Help with collection

[Anonymous]

Hello, 

I am trying to figure out if there is a way I could avoid taking a hit on my credit report from a collection agency. Here is the story, so back in 2014 I had a Verizon account which was early terminated due to circumstances so it ended up with a $504 early termination fee on my account. I was never able to pay it so it became a charge off ever since. I had thought about actually paying the charge off but I heard that once I pay it, it will mark every month late that I did not pay. I received a letter yesterday indicating that verizon had sold my account to a CCA called EOS. Fearing that they will report a new collection on my account I decided to check my credit reports if they have already report it to the CBs and they havent. I gave them a call to see if I can do something to resolve the problem but it seems that they cant give something in writing that they wont report it to the CBs if I pay it right now. They said they have not reported it yet to the CBs. 

Is it possible that I pay this off right now so that they wont report it to the CBs?

Thanks.

[Kree]

Yes,  reporting it costs money, and takes time.  They usually only do so in an effort to force payment. But to be sure, get it in writing. Because sometimes CCAs employ mean people who enjoy making you suffer.

[RobertEG]

If they do decide to report, then there is nothing you can do to prevent it other than obtaining their agreement prior to your payment not to report.

A debt collector is entitled to report the fact that they have or had collection authority if the debt is paid while they have or had legitimate collection authority.

The only requirment to delete is when a debt collector no longer has legitimate collection authority, and the debt remains unpaid.

If they wont give you written agreement prior to paying, you can establish the same contractual, and thus legally binding, pay for not reporting agreement via an oral agreement.  You can, depending upon whether or not you live in a two-party consent state, tape your conversation as legal evidence of oral contract.

Most debt collectors will tape conversations, making them available via discovery should they breach their agreement.

I would request an oral agreement, and establish your best evidence of that agreement.

[JGGM]

If they can't give you something in writing, but you have the ability to pay it in full, I'd pay it - if nothing else for the chance that it doesn't appear on your reports. If you don't pay it, it will surely show up.