sgtburns Posted December 6, 2009 Report Share Posted December 6, 2009 First off this is my first post, YaHoo! I love the hard work you all put forth on this site and have grown from reading huge amount of information here. Thank you!In a hope you can help me stumble through my mess..... I have to get an upgrade to my security clearance within a month and want to make some headway asap. I hope to mitigate as much as I can before they pull my credit! Six months ago I was mostly current on all of my debt but a downturn in my self employed life caused me to lose control of it.I have reviewed my CR's and decided to try to settle the 2 accounts that have not been charged off. I also wrote 3 debt validation letters and mailed them certified mail to Hilco (Chase acct.), Midland (HSBC acct.) and Northstar (Barclay's acct.) on charged off accounts about 200 days out.Today I called HSBC on a $2672.63 account that is 150 days out and the bottom line on is they agreed to settle for $830.00 and make no change to the CR other than to mark it settled. I didn’t think it was the best I could do so I faxed a letter to general correspondence offering $535.00 and asking them to remove late payment entrees. Should I get a letter from HSBC, or is it safe to pay them without a signed agreement? I did the same thing with Capital One on a $1,282.00 account 132 days out. The agreed to $799.00. I faxed a letter to general correspondence offering $400.00 and the same terms as above.This is the letter I faxed.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dear Blah blah....I appreciate that your company is willing to work with me in settling my debt and paying it off. This letter is to make a counter offer in response to the settlement offer made by your customer service representative Kathy over the phone on 5 December 2009.The amount that I would propose to settle the debt in full is $535.00. However, I would request you to remove any late payment entry or charge-offs on this account from my credit report.I'd like to inform you that I have several debt accounts with other creditors as well. Unfortunately, I have limited amount of funds. So, I can pay only those creditors who are willing to meet my terms. I have already reached mutually agreeable settlements with a few creditors and I doubt whether I'll have enough funds to pay everyone.If your company is willing to accept my proposal, please sign the attached letter of agreement and return a copy of the same to me. As soon as I receive this signed acknowledged agreement, I shall send you the money order in the amount I've proposed. You may FAX the signed agreement to me at xxx-xxxx Yours truly,---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Should I take these offers, are they good and I'm beeing foolish? er How should I proceed? Speed is key for me I plan to dispute with the 3 CRA's this week I hear its a good time of year . Should I dispute all 3 charge off's (thats 6 items) at once or is that too many? I thought I was going to dispute all negitive information at one time but now im confused. Please help....I wont be able to settle the 3 CO's im fairly sure of that unless its for 5% or somthing. However I did a validation letter 3 months ago and got Apex to remove the collection from the CR on the one Hilco has now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DFS Posted December 6, 2009 Report Share Posted December 6, 2009 you can only make. Some of us out here would settle in a minute. Some of us would go all the way.You have to feel comfortable with your personal situation and what pain you can tolerate.If you want to consider other options go the arbitration forum and read what others are saying. TRUEQ is one poster you might want to read.Also, in my limited experience, the banks will say they have to report the account accurately with the credit reporting agencies. Yes, that is true but nothing I can find states they have to report an account, so might have to ask them to remove the account instead.Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldguy47 Posted December 6, 2009 Report Share Posted December 6, 2009 I would not send any money to any of them without a signed agreement, if you do they may not do what they say they will do and you’ll have little recourse.Considering you are attempting to improve your CR for your PR I would focus on TU as I think this is the one they look at (it’s the only one they pulled on me).I would also recommend you prepare to inform the investigator of the issues and everything you have done to verify the debt is yours and their failure to follow the law if applicable and or your attempts to pay your obligations. I went through my PR (SSBI) last year and had 2 issues that were unauthorized use; I informed the investigator of the issues and their claims. I showed her the letters and green cards that I had sent to them and showed her a copy of the laws that they were breaking. She asked I sign an additional document to allow them to look into the 2 issues, I did. One of the issues cleared itself up as soon as they asked Cap One for the documents. The other issue they (investigator) informed me they were not going to look into as it was not 90 days late and she felt it would end up as the Cap One issue had, it did not but, I’m just finishing it up and expect a check from the CC Company this week:-). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgtburns Posted December 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2009 (edited) Thanks for the input Oldguy47, I did check they (BI) pulled a report from TU and Equifax last time around I didn't look at experian inq. yet.Anyhow the entire process has got me a little frazzled. Any tips on how to report the lates, collections and bad debt on the e86 (request for background investigation)? Edited December 6, 2009 by sgtburns Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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