I've recently paid off a couple of collection accounts and charge-offs. I sent letters of negotiation with the payment and marked the checks clearly with the terms of the letters. The checks have been cashed but the items still remain. Since they agreed to the terms by processing the payment, do I have any recourse?
Was your offer to settle for payment of less than the debt they are collecting, or for payment for deletion? Depends on state law whether such offers are binding if the checks are cashed. Some states allow a creditor to provide a designated address where such offers with checks must be sent, and if they are sent to the regular payment address, (which may just be a subcontractor processing payments), no binding contract is created. How this would apply to payments to a CA I don't know. Having already made the offers, and had the checks cashed, however, I don't see what you have to lose in pressing your claim. Having already been paid, the CA may have nothing to gain. You may be in a stronger position if there was an issue or amount in dispute, and your payment was made to settle while still claiming the debt was disputed, in error, or invalid, particularly if you settled a disputed debt to mitigate further damage, such as from holding up obtaining a mortgage. I am not an attorney. That is just how I would look at it.
They were for full payment of the debts. When I disputed about a month later, they updated to paid, but it still showed charged off / collection account. I'm thing of getting an attorney since they cashed the payments, they agreed to the terms of the letter.
If they didn't like your terms for payment in full, they could have sent the check back. Yeah, right. Were the terms of your offer deletion of the account from your reports?
If it is worth negotiating payment for deletion, it is worth holding the other party to it. They will probably blink first. See an attorney.
