Hi everyone... I'm new here... and i need as much help as possible. I've been googling for the past few days about credit charge off's and seem to be getting more confused hah. Here is my story... I got a Wells Fargo credit card in 2009 and I didn't plan on using it for much back then. I ended up using it to pay for school. The total was around 600 and something I think... I became unemployed and I missed the fee to pay before the charge off. So i got a voicemail from Wells Fargo that sounded pretty serious about having me or my "representative" contact them to discuss some options. So I called them back and spoke to a woman who said if I would be able to come up with $904 by Nov. 10th then it would be considered paid in full and it wouldn't go to collections where "you could get sued" all of this is new to me so I'm a bit terrified... I don't own anything under my name(car, house, etc.) I've been trying to come up with 904 but its difficult seeing as though I'm currently again unemployed. I don't know what to do. I know the best option would be to pay off the 904 by Thursday but I have no idea how to get that money in such a short period of time. So I've sadly been reading what will happen when I get the "charge off" *sigh* Basically I just need as much help and advice that you guys have. When I'm googling all of this I see so much posts saying one thing then another person posting "actually thats not true" and I have no idea what to believe or what to do about all of this. Any help is appreciated. Sorry if this post is all over the place, I'm just a little frantic about this.
If you were to pay it off to avoid a "charge off" and going into collections, how much cash could you come up with?
I could probably come up with $643... I JUST received this letter today saying this "Due to the serious delinquency on your account, we are notifying you that your entire balance of $907.42 is due immediately. Contact us today at the number listed below and advise us on how you will be making payment on the balance. If you fail to respond to this demand within 10 days of the date on this letter(Nov1) the Bank may excercise available rights and remedies under the terms of your contract and applicable law including, but not limited to, referring the account to an attorny for purposes of obtaining a money judgement. Under the terms of your contract, if the Bank received a money judgement you may be required to pay collection costs, attorny fees and court costs related to the collection of this debt. Your account may have been previously outsourced to a third party for collection activity. If this was the case, please be aware that the Bank has recalled your amount from that third party, and that the Bank is presntly servicing your account" Any help, suggestions, or anything is GREATLY appreciated... =/
It's a good thing that the account is still with the bank. They're generally much easier to deal with than a CA, and you can hopefully avoid ending up with a collection on your credit reports as well. You've got about 70% of what they're asking for, which is pretty good. You just have to convince them that this is all you have and absolutely the best they're going to get. If they believe that, they'll take it, close your account and move on. If at all possible, you don't want to end up with a settled notation on your credit reports though. You want them to close your account out as paid in full in return for payment. Push hard for that first. Some creditors will agree to it, others will not. It's worth pushing for though. If they do agree to it, make sure you get everything in writing before making payment. In fact, if you have the time, it's a good idea to keep all your communication in writing so you have excellent documentation of each step in the process.
At this point, the bank will probably settle in full for 40% to 50% of the balance due. On a debt this small, the usual procedure is to sell the account for pennies on the dollar to a company like Asset Acceptance, Midland, Unifund, etc. Those companies are known as junk debt buyers, and it is they--not the original creditor--who typically go after debtors with lawsuits and other aggressive collection activity. I would suggest that you call Wells Fargo, inform them that you are unemployed (even if this is not true), that you are completely broke (again even if this is not true), and that you are planning to go back to school, which means that you won't have any money to pay this debt for the forseeable future (again, even if this is not true). Tell the collection agent that your dad will be willing to give you $400 to pay as a settlement on this debt, provided that the bank agrees to mark the account as settled in full and forgive the remaining balance. Make it clear that you must get this settlement offer in writing BEFORE any money will be paid so that your father can review it, and he will then provide payment by money order or cashier check. Most likely, Wells Fargo will jump at the offer because if they sell the account to a junk debt buyer, they'd only get $10 to $50.
