elsieb Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 have a Bank One charge off account with a balance of $500. Contacted bank one who indicated that the account was sold to a collection agency. I have been viewing my credit report and to date, no collection appears. Bank One said that if I send them a check, they will forward the check to the CA since it is in their hands now. If the check is payable to Bank One, can a collection still appear on my credit report even though I made no deals with anyone else except Bank One? What type of letter can I send to Bank One to protect myself further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gprncss Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 Let them send it to you in writing, this agreement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elsieb Posted October 14, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 Banc one is not going to send any agreement as it was sold to collection. I want to know how to pay remaining before i'm contacted by collection. If i wait, then collection will appear and i have to pay anyway. My question was, if i pay the balance directly to bank one can a collection appear on my report even though I did not make check out to them. Any ideas on what to say in a letter attached with check. I want to avoid having the balance sold, resold to collections as this could drag on for years if i ignore this remaining balance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gprncss Posted October 18, 2004 Report Share Posted October 18, 2004 If that is the case, then be sure to state in the letter as a reminder what was said/agreed over the phone.Keep in mind, the charge-off from Bank-One is not going to disappear, it will stay on your CR for 7 years from the DOLA (unless you are able to dispute it with the CRAs and win).Has SOL passed on this account? If it has, then legally, no company can collect this debt.Do you have an address to this CA? Follow-up to make sure payment was recieved and credited, don't depend on Bank-one to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elsieb Posted October 18, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2004 So far, the responses I've received do not answer my questions. Let me clarify a few things. I dont have any agreement with Banc One or the Collection Agency. I happen to call Banc One b/c they updated my credit report and it shows the balance. Banc One told me my account was sold to a collection agency. I told them I will send in the balance. Banc One said if I send them a check, they will forward my check to the CA. My main question is, can the CA then put a paid collection on my credit report since they now own the account? Is it legal for them to do so even though I made the check "payable" to banc one? again, my main goal is to pay the balance, but by paying banc one directly, I'm trying to avoid additional derogatory statements being added to my credit report from collection agency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breathing_easier Posted October 18, 2004 Report Share Posted October 18, 2004 elsieb: Unless BankOne can convince the CA to sell the account back to them, it is of no use to be talking to Bank One about payment. However, if BankOne sold the account, then their TL must reflect a $0 balance. The CA may or may not ever report to the CRAs. It is legitimate for both the OC and the CA to report the account to the CRAs as long as the OC's TL reports a $0 balance. If you pay now, BankOne's TL isn't going to go away, although they must update it to reflect a $0 balance. If the CA hasn't yet reported, then there is a good chance they never will (how recently did BankOne sell the debt?). You can always contact the CA and try to strike a deal that if you pay the remaining $500 that they will agree to never report the TL to any of the CRAs. Of course, you would need to get this in writing by someone at the CA with the authority to make such an agreement. Beware though, for if you contact the CA and they don't want you to agree to your terms, you may have simply succeeded in waking a sleeping dog and they may begin to hound you for payment. If it were me, since the OC chose to give up on the account and sell it, I would wait for the CA (which paid pennies on the dollar for the debt) to contact me before I tried to strike up a deal with them. Let some time pass and then send the OC a goodwill letter asking if they will delete their TL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elsieb Posted October 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2004 the CA contacted me in Sept '04 and when i told her I was not willing to strike a deal, I have not heard back since. Banc one will just continue to sell the debt to CA until the balance is paid in full right? I paid the first CA thinking it would go away, but the balance was sold to the 2nd CA. If I strike a deal that results in less than the $500 I owe, they'll sell that to another CA correct? and then I will have to deal with another CA. My main question is, if I make the check payable to Banc One for the full balance, regardless of what Banc one does with the check, can the CA place a collection on my report? would this be legal? even though I didnt make the check out to the CA. I just want to be done with this issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willingtocope Posted October 26, 2004 Report Share Posted October 26, 2004 elsieb: I think you're kinda stuck in a time-warp here. Do I understand that you've already settled with one CA for less than the full amount and paid them...then they've sold balance to someone else. Basically, what's happened is they've found themselves a source of money, and they'll keep milking it until you fight back.If that's the case, then the only way you'll get this settled is to either fight the second CA in court for being unable to validate the debt...or, get them to sign a letter BEFORE YOU SEND ANY MONEY stating that this settles the debt in full and neither they nor any other agent of theirs will ever bother you again. (You'll need to research letters at the top for the exact wording).And...Bank One WILL NOT HELP YOU at this point. If you send them the check made out to them, they may forward it to the current CA...but since they no longer own the debt, the can't make any committments as to whether its paid or not...and without written proof from the current CA, there's no gurantee it will be applied to your balance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breathing_easier Posted October 26, 2004 Report Share Posted October 26, 2004 the CA contacted me in Sept '04 and when i told her I was not willing to strike a deal, I have not heard back since. Banc one will just continue to sell the debt to CA until the balance is paid in full right?If Banc One (or BankOne -- didn't they change the spelling?) sold the account to the first CA then they are out of the picture. The first CA may have sold the balance of the account to another CA. Did you ever receive a letter from the first CA which stated that your payment constituted "settlement in full?" If so, then that will be your defense if another CA tries to collect on the balance.I paid the first CA thinking it would go away, but the balance was sold to the 2nd CA. If I strike a deal that results in less than the $500 I owe, they'll sell that to another CA correct? and then I will have to deal with another CA.If you never received anything in writing that said "settled in full" or "paid in full for less than the full balance" then the first CA may try to sell to a second CA. I'm not certain how likely a second CA would be to purchase a debt for such a small amount, though. Doesn't seem as if it would be worth their while. Others here may have had experience with that. Even if the debt was sold to a second CA, you have a pretty strong defense if it should go to court that you did pay the first CA. My bet would be that any debt validation letter you send will make the second CA disappear.My main question is, if I make the check payable to Banc One for the full balance, regardless of what Banc one does with the check, can the CA place a collection on my report? would this be legal? even though I didnt make the check out to the CA. I just want to be done with this issue.Do not send a payment to Banc One. They've sold the debt and they are now out of the picture. If you send them a check then you are throwing money out the window. They have sold the debt and taken a writeoff with the IRS. Yes, the CA can place a negative tradeline on your reports because they now own the debt. Paying them may or may not keep them from placing the tradeline. If you really want to pay this second CA after having already settled with the first, that is your decision. However, only communicate with them in writing and insist that they put in writing that they will not place a tradeline on your reports. My opinion is (and it is only my opinion) that since you already have a negative TL from BankOne on your reports and you settled with the first junk debt buyer in good faith, I would not pay a dime to the second junk debt buyer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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