CitiAssist charge off - help?

[Anonymous]

Apologies for the length!

Most of this is very old (2007 - well before I knew about sites like this) but I really need to get this sorted out so...

I had a CitiAssist (private) loan that I screwed up on back in 2007. Citi is reporting to the credit bureaus every month that it was Charged-off/Written off (depending on which report you check) and the amount increases each month.

I went through some pretty bad credit handling back then and I suppose I was just ignoring it. I honestly must have forgotten about it as I did have the good mind to consolidate all of my federal loans later that year and those are fine. However, I take full responsibility.

What I recall is their internal collections department contacting me around Dec 2007 or so for payment (back then was ~$5000). Ultimately they demanded immediate payment or very large monthly payments that I told them was not possible. I was willing to pay $200/mo or whatever but they would not accept it.
Communication ended.

A few months later (so early 2008 or so) I received a certified letter from a collection agency in my state. The name of the agency appeared like a law firm but I am pretty sure it was just a collection agency. From information I read online, I sent a certified letter to them requesting debt validation (not saying it wasn't mine and not refusing to pay). This may or may not have been the brightest thing to do since, even though it's a Private loan, I think it goes by different rules (compared to like CC account) since it was a student loan.
Anyhoo, I never heard from them nor Citi again.

Knowing I really need to get this resolved just within the last couple of weeks I logged on to their site and according to my online payment history on their website, the last payment I made was on 12/25/2007 but my loan is no longer listed within their system ("You do not currently have any active or fully disbursed loans on our system." according to their website). I did have to update my Contact Information on their website to view anything so I assume that will trigger something somewhere that I'm still alive and how to contact me which is ok because I'm not trying to hide from them and I do want to pay.

Again, it is Citi that is reporting to the CRAs every month that it's charged off. No CA has reported anything. Since they are actively reporting it as a Charge Off and the amount is increasing (It is reporting at ~$7000 as of today), does this mean it is still in Citi's hands?

I guess my biggest question is does anyone have any guesses as to what Citi would offer for payment options based on experience? It would be nice to have some idea so I don't feel like I'm getting hit by a train when I get up the nerve to call them.

Also, from reading other posts I understand that they could still sue me even if I have arranged a payment plan with them and am paying as agreed. In your opinion do you think this is something they are likely to do? If I asked them would they know? Is there some time frame from defaulting on the loan that they just automatically start the process?

And I have dug through every last piece of paper that I have files and cannot locate anything related to this loan, if it matters.

[Tazman81]

It sounds that your intentions are admirable. And just as a side note, you would not have been able to consolidate your private student loan with a federal one. With that said, do you have any funds saved where you may be able to offer them a PFD? That is where you pay the full amount owed in exchange for them deleting the baddie from your credit report. Now of course this is not always a given but worth a try. I would contact citi directly and have them provide you the documents as to who holds the loan. see if they may be able to pull the loan back so you can work directly with them on paying it off. Based on the original amount of the loan and the time frame, the current amount due sounds reasonable with the interest and fees.

[Anonymous]

Well, see that's the kicker... No, I do not have the funds readily available to pay in full. Do you think Citi would even consider a PFD? I was under the impression that would never, ever occur so I never considered that option.

So I want to contact them but can't pay in full = dilemma.

Worst case, I suppose I could take a loan from my 401k but really would like to avoid that.

In a perfect world, I would like to get the PSECU Combo and then pay them from that. My util is high right now (~45%) so I need to get that down before I even consider it but I think I'm living in a dream world anyway because I doubt they'd approve me with this old CitiAssist charge off (which actually also shows $13 as late). Or do you think it's old enough that they might?

Or I suppose a 3rd option is to take out the 401k loan, pay Citi, wait for it to report as paid and then apply for the PSECU Combo and pay back my 401k loan from that. Anyone have any idea if paying this will reset any of the dates or anything on my reports thus having a more negative effect than it has now?

Thanks!

[PixieQueen80]

My Citiassist loans went to collections/default in 2004.  They started legal action in 2007 and got a judgment in 2008.  I made arrangements to pay of judgement in 2009 and made final payment November of 2010.

Here is the big stinker.  Each payment that was made "re-aged" my account.  So now my DOFD is 7/2010 and 10/2010 so these loans will not fall off my credit report until 2017 even though they went into default 7 plus years ago. 

You should definately pay the debt because the relief of no longer having it hang over you is the best feeling however please go into it knowing that it is possible that your DOFD will be updated to the month in which your last payment was made and you would have to wait 7 plus years from then for a complete removal from your credit report.