paying off a chargoff tomorrow please help ???

[Anonymous]

hi, i made an offer to the collection agency their name synergetic communications i balance is $12,200 and i'm settling it for $2500 they sent me a letter stating        "upon reciept of the settlement, the creditor will inform the credit reporting agencies that the account was settled in full"   it is signed by the general manager is this good enough ???? 

[llecs]

Have you tried a PFD for the same amount?

[Anonymous]

i dont understand what your saying ?

[llecs]

A PFD is a pay for delete. There are examples floating in here somewhere (search: PFD Example letter) and it is a written request to the creditor to remove the account off your CR is exchange for payment. A settled account is just as bad as a CO. You don't want them to give notice to the CRAs that the account is settled.

I'd suggest reading the following:

Common Abbreviations

Credit Scoring 101 - great for knowing what is in your credit score and to see how your score is impacted.

and What Steps Do I Take - great for learning the repair process.

Message Edited by llecs on 02-24-2009 12:50 PM

[Anonymous]

so your saying i have a chance of them deleting it completely with a pfd letter even though i'm only going to give them 2,500 instead of the 12k ?

[llecs]

Right. For the reason that they are the ones that accepted the $2500 settlement you initially offered. It is no more effort to have the CA deleted. A settled or paid CA is no better than a CA with a $10,000 balance owed per your FICO score.

Edit to add....I did goof in a previous post. I was thinking this was a CO rather than a CA. The only improvement you will see in your score is its removal.

Message Edited by llecs on 02-24-2009 01:26 PM

[iltph]

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@llecs wrote:
A settled or paid CA is no better than a CA with a $10,000 balance owed per your FICO score.

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Not only that, but paying them will update the Date of Last Activity, which will greatly impact your FICO score, causing it to go down a considerable amount.

If it were me, I would refuse to pay them unless they agree to delete it entirely from your CR and agree that they would not resell the debt to a JDB.

[Anonymous]

Settling a $12,500 debt for only $2500???

In my mind, it smells like it's an old junk debt. Also odd, I'd think, is the phrase "settled in full." It's either paid in full or it's settled for less than the full amount.

OP: Is this debt actually on your CRs? Or is this a demand for payment outta the blue on an old, old, old, debt?

If it IS on your CRs, I'll bet you 100 FICO points that it's j-u-u-u-u-s-s-s-t about to fall off. Perhaps even supposed to have already fallen off.

Don't mean to be argumentative or snotty -- it's just that the last time we got an offer like that (including the whole "will cease to report to the CRAs" ) it was for a 20+ year old debt that had fallen off YEARS ago.