CA ignores my pay for delete letter

[rolltide1701]

Okay so I had a credit card charge off for $300 bucks two years ago that went to collections. I followed recommendations on the web and sent the CA a letter (not agreeing that the debt was mine) but agreeing to pay in full for deletion from my CR.

Instead of an agreement letter they send a form letter stating I owe the debt and what they call a validation letter (looks like it was typed in microsoft word) indicating they bought the debt from my original credit card charge off. They did not acknowledge that I had even sent a letter.

So my question is what to do now? Reading posts on this forum it would appear that paying the CA or paying the original credit card company for a "Paid" statement will not help my credit score at all and would be pointless.

This is aggravating from two points 1. The CA would have there money at this time if they simply agreed and I thought as a business they would want the money 2. Its a shame that this low amount can damage my credit scores by probably a good 75 points.

[killakali]

The same thing happened to me with the CA but I agree to pay less than 50 % of what I originally owe. Instead they sent a letter with the copy of the original bill validating it? I left it alone for now. Don't know what my next step is.

[rolltide1701]

Now a week after I get a form letter that doesn't acknowledge my letter offering to pay in full I get another letter from the CA. In this letter they state someone has questioned the account and they are listing it as "account info disputed by the consumer" until they research. However, I haven't contested anything to the CA or CR. I'm sure I'm at least about to get another mark on my credit costing me more points.

I wonder what their angle is and how this benefits the CA?

I also wonder if I just shouldn't contact the OC and offer to pay in full in return from changing the account from "charge off" to "paid". Wonder if I could then dispute the CA account?

[killakali]

Even if it gets changed to "paid" it's still a bad thing on your credit. I suggest getting it completely deleted, but I don't know how. I know there's other ways to do the Pay to Delete and I'm hoping it'll fix my issue. Anyone 2 cents is greatly appreciated

[Lian]

First, in order to determine whether you can even offer a PFD to the OC, you must know if they still own the debt, or if they have sold it to the debt collector. The OC cannot accept payment on a debt they no longer own.

If the OC still owns the debt, you can offer them a PFD. However, many agreements between an OC and their debt collector stipulate that all payments must be received through the debt collector, so in those cases, the OC still would be precluded from accepting payment. The only way to find out is to give it a try.

Assuming that the OC still owns the debt and accepts your PFD, they can only agree to delete reportings made by them. They cannot agree to delete reporting made by another party, including their contracted debt collector. OC deletions do not require debt collector deletion of their collection activity. The debt collector would, if the OC accepts payment, have to close their collection and update the collection balance to $0.

The designation "account disputed by consumer" is just what it says. If you never disputed, that is an inaccurate posting to your CR, and can be disputed.

[rolltide1701]

Originally Posted by Lian

First, in order to determine whether you can even offer a PFD to the OC, you must know if they still own the debt, or if they have sold it to the debt collector. The OC cannot accept payment on a debt they no longer own.

If the OC still owns the debt, you can offer them a PFD. However, many agreements between an OC and their debt collector stipulate that all payments must be received through the debt collector, so in those cases, the OC still would be precluded from accepting payment. The only way to find out is to give it a try.

Assuming that the OC still owns the debt and accepts your PFD, they can only agree to delete reportings made by them. They cannot agree to delete reporting made by another party, including their contracted debt collector. OC deletions do not require debt collector deletion of their collection activity. The debt collector would, if the OC accepts payment, have to close their collection and update the collection balance to $0.

The designation "account disputed by consumer" is just what it says. If you never disputed, that is an inaccurate posting to your CR, and can be disputed.

Thanks for the response Lian. According to the validation info sent by the CA they indeed purchased the debt. However, I had read that if an account indicates that it was a "charge off" that the consumer was still responsible. So based on that and the apparent refusal of the CA to respond to my offer I had hoped it might be an alternate method for taking care of the debt and improving my CR score.

I guess I simply have to decide if I will pay the CA to have the status of the collection changed to "paid" and simply have to live with collection as well as the charge off negatively impacting my CR for the next few years.

As you can see I am no credit expert and I have been surprised that such a small amount can affect a CR score seemingly for similar percentage points loss as a car repo or home foreclosure. Probably such a point loss is the result of being affected more than once for the same issue (charge off and a collection). I sure wish the rules/requirements would change to be fairer and protect consumers a little better (to include a requirement that collections be removed when paid in full which would also probably increase the number of collections being paid in full nationwide).