Can I talk them down? I currently have a credit card account with a balance of about $3500. I recently received a large commission check from work and have the cash in hand to pay it off and make the balance $0. I am about to do so, but wanted see if you thought I should just pay the $3500 or call the company (Chase) to see if I should try to negotiate a lower payoff payment. Not sure if this is relevant but my credit score is probably around the low to mid 600s. (Guestimate.) *The account is closed and has been for several years, but I have been making more than the minimum payment every month, sometimes twice a month. *The Apr is 29.9%. (Yikes) ***I will possibly be buying a house in 9 â?? 15 months, I would rather pay the whole $3500 than risk have a(nother) bad item on my credit report. Thanks in advance!
If you've been paying on time then they're not likely to do anything for you. If you're a few months behind they might be willing to do a settlement, but a settlement will not look good on your credit report. If you've had any recent late fees or over limit fees or any other type of fees I've had pretty good luck calling and saying... hey... I'm going to make a big payment, is there anything you can do about these fees? And usually they'll take a few off. That's probably about the best you can hope for, though. HTH, Brett
Thanks very much! Incidentally, I had my first late with them 2 years a month ago. (My fault--wasn't paying attention and screwed up an online banking session and did not realize for 10 days. Is it realiztic to ask them to delete that in exchange for full payment? Maybe sort of like a good will? Thanks!
If your goal is a mortgage, then I would pay off the balance. Mortgage lenders do not like to see debt on your credit reports. They are more concerned about debt than whether settled or paid. They just like to see a $0 balance. But...you should go in requesting them to delete negative information for payment (Pay For Deletion-PFD). You never know until you try. But, how is this account being reported on your credit reports? Is is listed as a "Charge Off", or with just late payments?
I hope i don't scare anyone but I have not seen my credit report in several years. I don't know how it is listed. I think it is not a charge off but is listed as closed by issuer. Can I do PFD after I pay it off? I do have the cash in hand now to pay the whole balance. Most of the late payments are in the past. On that related subject, can anyone recommend a service that will let me monitor my credit rating?
Hi there Rochester, I don't know a whole lot but I have been in credit repair and got a mortgage in 5/07. You really need to get a current official (meaning direct from the Credit agency) copy of your reports and take a look at what you need to do. You are entitled to receive a free one from each agency every year and whenever you are denied credit. www.annualcreditreport.com is a good place to start. You need to do some hard reading time my friend, there is no easy way around this. Take a look at the stickies listed at the top of this forum and read till your eyeballs explode, then read some more. You have to know exactly how you are doing something and why. If you don't you could potentially cause more damage than you intended. Since you are going for a mortgage in the future you may choose to "opt out" of having your credit looked at for promotional purposes. Another reason you may do this is when you apply for a mortage it tends to bring collection agencies and past debts out of the closet. They know they can cause you trouble getting approved and see it as a way to get payment. There are several sites you can sign up for credit monitoring & a couple allow you to pull all 3 reports at once. Truecredit, Privacy matters & Credit secure are a few that come to mind. Be careful though, recently alot of people who have been pulling thier reports every day are getting their service cancelled for "potentially fraudalent behavior & attempts to tamper with credit information" So beware of that. And welcome to the world of credit repair, it's obsessive, frustrating, time hogging and the best thing you can do for your financial self. Good luck! Tegleg
