West Asset Management and NPO Financial collections on reports

[Anonymous]

I was reading you information on how long things can stay on your report. What I am trying to find out is how to get rid of 2 collections.

One was 1463 and was a medical bill which the insurance was supposed to pay and they never did. Then when I was notified by the collection agency I started making $30.00 a month payments and then in December called them and told them I would pay it all off. They told me as I was willing to pay it off I only had to pay 916.00 which is what I paid but now the collection on my report says that I settled for less then owed and West Asset Management will not remove the collection on the report and told me that I am expecting them to do something illegal. I think it is illegal how they can write things on your report and make arrangements with you and then you pay the same price as someone who never pays it off.

The other collection is for 75.00 and is a paid collection. Why should that be on my credit report. I believe the total owed was $150.00 and I paid $75.00 and then another $75.00 and that was the end of it. That is with NPO Financial 33 and they are very nice to talk to but they also told me they are not allowed to remove this collection.

I have 1 lateness on my report from Chase in 2003 when I remortgaged and they told me they would take care of it and I remortgaged again with Chase and the 30 day lateness is there because the other account was not paid off in 30 days but I did not know that until after it was all over and years later when I saw my credit report.

I just don't think these things are fair. I have paid my bills on time all the time for 25 years and I can't get them to remove 2 collection reports. I am hoping someone could tell me what my options are. Thank you.

Edit: this post was split off from "Credit Reporting Time Periods" on General Credit Issues to start its own thread. I also added paragraph breaks to make it easier for other members to read. White space on long posts is good!

LYNN47, welcome to the forums! While you're waiting for replies, you need to do some basic homework. Please read "Credit Scoring 101", or at least the first post, lol, to learn how many of these things work. Paid collections remain on your reports, as do all derogatories, whether paid or unpaid, because this is information furnished to other future lenders so that they can evaluate how good of a credit risk you will be for them. The only way of changing this is either by making arrangements before you pay (PFD) or asking them to cease reporting them after they are paid as a gesture of goodwill (GW.) You can read about PFD and GW in "Frequently Requested Threads", also stickied above. Good luck!

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 05-11-2008 10:10 AM

[Anonymous]

It may not be fair but their reporting is correct.

The late payment is not hurting you.  For the late pay send the OC a GW letter As many times as needed. They do not always answer or if they do it usually takes about 30 days. If no answer or they refuse....send another GW.   send it to the addy on your CR.

Because you contacted the CA  you might not be covered under  HIPPA....but you can try.

What is the SOL on the medical collections?

The Pre-HIPAA letter is sent to the CRA to dispute medical collection accounts on your CR that are within SOL and are:  paid, valid but unpaid, "not mine" or inaccurate

Do a search for the HIPAA letter and follow the directions.

[tmacar]

About removing things from your report, they are actually lying to you. There is no law anywhere requiring anyone to report your bad credit, and there is no law saying they can't remove the report.

Unfortunately, as things stand, you are going to be stuck with the listings.

If you ever have another collection, however, there is a way to get it off your report. As you already know, collection companies always offer to "settle" for something less than the full amount. What you need to do is offer to pay the full amount if they will agree to completely remove the entry from your report. This costs you more, but you get the thing off your report, and a judgment is the only kind of account listing that is worse for your credit than a collection, whether it's paid or unpaid.

The collection company, doesn't really care what happens to your credit. They're in the business of making money. They see the credit report listing as a tool to force you to pay, not as some kind of necessary and deserved punishment. By offering full payment instead of a settlement amount, you are offering them more money, and their entire purpose is to collect as much money as they can, with as little effort as possible, on each debt that they handle.

One problem can be that the people who work the phones do not understand this. In fact, many of them really do think it is illegal to remove something, or think that it cannot be done. If you run into this, you just have to get yourself passed up the supervisory chain until you reach someone who actually has the authority to make this kind of a deal. Believe me, that person DOES exist in every single collection company.

If you do make a deletion in return for full payment deal, make sure you get it in writing before you pay, that it mentions a time frame and exact amount, such as "immediately upon receipt of verified funds in the amount of $XXX.XX", and that it says specifically that they will delete the "collection account" from all credit reporting agencies to which the collection has been reported, not that they will delete the "trade line".

