paying back debt..

[bobdole369]

That amount - is not worth fighting IMHO. Esp if you have other credit accounts currently good. I would negotiate a pay for delete at 80%. Get it in writing. Are they currently reporting?

 

[NEWYORKJETS000]

so what should i do first? i know its not alot i owe but at the time i had to stop paying when i started college. but not that its in collections i have read that place has taken peoples money and said they still owed. thanks for all the advice

 

[bobdole369]

That college really paid off eh?

Learn how the collection agency works, then you might successfully attack it. Until then you are the prey and you get what you deserve. Pay your debt and it'll be a paid collection for another 7 years. Then next time you'll learn to pay your debt the first time right?

 

[kami333]

Creditors being fooled to giving irresponsible people more credit because they cannot correctly qualify a borrower should make everyone upset. It raises interest rates and fees for all of us.

So close the loophole. FW effect (advertise it and have lots of people abuse it) tends to work pretty efficiently.

I think it's "unfair" to leave a loophole open to be exploited by select people who know how, but prevent others from doing so because it isn't how it was supposed to be.

You assume that I have a problem with high interest rates. I don't. I think we've been living for too long in a fantasy due to interest rates being too low.

Might cause a housing bubble.:sneaky:

It did. Sort of, they probably weren't even looking at credit reports at the height so you didn't even need to hide anything.

I think the general ease at obtaining credit over the last 30years, both on the personal level and at the corporate/federal level has built us a house of cards that will eventually fall apart. Even if it doesn't, it has created a economy based on unrealistic expectations that is going to do nothing but make grow discontent.

 

[Vic Vega]

so what should i do first? i know its not alot i owe but at the time i had to stop paying when i started college. but not that its in collections i have read that place has taken peoples money and said they still owed. thanks for all the advice

Have you read ANY of the replies in this thread? :hmm:

 

[NEWYORKJETS000]

all the ones that say read the credit boards? yes i read al those replys

 

[Turin39789]

I've been on those boards, and know what happens. The bureaus only want them to remove collections that are a mistake. So the way the collection companies do that is the same way they do it if they can't prove you owe the money.

I am aware that collection companies will do this in order to get some form of payment, but that is not how it is supposed to be done.

I have heard there are plans to make it more difficult to remove accurate collections from your credit, I am just not sure how they can do this in practice since they rely on the debt company to report correctly.

meh, I've never gotten a pay to delete but I did look into them at one point. The law requires that the information reported to the CA's be accurate, but does not require that everything be reported. So every debt on the a report has to have happened, but not every debt has to go on a report.

 

[ponyo]

How old is the debt?

 

[Eli]

Hmm. Interesting thread. Thanks for the information.

 

[NEWYORKJETS000]

2008 i belive

 

[Theb]

You should pay it so the next guy to get your phone number doesn't get robocalls for years. Also if anyone knows Jesus Pena tell him to pay his fucking debts, I'm sick of the robocalls.

 

[lupi]

next time you should try and start a thread like this with even fewer details.

 

[AlienCraft]

After you read creditboards did you understand what the requirements to collect a debt are?
#1. Write them and ask them to produce the required docs as per the Fair Debt Collections act. Wait for response. BTW it goes without saying that all correspondence is via USPS certified. You need proof of RECEIPT, not simply delivery.
#2. If they produce the required documents that include copy of original agreement to pay with your signature, you will need to play nice. Since they bought your debt for pennies on the dollar, you CAN negotiate the amount but only if you're in a position to send a MONEY ORDER for the bill, but you really just want them to list the collection as Pays as Agreed. Never give your personal banking info to a third party collector. They can and have drained people's accounts.
3. If they DO NOT produce the docs you don't have to pay and the Fair Debt Collection Practices act says so. PLUS when you send a second demand for proof and the deadline passes, they cannot list it with credit reporting bureaus. If they do, you can sue in small claims court for the specified amount.(Varies by state).
Don't be in such a hurry to part with your money.
Rules are Rules.

That amount - is not worth fighting IMHO. Esp if you have other credit accounts currently good. I would negotiate a pay for delete at 80%. Get it in writing. Are they currently reporting?

