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In my recent experience with ERC, they were on my CR for a small $47 collection and then bought a T-Mobile collection for $586 from another CA. During the first time I contacted them I told them I had moved and they likely had a wrong address and I was unaware of the charges and what they were for. They then sent me a letter stating I had 30 days to dispute the collection. During this time, the collection was removed from my report somehow and during that time, I went into their website and found both collections and paid them in full... now they were never placed back on my CR's. Problem solved for me. I'm not sure if this would work for everyone. YMMV.
"Use your Credit wisely, don't let it use you!"~Me
Did ERC purchase the debt, or is it still owned by the original creditor?
Is the original creditor also reporting, and if so, what derogs were reported on the OC account?
If you agree to settle, you may be able to do what I call a "back door PFD". Most lenders, CA's and JDB's see their job of keeping derogatory info on a consumer's CRA file as almost a Holy Obligation and will not agree to a PFD outright, but you may be able to get one through the back door if you follow these steps:
1: Contact them and tell them you wish to settle but want a Confidentiality Agreement in the settlement. Most of the time they will agree with that.
2: Make sure the Confidentiality Agreement applies to both you and them. Also, make sure that there is wording that prohibits any communication abpout this matter to ANY third party whatsoever. They will usually agree to that. Also, see if they will accept a statement that there is to be NO reporting of this matter by them in any way whatoever to any CRA under any circumstances. They will usually agree to that.
3: Sign the Settlement Agreement with those provisions in it any pay them.
4: Thirty days leater, dispute their TL in the CRA's. They have three options - ignore the CRA's request for confirmation that the TL as it exists is accurate (at which point FCRA requires the CRA to remove the TL), or correct the TL or verify the TL as accurate, in which 2 circumstances they have violated the contractual Confidentiality Agreement and you sue them over it.
Then you no longer have any option to pursue termination of the collection authority and payment directly to the OC.
You can first make a PFD offer to the debt collector.
If they do not accept, the next best thing would be to obtain discharge of the debt (with update of their reporting to show $0 balance) by paying less, with the additional agreement on their part not to report settled/paid for less to the CRA.
Acceptance of their settlement offer with the additional condition that they not report settled/paid for less to the CRA would be my advice.
That would obtain discharge of the debt and avoid any comment in your credit report that states you did not pay the full debt that you obligated.
That is never a favorable comment in a future manual review.