Response from CMI to PFD letter

[Anonymous]

I mailed a PFD on 2/17/12 for a $105.96 collection that won't fall off until 5/14 for an account they are handing for Time Warner. When I called and requested, the CSR said they don't do that, but I thought I'd send a physical letter registered and hopefully get a different response. I just received a letter dated 2/23/12 from them that says the following:

"We are in receipt of your correspondence. As a data furnisher to the credit bureaus, we are required by federal law to report only accurate information. Once an account has been placed with the credit bureaus, it would be inaccurate to remove the account for reasons oter than fraud or mistaken reporting. Thus, we are unable to honor your request."

Since I want to be approved for a decent car loan within the next 6 months, how should or should I draft a letter requesting a reporting of PAID and no other comment line for accepting my PIF?

[pizzadude]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I mailed a PFD on 2/17/12 for a $105.96 collection that won't fall off until 5/14 for an account they are handing for Time Warner. When I called and requested, the CSR said they don't do that, but I thought I'd send a physical letter registered and hopefully get a different response. I just received a letter dated 2/23/12 from them that says the following:

"We are in receipt of your correspondence. As a data furnisher to the credit bureaus, we are required by federal law to report only accurate information. Once an account has been placed with the credit bureaus, it would be inaccurate to remove the account for reasons oter than fraud or mistaken reporting. Thus, we are unable to honor your request."

Since I want to be approved for a decent car loan within the next 6 months, how should or should I draft a letter requesting a reporting of PAID and no other comment line for accepting my PIF?

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I'm not trying to discourage you from paying but your FICO score won't improve by paying the collection.   Paid or Unpaid it still dings your score the same.   However, if it was deleted it would very likely improve your FICO score.

[pipeguy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I mailed a PFD on 2/17/12 for a $105.96 collection that won't fall off until 5/14 for an account they are handing for Time Warner. When I called and requested, the CSR said they don't do that, but I thought I'd send a physical letter registered and hopefully get a different response. I just received a letter dated 2/23/12 from them that says the following:

"We are in receipt of your correspondence. As a data furnisher to the credit bureaus, we are required by federal law to report only accurate information. Once an account has been placed with the credit bureaus, it would be inaccurate to remove the account for reasons oter than fraud or mistaken reporting. Thus, we are unable to honor your request."

Since I want to be approved for a decent car loan within the next 6 months, how should or should I draft a letter requesting a reporting of PAID and no other comment line for accepting my PIF?

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While there is a case that could be made for that statement by your CA, there is no law that requires a lender or debt holder (CA) to report to the CRAs. In other words there is NO reason that the complete tradeline can't be deleted since it can't be judged accurate or inaccurate if its not reported at all.

If you want to press the issue, and you have to think of a conversation with a CA/JDB as a dance of sorts, tell them if they want to have any chance of being paid you require the tradeline to be removed since they put it there in the first place, otherwise you'll just wait from it to drop off in another 2 years.  The CA/JDB wants to be paid, they'll settle - just make sure you set the terms in your settlement.

Frankly I don't think an unpaid cable bill that is 5 years old will hurt your car loan chances much as long as that's your only ding.

[Anonymous]

That's the thing, it's not the only ding.

The baddies on TU are: 

1) AES- Student loan- maximum deliquency of 120 day occurred in 9/05- PAY STATUS: Current; Paid or Paying as Agreed

2) HSBC Bank- CC- Credit Card lost or stolen (shows 30 day late in 11/05)- PAY STATUS: Current; Paid or Paying as Agreed

3) HSBC Bank- CC- settled less than full balance- PAY STATUS: Charged Off (I was an Authorized User on this account) Est removal- 9/12

4) Kay Jewelers- Charge Account- maximum deliquency of 60 days occurred in 12/05 Inactive account- PAY STATUS: Current; Paid or Paying as Agreed

5) CMI- Collection Agency- Balance $105  Date Placed for Collection- 9/23/08 PAY STATUS: In Collection- Est removal 5/14

6) Fidelity Info Corp- Collection Agency- Balance $2134 (Shows $2206 on EQ I have filed a dispute with both CRA) Date Placed for Collection- 3/29/07 PAY STATUS: In Collection- Est removal 10/13