Since you seem to have already paid your collections, it is too late for this kind of a deal. What you CAN do is make certain that they drop off your report when they are supposed to. Assuming that the collection agencies you dealt with were working on behalf of the original creditor, as opposed to working for, or themselves actually being, new owners of the account concerned, the Date Opened, Date of Last Payment, Date of First Significant Delinquency, Date of Last Activity and Date Closed all have to match the dates from the original account. Collection companies will sometimes change these dates, using things like the date they first started working on it as the Date Opened, or the date that you paid them as the Date of Last Payment and Date of Last Activity. Make sure all those dates are correct because they govern when the collection will drop off your report.

Handy Tip: If a dispute to the credit bureau does not get these sorts of incorrect dates fixed (the collection company only needs to tell the bureau that the listed dates are right - they don't have to prove it), write to the original creditor. Ask when was my account opened, when did I make the last payment, when did you close it, etc. When they respond, you can use their letter as proof that the credit bureau will legally have to accept.

[Anonymous]

I don't know the SOL for collection agency's.  One was in 2005 and another in 2006.  It is in the state of Florida and I think the SOL is 4 years but I am not sure.  I just want to try anything that might work because they are not being cooperative at all.  In fact West Asset Management is probably the worst company I have ever dealt with.  When I was paying them off they we so very nice and trying th help me but little did I realize they were going to do this.  I did get a letter from them last year before I paid it off so hopefully I will be able to use that letter along with the letter i am getting from the other collection agency.

[tmacar]

As I said, their only interest is getting as much money, with as little effort as possible, out of each account they collect. Once you've paid them, as you've found out, you not only have no more leverage, they don't even bother being polite.

You lost me with SOL. Is that maybe source of loan? Or was it a typo?

Anyway, you're just plain stuck with these things for 7 years. Even if you have letters promising they will remove the collection from your credit (which I really doubt you do), the only thing you can do is sue them. Anything less than a written, specific, promise to delete them or to never report them, and you just don't have a leg to stand on. Unfair? Oh yeah. Legal? Unfortunately, yes.

The ONLY thing you can do is make sure the Date of Last Payment, Date of First Major Delinquency, and Date of Last Activity are right, so that they drop off when they should, not several years after that.

Write to the original creditors. Ask them when you made the last payment, and what was your Date of First Major Delinquency. Date of Last Payment is usually also your Date of Last Activity. Unless you talked to the creditor after you made the last payment, and told them you were going to get caught up. That can change the DOLA. (Did you mean to type DOL when you typed SOL? I like to use DOLA instead of DOL, eliminates any confusion.) But even then, you can probably get away with claiming the date of your last payment as the DOLA. Then the Date of First Major Delinquency is most often the following month.

Then check the dates on the collection account listings. If they don't match up with the dates you got from the original creditors, file disputes with the bureaus and include the letters from the creditors as proof. If your Date of Last Activity was, say, October 2003, the original account and the collection should both drop off your report by October 2010.

Another thing to remember is that collections hurt you as long as they are on your report at all, but as they get older after being paid, they will hurt your score less. That is another reason to make sure the dates are listed correctly. And from what I've seen, it doesn't make much if any difference to your score if it says that you settled or just that you paid. Many creditors don't even see that kind of remark. Even if they do see it, like for a mortgage, if the debt was not super large, I still don't think it will have very much effect. EVERYBODY settles collections, unless they do a deletion for payment deal like I talked about earlier.

[Anonymous]

I think SOL is statue of limitation.  Each state has a different amount of years.  Yes I believe they lied to me but what can you do.  The original creditor was Oak Hill Hospital and they never sent a bill as they were supposed too and West Asset Management said they sent 11 letters but I know that is a lie because I contacted them one month after they received the collection.  They are very nasty now but I paid them in December 2007.  The other one was a $75.00 bill that was paid but I am going to try to get them to remove it.  West Asset Management I believe I can send them a GW letter every month and when they get tired of hearing from me maybe they will do it.  Time will tell.  We will see.   I realize I handled it all the wrong way but I will have to live with that.  I am much smarter now though.  Thanks for all you information.

