There are several different aspects involved. First, find out if the SOL has past in your state.. if it hasn't, then be careful of what you do bcause that means they (CAs and creditors) can still come and sue you. Also, even if the SOL has NOT expired, then if you do not use this as your defense if they do take you to court, then they can still collect. Once that has been figured out - and you know you are in the safe zone, send disputes to the CRA's and send validation letters to the creditors/CA's. If there is anything inaccurate in the listing, then dispute these to the CRA's. Simpy say NOT ACCURRATE or NOT MINE or whichever applies and go from there.. if they cannot verify within 30 days, then poof - those lines are supposed to be taken off your report. At the same time, also send validation letters to the CA's and creditors.. if you ned help with these, search for past messages regarding everything I said.. it is all here in the archives. I would not even consider paying either.. UNLESS they can offer to completely remove all tradelines and/or bring your account up to date and update it to say PAY AS AGREED - meaning no negatives.. this you need to get in writing. I highly doubt this will happen, because it is illegal for them to report false information to the CRA's. Thus, your best bet is going w/ the plan I illustrated above. .good luck.
Ender, would you please send me a private email about the following in your post? I need some clarification and I don't even want to take a chance on you thinking I am trying to put you down or something, so I'd rather take it up in private email. I know you can clarify my confusion for me. Please cut and paste so I have a reference to go by. ************************************* There are several different aspects involved. First, find out if the SOL has past in your state.. if it hasn't, then be careful of what you do bcause that means they (CAs and creditors) can still come and sue you. Also, even if the SOL has NOT expired, then if you do not use this as your defense if they do take you to court, then they can still collect.
Bill - I don't wish to engage in any sort of argument or long discussion.. I don't have enough time as it is to really read everything on here. .if you wish to clarify stuff, then please feel free to. To clarify what I meant by my post - even if the SOL has past, and a collection agency is attempting to obtain a judgement - if the defendent never shows up or never uses the SOL as an argument, he will still lose by default when not showing up. This is all I meant. This is what actually happened to me.. by the time I learned enough, it was too late for me because I had already paid for the judgement anyway.
Yes, Nana. absolutely. I'm just going to have to take that situation and study it a while and see what can be developed. I don't think it's going t be easy, but only time will tell. Getting entries off that are incorrect should be pretty easy. That's not the problem I have however.
NanaC: I can't tell from your post whether that was just a bit of humor or what. What happened was that I read his post and that one little part didn't make any sense to me and I didn't want him or anybody else to think I was coming off with some kinda #@$% so I asked him to email me over that part. I figured he would then look at that part of his post and clarify it right here on line and no one would be able to take offense. That's exactly what happened and I got myself straightened out. How muddy is it afterword? Well, it's clear enough for govamint work. If I misintrepreted your post, sorry. have a nice one.
Second, I have visited your website, isn't the creditwrench sold for a price of $49.95?? I swear I read that! Nana, If I've said it once, I must have said it a hundred times. Creditwrench is the name of the website, not any product you can buy and put your hands on. You want to buy the website? I didn't think so!! (LOL) Bill, I don't understand? I copied this from the Creditwrench website and that doesn't look like your selling the website for 49.95......it looks like your selling a method called Credit Wrench. I don't understand why you laugh in the above memo. If you have said it 100 times, why don't you explain it once. Of course the person above is referring to the product not the site. Are you playing stupid? Seriously, whats up? our EZ CREDITT WRENCH METHOD will soon have your credit looking nice and clean. Honestly, if you just use our method according to our instructions, it will do everything we say it will do. And the Amazing Credit Wrench is only $49.95! That's the full and complete price to receive this valuable information that will remove all the adverse reports from your credit file. You can use your Visa, Master Card or other credit or debit card you may have by simply clicking on the link below and sending us $49.95 All you have to do is to give them the following email address and have the proper amount in your PAYPALS ACCOUNT. bbauer1@netzero.net
This is the method I would try (and I am open to suggestions): If you are dealing with the original creditor: 1. If you don't care about your credit derog on your report (meaning it is listed on your credit report and 7 years haven't gone by for it to drop off) check the statutes of limitations to see if you can ignore requests from the creditor to pay you. 2. If you do care AND you don't mind/are able to pay it off, then Negotiate for a lower amount under the terms that if you pay they will agree to change your listing to PAID AS AGREED. Since you have negotiated/amended your contract with the creditor, and if you have paid per the new agreement, having the creditor list the tradeline as "PAID AS AGREED" is the truth. If the account has gone into collection: 1. Do a debt validation per all the postings here 2. If the account was sold to the collection agency (meaning that the collection agency is now the creditor and the original creditor is out of the picture), then negotiate per the above advice for the original creditor 3. If the account was merely assigned to the CA, then you will also need to go back to the original creditor and see if you can negotiate with them. You can at least get the collection listing off of your report. I have had readers have sucess with negotiating with the original creditor, and LizardKing's success is famous here, so I think these methods would do the trick.
