Question on Charged off account with Acima

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone! I found these forums years ago and I have found so much useful information. A lot of great people here  

I'm wondering if anyone has had experience with Acima credit before? It's a company I used to buy a mattress with a no credit check. Long story short I made a mistake by trying to help a family member out and got screwed for the money. I couldn't make the monthly payments on time and now I have the account showing on my credit as a charge off for $757. They offered me to settle it for $150. 

I immediately asked if I paid the balance in full, if they would agree to remove it from my credit report. They said no. But the kid on the phone said "it would report as paid off with a $0" . He said the charge off status would be removed. Is that even a true thing? I have never heard of that before. 

since they won't agree to a pay for delete I'm thinking I should just pay the $150 settlement. 

if anyone could please give me some advice on this, I would greatly greatly appreciate it! I spoke with a credit repair specialist and he quoted me about $2,000 and I'm thinking at this point I should just use thst $2,000 instead to pay down / pay off debt. 

TIA!! 

[FireMedic1]

Welcome @Anonymous 

Stay away from credit repair companies. If they offered you that and then it would quit updating each month and show a $0. Be done with it. But on the other hand for future credit UW's looking at your reports. PIF looks better than settled for less. Main thing it wont count against your aggregate util % any longer. Good Luck on your decision.

[TheKid2]

COs hurt you in several ways - first off it's the worst of the derogatory status that isn't a collection, judgment, or BK and puts you into a "dirty" scorecard. If it's reporting CO every month, it's further suppressing your scores. AND if that's not enough, as firemedic points out, the past due balance is counting against your credit utilization (kind of like you have a maxxed out card).

If it's reporting monthly and it appears that it is - once you settle, it will stop reporting and the $0 balance will no longer be hurting your Util scores. These are great things for your scores.

In my experience with COs - unless it's very old, not reporting monthly, and/or about to fall off your credit report at the 7 year mark, you should settle or pay it.

[Anonymous]

I had an account with them for a small amount for a mattress also. Life and stuff happened and the account ended up getting charged off for $200. I contacted them same as you and they offered a settlement of $99 but said whether I paid in full or settled, they would not remove the account from the credit bureaus. I went ahead and settled. After my reports updated, I sent numerous goodwill letters asking for a removal but all to no avail. I just checked and It is still on my report showing settled for less than full balance and is also showing as a charge off. 

sorry I don't have a better answer but please let me know if you find a way to work around them.

Also, I completely agree with the statements above about credit repair. They only end up hurting in the long run. I didn't believe everyone saying this so I decided to try a credit repair company. Believe what they are saying! It's no good and you will be much more effective with just a little more effort on your part. I finally regained the 30 points I lost several months ago but it was devastating to my little world! Lol

[RobertEG]

The common credit reporting manual used by each of the big-3 CRAs, titled the "Credit REporting REsource Guide," permits the reporting of currrent status and of prior payment history status as either the days past billing due date (e.g., 30-late, 60-late, etc) OR, if the account has also been charged-off, as CO.

If you pay/settle the debt, then the current status thereafter is no longer one of delinquency, and thus the current status will no longer be reportable as CO.  It will show current status as Paid, or as Settled for less.

However, prior monthly payment history, as well as the statement of the amount of origiinal charge-off, will remain, and be scored as major derogs until the account reaches its exclusion period of no greater than 7 years plus 6 months froom DOFD.  See FCRA 605(c).

They are merely stating that current status will no longer be CO once paid or settled.

That does not remove the prior reporting of CO.

[Anonymous]

@TheKid2 Thank you for the response ! Very helpful information. I think I am just going to settle it since they will not agree to delete so it will just report as $0.

in your experience with charge off accounts do you think it's better to just settle for a lesser amount if the company refuses to do a pay for delete?

[TheKid2]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@TheKid2 Thank you for the response ! Very helpful information. I think I am just going to settle it since they will not agree to delete so it will just report as $0.

in your experience with charge off accounts do you think it's better to just settle for a lesser amount if the company refuses to do a pay for delete?

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My experience with COs, which is confirmed by many, many posts here, is that OCs will not delete accounts for payment. Collections are a different story. You won't get the original account deleted, so it is best to settle / pay at which time you could pursue a Good Will delete.

Settling for less, as apposed to PIF (pay in full), appears to be a remark based distinction. Meaning the algos that score you don't know the difference between settling for less or PIF - they just know that you no longer owe the debt. However, it is very easy to see on a manual review of your credit report because of the remark. So, it could matter in lending decisions where they actually review your report manually whether you PIF or settled for less.