topic Re: Impending Collection Report ... in Rebuilding Your Credit

Impending Collection Report ...

Anonymous — Sun, 04 Jun 2017 12:26:28 GMT

Greetings all,

New here and trying to clean up my credit situation.
To date, this forum has been an excellent resource, full of useful - I wanted to thank everyone first for that.

Ok, so, here's my latest situation - I had an old bank account with Suntrust. It went negative and I didn't pay it off. A collection agency has contacted me recently and requested payment via letter.

The collection isn't in my report yet (thank God), not from the contracted collection agency nor from Suntrust.

Here's my question: If I pay the debt before it hits my credit report, will that stop it from ever hitting my report ? -Or- should I wait for it to hit my report and gen negotiate the amount off , as part of erasing procedure ?

-Q

Re: Impending Collection Report ...

rmduhon — Sun, 04 Jun 2017 13:23:42 GMT

Call the collection agency and get am agreement to not report if you pay the account.

Re: Impending Collection Report ...

gdale6 — Sun, 04 Jun 2017 21:17:18 GMT

Hi there OP and welcome to the board

I have removed your cross (dual) post on this, please refrain from making more than one post on a subject in the future it can lead to confusion by the members and its not inline with our TOS. I thank you for your understanding on this.

Re: Impending Collection Report ...

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 14:28:56 GMT

If you can pay the amount now, then do it before it hits your reports. In my experience, if the amount is paid by the date on the letter, it's never reported on your credit. Once that collection hits your credit reports, you will have a drop, which is why it's best to handle before it reports on your credit.

Do you know if the collection agency is working on behalf of Suntrust, or has Suntrust sold the debt to a collection agency? If it's an agency working on behalf of Suntrust, you may be able to still work directly with Suntrust on getting the debt resolved.

When you call to make the payment, you can also ask the creditor if they will report the debt on your credit.

Re: Impending Collection Report ...

RobertEG — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 16:41:49 GMT

Most debt collectors use credit reporting as one of their tools to aid in collection on the debt, with many consumers assuming that paying will remove a collection.

They have no business benefit in reporting after the debt is paid, and once reported, they must thereafter invest time and money to ensure any required updates are made, process any good will requests, or process and disputes filed by a consumer. Thus, they may decide not to report once the debt is paid.

However, reporting of a collection is the reporting that they either have or had legitimate collection authority at one point.

There is no provision of the FCRA, FDCPA, or CRA reporting policy that prevents reporting of their collection after the debt is paid, providing they corrrecly report the current status as paid, closed, and current balance as $0.

If you wish assurance, you can first make a pay for not reporting offer. If they agree, you then pay, and the pay for not reporting agreement becomes a valid contract term.

You can, as a middle ground, simply obtain an oral promise not to report, which then becomes an oral contract once you pay. While breach of oral contract is more difficult to prove should you later require a breach of contract suit, it is nonetheless a valid contract provision.