Made payment every month and got charged off

[boapril15]

Hello!

I haven't been here in years but I can say I love this place.

Ok, so I'm a dumb a$$...

I Moved around a lot for a little while back in early winter and spring 2005 and my good year credit card could not find me.

I set up a payment to pay them more than my minimum each month.

I basically owed them $26 a month.

I was paying them $27 + a month and they some how up'ed my interest rate and suddenly I was behind because my $27 a month wasn't enough now... that was BS but what ever. I maid an extra payment to cover anything and then up'ed my payments to $32.04 a month and it's been like that for about 2 years now.

My original balance was about $1100.

I haven't seen a bill from them in about 2 years or anything else and I thought it was time finally to find out what I still owed them if anything. I called them today and it has gone to collections... what crap is that?

So I've been paying $32.04 for years with no purpose... Now I'm susspoed to call this number 800 978 8800

which I also found on this thread:

http://www.debt-consolidation-credit-repair-service.com/forums/showthread.php?t=255540

First of all... Can I ask for all my money back? I've been sending good year money, they don't seem to mind, how should I ask for it all back?

Second, I'm a little intimidated about calling a collections agency and since no one is after me I don't know what kinds of flood gates I might open.

Anyone got any tips?

Thank you.

Bo

P.S. I guess I should stop sending them payments too right?

[Robert Nashville/Savannah]

I’ve no idea what it is you think they’ve done wrong.

They had no obligation to find you – it was your obligation to find them or at least, to keep making the payments required on your account and if you didn’t know what those were, to find out what they were.

The minimum payments required probably changed because they likely upped your interest rate and/or started adding late charges because you weren’t paying as you had agreed to do and so they responded in accordance with the cardholder agreement you signed.

Now after all this time of not paying what they had a right to demand, you are surprised and/or mad at them for sending the account to collections??? :'>

My tip is that you contact them (or whoever owns the debt now) and/or the CA handling the account and arrange to either pay the debt in full or settle it…you can try to arrange for a deletion from your credit history if that’s important to you but it appears to me that you owe the debt and the cc company has done nothing except what you agreed they could do.

[lovebug5]

Here, Here! I concur. I don't necessarily have any additional information or tips to add, as Robert took the words right out of my mouth.

[TTigggers]

OK, I'm confused did you pay all along or did you stop paying at 1 point?

[boapril15]

I never stopped paying them. I even paid more then the necessary amount to cover me in any strange situation because I didn't have a card or a bill so I didn't want to take my chance.... so much for that plan.

My biggest concern I guess is that I have been sending them money and I don't know where it's going. Fine, it's in collections, I guess I'll call the collections company, but what happens to the roughly $800 I sent the credit card company?

Here I thought I was doing something right to build my credit (ever so slightly) and I find out that it's been a waste of 2 + years and $800.

Lesson learned - yes, but what to do now other then have to pay the original $1100 + those crappy collection fees and still have given away that other $800.

Cheers,

Bo

[TTigggers]

I would contact the CC company and ask about your payment history.

If you have proof to back up paying for 2 years it shouldn't be an issue.

You could always send a FCRA Section 623 investigation and request payment history that way.

[VeVe]

My biggest concern I guess is that I have been sending them money and I don't know where it's going. Fine, it's in collections, I guess I'll call the collections company, but what happens to the roughly $800 I sent the credit card company?

Here I thought I was doing something right to build my credit (ever so slightly) and I find out that it's been a waste of 2 + years and $800.

Lesson learned - yes, but what to do now other then have to pay the original $1100 + those crappy collection fees and still have given away that other $800.

Cheers,

Bo

Most likely you didn't "give away" $800. The money you sent in each month likely covered the interest and not much of the principle. If it charged off, you were probably off schedule/missing the due date, not sending enough, etc. which means you accumulated a bunch of late fees as well. The monthly late fees were probably more than your payment, which would cause you balance to grow.

Most companies will apply payments to a charged off account, so whatever payments you sent since then have likely gone towards the balance.

You need to request statements. Ask for the last 6 months (perfectly reasonable) to see what happened.

[swirlgirl]

BOA, if you've been sending the same amount every month, then that's the problem. The amount changes every month depending on your balance. If you don't pay the account in full every month, interest is added to the remaining balance and the minimum payment due increases every month.

Since you didn't have bills and you didn't request them when you noticed they weren't coming in the mail, you wasn't paying enough.

Definitely request a full billing and payment history. You'll see where the problem began. I'm sure you're payments were being credited. They just weren't enough.