Dec
29
collection agencies or debt consolidation company?
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my husband and i have around $5000 in medical bills that we would like to pay off. they are all with the same collection agency. would it be better if to deal directly with the collection agency or go thrugh a debt consolidation compay? i contacted a debt conslidation agency in my area and they informed me that even if the debt is paid it still stays on your record for seven years. if i deal with the collection agency is it possible to have them remove items as they are paid off? any advice on this would help greatly. thanks.
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8 Comments
January 2nd, 2010 at 7:59 am
did they purchase the medical debt or were they assigned
the debt?
If they purchased the debt, what contract did you sign
that says you agreed to pay them ????
read carefully thru creditinfocenter com
January 5th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
It stays on your credit for 7 years from the date of your last payment. So keep paying or stop paying and wait 7 years. I recommend you pay, work out a pay plan and make regular monthly payments no matter how small and communicate well with them and you should have no problems.
January 6th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
Don’t waste your money with the debt consolidation company. You can do it yourself. You can ask that the negative be removed upon payment as part of the negotiation. Be sure to get any settlement agreement in writing and do not allow them access to your bank account.
Depending on the age of the debt, you might be able to settle for less than full payment — maybe 50% to 75%. Lump sum payments get better deals. Payment plans have to be short term.
If you can’t get them to agree to delete for payment, the negative item will stay on your credit report for 7 years and 180 days from the date of DELINQUENCY. Payment does not restart the reporting period. A paid old debt is much better than an unpaid one. And the older the debt the less impact on your score.
January 9th, 2010 at 5:46 am
i agree with bdancer. I also read in a credit repair book that it’s best to deal with the people that you owe and not the collection agencies, just make sure like she said you get it in writing, or let them know when you mail them the check that if they cash it and apply it to the balance they agree with your terms.
January 10th, 2010 at 7:19 am
Bdancer is mostly correct, except she keeps posting that the reporting time is 7 1/2 years…that is incorrect. It’s only 7 years.
If you work with a consolidation company you will be paying interest on the loan. If you deal with the collection agency, they are generally not collecting further interest. And since the same collection agency is handling all your debts, you may be able to negotiate a payment plan to include all of them together.
Yes, you can negotiate to have the item removed form your report. Note that just placing “paid” on your report does NOT remove the negative information. You must insist that they delete the item..and get this agreement in writing.
January 11th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
I agree with Bdancer up until the point of “an old paid debt is much better than an unpaid debt.”
As you said Bdancer, the older an unpaid debt is the less impact it has on your credit. When you pay a debt that old, while it doesn’t restart the 7yr. reporting period, the activity becomes more recent and your score will drop. Thus defeating the whole purpose. It’s better to leave well enough alone or get a pay for delete.
Pay for deletes are not impossible, tricky maybe, but not impossible. Reporting to the credit bureaus are not mandatory and any entry can be deleted by the owner of the tradeline.
January 12th, 2010 at 4:49 am
Be careful there, either way there is no sure shot way of getting the bad debt records off of your credit report now. Once a debt is delinquent (meaning late on a payment) it will invariably be reported on your credit report.
Check out they have a ton of information on what you can or cannot do with these kind of collection accounts.
January 14th, 2010 at 10:03 am
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