I have ~6 charged off accounts. Half of them have been validated, the others I haven't sent letters yet, but I assume they will be. I leave for the air force in 14 weeks and want to get this behind me. There is probably ~2800 dollars in chargeoffs and I have the money to pay them. My number ONE main goal is to get this behind me and buy a house in ~4 years. My credit has gotten better but I need to take care of these things. Should I send a pay for delete settlement... maybe 50%??? The thing is, the avg amount for these is ~250 dollars so it isn't worth a lawsuit to these guys. There is two bigger ones (490 and 890) that I might have to handel separately but I want this done now. Any thoughts? Is deleting it better than having my record shown is was paid in full?
A deleted account is definitely better than a collection account that says "paid in full" for 7 years. If you're attempting to negotiate something down, or off, don't mention in a letter that you have a self-imposed designated time-line in regard to the accounts. Sometimes what you don't say, matters as much as what you say. Your leverage is your money and they want to be paid. Don't pay anyone until you have a letter in hand that clearly states that in consideration for the payment of $XXX.00 by such-and-such date, CA agrees to remove "any degrogatory reporting to any Credit Reporting Agency." Once you receive the letter, plan on making copies and keeping these letters *forever*. If possible, aim to negotiate toward the very end of the month when CAs are more inclined to close off old accounts. (Again, the leverage is your money and old, uncollected accounts are dead weight.) Start at 10% of the total debt owed but depending on the size of the account and the CA's motivation you could manage to get it to between 30%-50%.
