Charge Offs with Collection Agencies involved...any hope?

[DubbaYou]

The short version is that I went through a messy divorce.  While my wife and I were on the rocks, she paid her accounts, and not mine, so all mine went to charge-offs.  The balances are small, ranging from $300 to $1300.  All have been sold to Collection Agencies though.  What can I do?  Is there any point to contact the original creditors (Zales, Best Buy, Capital One) or will paying them off still leave me with the full balance with the Collection Agencies? 

What's the best way to deal with charge-offs, can you get them removed by a Good Will letter and then what do I do about the Collection Agencies?

Any help is MASSIVELY appreciated!

W

[RobertEG]

View the reporting by the OC of a charge-off as separate from the reporting of a collection by the debt collector.

If you wish to offer payment in exchange for deletion, you have to decide which party you want to ask for deletion.  One cannot delete the reporting made by the other.

Have the debt collectors even reported their collections?

Most will view a reported collection as the more serious derog, and thus send the PFD to the debt collector once they have reported.  However, a charge-off and a collection are probably about equal in scoring severity, so you could choose either if both are in your file.  If the deb collectot has reported, and you first offer a PFD to the debt collector and they decline, you could salvage something by making the offer to the OC, thus attempting to get them to delete their reporting.

No firm "do this" advice.  Just be aware that if the debt collector reports, they are separate reportings.

[DubbaYou]

The CA did report.  I know that you can pay off the OC and then send a GW letter.  Would this mean to try and get both listings fixed, I'd have to pay off the OC and the CA? It's one debt but listed twice.  I am wondering if there is a way to clear them both without paying the same debt twice.

[pizzadude]

You will only have to pay the debt once. If you pay the CA it satisfies the OC account. However both the CA and OC are still allowed to report. You can start by offering a PFD with the CA if the OC will not accept payment. If you can't get a PFD then you'll have to send GW to clean up your reports.

[DubbaYou]

Ok, Pizzadude, that makes sense.  Thanks!