WAYS TO REMOVE PAID COLLECTIONS

[DocDon]

Might as well start this sticky again.


If you haven't paid your collection account or accounts yet, negotiate with the collection agency in writing. State that you want to enter into a written agreement that they will delete the collection entry upon receipt of payment.

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If you have paid, and the item remains on your report, dispute the entry - "to be deleted upon payment per agreement" is a good start. There is a good chance that the collection agency has purged your record, and therefore will not be able to verify a dispute investigation from the credit bureau.

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For New York State Residents:

According to Equifax: Paid collections remain 5 years from the date of last activity. You must be a current resident of the State of New York for this to apply.

As a side note, satisfied judgments remain 5 years from the date filed. Again, you must be a current resident of the State of New York.

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Remember: The idea here is not to get out paying debts you are responsible for - it's to level the playing field for all parties involved - a standard business practice.

[c m chase]

Here's a link to the sample letter (by admin) for settling a debt. You can change it up to make it fit the 'pay for delete' situation. Should work just fine...just make sure you say in there you want them to 1) delete entries from all CRAs, including but not limited to Experian, Equifax and TransUnion and 2) assure that no re-insertions will be made.

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/form...eletter6.shtml

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Back on paid collections, etc.

I just want to tell people again....write or email the higher-ups!!! If you have a paid charge-off, sold charge-off, out of SOL negative account, out of SOL collection, paid collection, falsely reported tradeline (even if slightly false), take action.

If you don't have the names/emails of higher ups:

Do a google search for the company or go to their main web address if you have it. Click on 'investor relations' or 'corporate page' or 'company info'...something.

If you dig around enough, you'll find their coporate governance list, who's-who and who does what. Write down names and titles. You can normally find their corporate office address on the site. If not, do a google for it.

Most of these people will not have their emails listed. That doesn't stop you. Search around again and usually you'll see how their emails are set up...for instance, if you find a place that lets you order a brochure, it'll say something like 'send email to john.doe@somecompany.com'. Then you'll know they do their emails like name.name@somecompany.com. Start plugging in names that way.

If you can't find an email listing for ANYTHING, try all the versions until you stop getting returned 'address unknown' emails.

Some common ones are:
john.smith@xxx.com
jsmith@xxx.com
smithjohn@xxx.com
smithj@xxx.com
john_smith@xxx.com
johnsmith@xxx.com

Try it...one will work, I'm sure. USUALLY, the xxx is the website you're on....sometimes they change it up a little (like Midland Credit's is mcmcg.com)

I sent out all my emails last night....to about 30 people in 5 different companies. Have already gotten super nice emails saying they'll investigate.

And just another note: in my emails, I try to sound semi-nice. A lot of people say get hard with them and throw the book, but I find that quoting the law and showing that you KNOW it, but not being a witch gets me the best results. Plus, explain you've tried all you can to get this taken care of via customer service, but no one can/will help. (Unless it's a collection agency...you're allowed to be evil to them)

A little push in the right direction...some email formats I found:

Portfolio Recovery: jsmith@portfoliorecovery.com
Midland: john.smith@mcmcg.com
Providian: john_smith@providian.com
GECCC: john.smith@ge.com
Arrow: jsmith@arrow-financial.com

Ok. Done. Enjoy. :P

[chincheck]

Something I'd like to add that I haven't seen mentioned in this sticky. Methuss mentioned something in a reply to another one of my posts that got this thought going.

1) I send out a DV on a paid collection.
2) CA receives it but doesn't respond.
3) I PG my credit reports and look for the account to change to "disputed." CA doesn't change the status.
4) I dispute the account with the CRA's. CA verifies the account instead of changing the status to "disputed."

It would appear to me that the CA has just committed two FCRA violations in this scenario. It also looks like they breached California Civil Code.

Thoughts?

[Methuss]

Originally Posted by vrandon

Something I'd like to add that I haven't seen mentioned in this sticky. Methuss mentioned something in a reply to another one of my posts that got this thought going.

1) I send out a DV on a paid collection.
2) CA receives it but doesn't respond.
3) I PG my credit reports and look for the account to change to "disputed." CA doesn't change the status.
4) I dispute the account with the CRA's. CA verifies the account instead of changing the status to "disputed."

It would appear to me that the CA has just committed two FCRA violations in this scenario. It also looks like they breached California Civil Code.

Thoughts?

I'm not up on California Code, but your assessment seems correct to me on the Federal at face value. Add to that the FDCPA requirement to report it as disputed as well. I'm really not sure if the fact that it is paid makes a difference or not. The FDCPA certainly makes no distinction between paid and unpaid accounts when regulating a CA's behavior. .... .... .... Time to go case-law digging....

[chincheck]

Originally Posted by Methuss

I'm not up on California Code, but your assessment seems correct to me on the Federal at face value. Add to that the FDCPA requirement to report it as disputed as well. I'm really not sure if the fact that it is paid makes a difference or not. The FDCPA certainly makes no distinction between paid and unpaid accounts when regulating a CA's behavior. .... .... .... Time to go case-law digging....

California Civil Code has strong creditor and debt collector laws that more than make up for the lack of licensing and bonding requirements. The laws are basically a mirror of federal laws, but the liability is up to $5K for each violation. A CA screw up on one account to 3 CRA's could cost them $15K.

I've been looking for case law on this and so far I haven't found any. There also isn't a whole lot on any credit forums about paid collections other than dispute it and cross your fingers.

At any rate, I'm trying the approach above with a paid collection of mine. I'll keep ya posted.

[chincheck]

Originally Posted by Methuss

I'm really not sure if the fact that it is paid makes a difference or not. The FDCPA certainly makes no distinction between paid and unpaid accounts when regulating a CA's behavior.

Speculation: is there such thing as collection activity on a paid account? If the answer is no, then §809 doesn't apply.

BUT, the FCRA applies to furnishers of information. And that's what got me thinking: they're legally required to respond to a DV as long as the account is on a credit report. At minimum, they must report the status as disputed to CRA's.

[Methuss]

That fits. I guess I was thinking broadly on the FDCPA in that a CA can't use profanity, etc. even if they are not collecting. Several areas appear to apply to them even if you are dealing with them about a paid collection.

[Recovering Attorney]

Originally Posted by DocDon

Might as well start this sticky again.


If you haven't paid your collection account or accounts yet, negotiate with the collection agency in writing. State that you want to enter into a written agreement that they will delete the collection entry upon receipt of payment.

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For New York State Residents:


As a side note, satisfied judgments remain 5 years from the date filed. Again, you must be a current resident of the State of New York.

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I have always maintained that the statute requires the CRAs to remove satisfied judgments if you request them to, before the 5 yrs. That is, the statute is designed to make sure the CRAs who report public actions recheck the information at least every 5 years.

If there is someone who wants to be the test case, let me know!

[chincheck]

Here's how I recently removed a paid collection:

1) Sent a dispute letter to the CA. This is the same as a DV letter, except I replaced "debt validation" with "dispute" in the letter.

2) Disputed the TL with all 3 CRA's. Came back as verified.

3) Sent the CA an ITS letter outlining their FCRA violations (also violated CALI state law). Gave them 7 days to remove the TL's and pay me.

4. Checked my CR's and all TL's are gone!

I still need to file the lawsuit to get my money.