Archive for the ‘Reader Questions’ Category
Thursday, January 24th, 2008 |
My Girlfriend just got a letter from a collection agency, with an account number and the amount of $150 dollars that is owed. She never recieved any mail or phone calls regarding this amount from the original creditor, and does not even know the date or original purchase. She believes the claim could be real, because she did cancel a few credit card accounts in the past..but does not know who it could be. Is there a way to pay that amount off without it going to the collection agency or hurting her perfect credit score?
Need help asap, so any advice will be appreciated. Thank You.
Jay
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Saturday, November 24th, 2007 |
Hello Ryan,
I mailed your negotiation letter a couple of weeks ago through certified mail. I got the green slip on Monday, but my credit report hasn’t been updated yet. Should I be worried? I haven’t sent them any money.
Thanks
Kenny
Kenny -
You sent them a negotiation letter and you expect them to update your credit report, yet you haven’t paid them anything? Here is how it works, once again Kenny: You send negotiation letter. They send you a letter back saying they are willing (or not) to negotiate. You pay them what you offered. They update your credit report AFTER you pay. This process takes months. Chill.
(7 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Saturday, November 17th, 2007 |
Hi Ryan,
I wish I would have found your blog sooner. Last summer I made an arrangement with a debt collector over the phone. This arragement was for a XXXX-XXXXX account that was in charge off status for the past year or so. The debt collector said that if I paid $867, the account status would be changed on my credit report from ‘charge off’ to ‘paid in full’. Instead after I paid him, my credit report was updated to ‘paid charge off, $1400 written off’. My credit score only went up 4 points. I think you could understand how horrible this felt because I thought I was doing the right thing and I got screwed. My question is, now that I read some of your blog, is there anything I can do?
Thanks,
Will
Will
Unfortunately this happens a lot and there is very little you can do. The problem is that the deal was made over the phone -you can’t prove the scumbag collector made that offer. Trying to communicate with the collection agency now will be useless because they have already been paid. In this case, you can try to dispute the record with the credit reporting agencies and see what comes from it -you never know. Check out my dispute article here. Nonetheless, I recommend that you ‘write it off’ as well and begin rebuilding your credit. Start out by getting a credit card. Check out my recommendations.
Best of luck,
Ryan
