Should I send an pay-for-delete letter or just pay of the collection immediately?

[Anonymous]

I have a medical bill that went to the collection. The collection agency recently mailed me the bill.

I called them on the day I received the mail. They told me that the collection has not gone to my credit report and they won't do it within the first 30 days of sending the bill.

Shall I believe them and just go ahead to pay off the bill? Or I still send the agency a pay for delete letter.

I also called the original creditor. But they told me it is better to pay the collection agency, because if I paid the original creditor, the collection agency will take extra to know the bill has been paid. Shall I pay the collection agency directly?

Will the original creditor report the record to my credit history?

[twall06]

Not sure if this helps or not nco called me about a hospital bill from 08 a few weeks ago didn't even know I owed it . It wasn't on ny credit report so I paid it and never mentioned it wasn't on there didn't want to risk them adding it. Maybe they can email you something stating what they said on the phone so it will be in writing.

[RobertEG]

I would pay the debt collector if the debt is legit.

While there is always a chance that they could still report, I would trust they would honor their agreement not to report.  You would not send a pay for delete if they have not yet reported.  They have made a pay for not reporting offer.

If you dont pay within their offer period, I would presume they will report, and then you must get acceptance of actual CR deletion.

Payment to the OC wont prevent the debt collector from still reporting, and it will take time for the OC to process your payment and notify their debt collector to close their collection.  By that time, they may already have reported.

If you wish a put a temp block on their reporting and are witin 30 days of their dunning notice, you could choose to send them a DV, thus putting a temp cease collection bar on them until they choose to proivde verification.

However, if the debt is legit, they can proivde the requested verification and then immediately report to the CRA.

Probably not the best way to go if you are willing to pay and trust their word.

[starry1]

Maybe they will report, but they have no real reason to do so. Once they have their money I don't think they will spare you another thought. If they do report you can always send them goodwill letters until they remove it.

[Henchman21]

When this happened to me a few weeks ago, I just paid and it was never reported. They also told me as long as I was good with them, it wouldn't be reported.