Afni - Refuses PFD?

[sevenmil]

I've read a lot of success stories about PFD with Afni here, so I figured they would be a sure bet. I have an old T-Mobile account that they now own that I want to go away. I sent a PFD to recoveryteam@afni.com and rso@afni.com and recieved the following response this morning: 

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Thank you for your inquiry.  We do not trade payments for deletions.  Afni just sends the appropriate update to the 3 major credit bureaus within 14 days of the payment posting to the account.  Please note that it may take the credit bureaus 30-60 days to update their records.  However, Afni has investigated your account and the attached information has been provided by the original creditor to serve as validation of this account. You are welcome to manage your account online at www.afnicollections.com or you can reach a representative of Afni by calling (866-308-0229).

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Any thoughts on what my next step should be? Should I respond to this and tell them the only way they are getting paid is if the line is deleted?

[LIGHTNIN]

If it were me, I would keep trying. Maybe try different times of the day and/or different days,try finding someone else to read your email.

Just a question...How old is this debt?   Is it going to drop off your CR's, anytime soon?

[sevenmil]

I'll keep trying. I mailed a letter as well, so maybe that will be successful. It took 2 emails to get a response, so I'll keep bugging them  

It drops off Oct/2012, but it's only $115 and I'd like it gone sooner than later. I'd like to buy a travel trailer this fall, so every little bit helps. 

Thanks!

[Booner72]

It took me AT LEAST 10 contacts with AFNI and AT LEAST with the OC Qwest to get mine to go away.  Call at different times of the day so you don't get the same representative.  Also, I have read that emails worked for others, but they got me nothing.  It was a phone call that did it.

Good Luck, it'll happen! 

[sevenmil]

I'm considering sending the following response; 

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Thank you for the response. 

Being that this account is set to fall off my credit report next year, the clock is ticking for your recovery of the account. If you would like to get paid for this account, it will take a deletion from my credit report to make that happen. This benefits us both - you get your money, I get the line removed sooner than later. 

I urge you to reconsider your position. 

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Any thoughts? 

[MissMia75]

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@sevenmil wrote:

I'm considering sending the following response; 

*************

Thank you for the response. 

Being that this account is set to fall off my credit report next year, the clock is ticking for your recovery of the account. If you would like to get paid for this account, it will take a deletion from my credit report to make that happen. This benefits us both - you get your money, I get the line removed sooner than later. 

I urge you to reconsider your position. 

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Any thoughts? 

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Since you are technically asking them for a favor I would not be as abrasive in my request for a PFD.  I would take the humble approach since they are not obligated to remove the item for you.

[MBOhio2]

sevenmil - Do you know when the SOL on this debt will expire? If it's outside of the SOL, then your approach may work because they have no other way to collect the debt (past the legal time limit) and, as you point out, in a year it will drop off your CR, making it irrelevant to you.

However, I would re-word the message a little to be slightly nicer and more persuasive (remember, people are reading this and you don't want to have your email ignored simply because you pissed the reader off) so I recommend being less arrogant/abrasive; however, you propose a very good deal for them, so from a business perspective, they would be smart to accept!

[sevenmil]

SOL is way past their 3 years. They have no footing to stand on. 

Their original "**bleep** you, we don't delete" response ruffled my feathers. I'll try to be nicer to them, but I can't make any promises!  

[MBOhio2]

Dealing with creditors makes me angry at times too... just try to keep the end goal in mind