You can tell them up front what you expect in exchange for what you will offer, and if they agree you can attempt to hold them to it. If they brush you off, your choices are to live with it, or play hardball. Both have costs. If you have an agreement up front you at least have some standing to take action, and their path of least resistance is to comply. Get it in writing. That is what is different about negotiating with a car dealer, versus negotiating with someone who is damaging you, they believe legally. You didn't choose that you would have to deal with this CA, and if its not your debt, you didn't choose even to deal with the original creditor. With the car dealer, you can walk and buy from someone else if you want. You can choose who you deal with. No agreement is stronger than the intent of the parties to follow it, and your first defense against agreements that go sour is to never do business with parties who don't honor their agreements.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Collection - Mortgage - Settlement Not sure this is what you want to hear, but the one settlement that I dealt with (NCO in 2003) was very explicit that they would not update my CR until 60 days after recieving my last payment--dude wouldn't budge on that point. I'm in no way an expert 'round here, but that was my experience.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Collection - Mortgage - Settlement Did he put that in writing? What if you had disputed with the CRA during that period? What would they have done, verify a CA tradeline showing a balance they knew had been paid? Was he "adamant" because he was trying to stear you into paying by "phone check', say, instead of by CC?
What I think I will do Based on everything you've advised and considering all pros and cons in my case, here's what I think I will do. Because of the time constraint, I will pay the settlement amount (50% of the debt) right away, marking my check "Debt disputed. This payment satisfies settlement offer dated MM/DD/YYYY under protest." This way, I will have the offer letter and the proof of payment so that I can have my mortgage company use Rapid Rescoring if I have not received a confirmation letter from the CA by then. I will, however, start a validation process right away (using NanaSi's sample letter: http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4947&hl=sassy,and,nana). Once I have proven this account is not mine, I will sue the CA for damages (i.e. higher interest rates because of how this account negatively impacted my credit scores). It will virtually impossible to figure out exactly how much something like this affected my mortgage, but that's when some type of settlement might come in. Sounds reasonable enough? (Thank you, ontrack. Thank you, pd11604.)
BUMP well, to me it sounds reasonable, and I understand your need to solve this problem quickly. Since it is a major event (new mortgage) you might want to run your proposed solution by a lawyer to see what he thinks of your plan. What sound reasonable to us may not have much standing in a court of law. PS...lots of folks here take the "weekend off" and sometimes you posts are not seen until the following Monday good luck!
