I contacted a utility company months ago regarding a chargeoff of an account from which I never received a bill. I finally received a response that states, "We do agree to delete this from your Credit Bureau file once full payment is made." A few lines later she says, "After payment is received, the credit bureau will be notified and the account will reflect that it has been paid." Umm, wait a minute here, one sentence says "delete" and another states "paid". I wonder if this is success or not. I am going to send them a check tomorrow anyway with a copy of the letter with the one sentence highlighted to delete. If they try to shaft me, I guess I will send a letter to PlanetFeedback and/or to the PUC. Fingers crossed.
I'm betting on the shaft... I wouldn't send it to them without a letter in hand that says exactly what you want, not paid. Paid collections are not much better than collections accounts....
If you pay them without your agreement in writing my opinion is that you can count on the shaft. I agree with you bkev. After you pay you will have no more leverage to get a deletion and likely no hope. Just my opinion from my own experiences. Good luck to you.
I enclosed a letter as follows: "Dear Collections Dept., With the enclosed check, I am submitting full payment for the account listed above. As per our written agreement (enclosed), please contact Experian to delete the account record once the payment has posted. The account is not listed with the other Credit Bureaus, so there is no need to contact them. The check may be cashed and applied to this account only if the account record is deleted with Experian as agreed to, and no further reports are made to the Credit Bureaus in regards only to the account above that are deleterious to my credit report. If there are any questions, please call me at 000) 000-0000." I enclosed the letter from the creditor with the agreement, and I also wrote on the check memo "Delete CRA record on cashing." I hope that is enough. Thanks.
I think you may have trouble with this approach: You still need to get them to say in writing that they will delete the item, not be vague, as you pointed out, by throwing "paid" into the works. By you sending them a letter does not make it binding. And, as has been pointed out on this board before, it doesn't mean they will comply (those slimy guys) even if you do have it in writing. In California, you can get away with writing "cashing of this check constitutes payment in full" (if you follow other procedures, as well), but I haven't heard anywhere that you can bind them to do anything else, (like delete your listing). I think this is kind of shaky.
I think you are going to have trouble with this MikeB. I hope you reconsider sending your payment until you clarify your agreement with them in writing. You need to get them to agree to your terms in writing prior to your payment being made. If you don't do it that way I believe you will be SOL with no recourse. Anyone have a different opinion?
Gee, thanks for all of the optimism guys! Heh. Well, I have to pay it anyway to get a mortgage. I disputed it at least 3 or 4 times until Experian refused to investigate further. I don't see how they can interpret the written letter that states "We do agree to delete this from your Credit Bureau file once full payment is made." as anything other than exactly what it says. Come to think of it, the "this" is not specific enough. DOH! Oh well, if they don't delete it, I will write several letters and continue to dispute it if I ever can again. At least someone give me some hope....hehe...cynics!
CAs, like water, take the path of least resistance... They're going to cash that check, apply the money to the balance and not do anything. Your attempt at a restricted endorsement may hold up in court, but you'll have to take them there to get what you really want, the deletion. I seriously advise you call the CA again, ask to speak with a supervisor with power to nego, explain the situation and withhold payment until you get it in writing they will agree to your terms. I think you're going to find this is everyones opinion here....
I will call them tomorrow and ask them to send me a fax or letter that removes the vague language used in the first letter. Of course I won't mention that I already sent the check Thanks.
Bkev, this is the original creditor (utility company), not a sorry CA. For background, they sent me a final bill to my forwarded address, but it was returned to them as undeliverable although I got my other mail fine. They did send me a letter stating that they would delete it upon payment, but a sentence below that stated the "credit bureau would be notified and the account would reflect that it has been paid." Thus, the rhetoric is a little too vague. Maybe they meant the account would reflect paid on their records, not the CRAs. Maybe not. The worst that could happen is that they report "paid" to the other two CRAs that don't currently report that record because I sucessfully disputed it off. If that were to happen, watch out! Anyway, I will call tomorrow to try and obtain a more clear and binding written agreement. Thanks.
Mike, I have to agree with everyone else. If you haven't mailed the check yet, don't. Wait until you get that letter updated to reflect total deletion upon payment. If you don't, you'll be stuck with a paid collection for sure.
I created an endorsement on the back of the check, memo note as well as a letter that stated they would delete when payment was received. Mind you, this was after they agreed to delete in writing, but I thought the multiple endorsements couldn't hurt. Good luck!
