Verizon (wireless)/ Afni Collections, Inc.

[dengel81]

I posted earlier, but I'm still puzzled.

So on my EQ CR, I have Verizon account.

Status as of Feb, 2005

Date opened Aug 2003

Date of last activity Jul 2004

Largest past balance: $615

Account type: Open account

Description: Paid charge off. Amount in high credit is original charge-off amount

Balance Current Status

$0	Bad debt/collection

I don't have my TU and EX CRs right now, but according to one of CRs, this is supposed to be removed from my CR in this June - in 2 months from now.

The problem is that I've been getting this settlement offer letter from Afni Collections, Inc. once in every few months or so. The most recent offer said that they would settle for $100. But they put that the original amount is $715.56, which is about $100 higher than Verizon's original charge-off amount.

I decided to contact the Afni Collection, pay $100 to settle and then request to delete the negative listings from my CR.

The customer rep said that they can't do it since it's not them reporting it to the bureaus. The rep said that I might need to talk to the Verizon to get this removed. So I then said, "I want to get this baddy removed from my CR so bad, so then I'll contact the Verizon first. I'm not gonna make any payment right now. "

Then the rep was saying that but you don't think that you should tak a responsibility and blah blah blah...then he transferred me to some guy with a heavy foreign accent. That guy said that he could delete the negative listings. But then later he said that they've never reported to the credit bureaus. Then, he said "you have a nice day, okay?" and hung up on me.

Now, I am not sure what to do. I don't know if I should just pay $100 to Afni and send a GW letter to Verizon (as suggested if I understood correctly) or I should just sit and wait until June and cross fingers that this debt goes away forever.

On my all three CRs, I only sees Verizon, not Afni.  Please help

[llecs]

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@dengel81 wrote:

Now, I am not sure what to do. I don't know if I should just pay $100 to Afni and send a GW letter to Verizon (as suggested if I understood correctly) or I should just sit and wait until June and cross fingers that this debt goes away forever.

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As mentioned in the prior post, send a GW to VZW.

VZW does not own the debt and paying any CA (AFNI included) will never make VZW go away. They cannot make any agreement or promise to make the OC go away.

And maybe I should have been more clear on the $100....AFNI likely owns the debt. If you pay them that settlement, the debt will go away, but AFNI has the right to report a $0 balance if they wanted to. They can report a balance owed if they wanted to anyway. So either way, it doesn't matter.

The reason they want the $100 is because they know that CRTP is up this summer and your SOL had likely expired too.

[lannette14]

Many have had success with emailing recoveryteam@afni.com and asking for a PFD.  It took about a week for them to get back with me, but they ended up deleting mine, and also sent a letter to me.

Good luck!

[dengel81]

Thank you!!!! 

Today I received another letter from Afni, Inc, not a settlement offer. 

I'm goona write a GW to Verizon wireless first. Thanks again!

[valley_man0505]

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@lannette14 wrote:

Many have had success with emailing recoveryteam@afni.com and asking for a PFD.  It took about a week for them to get back with me, but they ended up deleting mine, and also sent a letter to me.

Good luck!

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I had AFNI reporting a VZW debt that was incorrect.  VZW screwed up their billing when I changed phone numbers and tried to get me to double-pay.  It eventually went to AFNI.  I disputed multiple times and provided evidence on my behalf each time, but yet it kept coming up verified.  I filed a BBB complaint and AFNI still would not delete.  I finally gave up on a flat-out delete and offered to PFD a couple fo times even though the debt was not even owed (some PFD offers sent snail mail, some sent to above-mentioned email address).  AFNI still would not delete.  Two more BBB complaints later, they finally deleted.  This whole process took about 3 years!

AFNI is real "hit or miss".  It seems some people get lucky right away with them and others have the fight of their life.

If the OP's debt is set to reach CRTP in the next couple of months, it may be best to just wait until it falls off the reports?  Is there a reason that you need it gone NOW?

[Anonymous]

Less than two months away.....I would leave it be.  You may not see it go away come June 1st though, so dont' get excited if it's still there it could take to the end of the month.  However, you should print out a copy of that report that actually is showing June as the fall off.  That way, if it doesn't fall off for some reason and you see it has a new fall off date all of the sudden, you can dispute that with your documentation/proof.

[dengel81]

I wanted to remove this asap because I was planning on getting a new car soon. 

I do think that I should just wait until the end of June to see if it gets removed instead of contacting the OC or the CA. If it gets removed by June, I'll just get a car in July. If it doesnt fall off by June, I'll dispute or PFD or something but have to get a new car anyways. 

I already printed out the CR showing that this tradeline should falloff by June 11. Thank you much!!!!!!