I have been reading these formus for a while and have been working on cleaning up my credit. I am now in a "position of trust" and have to have clean credit. Thankfully I owed less than $5k total (except student loans which are current) so it has not been hard.
I had medical bills, dental bill and an old utility bill. None of them were in CO but listing as late/in collections - Paid those all in Full, will request GW removal.
The thorn in my side is First Premier & Jefferson Capital. I have two accounts for less than $800 that are currently in CO status.
1) Debt is reporting as FP on credit report
2) Called FP to request pay in full to have CO removed
3) Agent referred me to JCS - they have "leased" the debt to them for recovery and will not talk to me about the debt nor take any payments
4) Contacted JCS with request to pay in full for removal of charge off.
This is where it takes a turn. The gentleman on the phone offered me a 50% reduction in the debt. I asked specifically several times if by taking the settlement that they would remove the charge off from my credit report. He answered yes each time and then tried to pressure me into paying over the phone. I declined and said that I would like the agreement in writing. He again pressured me and said that mailing it would take too much time for the amount of time allowed for the deal. If I didn't pay in time then the deal would expire and mailing would take too long. I held firm and provided a fax number so that they could fax the agreement. I received the fax and it says nothing about removing the charge off, only that by taking the settlement they would consider the debt paid and would not try to collect on the remaining amount.
I called back today and ended up with a different agent who said my previous agent had not agreed to removing the charge off. He said that my only options were to pay in full to have it removed or to leave it open if I paid the settlement. When I disputed that he said that they would go back and review the calls and contact me Monday or Tuesday (or maybe Wednesday) if they found anything in the phone calls.
Other than the lesson learned that I should have recorded the phone call myself, what is my recourse for this? Unbeknownst to them I am fully prepared to pay it in full to have the CO removed but now that they have offered me a 50% settlement for the removal of the CO I would like to hold them to it.
I called FP back and explained to them what was going on with JCS and got no relief. I do not expect a $12 an hour agent to understand that JCS is acting as an agent of their company and they are liable for any deals they make. However, I would like to clean this up as quickly as possible.
Any advice would be helpful.
Regards,
Stacy
