What should I do?

[cwwatts1202]

My husband and I had a fifth third checking account and we got a couple pay day advances from it, they took the advance out of his check when it was direct deposited every week, well my husband was laid off from work and we owed like $1,000 on the pay day advance because we took out 2-3 after he got laid off thinking we'd just pay it back with income taxes (this was like october 2012). Fifth third has sent us a letter saying we will hear from a CA soon letting us know it's been turned over to collections, this was about a month or so ago, maybe a little longer, we have not gotten anything from a CA, it is not on our CR either. I'd like to start paying on it so it doesn't show up on our CR. I know there's a law or something if you're paying on an item it can't be put on your CR... so i'm not really sure what to do here. I dont know if fifth third still owns the account or if a CA does.. can I make payments to a CA? I dont want a payment arrangement, I want to pay them however much I can afford to pay each month, whether it be to fifth third directly or the CA... anyone have any advice?

[cwwatts1202]

anyone??

[RobertEG]

No law I am aware of prevents a party from reporting accurate information to a CRA based on a consumer making payments on the delinquent debt.

You can contact them and reach an agreement that includes their promise not to report as long as you continue to meet the terms of any payment plan they consent to.

If you dont want to make a formal agreement with them, they are not being offered an enforceable contract.  That makes it very unlikely that they will separately agree to not reporting, which is a one-sided concession on their part.  In my opinion, you would probably need to agree to a payment plan to get that concession.

In fact, not offering them anything firm might have the opposite effect of incentive for them to report in view of your stated concern over credit reporting.  More pressure.

If the OC still owns the debt, they can legally still accept payment, but cant agree that the debt collector wont report.  I would deal with the debt collector if preventing reporting is your primary goal. 

[cwwatts1202]

A friend of mine and her husband bought a house recently, and they almost didn't get approved because some medical bills he was paying on were on his CR preventing them from being approved, when the lender or whom ever they were dealing with found out he was paying and had been paying on these medical bills the entire time, they told him to call and dispute or something, I don't know, but some how he got those medical bills taken off his CR because he had been paying on them, and according to some law, they should of never been on his CR since he had been paying on them... is this only with medical bills this takes affect or something? My goal is not to have this put on the CR, how can I prevent that from happening? I don't want to call the OC and bring it to their attention since it's sitting silently right now.... but I do want to take care of it so it doesnt get reported I just don't have $1,000 to PIF right now. I'm sure it's more then $1,000 with fees etc. by now though. I am just not too fimiliar with the laws etc. if I pay it, can it still be reported even after it's paid? 

[electra]

Not communicating with them is just going to make it worse at this point.  I think your best option would be to call and explain your situation, ask if they will recall the account from the CA, not report to the CRAs and accept a payment plan.