Advice for dealing with Verizon

[Anonymous]

Verizon reported me as a "charge off" for a past due amount of ~ $200 from 2009, and have since had CA's to collect the amount, with various settlement amounts offered. I have repeatedly requested to pay off the full amount in return for the deletion of the charge-off remarks from my credit reports -- but those requests have always been denied. So I've since refused to pay. However,  last month, Verizon sent me a direct settlement offer (presumably from Verizon itself and not from a CA it hired), for ~ $100, and with the following sentence in the offer: "...and if your account was previously reported to the credit bureaus, Verizon will update that report and show that the account has been settled."  When I spoke to the Verizon collections rep (some edited guy) to clarify what that last sentence meant, he would not say that any derogatory information reported to the CA's would be deleted, only that I would be "cleared".

I really only want the charge-off remarks to be deleted from my credit reports. For when I call Verizon back again (and hopefully get someone who understands what I'm saying), what wording should I use to specifically ask that Verizon send me a letter stating that they would have the CA's delete the charge-off information in return for me paying the settlement offer?

[llecs]

Welcome to the forums!

I'd suggest reading the following:

Common Abbreviations

Credit Scoring 101 - great for knowing what is in your credit score and to see how your score is impacted.

What Steps Do I Take - great for learning the repair process.

and Example letters - PFDs, GWs, DVs, etc.

In terms of FICO scoring, a settled account is just as bad as a CO. You'll be no better off, score-wise, for taking that offer. It'll still be viewed as a CO.

Verizon is tough. Is this landline or cell? I've dealt with both, though my advice is 2-3 years old so I'll defer to others. Back when, and maybe now, they had a policy of owning the debt and that's evidenced by their reporting of that debt. To collect, they'll assign CAs to collect on it, though each CA will fold fairly easily with a DV and none will report. At some point, they'll feel the debt is uncollectable and they'll auction it at which point Verizon will delete and then you'd have a CA to deal with. DW had a CO (landline) and I sent about a dozen PFDs to them (see generic example above). They rejected each, but after each rejection, I would call and confirm and would take that moment to learn the ins and outs of how they report, what happens next, and so on. Being good to their word, they deleted one day and knowing that they sold it at that point, I mailed Verizon a payment in full. A month later the check was cashed and the one cashing it was AFNI. They had bought it and thankfully they didn't report. BTW, your post was edited to remove an ethnic reference with regards to a call center.