Pay OC or CA

[lauramg80]

I have two chargeoffs- for Salute and Tribute cards. Midland is sending me offers to pay in full or set up payment plans. My question is... if I pay though Midland (if the OC won't work with me) will the balance on the original tradeline be updated to $0? Utilization is a huge problem on my report and I would like $0 balances.

Thanks

[Shellemilyrose]

My personal preference is to always work with OC, but if OC has gone out of business/is no longer operating/or will refuse to let you pay them directly, then go ahead and pay the CA.  My husband has a debt to AT&T residential for $180 something but he had already made at least one payment directly to AT&T.  But NCO financial kept insisting he pay them, and only them, but they refused to send an invoice letter, all they did was Tele-spam us.  So finally we called AT&T directly and they gave us the address where we could mail a payment directly to them and the lady also told me that she would have it pulled back from the CA.  So my husband mailed his payment and few days later, NCO called again demanding payment and he told NCO what the AT&T rep said and he got mad and said that didn't count, blah, blah, blah.  B.S.

Try to find out if your OC is still operating and if they will allow you to mail/make a payment directly to them.  If they refuse to give you their mailing address, then and only then do you agree to deal with the CA.

[guiness56]

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@lauramg80 wrote:

I have two chargeoffs- for Salute and Tribute cards. Midland is sending me offers to pay in full or set up payment plans. My question is... if I pay though Midland (if the OC won't work with me) will the balance on the original tradeline be updated to $0? Utilization is a huge problem on my report and I would like $0 balances.

Thanks

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If the OC is still reporting a balance that would indicate they still own the debt.  Call them and see if they will take payment from you.  Sometimes, even if they own the debt, they still require you to pay the CA.

If that happens, and you pay the CA, yes, the OC must update to 0.  That being said, it is the CA who would need to tell them.

[lauramg80]

Thank you!