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CA offering settlement, but they are not reporting on any of my CR's

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3MV
New Contributor

CA offering settlement, but they are not reporting on any of my CR's

I have a $403 charge off with First Premier Bank from 5 years ago. It reports on my EQ  as Current Status "120+ past due",  EX as "Closed, Charge-Off", and is not on my TU report.  There is no CA reporting on this account on any of my reports.  I have started the process of rebuiling and this is a top priority for me as it is my only CC and is killing my utilization. I recieved a settlement offer in the mail last week from a CA, for about 50% . I think that is fair, but I am concerned as to what will happen if I take the settlement. Will the CA report it to the CRA's, causing an additional negative? Will First Premier know it was settled and change the status to reflect that? I really need advice on how to handle this. Thanks.

Starting Score: 539 EQ 11/1/2011
Current Score: 648 EQ SW , 670 TU SW, 654 EX (MTG Pull 8/19/2013)

**It's a marathon not a sprint**
Message 1 of 3
2 REPLIES 2
2NE1
Established Contributor

Re: CA offering settlement, but they are not reporting on any of my CR's


@3MV wrote:

I have a $403 charge off with First Premier Bank from 5 years ago. It reports on my EQ  as Current Status "120+ past due",  EX as "Closed, Charge-Off", and is not on my TU report.  There is no CA reporting on this account on any of my reports.  I have started the process of rebuilding and this is a top priority for me as it is my only CC and is killing my utilization. I received a settlement offer in the mail last week from a CA, for about 50% . I think that is fair, but I am concerned as to what will happen if I take the settlement. Will the CA report it to the CRA's, causing an additional negative? Will First Premier know it was settled and change the status to reflect that? I really need advice on how to handle this. Thanks.


I would recommend to get a hold of the OC and settle an amount with them instead of the CA since they aren't even reporting it. I have also received settlement letters from a CA that isn't reporting on my CRs, however, I have called the OC and they've been able to give me a settlement amount. The OC never mentioned to me that my account had been handed over to a CA.

Message 2 of 3
RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

Re: CA offering settlement, but they are not reporting on any of my CR's

I would, first an formost, find out who owns the debt.  You should already have been notified of that fact.  If the OC no longer owns the debt, you cannot pay them.

 

Even though the debt collector is not reporting, they still have an obligation to have provided you the information you need to make your decisions.

The instant they communicated with you, that triggered their requirement to have provided you dunning notice within 5 days.  FDCPA 809(a).

 

The requiremnt for dunning notice, in addition to advising you of your DV rights, also requires that they notify you of "the name of the creditor to whom the debt is owed."

If they have purchased the debt, it is owed to them, and they must inform you of such.  They would not even have to mention the OC in their dunning notice.

You can contact the debt collector and require them to tell you who owns the debt.  I would suggest doing that by way of a DV request, in which you can also require them to provide the name of the OC.  That carries the additional benefit of placing them under a cease collection bar until such time as they have provided you the information.

 

The debt collector can report the fact of their collection to the CRA at any time, as long as what they report is accurate.  Paying wont necessarily preclude credit reporting, but it does make it less likely.  In order to report after payment of the debt, they would simultaneously be requried to report a collection, and that the collection is now closed, with $0 due.  Kinda an unnecessary expenditure of time and effort, but still possible.  Some make a modified type of PFD offer to debt collectors, asking them to agree to NOT report their collection in exchange for payment of the debt.

 

 

 

Message 3 of 3
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