Update: Advice on tackling charged off Capital One accounts

[greenthumb2020]

Update at the backend of the thread: good news!

As I continue my clean-up efforts, I have three Cap 1 accounts that I have put off paying due to their balances compared to lesser charged off accounts I opted to take care of first. I also had their secured card that fell behind and was paid in full after it was closed, but not charged off. I was able get back on track with the final Cap 1 card which I have been using and paying on time for over a year. 

I have some funds that can be used to settle at least one account, but I'm looking for input on how Cap One will see this, given I have three accounts that remain with them (no collections accounts whatsoever) in addition to a single open account. 

All three were charged off in September 2019. Both EQ and EX show "CO" since then, but TU shows "NR" across the board for all three accounts. 

Charged off accounts:

Card 1: $11.4k

Card 2: $11.3k

Card 3: $11.6k

With all of that said, I have read several different experiences with attempting to settle with Capital One ranging from 25%-70% of the original balance, but I haven't read about anyone's experience dealing with multiple charged off accounts from the same creditor. I did receive another "let's work together" email in December after quite some time for one of the accounts, but the way it read led me to believe it was referring to payment plans to fully pay off that specific account.

Has anyone had this kind of experience before? Suggestions on how to best approach this? Insight on the apparent issue with the way TU is reporting payment history on these?

Thanks in advance! 

[Remedios]

Don't worry about how TU is reporting it, end result is same.

CO isn't a derog per se, that's just the current account status, your derog is the worst deliquency that precceds CO status. 

You should start working with them because Cap One is very litigation happy.

Those are large amounts, and I'm surprised they haven't pounced on them yet.  If they were to get a judgement, and they would since they are OC and have all necessary info, recouping judgement amount would be done via brute force such as wage garnishment and bank account levy. 

You might want to have a consultation with an attorney since you are dealing with $30,000+ owed to them.

You can always call them and see what they have to offer in terms of pay off amount and payment plans.

Whatever you decide to do, don't wait too long because they won't wait too long. 

[OmarGB9]

Definitely work something out ASAP, because as @Remedios mentioned above, they WILL sue you. As far as settling, that'll be tough to do at any discount being that they're the original creditor and the debt is only a couple of years old.

[Anonymous]

---

@greenthumb2020 wrote:

As I continue my clean-up efforts, I have three Cap 1 accounts that I have put off paying due to their balances compared to lesser charged off accounts I opted to take care of first. I also had their secured card that fell behind and was paid in full after it was closed, but not charged off. I was able get back on track with the final Cap 1 card which I have been using and paying on time for over a year. 

I have some funds that can be used to settle at least one account, but I'm looking for input on how Cap One will see this, given I have three accounts that remain with them (no collections accounts whatsoever) in addition to a single open account. 

All three were charged off in September 2019. Both EQ and EX show "CO" since then, but TU shows "NR" across the board for all three accounts. 

Charged off accounts:

Card 1: $11.4k

Card 2: $11.3k

Card 3: $11.6k

With all of that said, I have read several different experiences with attempting to settle with Capital One ranging from 25%-70% of the original balance, but I haven't read about anyone's experience dealing with multiple charged off accounts from the same creditor. I did receive another "let's work together" email in December after quite some time for one of the accounts, but the way it read led me to believe it was referring to payment plans to fully pay off that specific account.

Has anyone had this kind of experience before? Suggestions on how to best approach this? Insight on the apparent issue with the way TU is reporting payment history on these?

Thanks in advance! 

---

CO is a very severe status. You could have all your lates removed from those accounts and you would see no score change. Paying or settling these accounts should definitely help your scores, since they are so fresh and for such a large sum. It is right below BK in severity.

Cap One is very litigious, but I feel like you could work with them and possibly settle for less. They may let you work on one at a time as long as progress is made or they may want you to put payment towards all 3.

If you can make a lump sum payment, put your offer out there, shoot low, it cannot hurt to try! Just be prepared to pay more, haggle a bit more, and if you cannot afford a lump sum where they will no longer budge, then make a payment arrangement you can realistically stick with. I would only call them when you are ready to pay. I would not go fishing around for where they stand and end up poking the bear.

I have seen plenty of cases around here where multiple accounts are CO'd with the same lender. Process remains the same.

Good luck!

[greenthumb2020]

@Anonymous @OmarGB9 @Remedios 

Thank you all for your input! I'll be reaching out to Capital One in the very near future to see if we can come to some kind of agreement to start getting these knocked out.

[OmarGB9]

Good luck!

[W261w261]

You might want to look at my thread in this section:

"How much to offer Cap1 to settle a 2 1/2 year old Chargeoff?"

I'm right in the middle of the process, waiting for an email offering 65% payoff on about $6k of CO from 2+ years ago. Cap1 never has taken any action on this debt. I'm going to offer them less, still thinking about how much - maybe 45% with an explanation, then settle for half? 

[greenthumb2020]

@W261w261 

Certainly a timely post!

Thanks for referring me to it. Definitely glad to hear you've had a positive experience thus far. I've read a few threads where many agree that it isn't exactly clear how Capital One decides to send some accounts to collections (Portfolio is reportedly easy to work with) and keep some internal. All of mine have remained internal. I'm curious as to whether the member who posted about receiving a settlement for 20% went to Cap directly or if their account was placed with the CA.

I don't think you have anything to lose at this point knowing they agreed to 65%, as long as you respond within the 30 days they gave you. I'm going to subscribe to your post for updates! 

[Anonymous]

As others said, Cap One is VERY litigious. They tried to sue me over a small charge off of $1300! I would expect you would get sued in the near future - I saw action around the 2 year mark. Have you checked your state online court system to see if something has been filed?? In my case, I settled for 45%. It was pretty easy. Call, explain what you can pay, they counter. Took 15 minutes. You can pay it in one lump sum or split over 3 payments (possibly more, depending on the amount owed). They stopped updating to all 3 credit bureaus 30 days after the final payment (to ensure that you don't try to retract it). 

Do not ignore them. You do not want them to sue you for $30k and then get $15k in legal fees. And they will win. 

[greenthumb2020]

Hi all,

I wanted to be sure to swing back and provide an update in case it can help someone in the future.

Long story short, I gave Capital One a buzz and let them know I was calling about my charged off accounts and to see if we could resolve them, not knowing if they were still held internally or had been given to a CA. I had a very, very nice rep take my call, confirm the three accounts, and let me know he would check to see what could be done in terms of a settlement for the accounts (he was the first one to use the word "settlement"). I did hint at some massive financial hardships that led to getting to this point, but also mentioned my pristine payment history prior to the charge offs. He came back with amounts that worked out to 55% of each balance. I let him know I was hoping for something a bit less. I stressed that I had been saving up some money prior to calling in and had some cash to work with then and there, but wouldn't be able to swing those amounts. He said that the amounts he gave me were his "floor" but I could counter and worst case they would counter. I countered with $3500 (~30%) for each account. He put me on hold and went to work. When he returned, he let me know he had to go to a different supervisor for each account, "but it paid off as all three accepted my counteroffer." He said he very surprised as he didn't think they were going to accept that low of an offer (and neither did I).

I had a ton of flexibility in terms of the length of the payment terms (if you get to this point, you can absolutely stretch out the repayment timeline). I hinted that I wanted to get these accounts resolved ASAP, but wanted the flexibility for a lower amount if something came up. I paid some money up front ($1000 on each account) and will pay $100 per account each month following that. I'm hoping to knock these out in the next few months.

All in all, I was on the phone for just under an hour, had a really positive experience, three charged off accounts are being resolved (which make up a significant amount of money), and I'm not going to get sued!