Hey all...I needs another set or two of eyes on a issue that has come up. I have a charge off for Synchrony/Amazon reporting on all three bureaus. DOFD is 4/13. The debt had been sold to Midland Credit who also reported this debt to all bureaus until about a year ago when it mysteriously disappeared from my report, leaving only the original creditor reporting. I have been biding my time, and waiting for the appropriate time frame to request EE from the bureaus and/or it to fall off organically.
Two days ago, I recieved a snail mail notice from Midland regarding this account, offering a settlement. Original debt was 937, they are offering to settle for 567. I am preparing to apply for a mortgage in April of 2020 and I do not want this to bite me in the rear, so I am wondering if the gurus here see any down side to paying this. Yes, it is my debt. As much as I don't want to part with the money, I can make the payment. I just don't want to open a can of worms, nor to I want this to rise from the dead as soon as I apply for a mortgage. Thoughts?
@Anonymous wrote:
I see two reasons besides your upcoming mortgage that say you should pay it. One, Midland is known to sue and you don’t want that happening. Two, they’ll do auto-PFD if the account is more than two years old, which yours is.
I’d pay it and have it gone. Keep your proof of payment since, in case the OC is reporting, you can show your mortgage underwriter that the bill is actually already paid off and isn’t an issue to have to be handled as a condition of funding your mortgage.
Thanks! I'm was on my work computer, ready to pull the trigger and pay..then got cold feet and thought to reach out to the group. I will hit them up now and get this knocked out.
@Anonymous wrote:
Good plan. I would say an option would be to wait a month or two on your mortgage for the entries to just fall off organically, but there’s no guarantee that they wouldn’t sue you before that happened (I don’t know the SOL in your state). I had a collection with them in early 2018 though. I paid it and it was gone about 39 days later, no trace. I paid in full, not knowing any better, but they will PFD on a settled lower amount too. If your SOL is expired, you could even counteroffer a lower amount and see if they’d take it.
With a mortgage coming up, it’s better to play it safe - pay it, get it gone, and be done with it.
The correspondence said because of the age of the debt, they could not sue me...I was concerned it would reappear on my credit report as a collection from them, or they would sell it to another purchaser and they would report. As it is, the charge off from the OC can be EE'd 11/19 for TU, 1/20 for EX and I won't touch Equifax and will let if fall off on its own, hopefully 3/20. The mortgage app will be in Apr or May, so all should be hunky and dory by then. Anywho, pulled the trigger and Midland is paid! Thanks for your input.