Kristy: There is something I fail to understand here. Perhaps you could enlighten me. I can understand an attempt to negotiate in a situation similiar to the one I am dealing with at the present time. It is a hospital bill for $59.00. The collection agency normally would not cut me any slack on the credit reporting end, and they just simply demand that I pay the bill and take the licks. But I'm not willing to do that. So I call them up and plainly tell them that I have proof of their violation of federal law in 3 different ways. I tell them that I am willing to pay the stupid $59.00 but the only way I would be willing to do that would be if they gave me a signed and notarized statement agreeing to remove the remarks from my credit bureau files within 60 days. I tell them that I am well aware that they normally don't do that, but which would they do, get paid or defend against 3 charges of violation of federal law?. I stated quite plainly that I would not hesitate to file the 3 suits against them. I also pointed out that if I pay, they make maybe $25.00, but if I file on them, they are going to have to spend many times that amount defending, so which would they rather do, delete or defend? I told them that I don't have to pay any attorneys to file the charges either, so it costs me nothing to do so. Of course, it would cost me maybe $75 to $100 to file the case and get them served, but so what? I told them flat out I'd gladly pay the $100 per charge rather than stand the hit on my credit record. Now then, is something like that what you mean by negotiating? If not, then how else does one negotiate from a position of power rather than a position of begging on bended knee which I refuse to do? Now then, if the bill was larger than say $100, I wouldn't consider paying them under any circumstances. Why on earth would I? What could I possibly gain by paying them off when I can easily beat them and usually do so without ever having to go to court. There was a time when one was completely and totally at the mercy of the collection agencies and creditors. Thankfully that day is past. Now we have the FDCPA, the FCRA, the Truth in Lending Act as well as the Paper Reduction act and the UCC with which to stand up and fight. Why whimper when you can roar like a tiger? Don't make any sense to me. What do you think? Do you think that begging and pleading for mercy is still the way to go?
Bill: Firstly, I wouldn't try and negotiate with a collection agency, I would do debt validation. Also, I would never try to contact them on the phone, only send them certified mail, following the debt validations techniques: 1. Send them a letter, wait 30 days. If they don't respond or send proof (that they own the debt, not that they were assigned to it). 2. Send them another letter saying they are in violation of the FDCPA; explain why, send them a copy of the other leter. 3. Wait 15 to 20 days, if they don't respond still, file a lawsuit. You can take them to small claims. If they do provide proof, then you are stuck. But I doubt if they have purchased this debt.
Kristy, what if it's bought, but bought after the SOL? I have a similar situation (but nearly $1000). I sent off my first letter telling them I had no such debt & to remove, quit collecting, etc. The 30 days were just up so I sent another giving them 10 days or I'll sue. All I've gotten back is stall letters which I'm ignoring (we're looking in to it....). Does the fact that it was bought change the SOL?? I'm thinking (hoping) I'm on solid ground.
Kristi. OK, lets see here. I have negotiated payment with collection agencies in the past. Each time the collector was assigned the debt, but did not actually own the debt. Each time the collector was reporting the debts to the CRAs. This gives the collector the authority on wether or not the information is reported or not and how it is reported. Many times a collector has an agreement with the creditor that states they cannot remove or change any information without their clients permission. In this case they go back and get the creditors permission. So I guess I just dont get your point. If the collector signed an agreement with me that released me from any responsibity and agreeing that I am not admitting to any obligation that the debt is actually mine, then I am home free if the agreement is written up properly. If someone wanted, they could go as far as getting the originals creditors signature on the offer and comprimise.
godaddyo, No, I wouldn't negotiate with a collection agency, I would use debt validation against them. (I think there is some confusion on this point.) You can remove collection notations from your report by proving that you don't owe the debt to the collection agency, just the creditor. You do this useing the debt validation method. What happens is that most debts are assigned to, not purchased by, collection agencies. According to the court case sited by LizardKing: If it wasn't LizardKing, it was someone else that posted here. So therefore, if you don't owe the collection agency any money, under the FCRA, they cannot report this debt to the bureaus. (It's a legal loophole, I know, but a beautiful one.)
The case of Engelhardt v. Gravens, decided by the Supreme Court of Missouri in 1926, had absolutely nothing to do with assignment of debts. It was a suit to determine title to a strip of ground 25 feet wide, constituting a private roadway. Please don't encourage any of this "estoppel by silence" nonsense.
I think actually (I did a little research) that estoppel by silence is actually a legal defense, and it was established by the case given. Basically, I looked it up on www.nolo.com: So actually, it is a very broad defense not necessary related to credit.
