topic Re: First Premier/First National Collection Bureau....Confused and need help/advise in Rebuilding Your Credit

First Premier/First National Collection Bureau....Confused and need help/advise

chellie — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 20:33:22 GMT

Hey all - Trying to sort this one out to figure out what to do with my last remaining baddie.

First Premier is showing on my FICO reports as "Charged Off Acccout" in the comments and is still reporting a balance every month of $991. The max on this account is $700 so it's showing as 142% UTIL. I got a letter a few months ago from First National Collection Bureau offering a settlement. I didn't do it at the time because I was working on some other issues. But FNCB has never appeared on any of my reports, only FP. Not sure if FNCB is an in-house CA for or not. I'd like to get this taken care of because I'm already going to take a hit for my auto loan being paid off (MyFico update already showed the drop in my Exp score today) and need any little bump I can get. Does it make sense to go thru FNCB or First Premier to pay them? I'm not sure what to do - I feel like what my CR shows is conflicting...? Not sure if how it's reporting is correct. Here's what is on EQ shows:

First Premier (CLOSED)

Account Status: CHARGE_OFF

Available Credit: $700

Reported Balance: $991

Debt-to-Credit Ratio: 142%

Date Opened: 11/21/2010

Account type: Revolving

Date of First Delinquency: 02/01/2013

Date of Last Payment: 01/01/2013

Date Reported: 11/08/2015

Delinquency First Reported: 8/01/2013

Charge Off Amount: $991

Comments: Charged off account

Date Closed - it's blank.

TIA~~!!

Re: First Premier/First National Collection Bureau....Confused and need help/advise

Adkins — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 21:03:00 GMT

Most of the posts about first national are shady - zombie debt, adding fees illegally, not honoring PFD and trying to collect outside SOL aggressively.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?advanced=false&allow_punctuation=false&q=First%20national%20collection%20bureau

I'd contact first Premier first, if you're serious about PIF. I'd then work on getting it removed later via goodwill letters. PIF will help your utilization tremendously.

Re: First Premier/First National Collection Bureau....Confused and need help/advise

RobertEG — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 22:51:27 GMT

The FDCPA definition of a debt collector explicitly includes an in-house collection if they use a name that is different from that of the original creditor, thus implying they are different entities. They can report as a debt collector at any time.

Only the debt collector can make agreements regarding deletion or lack of reporting of their collection.

I would contact the debt collector and make a pay for not reporting offer to them, which if accepted, will be a binding contract agreement that will prevent reporting of their collection.

Re: First Premier/First National Collection Bureau....Confused and need help/advise

chellie — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 22:57:39 GMT

So here's a interesting twist - First Premier allows you to make payments on their website for Charged Off Accounts. You'll need your 16 digit account number, SSN and DOB to do so. If you don't have your account number, they provide a number for you to call.

I called the number to get the account number. The rep wouldn't provide it, but instead refers me to FNCB. When I asked why, he said it's because they hired FNCB to collect on the charged off accounts even though First Premier still owns the account. I'm guessing this is their version of "in-house" collections. I guess this answers the question as to why FNCB doesn't appear on the CRs - First Premier still legally owns the accounts.

When I further pressed as to why offer a payment option for charged off accounts on their site if you just assign them out, he just kept saying that they prefer that payments be made thru FNCB instead and that I should at least have a conversation with them to work out payment, but it's up to me how/who I want to pay. But when I asked for the entire account number, he would only provide the last 4 of the account and stated that if I pull my CR, I would get the first 12 numbers. Of course when he transfered me over to FNCB to discuss, I got disconnected as soon as they got a rep on the phone.

Re: First Premier/First National Collection Bureau....Confused and need help/advise

LindysMom — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 09:05:58 GMT

First Premier is super shady. I had a similar situation as you and they KILL your credit score because even though it's a CO they still report it every month despite the fact that they weren't actively collecting on my account. When I was working through this issue, however, I believe I was still working with FPB and not this other group you are referencing. Which is odd because the account with them was SO OLD.

Anyways, I did not have success with a PFD BUT I think I got lucky and settled it out for maybe 15-18%. They are set to drop off in May 2018 so I honestly don't care if it gets removed

Re: First Premier/First National Collection Bureau....Confused and need help/advise

chellie — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 21:07:03 GMT

@LindysMom wrote:
First Premier is super shady. I had a similar situation as you and they KILL your credit score because even though it's a CO they still report it every month despite the fact that they weren't actively collecting on my account. When I was working through this issue, however, I believe I was still working with FPB and not this other group you are referencing. Which is odd because the account with them was SO OLD.

Anyways, I did not have success with a PFD BUT I think I got lucky and settled it out for maybe 15-18%. They are set to drop off in May 2018 so I honestly don't care if it gets removed

Learned my lesson (the hard way, of course) about First Premier. And you're right about the major hit to the scores and reporting it EVERY. FREAKING. MONTH!

Super shady is right!! I just found it unusual that I was calling them to try and pay this thing and the CSR kept referring me to their CA. I mean, I get they are paying this company to do the dirty work for them, but if someone is willing to pay off their charge off, I would think they would take their money. DOFD for this was in 2013 so I've got a couple of more years before this drops off for me.

Did pay it thru FNCB as a settlement- so I'll have to wait a week or so to see how this pans out. Good to know someone else was going thru a similar nightmare with First Premier - Thanks for sharing!!

Re: First Premier/First National Collection Bureau....Confused and need help/advise

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 02:28:11 GMT

First National I don't believe is owned by First Premier. They are very shady. DW got $1K in FDCA settlemnet money for them trying to collect an account agressively that was not hers.

Re: First Premier/First National Collection Bureau....Confused and need help/advise

chellie — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 20:04:19 GMT

No, FNCB is not owned by First Premier. From what the CSR's at FP have told me (I've called them a couple of times now) is that FNCB is one of the CA's that they have hired to collect on their delinquent/charge-off accounts. But from what I've seen on other posts about First Premier and from now my own experience, FP does not like to sell their CO'd accounts but rather keep ownership of those accounts and just hire companies to do their dirty work.

Both FP and FNCB are shady - although the last rep at FP was very forthcoming with information when I asked about how they would report, what I should expecct to see on my reports and when. FNCB is a whole other matter. I have yet to talk to someone there that could answer my questions. I've received the same canned response "Someone from that department will have to call you back" to my very basic question of how and when will my payment be applied to First Premier.

Re: First Premier/First National Collection Bureau....Confused and need help/advise

EAJuggalo — Sat, 18 Nov 2017 14:54:08 GMT

Question for Robert or one of the other Guru's around here. It looks to me like FP is still reporting that as an open account. If the Date Closed field is blank and it's reporting a credit limit wouldn't that mean it's an open account in the eyes of the CRAs? My understanding is that closed accounts should be listed as $0 limits which is what makes the UTIL hit so much worse.

Re: First Premier/First National Collection Bureau....Confused and need help/advise

RobertEG — Sat, 18 Nov 2017 23:21:54 GMT

Closing an account does not require the creditor to thereafter report a $0 balance, provided they still own the debt.

Account closure, in the case of a revolving account, prevents the consumer from making new transactions that increase the current amount of the debt. Closed accounts still have a reportable debt balance and continue to be included in scoring under % util as long as the creditor continues to own the debt.

A creditor is required to report a $0 balance once they have sold the debt, as there is thus no longer a debt owed to them.