AFNI rejected my PFD.....HELP PLEASE

[Anonymous]

Hello to all,

I finally decided to email AFNI a PFD letter and within 3 hours this is the response I received:

Dear *********,

Thank you for your inquiry.  Your account will be reported to all 3 major credit reporting agencies as closed and paid in full once a payment of the balance posts; as we do not exchange credit deletions for payment.

Customer Relations SpecialistRecovery Team │

Receivables Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Afni, Inc.

My account balance is only $165, so what should I do now? This is a bummer.

[llecs]

Did you send a DV yet? If not, do that first. If so, send another PFD. Did you use the recoveryteam email addy?

[Anonymous]

First off, you should always communicate to AFNI (and any other debt collector) by mail, CMRRR.  Email may seem easier at first, but if you decide to litigate this matter, you will have an uphill battle in court getting emails admitted as evidence.

What you need to do is send them a letter that reiterates your offer to pay in exchage for deletion of your alleged debt by having them sign a Non Disclosure Agreement drawn up by you.  Mod cut! 

Good and effective credit repair is not easy and will take time.  Don't prepare to sprint when you should be preparing for a marathon.

[rckstrscott]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

First off, you should always communicate to AFNI (and any other debt collector) by mail, CMRRR.  Email may seem easier at first, but if you decide to litigate this matter, you will have an uphill battle in court getting emails admitted as evidence.

What you need to do is send them a letter that reiterates your offer to pay in exchage for deletion of your alleged debt by having them sign a Non Disclosure Agreement drawn up by you.  Mod cut! 

Good and effective credit repair is not easy and will take time.  Don't prepare to sprint when you should be preparing for a marathon.

---

Personally, I don't agree with you on most of this. It makes it all too complicated. One, a lot of my communication with debt collectors are done by email and regular letter, not CMRRR. I am not going to pay to send a not time-restrictive letter. They don't have to respond, or acknowledge a PFD. They can completely ignore any attempt to drop legalese on them.  A DV? Sure.. CMRRR.  But a PFD? Just regular mail. I don't need confirmation they got it. They will either work with me or they won't. If they don't, I try something else.

I have gotten more than a handful of baddies removed via email. I owe these debts. They are within SOL. Everything is on the up and up. Once payment is disucssed I'll start demanding letters, contracts or whatever the situation my warrant, but initially? You do what you gotta do to open up a communication channel.

Collection companies are wise to many of the tricks of debtors, legal documents in the mail. CMRRR, all that stuff. Sometimes, just simple communication does wonders. It has for me. You are 100 pecent correct on taking the time to do it correctly, it's just there are many different ways you can do it correctly. 

Just my two cents.

-edited for formatting

[BrownSugah66]

IMO...you should PIF and then GW for a deletion after 30 days. It worked for me.

[rckstrscott]

---

@BrownSugah66 wrote:

IMO...you should PIF and then GW for a deletion after 30 days. It worked for me.

---

That is my method too; and I have had a lot of luck with it!

-scott

[inthematrix]

I disagre with PIF first. You lose all leverge and leave yourself on the "mercy" of the CA.  Very few of them have any (mercy). I do think it's fine to communicate via email if that's what you've been doing. I've had success dealing with AFNI via email. 

Assuming you have not acknowledged to them that this debt is valid, I think I would write back something like this:

Dear Sir,

Thank for your response to my request. Unfortunately, as you know, a paid collection on my report affects my credit score exactly the same as an unpaid collection. For convenience sake, I was willing to simply pay this amount you claim that I owe in order to get it removed from my account. However, if you're now saying you will leave this account on my credit report for the next several years even after it is paid, I'm afraid that I cannot blithely pay it and move on.

I respectfully request that you reconsider my request for deletion of this account from all credit bureaus after the agreed payment is received. If you agree to this, I will immediately forward you $xxx upon receipt of a letter on AFNI letterhead stating the account will be removed from all 3 credit bureaus. If you cannot do this, I will be forced to exercise all options afforded me under the FDCPA in order investigate this debt and your right to collect it before I could ever consider paying it.