On March 22, I sent a letter to a CA...offering to pay 40% of the balance for full deletion. They had until today to respond. I get a letter today saying they will take $250 (a little more than 40%) but they will report the account as "SETTLED" and I have until 4/15 to get the money to them (at least I gave them 2 weeks!). Of course, this is not acceptable to me - I want full deletion. My question is what is my next step? Should I send the payment for deletion letter again, with a counter offer? I really need to get this off my report to qualify for a mortgage (unfortunately, they put this on my report in 2001, so for FHA, the 2 years no negatives does not apply here). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. By the way, the agency is in IL. The original creditor is DE (or someplace like that). I'm in one of those states that enforces restrictive endorsements (Just an FYI).
That's what I decided to do George. Time is of the essence and I was trying to decide if I wanted to call them or write them. I'm going to write and send it priority mail. I'll call also but what I saw will be exactly what is in this letter: I appreciate your response to my previously written letter (see attached). In my previous letters, I have demanded validation of the debt you claim I owe you. You are required to provide some competent evidence that I have a contractual obligation to pay you, specifically, the alleged contract or other instrument bearing my signature, as well as proof of your authority in this matter. Absent such proof, you must terminate collection action and correct any erroneous reports of this debt as mine. I have not received such evidence from you to date. I have tried to settle this matter amicably â?? more for your benefit than mine. In an interest of fairness, I presented you with an offer to settle this unvalidated debt, for 40% of the alleged amount due, for the immediate deletion from all credit agencies you submit account information to. Your response was for a payment of $250, for a status of â??settledâ? to be reported to the credit agencies. Absolutely not! My offer is simple: 1) You will acknowledge that this is not an admission of liability and that all parties will keep this settlement confidential; 2) I will pay you $300 as payment in full for the full satisfaction of this account; 3) you will immediately delete, and no later than 48 hours, the disputed debt from each credit bureau you submit account information to, including any information showing this account as being paid late, in collections or charged off. The choice is yours. If we cannot come to an agreement, the next correspondence you will be receiving from me is a Notice of Intent to File Lawsuit. Furthermore, this matter will be in a perpetual state of dispute. I can assure you that the cost of pursuing this matter on your end far exceeds the amount you claim I owe you. If you agree with these terms, please acknowledge with your signature and return a copy to me. No payment will be made without written confirmation. Upon receipt of this signed acknowledgment, I will immediately mail you funds via certified bank cashier's check with restrictive endorsement forming legal and binding contract between us by priority mail. Please confirm in writing, by April 19th agreeing to these terms. This is my final offer to resolve this matter civilly. This is not a renewed promise to pay but rather a restricted offer only. Sincerely,
Shantel- From what I read, you have sent them validation and they didn't respond with any, but they did send you an offer to settle letter (collection activity)? This is a violation of the FDCPA. If you haven't already sent your letter to them I would point this out. Send a copy of the Wollman letter, and state that you are willing to settle for deletion only (if this debt is under $1000). Cause you could laways sue THEM for FDCPA violation(s) as well as damages (denial for home loan) and possibly make money from them!
KHM.... Yes, I sent them a validation letter and what they sent me back was a photocopy of a bill, with my name on it, to an address that doesn't exist (I checked). This was in December. I sent the settlement letter first, but they counteroffered, to report it as settled. In addition, in Feb, they sent a settlement offer (now this IS collection activity after I sent my original validation letter). What I'm wondering is, when we say they have to send validation and stop collection activity - does that mean VALID validation? They are considering what they sent to me AS validation, which is probably why they went on and sent the other letter (in Feb).
