Hello all, My husband has horrible credit, we would of course like to do things like qualify for a mortgage etc. so I, as the 'stay @ home wife', have undertaken the task of credit repair. He had a bankruptcy in '96, before I met him, which disheartened him and subsequently he has a long list of late payments on student loans and a credit card. My first task was to begin to bring the student loans up to date, this is going well. Now I am attempting to deal with our credit card company. We owe approx. $1200. We have taken a small loan against our 401K to cover this amount as it seems crucial to us to be rid of this debit. I purchased the "Fix Your Credit Workbook" by Bierman & Masten who advise that paying 100% of the debit is a powerful bargaining tool that could be used to gain us an "Unrated" account status. I called Providian today and attempted to negotiate this deal. I was told that they didn't know what I was talking about and that there was no way they could do something like that & that there was no one to transfer me to that could help. Did I want to provide them with payment now? I withheld payment as this seems to be my only bargaining tool. After the phone call I went on line and managed to find this site. I need help with strategy. Is there a specific department I need to contact? Magic phrases ; ) ? The sad part is that I don't mind paying them their $, I just want the black marks gone... is it a pipe dream...? Thanks for your time.
Negotiation for deletion or unrating doesn't always work. Sometimes - if the money is there to pay the debt and the debt is owed - it's simply better to just pay it in full. Then begin working on having it deleted after the fact. My two cents,
Re: I disagree I disagree with Marci. Your only weapon is the ability to pay in full. If you can do it, bargain with it. Once you pay, you lose all leverage. Now for a solution. Maybe. I know that a lot of the regulars here hang up when they get a bad representative at the CA or creditor. Then, they try again until they get someone more responsive. I would at least try this a couple times. Hopefully, someone has a better idea.
I prefer to deal with creditors and collection agencies through the mail, they won't get you to accidentally admit to anything, or agree to something. Also any response made through the mail can be legally enforced. I am assuming with this reply that your account is in either a closed or charged off status. If your account is active, but late this method of action will not quite work. Here's a letter to send offering to pay for removal: Dear Collection Manager: It has come to my attention through the credit bureaus that you claim I owe a debt to your agency. While I have yet to have the debt verified to me as legitimate through my rights, I can however save us both some effort & time by "Settling the debt out". Below is my offer. It is not a renewed promise to pay nor does it constitute any agreement unless you sign and return it. Note, I have not agreed yet that this debt is mine and have the option to seek further proof from your company of this debt. Suffice to say, you hold all the rights to report the debt to the credit bureaus as you see fit and you can change that listing at any time as the source reporting the debt. I am sure you are aware of my right to dispute this debt and request full proof of the obligation. Paying this unverified debt to you means little to me if we cannot mutually agree that you will report the debt as mentioned below. While I realize that your purpose is to collect debts as a collection department, I am also aware of what a paid collection would represent for me, which is not favorable. That being said, I have concurred through the bureaus that you have the absolute right to report this debt as you see fit or not report it at all. Please do not quote to me that you are unable to change the listing or I will be forced to cease and desist our communication and request full lengthy verification of the debt. My goal is to arrange a term acceptable to both us since this debt is questionable. I will pay your company the amount of $xx as payment in full for the full satisfaction of this account. Upon receipt of the above payment, your company has agreed to change the entry on my credit reports to Paid, no lates. You further agree to remove all previous notation of delinquency. If you concur with these terms please acknowledge with your signature and return it to me. You agree the terms herein are confidential and you have the authority to make such decisions. No payment will be made without written confirmation. Upon receipt of this signed acknowledgment, I will immediately mail you funds priority mail. This is not a renewed promise to pay but rather a restricted offer only. If no terms can be met, no new arrangements will be made and the offer will be void. Name of Creditor: Signature of company officer Date Sincerely, Name Address Social security number Do not sign your name! Do not sign or date letter! (This is necessary to avoid renewing the debt, should the creditor refuse to agree.)
How old is the providian debt? Is it passed the SOL? If you attempt to negotiate, make sure they remove ALL negative tradelines.. if they refuse, then what's the incntive in paying? If you want to pay because of your morals, then you can do so. However, if it is past the SOL, you can use that as your absolute defense if they come after you. You can also dispute this item with them doing validations and also dispute with the CRA to remove the negative tradelines. me personally, if it is passed the SOL, I wouldn't pay a dime and send them a C&D letter if they bother you. Then I would also dispute with the CRAs to remove the items.
