Hey everyone,
So before I went through through both applying and getting accepted for a credit card as well as figuring out how to play utilization, I decided to actually take a deeper look into my credit reports - I signed up for here and Credit Karma, and Credit Karma as you may know gives a TU score/report (mine was 638) and showed no baddies/collections/only on time payments and the short credit history I had. With that, I applied and got accepted to my forthcoming Chase Freedom card and thought "Great! Maybe just viewing reports for now should be enough."
However, I did the annualcreditreport.com thing and got all three of my credit reports from the bureaus - my Transunion and Equifax reports were fine and showed no deragatory marks, and then I got to my Experian report. My Experian report showed an item in collections, for $241 which was last reported in January 2013 and opened in October 2012. The item was published by a collections agency here in Hawaii, and was orginially created by Oceanic Time Warner Cable for an unpaid Internet bill.
Now, I'm not exactly going to argue this wasn't my fault - the debt came from when I was a college student a few years ago, was moving out from my apartment to go back home and didn't have time to return gear and then I was very foolish to refuse the calls coming in and let that go to collections. However, I am a responsible, working adult now with a viable income and I wouldn't mind just paying this off to make it go away.
Yet, as some people have said on the Internet, calling a collections agency to pay something off is one of the worst things you can do, as they can reopen the case and your score goes down and you're at their mercy. People have suggested writing a letter asking for the collections agency to agree to deleting the account in exchange for a settlement payment or paid in full. I forgot the exact acronym for it, but About.com had a sample of a letter to use that I thought looked pretty spot on (as always, feel free to suggest).
So, I turn to this excellent forum once again as I have for my other two solved questions - how exactly should I go about getting this item off of my Experian report? Should I really write a letter offering to pay them in full in exchange for getting the item off of my report? I read that the process after that is getting your credit report in 30 days to make sure it's off, and that credit report bureaus will automatically take it off if the collection agencies don't respond to an inquiry from an individual? Or should I do the opposite and just call to remove it as suggested against?
$241 is a bit sizable, but really nothing when it comes to trying to take a serious hold on my credit score. I hear Experian is important the higher you go with credit cards (I want an American Express card in the future), and I do want to get this off. I also want to get rid of this before I start my garden journey - I do have my credit card coming but want to make sure everything is fine.
Thanks!
@RobertEG wrote:If the debt is legit, there is no basis for deltion of their reporting of the collection other than obtaining their voluntary agreement to do so, such as accepting payment in exchange for deletion (PFD).
That requires contact with them,and making the PFD offer.
There i always potential peril in making a PFD offer if the SOL has not expired on the debt.
In review of your request, they will pull your file, and may decide to bring legal action,thus securing a judgment ordering payment of the debt, with no need for any concessions on their part.
However, that is not as serious as it may sound, as you can always simply pay the debt prior to trial, and thus resolve the issue without a judgment.
I would make the PFD offer, and see if they bite, providing you have the funds and are willing to pay should they take the legal route.
Hmm, that's one way to do it, I suppose. A bit intimidating but it just might have to do...what do you/other posters think about calling Time Warner itself instead of the collection agency to pay the bill? Someone at FatWallet detailed it here and stated that they got good results after doing so.
I know I need to be very careful, regardless.
@titanofold wrote:
Also, I've tried that letter you linked to, that didn't work for me.
What did work is an original letter by me with only two elements borrowed from others: I'm not acknowledging this debt as mine and I'm willing to PIF for this to be deleted from my reports.
And I just sent it standard post. Not CMRR.
I was about to ask about that, actually. Writing to acknowledge this debt as mine would probably put me at the mercy of the CAs grip. I think I might draft something rather soon using those two elements...anything else notable you did with your letter? That's seriously a big help already.
@titanofold wrote:
@mrjohnsonsgoals2 wrote:
@titanofold wrote:
Also, I've tried that letter you linked to, that didn't work for me.
What did work is an original letter by me with only two elements borrowed from others: I'm not acknowledging this debt as mine and I'm willing to PIF for this to be deleted from my reports.
And I just sent it standard post. Not CMRR.
I was about to ask about that, actually. Writing to acknowledge this debt as mine would probably put me at the mercy of the CAs grip. I think I might draft something rather soon using those two elements...anything else notable you did with your letter? That's seriously a big help already.
Nothing terribly notable. I kept it to 3 or 4 paragrpahs. It fit on 1 sheet of paper including the header. Some have had success with just one sentence. I included why things went wrong, and how this will prevent me from purchasing a home anytime soon.
I guess I'll get to writing, thank you very much. Any other thoughts on looking into contacting the original creditor (in this case, Time Warner)? One of the sticky threads explains that but my Experian report shows the name of the CA and the Original Creditor. Says the credit limit/original amount is $241.
FWIW, I did some digging - Every BBB complaint with the company has been solved one way or another and people say they've gotten some things deleted, and a forum thread in 2006 said that a PFD didn't work.
Should I go through writing my letter or calling them? I know calling a CA is the last thing you want to do but that seems to be the way that people have dealt with them.
