Wouldn't happen to be trying to entrap someone for a CROA suit would ya? To other members, it would be a very bad to accept offers like these. Remember, you don't know who you are dealing with, or what their motives might be.
Duh 1. Dont know what Croa suit is. 2. The colls are from 5 years ago when i was in a life altering accident. alot of help you guys are, what a waste of time. forget it, apparently this place is full of crack heads.
Save your money, pay the unpaid account, and wait 2 years. Check your scores and avoid new credit applications until some of the collection accounts fall off. Try to keep open any credit accounts you may currently have, for FICO "age", even if they have some negative history that will fall off. In 1.5 to 2 years, start opening new accounts slowly and selectively, based on best terms offered, and in 3 years if you pay your bills, you should have reasonably good credit. Within the 2 year timeframe your inquiries and your collection accounts will fall off, so don't waste your time disputing. You couldn't recover from bankruptcy that fast. Costs you nothing, not even time disputing. Or if you prefer, there are companies that, for $1500, will tell you to stop paying your debts, claim they are negotiating them down, and trash your credit. Others will claim if you just give them some money, they will dispute everything negative on your reports, and it will all just go away. Or, for the right fee, they will create good TLs on your reports. "We have a special relationship with the CRAs, so only we can do this!" It's truly magic! Yeah, right!
If you have issues, post them and people will offer advice for free. If you think I over reacted, do a search on the Credit Repair Organization Act. By accepting payment for services, one opens themself up to liability under this act.
If you question the suspicious nature of replies, keep in mind that baiting by collection industry "trolls" does sometimes occur. Some of them believe that all consumers owe any debt, that consumers are "deadbeats" if they dispute or request validation of a debt, that federal law does not apply to them, and that anything is fair as long as you don't get caught. The consequences for getting caught are currently inadequate to deter such illegal behavior. This may even be a successful collection strategy for them, since many consumers have no idea what their rights are, and many debt collectors feel no obligation to remedy that ignorance even if it may result in collection of payments from people who do not owe them, despite specific FDCPA notification requirements. Many consumers have no concept that a debt collector might come after them for a debt they do not owe, or that they might not be able to resolve any such problem with a simple phone call. There are others, however, who recognize the problems being created by those debt collectors who consider legal compliance a nuisance. For example, see David Lippman's ("lawyerboston") comments below: http://www.collectionindustry.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=16&threadid=5707 For some of us, CAMCO was a wake-up call to how far down parts of the collection industry have sunk, and the extent to which the effects of illegal and criminal behavior, if allowed to continue and grow unrestrained, can spill over into anyone's life. It also showed how sluggishly the regulatory agencies charged with policing these activities react to control the damage, and how willingly the CRAs participate in anything as long as their customers pay them. A system capable of reliably and efficiently granting risk-based credit to a mobile workforce is increasingly being undermined with rot.
