@SMB85 wrote:
Has anyone dealt with their in house collections? Dealing with a 3+ year old CO and trying to settle the balance out. They claim to use an automated system to take the negotiations out of settlement amounts. Apparently the rule is you give them a number and they enter it into this system. The system can either accept, reject, or counter with an amount.
Of course it came back with a super high counter on the first go. You can either take their offer or call back later and try again.
Has anyone heard of this? Do I need to keep trying for X number of calls until I get a reasonable amount? When the account was with an outside agency they were sending offers for 55-60% discounts.
I've helped settle an account for my husband, but not via USAA's internal system. I have no idea what system they're referring to, but that just sounds like you need to settle through a supervisor or send letters as someone else has stated. We settled via Radius Global Solutions. They were pleasant but I think the best they could really do for a $15k+ CO for us was a bit less than us paying 50%, which isn't terrible considering it's only been about 3 years or so. RGS did not own the debt, however, so the CA was only collecting on USAA's behalf. Since USAA doesn't sell their debts, I would imagine no matter who you go through, 50ish % is the best they'll offer unless your debt is nearing the 7 years 180 months where you have a little more leverage. Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but good luck!
