I would offer the $3500 difference to get it off your cbr report. I know you wanna be savvy and save your money but use a PFD letter...and inject some of your kindness into it...meaning say something like, "I've been considering the debt that I had previously settled and I can't in good conscience let this go unpaid. I would like to pay the difference if you would also in turn delete it off my cbr report." Obviously you could work on that statement, but try to make yourself sound like a good samaritan, it's worth a shot and would probably look better than the cookie cutter PFD example letter...besides, the PFD example letters are templates, they're meant to be tweaked.
