Three collections accounts.. Advice needed

[Anonymous]

I am interested in buying a new home within the next year. I contacted a mortgage loan office and they told me that I would be approved for an FHA insured mortgage but I would have to do the following thing: pay off the three accounts that are currently in collections.

Discover @ ~11500 Amex @ ~3500 HSBC @ ~5000 I stopped making payments in January/February of 2005. Originally the balances were less, but I suppose they tacked on the interest and late fees for many months then sold them to collections.

They were calling/contacting me pretty much every day for the first 6 months or so, and then they just stopped calling.

Northrup Group owns the HSBC debt, but I am unable to find the owners of the Discover and Amex debt. The accounts just show the balance and that it was sent to collections.

1. How do I find out who owns the debt for those two accounts? Do I contact Discover and Amex?

2. Next month, I will have roughly 6000 dollars that I can apply to this debt. After that I will only have 400-500 a month for debt payment. I have had offers, from Northrup Group, to settle the account for less than I own. How likely am I to talk them down further than these amounts?

3. Once I find out who owns my debt from the first two accounts, how should I approach this? Should I give them a call, verify the debt, and work out some kind of payment method? Or should I handle all correspondence through the mail?

 Will my contacting them make them believe that they are now free to harass me as the did a couple of years ago? I don't believe I want to go through that again.

How likely am I to send them letters offering to settle the accounts with them for roughly half of what I owe them and have them report it as paid?

Thanks. I will appreciate any help.

Edited to insert paragraphs so that it is easier to read. -sidewinder

Message Edited by sidewinder on 07-07-2008 01:55 PM

[Anonymous]

Checked a fairly new credit report I pulled a few months ago. Their information is different from the one I got through a reseller.

Amex and Discover both seemed to be the holders of the debt, as if it wasn't sold. I got the following information from the account alerts on the credit mointoring I used to have:

ALERT RECEIVED ON 04/24/2008
ACCOUNT: AMERICAN EXPRESS
P.O. BOX 981537
EL PASO , TX 79998
ACCOUNT TYPE: REVOLVING ACCOUNT
ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
INDUSTRY: CREDIT CARDS
BALANCE: N/A
CURRENT MANNER OF PAYMENT: CHARGED OFF AS BAD DEBT
CURRENT AMOUNT PAST DUE: $2190.00
REMARKS: ACCOUNT CLOSED BY CREDIT GRANTOR



ALERT RECEIVED ON 05/15/2008
ACCOUNT: DISCOVER FINANCIAL SERVI
POB 15316
WILMINGTON , DE 19850
ACCOUNT TYPE: REVOLVING ACCOUNT
ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
INDUSTRY: CREDIT CARDS
BALANCE: N/A
CURRENT MANNER OF PAYMENT: CHARGED OFF AS BAD DEBT
CURRENT AMOUNT PAST DUE: $5906.00
REMARKS: PROFIT AND LOSS WRITEOFF




Do these two alerts on my account mean that Amex and Discover still own the debt? What are my steps to paying these off, or possibly negotiating a paid for a lesser amount?


Thanks in advance and sorry about the original post, I didnt check the box to convert carriages to line break...

[Anonymous]

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dgatewood wrote:

I am interested in buying a new home within the next year. I contacted a mortgage loan office and they told me that I would be approved for an FHA insured mortgage but I would have to do the following thing: pay off the three accounts that are currently in collections.

Discover @ ~11500 Amex @ ~3500 HSBC @ ~5000 I stopped making payments in January/February of 2005. Originally the balances were less, but I suppose they tacked on the interest and late fees for many months then sold them to collections.

They were calling/contacting me pretty much every day for the first 6 months or so, and then they just stopped calling.

Northrup Group owns the HSBC debt, but I am unable to find the owners of the Discover and Amex debt. The accounts just show the balance and that it was sent to collections.

1. How do I find out who owns the debt for those two accounts? Do I contact Discover and Amex?

If Amex and Discover are reporting a balance, I'd bet they still own. Once they sell, they are to report a $0 balance. A friend had a Discover go bad, they never did sell. SOL runs out in Oct, they filed suit this month. But, yes you can call to make certain.

2. Next month, I will have roughly 6000 dollars that I can apply to this debt. After that I will only have 400-500 a month for debt payment. I have had offers, from Northrup Group, to settle the account for less than I own. How likely am I to talk them down further than these amounts?

What is SOL in your state? You can find SOL here-

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20040116b2.asp

Once SOL has passed, the greater chance for settling for even less and the greater the chance at a PFD.

3. Once I find out who owns my debt from the first two accounts, how should I approach this? Should I give them a call, verify the debt, and work out some kind of payment method? Or should I handle all correspondence through the mail?

Depends on what your SOL is and if you are in/out of SOL.

 Will my contacting them make them believe that they are now free to harass me as the did a couple of years ago? I don't believe I want to go through that again.

How likely am I to send them letters offering to settle the accounts with them for roughly half of what I owe them and have them report it as paid?

Depends on SOL.

Thanks. I will appreciate any help.

Edited to insert paragraphs so that it is easier to read. -sidewinder

Message Edited by sidewinder on 07-07-2008 01:55 PM

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[Anonymous]

I live in Texas so my SOL is 4 years. So, SOL really wont really hit until next year at some point. So, if SOL has not passed yet, why are they only reporting a partial amount owed when doing alerts instead of the full amount that is being reported to me when I look at derogatory/negative accounts?