Collection agency reneging on pfd??

Anonymous · ‎09-22-2017

So, as part of my current credit repair quest, I’ve got 2 accounts in collections—IC Systems and Fidelity—that I need to work on getting PFD’d. During my hyper-researching phase recently, I came across story after story of people dealing with IC Systems over the phone for PFD, and every person reported pretty much the same results: an easy phone call experience followed by prompt deletion. So on Sept 12 I finally worked up the nerve and called them up.

They agreed easily to my request— that I pay $254 debt in full, in exchange for them to “remove this account from my credit reports”—so I paid right there over the phone, took down all their info, received confirmation #, etc. Was really relieved and grateful, and assumed this one was now out of the woods!

Today, I checked my credit reports and found…that the account is marked as being paid, but that it’s STILL THERE. ?!?!

Am I jumping the gun here and being paranoid?? Is this how it’s supposed to work, and they can/do request the deletion sometime *after* reporting as paid? Or…??

This just surprised me today and immediately made me very worried…

Anonymous · ‎09-22-2017

Alaways...always request it in writing, There is no way to prove that it was a PFD. If they are not going to delete it's reporting correctly. AT this point you should send a ltr explaing all the info, but not sure how much that will help since you already paid. Hope it works out.

RobertEG · ‎09-22-2017

A commitmen made prior to your payment regarding conditions of the payment become enforceable contract provisions once you pay.

You can bring civil action for breach of contract.

Yes, enforcement of an oral contract is usually more difficult than a written contract, but you can submit whatever evidence you have in court.

Many debt collectors, for example, record phone converstations, which are then obtainable via pre-trial discovery.

Since going to trial takes time and money, and a debt collector has no tangible business gain in fighting a breach of contract action in court once they have received payment, they may likely fold before trial.

It is very common for debt collectors to refuse to put PFD agreements in writing, mainly due to the fact that such deletions violate their credit reporting agreements with the CRAs. For a consumer to demand a written agreement prior to paying is likely to kill the deal.

It is thus not necessarily possible or prudent to demand a writtten agreement.

Do what you can to support any oral agreement prior to paying, such as recording thier conversation if legal in your state, or having another party witness your conversation.

Anonymous · ‎09-25-2017

@RobertEG wrote:
A commitmen made prior to your payment regarding conditions of the payment become enforceable contract provisions once you pay.
You can bring civil action for breach of contract.

Yes, enforcement of an oral contract is usually more difficult than a written contract, but you can submit whatever evidence you have in court.
Many debt collectors, for example, record phone converstations, which are then obtainable via pre-trial discovery.
Since going to trial takes time and money, and a debt collector has no tangible business gain in fighting a breach of contract action in court once they have received payment, they may likely fold before trial.

It is very common for debt collectors to refuse to put PFD agreements in writing, mainly due to the fact that such deletions violate their credit reporting agreements with the CRAs. For a consumer to demand a written agreement prior to paying is likely to kill the deal.
It is thus not necessarily possible or prudent to demand a writtten agreement.
Do what you can to support any oral agreement prior to paying, such as recording thier conversation if legal in your state, or having another party witness your conversation.

This is what I had learned beforehand, as well... (And my choice of handling the transaction over the phone, in this case, really was based on research into other people's past dealings with this particular company. It wasn't just a thoughtless oversight because I wasn't paying attention or didn't care enough to learn...or whatever...though, of course, now it looks like I'm paying for the gamble, regardless.)

One thing, though... Do you think there is any chance that this conclusion is hasty? That the item will still be removed (i.e. step 1. show paid; step 2. show removed)?

I guess this doesn't sound so likely, but I hate to jump to a new step here if maybe everything IS still okay and on the right track.

Anonymous · ‎09-25-2017

Oh, and on that note, too... Could it maybe be a true oversight/mistake on their part, which they'd be open to fixing? (I'm not sure whether that's an actual "thing"...or how I'd even go about figuring it out. Uggggghhhhhh. sigh.)

Anonymous · ‎09-25-2017

I haven't been able to successfully negotiate a PFD, so I can't speak from experience. BUT, I have done a poop-ton of reading and research (on here and other sources), and I've seen a number of stories where a PFD is negotiated, and the entry is first changed to paid, then (within a couple/few weeks) it is subsequently deleted. I'd say give it a few weeks before you freak out. They may not delete it until they send their next (monthly) batch of data to the reporting agencies.

Anonymous · ‎09-25-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
I haven't been able to successfully negotiate a PFD, so I can't speak from experience. BUT, I have done a poop-ton of reading and research (on here and other sources), and I've seen a number of stories where a PFD is negotiated, and the entry is first changed to paid, then (within a couple/few weeks) it is subsequently deleted. I'd say give it a few weeks before you freak out. They may not delete it until they send their next (monthly) batch of data to the reporting agencies.

Thanks VERY much for this response... I've been hoping this might still be the case, but didn't know if the idea had any basis in reality or if I was just deluding myself. Good to hear that it seems at least (maybe?) within the realms of possibility. Guess we'll see what happens with a little bit more time!

Anonymous · ‎09-25-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I haven't been able to successfully negotiate a PFD, so I can't speak from experience. BUT, I have done a poop-ton of reading and research (on here and other sources), and I've seen a number of stories where a PFD is negotiated, and the entry is first changed to paid, then (within a couple/few weeks) it is subsequently deleted. I'd say give it a few weeks before you freak out. They may not delete it until they send their next (monthly) batch of data to the reporting agencies.
Thanks VERY much for this response... I've been hoping this might still be the case, but didn't know if the idea had any basis in reality or if I was just deluding myself. Good to hear that it seems at least (maybe?) within the realms of possibility. Guess we'll see what happens with a little bit more time!

You're welcome. I hope that this is the case with your situation. Since there are lots of successful PFD's from them, I'd assume that they didn't just decide to start lying to people this month. If it doesn't correct itself in a couple of weeks, I'd assume it to just be an oversight and (hopefully) easily resolved with a phone call.

Anonymous · ‎09-26-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
@RobertEG wrote:
A commitmen made prior to your payment regarding conditions of the payment become enforceable contract provisions once you pay.
You can bring civil action for breach of contract.

Yes, enforcement of an oral contract is usually more difficult than a written contract, but you can submit whatever evidence you have in court.
Many debt collectors, for example, record phone converstations, which are then obtainable via pre-trial discovery.
Since going to trial takes time and money, and a debt collector has no tangible business gain in fighting a breach of contract action in court once they have received payment, they may likely fold before trial.

It is very common for debt collectors to refuse to put PFD agreements in writing, mainly due to the fact that such deletions violate their credit reporting agreements with the CRAs. For a consumer to demand a written agreement prior to paying is likely to kill the deal.
It is thus not necessarily possible or prudent to demand a writtten agreement.
Do what you can to support any oral agreement prior to paying, such as recording thier conversation if legal in your state, or having another party witness your conversation.

This is what I had learned beforehand, as well... (And my choice of handling the transaction over the phone, in this case, really was based on research into other people's past dealings with this particular company. It wasn't just a thoughtless oversight because I wasn't paying attention or didn't care enough to learn...or whatever...though, of course, now it looks like I'm paying for the gamble, regardless.)

One thing, though... Do you think there is any chance that this conclusion is hasty? That the item will still be removed (i.e. step 1. show paid; step 2. show removed)?
I guess this doesn't sound so likely, but I hate to jump to a new step here if maybe everything IS still okay and on the right track.

Give them at least two reporting cycles. Most only update once per month, and they usually update to paid before removing on the next cycle.