7) NCO Financial- Factoring Company Account- Date Placed for Collection- 10/24/07- PAID Collection PAY STATUS: Account Paid in Full; was a collection-  Est removal 2/13 

I sent GW letters to 1, 2, 4, & 7. I sent a PFD to 5. I am disputing 3 & 6 with the CRA's. When I got denied for an auto loan from 2 CU and asked for specifics one of the things they mentioned was the collections. One said, maybe if they were PAID or were showing 3+ months of on-time payments. So basically, my credit score doesn't really matter cause lenders will do a manual review.

[pipeguy]

Okay, well the complete picture is a bit different then what you originally asked about, but the advice is the same. Rebuilding is one step at a time and you need to address each tradeline one at a time. Once an account is settled, you can GW 100X and you have no leverage to force the issue.

You can still get a car loan, even with awful credit and your scores as listed are not awful, not great but not awful. Either put 25% down on the car or "secure" an auto loan with your CU with a $3-5000 CD and you'll get a reasonable interest rate. Try to think like the lender and you'll find a way to calm their fears, especially if its a small bank or credit union..

[Anonymous]

I definitely don't have 25% to put down on a car. I have $2000 left in my savings after paying down CC debt to get the utilization % down. I'm looking to purchase a vehicle in the $13,000 range. 2008-2009 Toyota Prius or 2010 Nissan Sentra or Toyota Yaris Sedan. I was looking into the CU ads of 100% covered financing. 

I had worse credit in 02/06 when Capital One approved me for a $11,533 loan and I only put $500 down. It was a special financing I found online and I had to select from certain cars at the dealership, but I really liked my 2002 Mercury Grand Marquis with only 59,000 back when I got it in 2006. I even re-fied 3 months later for a better APR.

I guess all I can do is wait and see how the disputes come back and continue to pay down my utilization. NCO called the following day to reject my GW letter and AES and Kay Jewelers is requesting I send them more info. AES wants me to send a copy of my credit report cause I said in addition to the GW I was not certain that I was ever late 120 days. So I scanned and sent them a copy of just their tradeline how it appears on my TU report.

[RobertEG]

If you pay in full, there are no additional derogatory comments they can report to the CRA.  And there is certainly nothing you have to "ask of them."

When you satisfy any debt, regardless of the terms of your payment (PIF or paid for less than the full debt), there is only one current status code.

PAID.

If you reach an agreement that accepts less than the full amount of the debt as satisfaction of the debt, an additional Special Comment can be reported to the CRA, indicating that fact.  However, if you pay in full, that comment cannot be reported.

[Anonymous]

I did a PFD for CMI and got that deleted from my credit reports. I also paid down my debt to credit ratio to 55% and no credit card was over 90%. I got approved through Capital One Black check for up to $21,400 for 2.82% interest on a 2012+ car. I ended up buying a 2009 Toyota Corolla LE for $13,200 and the rate was only 4.03%. I put NOTHING down. I negotioated the price so that it was BELOW KBB Wholesale. I did this in the seven weeks after asking these forums for advice and bought my car two weeks ago. It can be done!

I would never pay a CA in FULL because they turned an $1000 into $2229. I won't pay that, I don't owe them that. Not to mention it falls off Nov 2013. I got my car, so I can hold out for 19 months to buy a house.

[Anonymous]

I was in a similar position. I contacted Time Warner directly and paid the bill. I asked for them to ask the CA (CMI) to stop reporting. Initially, it appeared that they agreed. But the letter that the lady sent said that the account was paid in full and not much else. That was a couple of days ago. I emailed her again and told her that I was directed to call her and that Time Warner had agreed to stop reporting the collection. She said that it takes time. Problem is that it has been updated to paid status on Equifax but it is still showing. Not sure what to think now. But I will wait and see. My only baddie on Experian. The rest of them need work.

[Freefall]

Same situation here. CMI via TWC. Paid through my contact at TWC, CMI then updated to a $0 balance. Went back to my contact and lots of back an dforths. Finally CMI agreed to delete! But... "it could take up to 60 days"