This Account has been on my credit report for 6 years or so. I am trying to clean up my credit. This law firm called me today in reference to this account. They said to make them a settlement offer. So off the top of my head I came up with $475 on a $800+ account. He accepted and I stated I would pay if they sent the offer in writing. Here is the letter: I had the money to spare so I decided to pay them. Did I do the right thing. Matthews Law Firm, LLC. Physical Address: 1343 Garner Ln. Ste.305, Columbia, SC 29210 Mailing Address: 7470 Garners Ferry Rd., Columbia, SC 29209 (803) 772-3848 or (888) 358-8500 Fax (803) 753-9052 October 16, 2006 RE: Goodyear/Citibank/FUSA Bank Original Account: #xxxxxxxx Our Account: #xxxxxxxxx Original Balance: $838.55 Current Balance: $838.55 SETTLEMENT OFFER: $475.00 Dear Mr. Hood: The purpose of this letter is to offer you a settlement of the aforementioned amount for $475.00, which is a substantial discount from the current balance of $838.55. The account will be considered settled in full upon clearance of your debit that shall be called in to our office within 30 minutes of receipt of this letter. Please be advised that failure to keep the arrangement will abrogate the agreement and the entire amount will then become due. We will inform the client to take all the steps necessary to update your national credit report. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. Sincerely Yours, Shannon D. Matthews Supervising Attorney As required by law, you are hereby notified that a negative credit report reflecting on your credit record may be submitted to a Credit Reporting Agency if you fail to fulfill the terms of your credit obligations. THIS IS AN ATTEMPT TO COLLECT A DEBT. ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED WILL BE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE.
Did you negotiate how this will be reported in your CR? Paid in full, deleted TL, or partial payment/charge off? That is the question I would have asked instead of actual amount. If you want to call them and negotiate this before you settle the debt, it would benefit you. I don't usually call CAs but in this case you might want to talk to them since you already did before and then in your letter state something like: "as discussed on....this payment is made under following conditions " and then state what agreement you made. They can delete the entire TL from your records is they agree to it.
Couldn't you also check on the SOL on this type of debt in your state. If the SOL has expired, then I wouldn't pay. I would politely explain that I was aware that the SOL had expired, and that I was prepared to use this in my defense. I honestly doubt that they would file for $800. If it has been on your CR for 6 years, then it should fall off in the next year. I have an expired SOL letter that I have successfully used in the past. I live in Texas and the SOL on most debt is 4 years.
Depends on state, mine is 7 years. The reason they want to settle is probably because it's close to SOL to expire.
So the SOL only applies if you never pay anything on the account? What if you have been paying it, for 6 years and the balance is still high due to high a interest rate? What can you offer to settle this?
I was told that if you write somewhere on the check that you are paying them with something like "if you choose to cash/deposit this check you are agreeing to delete it from all three cra's" anybody know about this?
Well in my opinion if you have not paid on it in the 6 years you had it and depending on what state your in and the SOL I would have hung up on them! As soon as you talk to them and make any agreement you start the SOL all over again. So if you pay the amount you agreed on I bet you if not them another company will come after you for the rest because they will sell the debt off to another debt collection agency. That's the new game now that they play. What has happened to us is we had 2 loans for vehicles and my husbands boss decided he wasnt gong to pay him anymore(long story there) so we could'nt afford the truck payment anymore so we surrendered the truck after only making 12 payments on it. It has been 5 years since it has been repoed and we have not talked to anyone about it or made 1 payment on it. Well just last month I paid off my explorer with the same bank who had the loan on the truck who by the way sold the truck at auction for $10,000.00 so we owed $9000.00 on it. Mind you the bank never asked us for a dime on the truck. Im pretty sure PA has a 4 or 5 year SOL. Anyway the bank sold this debt to a collection agency just last month after 5 years (im assuming they thought we were rich after paying off the other loan) and they want, now your gonna laugh $16,000.00 for the loan! Yeah right! Not on your best day. Where they come up with this amount I'll never know, but they have called my house 2 times now and I just let the machine get the call. I will never pay for that truck. If I was gonna do that well they better give me the truck back. My point is they keep selling these debts off to other companies who are willing to buy them. In turn they will harass us until they think we will give in and pay the debt.
Well from reading the posts I should have negotiated with them to take trade lines of my credit report. A few more questions: Since it is almost seven years will the trade line come off my credit report. Next question: This statement: "The account will be considered settled in full upon clearance of your debit that shall be called in to our office within 30 minutes of receipt of this letter." Does that mean that the original account is considered paid in full. I am taking as that. I should have given him a lower settlement amount, something like $300.
Under FCRA, negative reporting must be removed 7.5 years after the first date of delinquency. Paying it does not change this. Only bringing it current, and then being delinquent again would establish a newer first date of delinquency. This account is charged off and closed, so if you paid it, there is no way to make another charge you could be delinquent on.