This

 

[Lithium381]

So basically you are upset that people (aka the deadbeats) are exploiting a loophole even though it's legal?

since when has ethical = legal?

 

[NEWYORKJETS000]

thanks! i sent them all dispute letters in the past, and some got dropped of my report for not responding in the time period.. but this company is very very shady, they will forge signatures that you have sent them onto letters and say you signed it. google it, just curious how long will they keep my acct before they send it to another one?

 

[Dr. Zaus]

thanks! i sent them all dispute letters in the past, and some got dropped of my report for not responding in the time period.. but this company is very very shady, they will forge signatures that you have sent them onto letters and say you signed it. google it, just curious how long will they keep my acct before they send it to another one?

Are you slow? Because people with brain-damage on SS simply don't have to pay their debts.

Just so you know.

If you don't feel like negotiating because they will take your sig then request a written bill and send a money order.

and what does going to school have to do with not being able to come up with $300?!

 

[kami333]

since when has ethical = legal?

Never.

I also don't expect business dealings to be ethical, only legal.

Like I said before, I'm all about giving people legal options and letting them decide what to do based on their morals or ethics.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Never.

I also don't expect business dealings to be ethical, only legal.

Like I said before, I'm all about giving people legal options and letting them decide what to do based on their morals or ethics.

The most important thing I learned in my Ph.D. level course in business ethics is that the only thing that is unethical in business is not being profitable.

 

[Ghiddy]

To clarify, you don't morally owe "portfolio recovery" anything. You did owe your original creditor. The game has changed.

They purchased your debt from your original creditor. Your original creditor should have been paid by you, and that's your fault - but don't let THAT guilt transfer over to the next debt collector.

Portfolio Recovery has purchased information: your name, the name of who you owe, and a bunch of other stuff. Portfolio Recovery wants to get money out of you, and they don't care how.

There is a huge difference between paying off your original creditor - the person you actually owed the money to - and paying a third party debt collector. PLEASE go to creditboards or someplace like that to learn how it works.

Good luck.

Not being argumentative, just really curious as I've never heard it described this way before. Don't the debt collectors purchase the debt from the original owner? Aren't they then the legal owners of the debt? As far as I know you no longer owe the original debt owner money, but you do owe the collection agency.

If what you say is true then why would anyone ever pay a collection agency?

 

[Engineer]

Don't know about your situation but I know that the company name and they are pure pricks. They targeted me for a debt that wasn't mine a few years ago and, after multiple attempts to get them to either remove me as the debtor or prove to me that the debt was mine, I finally turned them over to the KY Attorney General office. They quickly apologized and have not bothered me since.

Good luck OP.

 

[Ghiddy]

No offense OCGuy, but you've been saying that for a couple of years now and it just doesn't match up to my experience (not for me but from helping other people, I used to volunteer at a non-profit credit counseling agency) and what I read on creditboards/debtorboards.

Here's a good example:
http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=461377
http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=453957

Will all CAs do it? No, and even at the same company it can depend on who you talk to and what kind of mood they are in. But you never know until you try. They are under no obligation to offer a pay for delete but many do since it's an incentive to pay. The CRAs have an obligation to report truthfully what is reported to them by the creditors as long as it is valid, nothing more nothing less.

At the end of the day, it's just business. I take the position of free agency, people should have all the information to make their own choice even if I disagree with them.

I didn't know you could have them remove stuff from your credit report. There was a debt I paid late about a year ago, after it went to a collection agency. It kind of ticked me off that it was going to be on my credit report for 7 years even though I paid it like a month after it went to collections.

I called them today and asked them fi they could have it removed from my credit report since I paid them so fast, and paid the full amount with interest (it was over $800). The woman said normally they wouldn't do it but was pretty nice and offered to have it removed because I paid the full amount and with interest and the amount was pretty sizeable. I asked for written confirmation which she said they automatically send. She said they'd send the request for removal to the credit reporting agencies on Monday (I called pretty late on a Friday).

So that should remove the only negative mark on my credit. Well there is another, from a utility bill I closed almost 7 years ago but never paid the balance on till 2009. But the credit report says that negative item will be removed in 2012. this contradicts the commonly stated advice that paying will restart the clock for an old debt. this one was never transfere to a collection agncy, the utility co. kept it for 5 years and i paid them directly. is that why the clock wont reset?

