topic Re: PFD response? in Rebuilding Your Credit

PFD response?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:35:16 GMT

This is the letter I sent obviously filling in my information

Collection Agency
1212 Maple St
City, State Zip

Re: Collection Account for Original Creditor Account #: 00000xxxx

Amount: $25.00

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is to inform you that the validity of this debt is disputed. I am not sure of the account number, as I have never heard from you regarding this account. The account number I have is the one listed on my Experian credit report – which omits the last few digits.

In the spirit of compromise, I am willing to pay this account IN FULL (or settlement percentage) if you agree to immediate deletion of this account from any and all credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). The purpose of this settlement is merely to have this item removed from my credit files. It is not to be construed as an acknowledgment of liability for this debt in any form.

If you agree to the terms and accept this agreement, certified funds for the settlement amount of twenty-five dollars ($25.00) will be sent to Collection Agency in exchange for full deletion of ALL references regarding this account from my credit files and full satisfaction of the debt. As certified funds will be used for payment, there shall be no waiting period regarding the deletion of this account from the credit reporting agencies.

Collection Agency agrees to delete ALL information regarding this account from the credit reporting agencies WITHIN TEN CALENDAR (10) DAYS following receipt of payment as specified above and will not discuss the terms of this settlement with anyone, excluding your client on this account. If contacted by any third party, including credit-reporting agencies, Collection Agency will not acknowledge that any settlement offer was made, accepted or executed and will, in fact, deny knowledge of any such account.

If you agree to the above terms, please prepare a letter on your company letterhead explicitly agreeing to the same terms as the above settlement offer and have it signed by an authorized representative of Collection Agency. It will be implied that this letter shall constitute a legally binding contract, enforceable under the laws of my state.

Your response must be postmarked no later than 15 days from your receipt of this settlement offer or this offer will be withdrawn and I will request full validation of this alleged debt, as provided for by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Please address all correspondence regarding this account to:

You
123 Any Street
City, State Zip

They Responded with

We have received your correspondence concerning the above referenced account.
Your dispute has been investigated; however, we have yet to find sufficient evidence to validate
your claim(s). It is very important that you provide our company with all documentation
supporting your position.
In the event that new information is obtained which places doubt on the validity of this debt, we
will promptly update our records accordingly. In addition, National Credit Systems, Inc. will
revise or delete the information it may have reported to the three major credit bureaus, in full
compliance with the provisions of The Fair Credit Reporting Act ,The Fair Debt Collections
Practices Act and any state regulations that may be applicable.
Be advised that National Credit Systems, Inc. is a third party debt collection agency whose
efforts are solely on behalf of other companies who have previously validated debts.

What to do from here? Do I need to get in contact with the initial company who sent my account to collections? and send them a PFD?

Re: PFD response?

howiez28 — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:33:57 GMT

I've received pretty much the same response to all my PFD letters. So frustrating. Interested to see what others suggest.

Re: PFD response?

llecs — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:56:06 GMT

OP, rewrite the PFD. I think some with a half-brain, or computers, are reading your PFD. After seeing the first sentence they assume that it is a dispute letter and respond accordingly. I rewrote mine to remove the first sentence all the while denying the debt (admission can restart SOL in some states). I made it more GW-esque and that seemed to help.

Re: PFD response?

pipeguy — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:08:59 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

We have received your correspondence concerning the above referenced account.
Your dispute has been investigated; however, we have yet to find sufficient evidence to validate
your claim(s). It is very important that you provide our company with all documentation
supporting your position.

What to do from here? Do I need to get in contact with the initial company who sent my account to collections? and send them a PFD?

The CA is stating in writing that they do not have any documentation to support their claim. I understand that you want the tradeline removed and are willing to pay the CA $25 to remove a questionable claim, but why would you pay them anything when they have stated in writing they can't substantiate their tradeline? The FDRA - FACTA provides protections for unsupported claims or debt - follow up with a letter to the BBB showing the CA statement that they have no proof. I know its only $25, but still....

In addition, do NOT do their job for them, do NOT supply the CA with any supporting documetation to verify the debt.

Re: PFD response?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:52:21 GMT

@pipeguy wrote:
The CA is stating in writing that they do not have any documentation to support their claim. I understand that you want the tradeline removed and are willing to pay the CA $25 to remove a questionable claim, but why would you pay them anything when they have stated in writing they can't substantiate their tradeline? The FDRA - FACTA provides protections for unsupported claims or debt - follow up with a letter to the BBB showing the CA statement that they have no proof. I know its only $25, but still....

In addition, do NOT do their job for them, do NOT supply the CA with any supporting documetation to verify the debt.

thanks for the info (BTW) the letter i sent was a sample letter i filled in my correct info and $$$ amount. the original debt was $250 now they bumped it up to $300 and I offered $240 for PFD.

I forgot to mention that they did send some paper work regarding the account with a non itemized bill and a copy of my lease. It was appartment complex and when i moved out 2 months early (still paid my rent on two places) they charged me for cleaning it? however there was nothing there to clean ( i was not present at time of inspections). I requested a itemized bill for the expenses of cleaning ($250 for cleaning is alot). they could not produce a itemized bill. so i didnt pay it.

