Capital One - What Would You Do?

[Anonymous]

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@amh783 wrote:
Thanks guys - I'm in MA. I think it's 7 years. If I made my last payment in 12/05 and it reports DOFD in 1/06 and first major delinquency six months later, when does SOL clock start?
My gut reaction is to wait it out as well. Trying to a buy a home in the next few months, but think I'm stuck waiting this out?

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SOL begins to run on the day after you missed payment was due.  Six years from that date and you are pretty much out of the woods. 

[amh783]

Hi llecs!

Hoping you can offer some advice...

So, I've got the money pulled together to PIF. Do I want to use it to pay this off? Not really. But if it means I can get this charge off to stop reporting KD every single month, and making my UTIL at 115%, I will. I want to get a house ASAP, and I want this whole tradeline OFF my report.  I believe you said it's going to come off in 2012 sometime no matter what, but I just can't the shake the feeling of the clock resetting if I offer to PFD.

I'm petrified to the poke the sleeping bear, so what I really want to know is...

What (and How!) Would Llecs Do??

[llecs]

If I recall correctly and without re-reading, the CRTP (the 7-7.5 yr reporting period) expires 12/2012 at the earliest. The SOL (the timeframe you can be sued for the debt) expires this December. The reporting clock cannot restart or reset no matter what. So whether or not you pay it, it'll still delete on schedule. Now approaching them will increase collection activity but that's why you'd want to have 100% in your hand before doing anything. Therefore, in a worst-case scenario, you get sued but you'd have the $$$ to stop that. Therefore, SOL in now unimportant, relatively speaking.

If I had that, I would pay them without a PFD. My goal would be to PIF. Why? A PIF baddie has better odds of being deleted via a GW vs. one settled. Score-wise, it doesn't matter at all how they report (PIF vs. settled...a CO is a CO). However, since CapOne is a pain to deal with and because I really don't think your odds are any different for a GW success whether you PIF or settle, then I personally would consider settling with a balance like that. If were a few hundred, I'd say PIF, but in this case, I would them up and offer a settlement amount so as long as it is paid with one payment. I wouldn't be surprised if you got it for 50% and saved yourself a couple of thousand. After it reflects as a settled CO, then you can send the GW letters asking them to remove that comment and any lates. Again, I think your odds with CapOne are the same whether you settle or PIF.

BTW, I usually insist on trying for PFDs first. I bet there is one success story out there (somewhere?), however, if you delay, they'll continue to add lates and interest. Since you are buying a home, you want as much distance as possible between this baddie and the home. I had them (via DW) and sent probably 30-40 PFDs to get a $750 CO off. The answer was no each time and I was offering 100%. I think another $50 or so in insterest was tacked on during my PFD attempts.

[amh783]

llecs, great advice as usual and i will get started on that process.

thanks for the quick reply!

[amh783]

I wanted to give an update on Capital One situation. Im in the process of getting pre approval for an FHA loan, so I had to bite the bullet and call Capital One. They had me contact Northland (NCO) who told me my case had been placed with a local "attorney" debt collector. I contacted them and settled for 75%. I went to the attorney's office directly with a cashier's check and had them give me all the paperwork. It was quick and painless - minus handing over the $3550. 

FYI it turns out the attorney had issued court papers in Oct of 2007 - and I had no idea! They were never served to me.

This was my last baddie and I now can proudly say I don't owe a penny to anyone!! I can't wait to see the score increase once this updates. My LO is going to do a rapid rescore, so hopefully I won't have to wait too long!

A big thanks to everyone on this board!!

[llecs]

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@amh783 wrote:

This was my last baddie and I now can proudly say I don't owe a penny to anyone!!

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Congrats!

[sassymomof2]

For your sake, I hope Crap1 doesn't monkey with your tradeline after your payment posts. I had 3 accounts with them that went south about the same time. 2 they sold 1 they kept. Of the 2 that were sold, I paid one & they deleted the tradeline without any action on my part. The 2nd one reports $0. The 3rd one-they changed my 45 months of chargeoff to 45 90 day payments which caused a score decrease! I hope that does not happen to you.

[drkaje]

In 2008 I asked Cap1 for goodwill on 2 late payments from 2003 and got a very polite letter of rejection.

Hope things have changed.

[Booner72]

Did they agree to delete it if you paid it?  Or you just need it paid as a condition of your FHA loan?  The rapid rescore is just to update that it has been paid?

Because you won't get pointage for it if it just updates to paid.

[amh783]

They didn't agree to delete, and truthfully, I never asked. Like previous posters have said, Capital One won't talk with you. I had to go through NCO and then through a local debt collector attorney. My LO needed the charge off paid (or settled) in order to give me approval for the FHA loan. At this point, I just wanted it paid and to be done with it. My middle score is 614, so I'm praying that I get the 6 point bump. Capital One has reported Charge Off every single month for years and the utilization is factored into my score, so I'm hoping I'll get 6 points out of it somewhere.

I do plan to see what happens with the Capital One tradeline after it's rescored and will GW like crazy to get it off, if possible.