collection vs judgement

[Anonymous]

Maybe this is a better place to get an answer

I have a collection I am fighting

Actually I've offered to pay now that the bill has been correctly cut in half by the OC (I have it in writing that they acknowledge they were in error billing me for $660 when it should have been $350)

the CA won't delete the collection from the CRAs even if I pay the entire amount the OC says I owe

looks like we're heading to court and I'm assuming the CA will drop the amount to $350

I need to get them to delete the CA for $660 and allow me to pay the $350

if I lose a judgement is this an additional or worse baddie than the original collection action it is based on?

I guess I'm trying to figure out how much I have to lose by seeing this out in court

my score dropped from up around 800 to 686/686/681 with this one baddie, and I have fairly high balances on my CC's which I have dropped to under 1% on one card only so maybe that'll push me over 700?

but if I lose a judgement on that collection action will my score drop further??

one other thing I just learned, my job will pay $1800 of legal expenses to fight this $350 collection in court

man this is crazy!!!!!

[MattH]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Maybe this is a better place to get an answer

I have a collection I am fighting

Actually I've offered to pay now that the bill has been correctly cut in half by the OC (I have it in writing that they acknowledge they were in error billing me for $660 when it should have been $350)

the CA won't delete the collection from the CRAs even if I pay the entire amount the OC says I owe

looks like we're heading to court and I'm assuming the CA will drop the amount to $350

I need to get them to delete the CA for $660 and allow me to pay the $350

if I lose a judgement is this an additional or worse baddie than the original collection action it is based on?

I guess I'm trying to figure out how much I have to lose by seeing this out in court

my score dropped from up around 800 to 686/686/681 with this one baddie, and I have fairly high balances on my CC's which I have dropped to under 1% on one card only so maybe that'll push me over 700?

but if I lose a judgement on that collection action will my score drop further??

one other thing I just learned, my job will pay $1800 of legal expenses to fight this $350 collection in court

man this is crazy!!!!!

---

At all costs reach an out-of-court settlement, if the case is decided by a Judge there will be a Public Record of a Judgement and the existence of a Judgement will have a severe effect on your FICO score for years to come even if you pay the judgement.  So you must avoid there ever being a judgement which means either settling before it comes to trial or winning an utter and total victory in Court that you do not owe a cent.  Even if the Court rules that you only have to pay a small fraction of what they demanded and pay up once the Court has issued its ruling, the mere fact of having been ordered to pay by a court is a very severe FICO score hit, possibly as much as 100 points.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Matt!!

I guess I understand but I sort of still don't

Will that "judgement hit" be on top of the "collection action" hit this is already causing?

That hit has been around 100 points......

I'm going to see my attorney tommorow

I don't have an issue with paying what they NOW say I owe (although it's still disputable)

But they're refusing to delete the collection action and I'm hoping using an attorney talking to THEIR attorney might be more productive than me talking to the guy who processes the paperwork to send CA's to small claims court.....

[MattH]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks Matt!!

I guess I understand but I sort of still don't

Will that "judgement hit" be on top of the "collection action" hit this is already causing?

That hit has been around 100 points......

I'm going to see my attorney tommorow

I don't have an issue with paying what they NOW say I owe (although it's still disputable)

But they're refusing to delete the collection action and I'm hoping using an attorney talking to THEIR attorney might be more productive than me talking to the guy who processes the paperwork to send CA's to small claims court.....

---

Yes, the hit from a judgement will be in addition to the hit from a collection.  However, if the collection has already cost 100 points then the judgement may not cost as many points as would a judgement on a profile without a collection.

Warning: not all attorneys understand FICO scoring, so make sure yours fully realizes the importance to you of preventing a public record, because once a PR is on your history its removal will be much more difficult than simply removing the collection item.  Collections are reported by the collection agency directly to the CRAs, but a judgement is not directly reported by anybody, it appears when the CRA sees it appear on the Court's public records.

[Anonymous]

I had a judgment removed.  I settled with the OC.  After that the OC submitted a Satisfaction/Release of Judgment to the Courts.  Once that was submitted, I put in a motion to vacate the judgment.  The judge approved it.  I disputed it with the CRA and it was removed.  I know the process sounds long and tedious but it really wasn't.  I didn't have a lawyer, the forms were really simple to complete.  I live in IL, so the laws in your state may be different to get a judgment removed.

[Anonymous]

Thank you!!

I hope it doesn't come to that

But if it does it's good to know that there is still a way to fight to perserve 30+ years of paying every single bill on time.......against people who are using the collection and credit reporting system to try to get consumers to pay money they do not owe

I will put your information away to fight another day if I need to

24+ years in the army........ this predicatment is really a walk in the park compared to some of the situations I found myself in

there's something good coming out of this I know it

and I genuinely thank the people here who are making it possible