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Years ago in my late teens and early twenties i decided to make some bad credit choices with an ex. It's now time to fix this... Im currently about to turn 26 in a few days.
As i understand it, paying off delinquent charges is very beneficial; but paying off charge off's can hurt even more...
Some accounts on my report state "Seriously past due date / assigned to attorney, collection agency, or credit grantor's internal collection department" does this mean its delinquent or a charge off?
My fico is at 493. I have 4 currently tottalling around 3000 dollars and most debts are 3-4+ years old some nearing 6.
I'm really lost in what, and how i should pay these off and need some guidance.
If it were charged off it would explicitly say so. Sounds like it's not.
Paying on them could hurt you. Depends if you're past the statute of limitations to be sued for it. Of course paying it off would be best, but if you pay anything on a debt past the SOL it "restarts the clock" for them being able to sue you for the rest. (Does not affect how long it'll be on your credit report though).
Best thing to do is send a verification letter to the company, and if they cannot verify it challenge it through the bureaus and have them just removed.
If you go to make a deal, you can also ask part of the deal to be credit report removal or at least leave it ambiguous (something I wish I'd known when negotiating before). Not a guarantee that you'll get it, but if they want your money and especially if you're past the SOL you hold the power.
Be sure to pay attention to when the items are due to be removed from your credit report. Not much sense negotiating something that's coming off in a couple months anyway, as it takes about that long to see any results.
But if it's still gonna be on there for a while, a "paid" item is always better than "unpaid", for sure.
I'm still in the SOL on the 3 that arent charge offs. Which is 6 years in my state of Nevada. And those three total 1200 dollars, which I can completely cover (my total debt was less than i thought when i dug into it more). Two of them are very small amounts.
Other than sending a verification letter, would trying to have them removed off the reports in echange for paying them off in full be a wise choice?
Whatever you're comfortable negotiating in exchange for complete removal would be wise. Just keep in mind they aren't obligated to offer to remove it, and it can stay on the report for 7 years past the initial delinquency. But if it's been passed to a collection agency, you still likely have the upper hand. Especially considering such a low amount owed, it's not worth it for them to sue.
Just get whatever agreement you strike in writing first especilally if you negotiate any lower than full price, and don't admit ownership of the debt. Your sole interest in offering to pay them anything is expedient removal of negative information reported about you.
A charge off is a serious deliquency. Your accounts have been charged off. The bad thing about a charge off is that the account is forced closed and either sold to a debt collector or transferred to the creditor's collection department (and you rather deal with their internal collection department than a third party collection agency). The benefit of a non-charged off deliquency is that you still have a chance to keep your account open. They do it as early as five months, and by the time they're as old as your accounts, they've long given up on it.
It's beneficial to pay regardless - a paid charge off looks a lot better on your reports than an upaid one, and your scores will benefit from getting those taken of, but your reputation with the company is hurt less if it's not a charge off. In your case though, it's definitely a charge off. But the good thing about the age of the deliquency is that it should be easy to settle if you find you don't have $3000 to pay them in full. They rather have some money than nothing at all. And future creditors will take into consideration the fact that you paid something. Your score will start bouncing back in less than a year.
I'm not sure why you conclude that "paying off charge offs can hurt even more" than not paying.
Additionally, debts that are 180 or more days late are usually required to be charged off under federal regulations, so they have likely been charged off regardless of whether they have decided to report that accounting fact. Reporting of a CO is not mandatory, and the fact that they have not yet reported that the debt has been charged off does not mean it has not.
They are likely capable of reporting a CO at any time, and additonally referred or sold to a third party debt collector, who can then report, adding another major derog.
Finally, if a debt shows any derogs, then showing it is paid is beneficial, even if it does not produce score improvement.
Obtaining a pay for deletion would both discharge the debt and remove any derogs that have been or could be reported.
Robert, I acquired that (wrong) information from searching about on the web. Which is why i still asked here before doing anything. Its nice to find out the real answer though, thank you. And thanks to all of you that helped in your replies.
So I called the DC with my smallest amount to pay. I talked with the lady for a few minutes about getting the debt removed from my credit report. She was incredibly adament about not being able to, due to them going through the proper channels to colelct the debt in the first place. So i just paid it, and she gave me the talk about it getting reported as paid to the three credit bureaus, etc. etc.
Was there anything i could have done different or anything specifically to tell them that will increase (or maybe guarantee) my odds of a payment for removal?
Other than doing it all in writing, there's form pay-for-delete letters out there that work. And I would have suggested getting something in writing saying they'll be satisfied before paying a cent, you don't want them to come after you for late fees or something different now that you've restarted the clock on getting sued...
You could try a goodwill letter in a few months if you have a good enough story, maybe they will have compassion then, but I'd always stick to sending everything US certified mail, never to a rep on the phone...