Re: PFD response?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:54:35 GMT

@llecs wrote:
OP, rewrite the PFD. I think some with a half-brain, or computers, are reading your PFD. After seeing the first sentence they assume that it is a dispute letter and respond accordingly. I rewrote mine to remove the first sentence all the while denying the debt (admission can restart SOL in some states). I made it more GW-esque and that seemed to help.

How will a good will letter help in this case?

I have lexington law sending documents on my Behalf to the CB and the item still has not been removed? going on about 4 months now. can you provide a example letter? and how should i respond to my first l

Re: PFD response?

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:51:16 GMT

ok so today got a letter from CA stating and i quote

"National Credit Systems, Inc. has been authorized by our client to extend a special settlement
opportunity on the above referenced account. If you pay by 8/31/2012, you may satisfy your debt in
full at a 50% discount.
Do not let this generous offer slip away. We encourage you to consider using a tax refund or other
resources to take advantage of this special opportunity to realize a very Significant savings.
Otherwise, we will continue with all collection activities to recover the full balance of the debt.
Due to the tremendous response we expect to receive from this offer, we encourage you to make
payment through our website at www.nationalcreditsystems.com before the last day of this
settlement offer. Once at the website, click the Payment Center button and follow the directions to
login. Your Account # and Balance are located at the top of this letter and may be used to gain
access to your account. Furthermore, you will receive an additional $10 discount if you make
payment directly through our site and bypass speaking to one of our account representatives.
This offer is valid as of the time of receipt of this letter until the settlement expiration date of
8/31/2012.
Sincerely,
House Collector"

obviously this is not a PFD.

they want me to pay online through their website so they can get my CC info and bill the rest of it.

very sneaky on these guys side

how should i respond?

Re: PFD response?

llecs — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:58:14 GMT

Resend the PFD. It was sent to NCS, right? Keep trying.

Re: PFD response?

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:27:49 GMT

yes thats correct. Should I send them the exact same one as before or modify it in response to the trickery stating that this is not a PFD and I will be happy to pay it if they remove it and state that in writing?

Re: PFD response?

prm300 — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:46:47 GMT

Try calling them. I recently went through a very similar scenario. When I received a letter offering the settlement I called. The man I spoke to was surprisingly cooperative. Don't worry about the $10 discount or the expiration date of the offer. They will always deal. Tell them, basically, that while you do not acknowledge the validity of the debt you will settle for (what ever you are willing to pay) but only if they agree to delete. This worked for me. I even was emailed a letter with all the details on company letterhead signed by the representative. That was two weeks ago and Transunion was the first delete to happen. Personally, I have found that a less adversarial approach has yielded better results.

It may be worth a try. Good luck!

Re: PFD response?

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:55:53 GMT

I got the same responses when using the PFD templates. It was so frsutrating.

Only when I started typing up letters from scratch, then I started to get some PFD successes.

Like others said, I think they may have some application/software that scans over letters. Maybe it recognizes the PFD template and spits out a generic response?

Re: PFD response?

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 21:31:31 GMT

I called them and gave them my account# and account ID and the women kept asking my name and social etc. I was kind of rude and said you have my account information thats all you need you should have the rest on file. her response was she needed to verify who I was? and I began to read my script I had prepared and then she said she didnt want to waste time with me and hung up lol?

should I provide information that I am calling such as social and my name since clearly they should already have that info since i provided my account# and ID?

Im going to resend my original letter cert mail along with the copy they sent me in response to first attempt and also A response to the letter i got from them stating that this is not a PFD. any help with the phone call script or what I should and shouldn’t tell them would be appreciated!

and as mentioned earlier in the thread I have sent DV letters via (Lexington law firm) and they have come back with my lease information and a bill but not itemized.

Re: PFD response?

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 22:11:39 GMT

after searching the net I came across this? would this process be wise. sending a check from a personal account and if they cash it they agree to the terms?

Regarding OC and the above account number, please find enclosed payment by personal check#123, in the amount of $X to be considered payment in full on the alleged balance of $xx.

As per our agreement, this payment will prevent the reporting of my account to all three credit bureas.

Regardless of the total amount you have alleged is owed, this payment represents payment in full and is made on the following conditions:

1. By cashing this check, First Renegade Assurance agrees not to report any information about this account to any of the credit bureaus.

2. Any and all inquiries and negative trade linesmade by First Renegade Assurance and/or OC will be deleted from Mike G's credit reports within 10 business days.

3. No accounts will be verified to any of the credit bureaus.

4. Mike G will be provided a letter from First Renegade Assurance stating that the account is closed and will not be verified to any CRA or other third parties.

5. First Renegade Assurance is prohibited from selling, assigning, or otherwise transfering this account to any third party CA.

If these terms are agreeable and acceptable, please accept the enclosed check for $x.

Please note that cashing the enclosed check will bind you to the terms set forth in this letter.

Mike G

On the check I wrote "by cashing check FRA agrees to permenantly delete any/all information from all CRAs

Re: PFD response?

prm300 — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:23:52 GMT

I'd run it by an attorney first if you want to make sure it is a legally binding contract.