I currently have 5 accounts that need to be paid off. Three of those are still updating each month while the other two are charged off and not updating. Two of them are with the same company (American First Finance) and I have no choice but to settle them to get them to stop reporting.
These two accounts are only reporting on TU but I think they are really depressing more score. I’m so close to 680 I can taste it so I really want to get these two accounts handled. I realize PIF looks better on manual underwriting, but I just don’t think I can swing it.
I’ve never negotiated settling an account like this and I’m not sure where to start. The amounts are $692 and $1295. I was thinking of starting at 30% but realistically can’t go over about 45%. Does anyone have any hints for the best way to go about this process?
Thanks for any help you guys can provide!
If these are still within the SOL then they are not likely to accept less than 75% and I would be leery to contact them if you cannot pay it since they can still use the courts to get a judgment. Past SOL things look a lot better. You can start at 30% and work from there.
I'm in CA so SOL is 4 years. DoFD on these is 10/2016 and 11/2016 respectively so I have two years to go. I'm going to have to wait a few more months and save a bit more before I can take action on them. I don't want them actively reporting for two more years while I look over my shoulder. Hopefully I can pay them off by February.
Thanks for the reality check!
