First I should say, I know the "rules". 
I know you shouldn't call CAs, and that everything should be in writing, etc. I know there's a reason for it, and my experience today may be that reason.
My husband has a CO card with a local furniture company. The amount is 5,000.00 and past the SOL.
We want to apply for a mortgage in a month (his credit, not mine) so figured we should get it paid before applying. OC would not accept payment, and referred us to CA NAR inc. So I did the big no no, and called!
I NEVER acknowledged the debt was valid. I said we're on the verge of bankruptcy and are trying to reconcile what we can in hopes that it doesn't happen. The rep was cordial, and told me to come up with an offer and they would submit it to OC for approval. He said he'd give me 4 days, then send the account to their attorney. I reminded him that the account was past SOL, and he put me on hold for about 10 minutes. He came back apologizing and said, "I retract my comment about sending it to our attorney, this is past the statute and is in what we call 'passive collection' status." He then told me to come up with an offer for settlement. I told him that my husband and I would contact the OC, in order to validate if the debt belongs to my husband.
A couple hours later I called back and said, "We haven't contacted [FURNITURE STORE] to validate the debt, so we still don't know if this is my husband's debt, but in the interest of being free from the burden of this account, we'd like to offer a settlement of $1000.00"
This is where it gets confusing for me. He asked me if I wanted to offer less than the $1000. He reminded me that it's out of SOL, and that I mentioned we might file bankruptcy, so maybe I should offer less. (?!?!?!?!) I was honest with him and told him I didn't trust the situation, and that I know there are things that can be done and said to reset the statute. He reassured that he wasn't up to anything like that, and reminded me that they are recording the conversation so he has to keep his word.
I said, "fine, we'll offer $500 settlement." He typed up the offer and read it back to me and said he'd let me know what their answer is.
Did I get tricked into something? I just think it's so weird that a CA would encourage me to offer less, that I feel like I'm missing a vital detail in all of this. Did I somehow reset the SOL?
Any insight would be great.
