Rebuilding Your Credit

[goal_seeker]

I recently pulled my CR and I have a collection pending with NCO for a medical bill. However, my question is should I pay the OC or the collection agency (NCO) and how will it reflect on my CR? This is the only collection I have & it's affecting my credit score tremendously. I need some advise in how should I proceed. All suggestions are welcome..Thank you in advance!!! 

[2NE1]

it is always recommended to PFD (in full rather than settlement) the OC instead of the CA. What you need to do is call the OC and find out if you can still make a payment to them. If they've sold the debt to a CA then you're gonna have to deal with the CA.

[JonRun]

I have a question. If you arrange a PFD with the OC but a CA is reporting the account on your CR, what would make the CA delete their entry to your CR if you don't go through them? I went through this with an AT&T bill. I called AT&T after I saw the collection on my report and they said they would have it deleted if I paid them. Well, they later reneged on the deal and said they couldn't delete it and maybe the CA would if I called them. I called and they played hardball at first saying "if you had arranged payment through us, we would have done a pay for delete". They finally caved in and agreed to delete but it was a sticky situation.

[RobertEG]

It is not always recommended, at least by me, to pay the OC when a debt collector is involved.

The OC, as was questioned in the prior post, cannot delete any reporting done by a debt collector, even if the debt collector is their own assignee.  They can request, but the debt collector has the right to report their own collection activity.  An OC cannot "recall" the fact of their collection referral or the reporting done by a debt collector.

If the reporting of the debt collector is considered a more serious derog than that reported by the OC, then getting the collection deleted is usually the preferred choice. 

If the debt collector wont bite on a PFD, then a fallback PFD offer to the OC might salvage at least the deletion of reporting done by the OC.

[2NE1]

Yes, the above post recommendation works as well. I guess it all depends on how difficult the CA is to deal with. However, OP mentioned that it is a 'medical' bill and these work better in your favor if you pay the OC. Although, some users here have had success getting PFD medical removals thru the CA. It is ultimately up to each individual how you believe PFD will work best either thru the OC or CA.

[proudnavymom]

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goal_seeker wrote:

I recently pulled my CR and I have a collection pending with NCO for a medical bill. However, my question is should I pay the OC or the collection agency (NCO) and how will it reflect on my CR? This is the only collection I have & it's affecting my credit score tremendously. I need some advise in how should I proceed. All suggestions are welcome..Thank you in advance!!! 

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I had 2  collections from NCO on my CR. One was medical, the other was not.   The OC was not reporting.  I sent a DV for both of them.  I got a form letter from both saying the same thing, that they may not have enough time to gather the information and they had requested the CRA to delete the listings from my CR.  The medical collection was deleted, but I then got a subsequent letter from NCO with information validating the other collection.  You might try sending a DV before paying and see what happens if you are not under a time constraint.  

[JonRun]

I think it all depends on who you're dealing with. I had an old medical collection and sent a PFD to the CA. They called and offered to delete if I paid over the phone. I did it (against some of the advice you read on here) without getting anything in writing. Within a week, the account was gone from all 3 credit reports.