topic Settling with Afni in Rebuilding Your Credit

Settling with Afni

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 21:07:34 GMT

So I have an ATT account that was originally with a company called EOS CCA. ATT closed the account with EOS and placed it with Afni. I received a letter from them offering to settle the account (originally for 1202$) for 601.25. I just sent them an email asking for the settlement amount be lowered to 500$. They are not yet reporting the debt. The letter they sent me gives me until July 19. In the email, I also asked them to agree to not report the debt. Hopefully they go for it but even if they don't, I'll still pay it.

I am curious why they took the account away from EOS. Any ideas?

Re: Settling with Afni

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 21:35:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
So I have an ATT account that was originally with a company called EOS CCA. ATT closed the account with EOS and placed it with Afni. I received a letter from them offering to settle the account (originally for 1202$) for 601.25. I just sent them an email asking for the settlement amount be lowered to 500$. They are not yet reporting the debt. The letter they sent me gives me until July 19. In the email, I also asked them to agree to not report the debt. Hopefully they go for it but even if they don't, I'll still pay it.

I am curious why they took the account away from EOS. Any ideas?

Its quite common to move the account to another collector when there is no progress on it. Usually if you come to a settlement within that grace period before they report, it will stay off your reports.

Re: Settling with Afni

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 21:48:07 GMT

Thanks Norman. That's kinda what I thought but I wanted to see if there's some other possible reason. I hope it doesn't take them too long to email me back. I want to get this thing settled and over with.

Re: Settling with Afni

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Jul 2015 20:50:35 GMT

I heard back from Afni and they agreed to settle my account for 500$. However, they didnt address my request to not report the account to the bureaus. I also asked them to agree not to 1099C the remaining balance or sell it to another agency. I'm just trying to be careful. Anyway, so I just emailed them back so we will see what happens.

When I pay them, I assume its best to mail a check rather than pay it online? Anything else I should know?

Re: Settling with Afni

RobertEG — Fri, 03 Jul 2015 21:02:02 GMT

$1202 - 500 = $702.

The IRS considers any debt settlement for less than the full amount to be cancelled debt that becomes "income" to the consumer, and if above $600, is taxable.

The owner of the debt is required to report the cancelled debt to the IRS. They cannot agree not to do so.

That is tax evasion.

Re: Settling with Afni

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Jul 2015 21:09:48 GMT

Hmmmmm. Ok. I didn't know that. Thank you Robert.