Cbaker, I recently had the displeasure of dealing with PRA on two accounts. They sued me on both accounts, and were complete jerks when trying to negotiate. I had gone the whole route of requesting PFD, Goodwill, dispute, etc and ultimately did not want to go to court. Your debts are early, and you have some time to sit on them... with that being said, I was told on a few occasions that they would not settle below 55% (when I offered to settle at 50% or less). That ended up being the amount I quoted them on, and received pushback a few times. They kept stating "this has been reviewed by an attorney and a court date has been scheduled", and I kept telling them to call me back when they agreed to 55%. They also stated they would be willing to break up the settlement into payments, which I was against...
In the end, it took a lot of determination and insistance on my end (as well as some fretting about going to court), but both accounts were settled for 55% of the original balance. PRA is notorious for being aggressive and sometimes unethical.
On a side note, if you do decide to settle, make sure to get an email or letter ahead of time stating that they agree to report it as such to the credit agencies. PRA sent me emails on both occasions ahead of time and I even had them edit one so I felt more comfortable with it. Upon settling they tell you to wait 10 days, then you can call back to request they send you the physical letter that the account has been settled/paid. BELIEV ME- If you don't call, they won't do it. And it took me a few times of calling on one acocunt for them to "remember" to send the letter out and update my credit reports. Also, each time I called back to remind them to send the letter, they would claim I owed them the difference (what remained after the settlement), and I'd politely tell them the account was settled in full, then they'd "see the zero balance".
Good luck!
Kaytee
