Amex charged off - do I pay Nationwide or Amex?

[Anonymous]

So I had an American Express account charged off to the amount of $3,200. I am now in the position to pay it off in full, but I do not know who I need to pay. I notice that I can still go to the Amex website and make a payment, but I'm concerned that Nationwide will continue to hound me if I do so. However, I feel safer doing it through Amex's online portal vs a random person taking my information over the phone.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to go about this? I don't want to pay Amex and still end up burned. 

[jbsea]

My guess would be that you would want to pay amex.  Once you pay them back I think that they give you the opertunity to get back in with them.  They can also pull it back from the CA.  I'm sure that there are othes on here who would know more about this then I.

[Anonymous]

Pay AMEX directly---I was in your situation a few months back. I called in and made the payment that way---and they updated my account to the bureaus.

[Anonymous]

How did it affect your credit? Was your account also charged off? I haven't called to try to make a payment, but I have called to discuss my options, and every time I call I'm told I need to call Nationwide instead. Maybe I'll call with the payment ready and see what they say.

[Anonymous]

I had an account CO with them in 2010 for a similar amount. For years they sent me settlement offers, which I ignored.  This past Sept, when I finally started re-building, I got another one and called them to accept it. This account somehow never got sold to a CA and always stayed with AMEX.  They told me that if I paid in full, I'd get pre-approved for an Amex Optima and they would update all my reports to show current.  I finally paid the balance in full this past Friday. My accounts have not updated yet but they told me it would take 30-45 days.  I have other negatives still reporting so I do not expect a large score boost from it but it is a huge weight off my shoulders to just have it paid and also know that they are willing to give me another chance.

If at all possible, pay AMEX directly so that you get credit for a PIF.  Often when you pay the CA, the original creditor never even knows about it since  they don't get the money a that point.  I ran into this with Citi.  I paid a CA the total amount I owed, which was substantial, but Citi doesn't care since they sold the acct years ago.

[Anonymous]

I got about a 40 point jump when I paid the charge-off because it was killing my utilizatiion.  On one of my reports it looks like the chargeoff never happened even...

When you call back,  try to be adamant about paying AMEX directly---that way you can get back in quickly with them.

[Anonymous]

When you call back,  try to be adamant about paying AMEX directly---that way you can get back in quickly with them.

Yikes, what a frustrating process this has become. I called Amex and told them I really would rather pay through them, and asked if I could go ahead and pay in full. I was told that they cannot even access my account, and all payments would have to go through Nationwide. I mentioned that I'm still able to pay on Amex's website, and he said that he does not advise this and he would advise I pay through NW. 

I don't know why, but I'm strongly tempted to just make the payment on the Amex website and see where the cards fall. At the end of the day I'm paying my debt in full and that's all I want to do. I've never had so much trouble getting someone to take my money. 

[Chris679]

No, you can't pay Amex they don't own the debt. You would be throwing money away because you would still owe the CA.

[Anonymous]

I would pay AMEX. Do not pay the CA. If AMEX will let you pay them it will be applied to what you owe. I would be worried when they will not let you pay them when they actually finally write it off the books. Happened to me way back when with capital one.

[Anonymous]

I have been in a similar situation.  In some cases they actually sell the debt, if that was the case then AMEX probably won't take a payment.  If they are just using a collections agency to do their work for them then AMEX will of course take the payment.  I would call AMEX and discuss it with them directly and see what direction you have to go in to resolve the issue.  I can tell you that resolving my chargeoffs and collections made an impact on my fico scores but more importantly it removed that issue as a reason for denial of credit for the most part.  If you can try and do a pay for delete and see if they will bite.  I was able to get 4 done of the 6 collections I had from the recession.