Citicards Charge Off Question

[austin_credit_mom]

Hi all! I need some advice. I've been working for the past 9 months on cleaning up my credit. Thanks to this board, my score has gone up about 100 points at the three credit bureaus.

I have a Citicard charge off for about $4700. This account was opened in 2004 and closed 9/2010. This is one of the last pieces of negative informaiton on my credit report. About 6 months ago there was a collection agency that was handling my account. I sent them a debt validation letter and they sent me back (exactly 30 days later) a printout of my credit card statements.  When I tried to get back in touch with the collection company they said they no longer handled my account. It was back at Citibank. So now Citicards still owns this debt and I have been dealing with them directly. I have sent them several GW letters, with no luck. I've spoken on the phone with them many times, with no luck. Basically they say I need to pay this in full and they can't delete this from my credit report.

So my question is, should I just pay it so my credit report will reflect this as paid? Should I not pay this and wait for the SOL in my state (Texas) to kick in? Should I continue to try to negotiate with them for a delete on my credit report? I would love some advice here. Thank you to all that have helped my in my credit repair journey!

Equifax 648

Experian 671

TransUnion 644

[RobertEG]

You have two different issues.  One is exclusion or deletion of the reported CO from your credit report, and the other is the debt itself.

If you choose to wait-out the 7 yrs plus 180 days from DOFD, the CO will then become excluded from your credit report, and cease to affect your scoring.

So that is an option.

Hoever, CR exclusion of the CO does not result in deletion of the remaining reporting by the OC, and does not address the primary issue of still having an unpaid delinquent debt.

After exclusion of the CO, the account will still raise questions of....what happened to the debt?  If the OC does not report paid, your CR would not answer that question.

Additoonally, in any subsequent app for credit, the creditor may ask for disclosure of any unpaid, delinquent debt.

The fact of CR exclusion of the charge-off would not be basis for ommiting that debt from disclosure.

Continued negotiations could include a full PFD, or could save $ by offering a settlement for less, with the additional stipulation that they not report  paid/settled for less to your CR.

That would make the debt appear to others reviewing your CR the same as if it had been paid in full, thus avoiding the showing that, in the past, one of your creditors took a loss in their dealings with you.

Deciding not to pay based only on CR exclusion of the CO leaves possible issues, and would not be my recommendation.

[austin_credit_mom]

Thank you for your advice! I am willing to be the debt, but I would like to negotiate with Citi on either a PFD or a paid/no charge off status. HAs anyone had any luck in this type of negotiation with Citicards? If so, can you pm me a contact that helped you? Thank you! 

[austin_credit_mom]

bump

[austin_credit_mom]

I;m on the phone with Citicard right now. I told the rep I would be willing to pay the account in full today just to be done with it. The weirdest thing is happening, they won't accept my payment. They told me I had to call back next Monday to see if they could accept the payment. I am currently on hold right now waiting for a supervisor. Any thoughts? Based on FCA, do they have to accept my payment?