 

[yh125d]

Yeah, in regards to the 7 years getting reset when you pay off a collection, I've seen that nowhere but ATOT. Could anyone show where that is actually the case?


I'll be paying off the last $1500 of my collection on monday, gonna try to see what I can do about talking them into a removal. Might have a chance, I set up automatic payments immediately after learning about the collection, have paid monthly without interruption the full amount ($5k), and didn't try to dispute or anything (I know, but I was a dumb 18 year old and didn't go through the proper process, but its too late to change any of that other than ask for a removal)

Heres to hoping I get lucky and get it off. My credit is totally flawless except for this

 

[bobdole369]

yh - its true. Lurk a little bit at creditboards or creditinfocenter or infinitecredit. The date of the reporting period is the date of last activity, generally the last payment. By paying the debt you reset the date of last activity. Even if its a collection and the original acount was closed. You are now the holder of a new 7 year (plus 6months) paid collection account with a DOLA of now.

You really shouldn't have paid them anything without negotiating a pay for delete in writing, but you are one of the few people who actually think paying your bills will help you. Unfortunately the industry knows that it won't and nobody told you. Gratz on paying your bills btw.

 

[yh125d]

yh - its true. Lurk a little bit at creditboards or creditinfocenter or infinitecredit. The date of the reporting period is the date of last activity, generally the last payment. By paying the debt you reset the date of last activity. Even if its a collection and the original acount was closed. You are now the holder of a new 7 year (plus 6months) paid collection account with a DOLA of now.

You really shouldn't have paid them anything without negotiating a pay for delete in writing, but you are one of the few people who actually think paying your bills will help you. Unfortunately the industry knows that it won't and nobody told you. Gratz on paying your bills btw.

But it doesn't match any of the info I've collected, my transunion report shows the estimated date of removal in 2015, exactly 7yrs from 1st delinquency, or 6yrs 4 mos. from the issuance of the collection.

The report also states that "Adverse account information (my collection in this case) may generally be reported for 7 years from the date of the first delinquency, depending on your state of residence"


My equifax report shows date of 1st delinquency and date of collection assignment, nothing about DOLA


I've seen over and over in other places, be it articles, forums, etc. people saying that the DOLA is misunderstood to be from the last payment date and that it actually IS from the date of delinquency



edit sans edit:

Actually I just found this, sure seems to me that it is by the FCRA, the 7 years starts at the date of first delinquency
http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra/johnson.shtm

Section 623(a)(5) requires a creditor that reports a chargeoff to a CRA to notify the agency (within 90 days of reporting the account) of "the month and year of the commencement of the delinquency that immediately preceded" the chargeoff. Section 605(a)(4) provides that the credit bureau may report the chargeoff for seven years. Section 605(c)(1) provides that seven year period begins 180 days from that date. In the scenario your reported, it is our view that the delinquency that led to the charge-off "commenced" in January 1997, the month the first payment was missed. Thus, that is the month and year that the creditor must report to the CRA, and that the CRA must use to calculate the time period dictated by Section 605.

 

[nanette1985]

Not being argumentative, just really curious as I've never heard it described this way before. Don't the debt collectors purchase the debt from the original owner? Aren't they then the legal owners of the debt? As far as I know you no longer owe the original debt owner money, but you do owe the collection agency.

If what you say is true then why would anyone ever pay a collection agency?

Debt collection is a business. There are good, honest, ethical debt collectors who follow the rules/laws - but Portfolio Recovery isn't one of them. They are a scam operation. I was referring to them specifically, but they're aren't the only scam artists out there.

Yes you still owe the debt. But when you get into the realm of an outfit like Portfolio, it's not about your debt any more - they're just trying to get as much money out of you as they can, by whatever means. They're trusting that you feel guilty or morally obligated to give them money, and they're also trusting that you don't know the laws regarding debt collection. And they're taking advantage of that.

People pay collection agencies because people are generally honest, moral, well-intentioned and also because people find it useful to have a good credit score. Decent collection agencies work with people who owe money and it's a good outcome on both sides. Sadly, there are way too many non-decent collection agencies.