Thanks so much for everyone's quick responses. Details... We've had the credit card for less than three years. We had a minor medical emergency that required us to max it out ($500 @ the time). We were making our payments on time and so they extended our credit to $850. We were in a car accident, my husband was on disability for several months and we got behind in our bills. It is a high interest card - nearly 25% - so with interest and "late fees" and such it quickly became $1200. We are $300 past our credit limit and we got a notice saying they were going to send our account to a collection agency. Our account is no longer usable, thought I am not positive if they would consider it potentially active or not. They had no problem charging us a monthly "credit protection fee" as well as "late fees" and "Over balance fees". I have drafted a letter offering 100% payment for them to unrate my account. Is this the direction I should be going? Thanks again for everyone's time and interest.
Linnzzie, May I suggest you use the letter Chris posted. In the letter offer them full payment of the balance in return for waiving late and overlimit fees as well as unrating the account. Good luck! Manny
I WOULD ASK FOR PAID AS AGREED, NEVER LATE...WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO LOSE? It is like buying a house...they don't always take the first offer...they may counter offer. If they take your offer...YOU WIN!!!
What was the "credit protection" for? Was it, by any chance, insurance in case he was disabled or unemployed? breeze
Update! Re:stonewalled! Yesterday evening we began recieiving phone calls from "Encore" a collection agency attempting to collect on our Providian account. We have recieved nothing in writting from this company. I have been reading through this site and have noted the comments not to deal with the CA to deal direct with the original creditors, so I informed encore that I wouldn't deal with them at this time. Lindsy.
"Stonewalled" is the wrong term to use. "Acting in a legal manner to collect money you owe" them would be better. Why don't you just pay it and stop the game-playing? When you needed medical attention they were there for you. Why don't you live up to your end of the bargain? If your credit report says "Settled for less than full balance," what do you think your mortgage lender will think? Why would they not assume that you would try to stiff them, too?
I am not attempting to "settle for less than full balance" as you have implied. I am offering the original creditors 100% of the original debit - I am not even trying to dispute that I owe them what I owe them. I am only $300 behind with them, but I am offering the entire balance immediately in exchange for an unrated credit history with them. I was given the impression that this was something commonly done with credit card companies. I am sorry that you see my attempt at qualifying for a mortgage as "game playing". Perhaps you should ignore me in the future, Thanks for your response.
Linzzie, Did you have Providian's account protection on your husband's account at the time that he became disabled? breeze
Let me get this right: You're saying, "I'll pay you what I owe if you lie about my account history." Correct?
Linzzie When you get a response from G. Fisher, it is best to ignore him, he makes all kinds of assumption without knowing the facts and make insinuations about you. I had a similar incident with him and it is best to ignore him. Do the best you can, I understand where you are coming from and don't worry about someone like G. Fisher, who claims he does not work for a CA. There is a lot of good advice on this board, so just block out the negative. Cyprigirl
I visited Mr. Fisher's websites and admittedly, there's some good stuff there. Scary but good nonetheless. I guess my question would be, why does he care if you're saying "I'll pay for you to lie about my history" (sorry if I mis-quoted). What is the motivation? How does how anyone approach credit restoration adversely affect or enrich other people's lives? It all comes out in the wash at some point in time....I guess. Everyone is of course entitled to their opinion on what is uh "right" and "wrong" or whatever, but to insert comments of the like when they aren't solicited, I guess that's where I feel saying less is more. It just puts people on the defense....like Linzzie. By the way Linzzie, you are in no way obligated to justify what or how you do anything to anyone here. I wouldn't even bother to clarify. Moving on....get me?
Cyprigirl: Thanks. Good advise, I'll heed it. Every forum has it's flamer(s). Breeze: As far as I know we have had that from the get go. I am trying to locate my original paper work to see what this feature is supposed to include. I will post about it when I find out. Thanks for the heads up. Linzzie
As I said in another message, Greg just likes to poke at people. I've encountered him on other sites, e.g., Moneycentral, and his modus operandi is the same. People should make up their own mind as to whether he's playing Devil's advocate, just likes to argue, or is actually trying to hurt others, but I just think that he likes to argue. Not that there's anything wrong with that -- I do, too!