[tmacar]

A couple things. SOL, Statute of Limitations, is only for criminal stuff in a particular state. Each state has its own, and they may even have different time periods for different crimes, and I believe they all have something, like murder in one or more degrees, for which there is no SOL. It's how long they have to arrest you after you have committed a crime. If the SOL for a certain kind of crime is 7 years (a common length of time), and you commit that crime, and do not get arrested for it within that 7 years, then 7 years and 1 day later you could walk into a police station, say, "Here I am, I robbed that 7-11 on such and such a date." and they wouldn't be able to do a thing about it.

Credit report stuff is governed by a federal law, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and it doesn't matter what state the creditor was or is in, or what state you are or were in when the loan was taken out or the debt incurred.

The basic rule is that a loan or debt with late payments or a collection account for that loan or debt can stay on your credit report for 7 years from the Date of Last Activity on that loan or debt. This is usually the date of the last payment you made on the thing, but not always. Certain things, like promising to pay the creditor after you made the last payment or the creditor selling the account to someone else can change that.

Please do yourself a big favor and contact the original creditors to find out your Date of Last Payment. Then check your credit reports. If the collection companies are listing later dates, file disputes and send in copies of the letter(s) from the original creditor(s) as proof.

As much as I hate to say it, the chances that you'll get the collection companies to do anything for you are slim and none, no matter how often you write. The law is on their side, even if they misled you in order to get your money. But you can, and really should, make sure that their listings do not stay on your credit reports one day longer than they are legally supposed to.

[Anonymous]

After careful review of my collection account on my Equifax the status is paid; the original balance is there;the collection agency number; date assigned, date reported, account number; account holder but then everything else says Not Reported such as date paid, date closed, original lender, type of account, type of credit, payment status, account description.  Shouldn't all of that be on the collection report.  Just wondering if maybe they are supposed to report all the information not just some of it.  This is the same on both accounts.  Just trying to see if maybe I can get them to complete the report.

[tmacar]

Oh my God. You MAY have just gotten very, very lucky. Certain items, such as Date Opened, Date of Last Payment, Date of Last Activity, and, maybe, Date of First Delinquency and Date Closed. ALL of which are from the original account and have nothing to do with when you paid the collection itself, HAVE to be listed. Date Opened and Closed and Delinquency get used in computing your score. More importantly, the Date of Last Activity, which is usually (although not always) the same as Date of Last Payment, is used to start that 7 year clock for how long it stays on your report.

Write a dispute for each account right away. Point out that these dates are missing, and mention that, according to the FCRA, since these dates govern how the account affects your score and when the listing has to be removed from your report, they must either be listed or the bureau must immediately remove the account from your report.

You may get lucky, the collection company may not have the information, and if they can't provide the dates, Equifax will have to delete the account(s).

As fpr Experian, for some reason they don't seem to actually list all the dates on the reports they send the consumer. I think they may leave off Last Payment and Last Activity, if not others. On your Experian report, compare the collection accounts to some of the other accounts, and you will be able to figure out which dates are missing because Experian just doesn't show them to you, and which are missing because Experian doesn't have them.

For dates that Experian seems to normally list but that aren't showing on the collection accounts, talk about them just like I mentioned in the paragraph above about Equifax.

If it looks like Experian never lists Date of Last Activity and Date of Last Payment, they would have to have them on file someplace, otherwise they would never know when to delete the accounts. If they seem to not be normally shown, say "In order to know when to delete these accounts in accordance with the FCRA, you must have the Date of Last Activity and Date of Last Payment on file somewhere. If you do, I want to know what the dates are. If you do not have them, I demand that you obtain them and transmit them to me, or immediately delete the account from my report."

If they don't get the dates from the collection company or companie4s, either because the companies don't have them or because they companies don't respond within the legally required 30 days (30 days from when the bureau starts the dispute, NOT when you send it to the bureau), then they will have to delete the accounts.

Like I said, you may have gotten lucky. You have legitimate disputes which, if the collection companies either can't or don't respond to them, will get the accounts off your cre4dit. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

You have really made me at least feel I might be able to remedy these collections.  Sorry to be such a pain but it their a certain medical collection dispute letter that I use for the credit bureau.  I really do appreciate all your help.  Thank you.