should I just pay the $84?

I had to pay a $48 collection (bad check) from 96. It went to "paid" $0 balance. The DLA did not change, and i will continue to "dispute" it until it does fall off. There's not much to argue with on a balance of such little amount, and NO collection agency is going to agree in writing to remove a debt you acknowledge. That would cost them their access to such credit bureaus if you "turned them in" for violating their contracts with such said bureaus. They aren't going to risk losing access over such a piddly amount.

 

Yes, they can remove it if they want to and I'll bet I can force them to take it off and be quick about it once I make them decide it's in their best interests to do so before they get sued.
And if you want to, you can stick around this and some of the other boards and learn how to do it yourself and pretty much for free. You don't have to pay anybody to do it for you unless you want to or don't have the time its going to take to fight them and win.

There are a lot of different things that can enter into the decision you have to make. One might be that you are going to stand up and fight no matter what it costs because you are not going to stand still for having that stone around your neck for the next 5 or so after you did what's right and paid them might be one way to look at it.

On the other hand, morals, principles, doing the right thing no matter what the cost might be the way you want to go. Maybe you feel that if you owe the bill you ought to pay it no matter what. Maybe it's a money issue. Not worth throwing good money after bad type of thing. You have to make those decisions. Just make up your mind whats right for you and that's it.

Should you fight them? Well, seems kind of silly to me to pay $89 and then still have to live with it for anywhere from maybe 5 to 7 years. The thing they put on your record will say paid off collection account and then they will try to stick a new date on the listing so you have to live with it for another 7 years and in order to get that put back to where it should be you will most likely have to go through a big fight so it will go off your record in the 5 years that you say it's supposed to go off in. Who told you it was going to go off in 5 years? It's supposed to go off in 7 years from the date you actually defaulted on your last payment plus 180 days or something like that. I don't pay any attention to that. I just make them take it off and I don't much care when it was supposed to go off.

I had one for $69 and I made them take it off. They was real happy to do it too, or so it seemed to me. Once a bill goes to a collection agency, I wouldn't pay it if it was for 89 &#162 but that's me and that's just the way I am. I wouldn't pay them if it was for 89 &#162 and they was gonna sue me for the 89 &162 . I'd tell them they didn't have the guts to pull the trigger and sue me. Matter if fact, if they told me they was gonna sue me for the 89 &#162 I'd sue them instead and I'd win it too. I guess that's just because I'm a crazy old coot that would rather fight than put up with their crap.

Everybody has to make their own decision as to what they are going to do about stuff like that. I and many others here can tell you what they think you ought to do, and that's fine too. Wakes you up to the options that are available to you. I'd advise you to listen to what a few others have to say here and then decide what you want to do and just do it, pay em, live with it, fight them, whatever. If you ever do get them to agree that they will take it off if you pay them, just make sure they put it in writing and sign it and send it to you before you pay them a crying dime because that way you have a written contract you can sue on if they don't take it off. If you pay them and don't have it in writing, you can be you are gonna live with it and you won't have much in the way of leverage to make them take it off like they told you on the phone they would.

Have a nice day and a better one tomorrow.

 

You aren't going to get them to take it off with just one letter in most cases although I have seen it happen. You start off by sending them a validation letter. Those are available right here on this board in another section called "letters" but before you think about sending them any letters you need to take time and learn a bunch of stuff. There are also several other validation letters on the board and if you just search for them you will find them fast and fairly easy. Just about any of them will work. I have my own that I developed and I know for sure that mine is the best out there bar none. And I know that my handy-dandy-hits-em-between-the-eyeballs validation letter isn't all that much better if any than anybody elses. One seems to work about as well as the next one.

But a validation letter all by itself isn't going to get the job done in most cases. It usually takes about 5 different kinds of letters and about 3 to 7 months time to get the job done. The reason it usually takes so many letters is that you need to send one to the credit bureau and you probably have to send one to the original creditor and 3 to the collection agency before you can hope to get the job done.

They aren't going to hang you by the neck from the yard arm at high noon tomorrow until you are dead if you don't pay them immediately, so you got lots of time to go back and learn how to do it by reading posts, chatting with the good folks here on the board and maybe having some fun doing it all. And if they call you up and start bugging you then just do yourself a big favor and tell them you don't discuss such things on the phone and if they got anything to say to you they will have to put it in a letter and send it to you by mail and then just hang up on them. After all, they aren't very likely to sue you for any silly $84. They could, but you can even learn how to beat them at that little game too.

Stick around, read the posts, have some fun, take your time, use your head and think about it and come out a winner. Don't let them eat your lunch for you or lose any sleep over it. Look for the humor in it all because no matter how bad it seems, there is always a silver lining in every cloud. And who knows, if the collection agency gets stupid and violates your rights or the law or both, you might even be able to cry about it all the way to the bank.