CA is willing to delete collections but won’t give me a deletion letter until AFTER I pay

[Anonymous]

Obviously I should pay the debt I owe. But it’s not deleted like she said she would And I pay, I won’t have that bargaining power I did before. Should I risk it? I’m currently living in California and the collections agency is Capio Partners in TX I believe. They do not own the debt, the hospital owns the debt but the hospital doesn’t even want to talk to me. They just transferred me. The Collections Agency is willing to delete it but absolutely refuse to put it in writing before I pay. She said that would be a pay to delete and they don’t do that. But if I pay she said she will email me on 2 days a letter saying it’s deleted. The amount is $600 on a year long account.

[Anonymous]

Have you made any attempts to discuss the debt with the hospitals billing office? I recently went through this with a hospital bill in collections. If you pay the debt off with the collection agency while they have collection authority they are not obligated to delete unless a PFD letter is in play. However I have had success with paying a CA on the word that it would be deleted and it worked however that is not the case for everyone. In my most recent case I visited the hospital and directly spoke with billing who gave me a copy of the email they sent to the CA after I played them requesting the deletion. Called the CA a few days later and verified they received the email and the request for deletion had been submitted to the CRAs. You said the CA does not own the debt however if they have been given collection authority they are well within their rights to continue reporting the collection as paid $0 balance until it falls off your report unless the hospital takes back their collection authority. In my case there was no number to transfer me to when I was sitting in the billing office and the hospital just wanted their money. My collection was 2+ years old when I did this.

[RobertEG]

It is standard procedure for most furnishers to decline to put a pay for deletion acceptaqnce in writing.

The reason is that acceptance of PFD offers is directly contrary to their credit reporting agreements with the CRAs, who include specific reporting policies that furnishers are not to delete reporting based on payment of the debt.

Putting such agreements into writing thus raises concerns regarding compliance with their credit reporting agreements.

If a furnisher nonetheless agrees to deletion after payment of the debt, then in most cases, it is OK to rely upon their word without need for written confirmation.

An oral agreement is an enforceable contract, although oral agreements are by nature usually more difficult to prove if one needs to resort to a breach of contract action.

Most debt collectors are unlikely to go to court if faced with a breach of contract action.  Deletion after the debt is paid and their collection closed does not cost them money, but going to court to defend a breach of contract action does.

I would advise accepting an oral promise.

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

This is 100% correct.   I don't know why we insist on telling people to ask for a pay for delete when we all know it's a violation of the CRA agreements.    While they can't under their contracts do a pay for delete, they can as a goodwill gesture delete the item (after it's paid).   I know this is spllitting hairs but the whole pay for delete advice irks me.

[Anonymous]

Though it irks you that people suggest a PFD the fact is it indeed is becoming mainstream in the credit world. A few of the CA in my state that I have dealt with have mentioned PFD before even givin the chance to spout off the suggestion. Although it is against policy however collection agencies are learning the quickest way to collect a debt is taking an offer of deletion with payment. If the CRA was worried about their agreements being broken the option wouldnt even be on the table. Just my 2 cents feel free to put me in my place regarding the subject.