question for carreon and assoc

RE: question for carreon and a

I had an old Capital One account that was charged off, then they sent me a letter offering to open a new account and transfer balance from old account making that a PD Charge Off. I think someone else one this board had the same thing. Make sure they will take the old account off and not make it PD Charge Off, like mine is.

 

RE: question for carreon and a

You don't want any kind of a charge off on your credit report, paid or not. They are all bad.

You could try disputing the charge off based on the "last activity date" on the account since clearly they didn't charge it off the day after you missed that last payment. I'm sure there were several months of collection efforts involved. Go through your records and see if you can determine when you made the last payment on the account. The more documentation you have, the better off you will be in dealing with the CRAs and the creditor. Make the creditor prove that the item still belongs on your credit report.

As for dealing directly with the creditor if you want to pay the account, don't send them ANY money if they aren't going to give you something in writing. The deal you should be proposing to them is: I will give you X% of the charge off and you will completely remove the charged off account from my credit files at all three CRAs. They've already written your account to P&L, so anything you send them is profit (minus administrative costs).

Don't put up with any crap about them not putting anything in writing. The message to send them is "Nothing in writing? No Deal. I only have to wait 8 months and the whole thing goes away and you lose."

Don't fall for any kind of re-affirmation deal they offer you. The interest and potential for late fees just starts all over again. You don't want another account with these people.

Your debt is likely over the Statute of Limitations for collectability anyhow, so legally they can not collect the debt from you nor get a judgement or lein entered against you.

Finally, do not try to deal with whoever answers the phone. The front-line CSR most certainly doesn't have the authority to make deals on behalf of the bank like this. You will need to speak with someone in management. When you call them again, tell the CSR you are calling about a charged off account and want to speak to a manager about possible payment arrangements.

Remember the basic principle here: You have all of the leverage. If they want to salvage anything out of this account, they need to strike a deal (in writing) with you that is to your liking and whatever deal that is will include having the account removed from your credit files at all 3 CRAs.

Personally I would try and dispute it first, claiming the last payment you made was over 7 years ago and making them prove that it wasn't. The 'charge-off' is not the last 'activity' on the account.

If you choose to wait it out though, be aware of the fact that they are likely to sell the account to a collection agency for pennies on the dollar to get something out of the account and you will have to go through this all over again because the collection agency will no doubt slap it back onto your credit report using the date they acquired the account as the 'last activity' date. This is wrong and illegal. Save any correspondance you have with the origial creditor to prove it's an old debt.

The other trick they like is to put a 'collection inquiry' on your credit file which will stick around for two years. This will raise a red flag with any potential creditors. This is also illegal. If they want your credit history, they are entitled to it on the basis of 'account review' and those inquiries are not reported to poential creditors.

 

RE: thanks and to clarify....

In my scenario, they opened a whole new account; hence, two trade lines ~ 1) PD Charge Off (balance tranferred to new account) and 2)Current - Paying as agreed.

Whent the NEW account was opened, initially I had a $600 credit limit. They transfered over $1200 to the new card, $600 which completely maxed out my limit plus $600 in special transfer. Every payment that I made was split between the two, 50% to Special Transfer, 50% to regular credit line. They've never charged me any overlimit fees, etc. The initial APR was 9.9% or something close to that, and after 6 mos of steady payments they reduced my bill by 10% and my APR is now 2.9% (will go back up if I ever miss a payment or go over my limit).

 

RE: thanks and to clarify....

I thought it was a great deal, too! In fact I only accepted based on the fact I would have a credit card again, plus the old one would show paid, albeit PD-Charge off really didn't matter to me at the time.

The 10% "discount" (really just all the old late fees) was a surprise in the package when I received the new card. And completely out of left field they sent me a letter reducing the APR.

The charge off will go away after 7 years from the original date of last activity, which for me will be 08/03.

 

RE: question for kim

Mine was a Cap One acct. The original date of last activity is accurate and hasn't change.

However, I just reread your original post and quite honestly if the amount is substantial I wouldn't accept the offer to pay. If the account is gonna drop off in 8 months, why throw money down the drain? Especially if you have other things you need to take care of that aren't gonna drop off your report anytime soon.