OH GOD!!!!!!!!

[lpayton]

 finally got pre-approval, and I have a pending offer on a short-sale.  A very old charge off (from 2006) just was sold to a junk-collector, who just posted it to my credit showing it as "opened in 9-2011", "Reported 11-11".  So it appears that it is from the last few months.  I called them, and they WILL settle with me, but claim that them reporting the account as being opened in 9-2011 (even though it is almost 6 years old) is completely legal.  So I plan on paying the settlement offer, and they will report it as paid.  But they will not remove it.  Will paying the collection boost my credit score back up at all? (it dropped like 20 points).  I can prove to my lender (if need be) that it is not a recent account, but I am still worried about this halting my loan.  My biggest concern is whether or not paying it off and them reporting it as paid will pick my score back up at all.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[Anonymous]

NONONONONONONONONO

DONT DO ANYTHING YET.

First thing you need to do is that ALL collection companies will do what ever it takes to get your money, EVEN LIE.

Re-aging an account is NOT legal and very ILLEGAL.  First you need to send a DV letter to the collection company requesting a contract signed by you and the date it went to collections.  a week after you send that you need to dispute with the CRA's saying that this debt is incorrectly reported.  Usually once the CA gets that DV letter, they have to validate the debt to you first before they can validate to the CRA.  Loop hole.

Im sure others will say the same.  What they are doing is not right and more than likely saw that you applied for a home loan and did this now to get you to pay up. Its an underhanded tactic.

[Scope27]

I would send then a Debt Validation (DV) letter to confirm the debt. Search the rebuilding forum about DV letters.

[lpayton]

Ok, DV it is, followed by a dispute with the credit bureaus.

Thanksfor your responses!

[lpayton]

But wait, will going into a dispute process right now while I have a pending homeloan be a good idea??

[Booner72]

Did it show up on all 3 reports?  If only 1 then remember, you only need 2 scores 620/640.

If you are in a big hurry to get rid of this, I would send faxes/letters/phone calls to any # I can find to arrange PFD.  PFD's are definitely possible so keep trying this route for the quickest removal.  How much is it?  Easily paid off or huge amount?  If huge, you might have to do the DV thing.   Since it's so old from 2006 you might get this done this way.

What is the DOFD?  Do they have that listed correctly?  Remember, the date reported and DOLA mean NOTHING.

Yes disputes will stop your loan in it's tracks.

Have you opted out?  If not do so today.

Edit:  paying won't help.  i know for sure bc I did this.  The best thing in your favor is you haven't paid yet so you have leverage.

Are you working with T.H.?

Good to see your name!  Hope this gets cleared up quickly for you.  Remember, short sales take forever so you might have some time to get this taken care of.

[Anonymous]

how will a dispute stop it?  at worst it will force him to pay it off and get a letter. 

and how exactly do you opt out?  opt out of what

[payingoffdebt001]

What I  just found out is the DATE REPORTED is only basically when the collection agency took it over. Pull one of your FULL credit Reports those ones that show you when items fall off, it is there that you will see the true date and probably see where it still is a 5years old acct.  I would imagine this is the same thing a lender will see when they pull, hopefully. But too bad it dropped your score, now that stinks.  

[kariered]

Yes, yes. He's right.. Pull a full report. If you know the collection is older then it will show up on that. I had the same thing happen to me. Some of the collections showed up looking a lot more recent than they really were. If you kept reading, you could see that it was a lot older. just because a collection "reports" on a certain date (recent) doesn't mean it's recent. I have one collection on my report and I had disputed it over a year ago (before I was even thinking of getting a house). I called the CA to ask them to remove the dispute because I was getting a mortgage and the person on the phone was a HUGE jerk. He basically lied and told me that he would remove it only if I paid it off. I talked to my loan officer about this and my loan officer told me CA are the worst and they will lie to do anything to get you to pay them. I then went through the credit bureau and had the dispute removed that way. I didn't pay them off because I did'nt want to risk lowering my score. My loan officer told me not to pay them because of that.

[lpayton]

So should I just pay the settlement then?? I cannot dispute it if it will stop my loan.