Advice on a settlement offer. PLEASE READ.

As you are sure of the company having your file, send the DV letter so that you can buy some time from them. They will take 90 days or so to give you the info in writing. However, if they have everything in order, they might give you the information earlier also. But, by sending the DV letter, you are making sure that the law office is doing a legit collections and your money won't go to the wrong place.

If you do nothing and wait for them to file a lawsuit against you, you will have a judgment on your credit report. Not to forget that you will still have to pay the debts. And this debt is within the SOL period. So, at this stage you can think of buying more time from the law office by getting the account validated.

You have to send the validation letter within thirty days of receiving the first letter. Make sure you require them to respond to all the items required. Most of the time their so called validation is just a copy orf your last statement. It will have no payment info. Are the really a law office of a sound alike. The office of Smith and Jones legal department as opposed to Smith and Jones Attoneys at Law. Sometimes the use the term Law Offices when they are not lawyers but collection agencies. If you give us their name we might have helpful info about them. If they do validate the debt send them a proposal on how you would like to pay the debt> How much and how often. Leave yourself room for a counter offer. That is only if they are lawyers.

Thanks for the info guys. Ill post their information when I get home from work in about 3 hours. Also, technically this is the second letter I received but the first one was from the CC Comapny themselves. This is the first from this particular lawyer or collection agent whichever they may be. I have until the 30 of August to respond.

Just make sure that you send a certified letter with return receipt requested? This will be a proof of your actions to resolve the matter.

Have you noticed that there has been no change on their settlement offer of $3,800 over the last two months? I am having a feeling that you can actually negotiate it for a lower amount that you can afford.

Sorry to take so long to reply again but I was very busy last night. I am pretty sure that this is a legit law firm. The name of the firm is Richard J. Boudreau & Associates, LLC out of Salem, New Hampshire. It has 4 other lawyers listed besides the owner and lists what states they are admitted in which is Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Arkansas. None of them listed are admitted in Kentucky where I live. I guess they would have to hire a local lawyer if they were to sue me.

There was no change in the settlement offer that I received from the CC company 2 months ago and the lawyer last week. I think I am going to send them a payment plan settlement offer for $500 per month for 5 months if they validate the debt. This will be for settlement in full and for full deletion off of my credit report with no 1099 filed. I certainly do not want to pay the government a 20% tax on the difference of 7,500 and 2,500 especially since 2,500 of it is fees and I never saw a dime of the money anyway.

I am working with an attorney/collector. They wanted the full amount, of course. But one time they sent a settlement offer of 50% and, like you, I didn't have it and ignored it. Now they want all of it agian. I snet them a good faith payment, and a letter with a money order saying I would pay xx dollars a month until the 50% was paid off. They didn't like that, but cashed the money order, saying they still wanted the full amount.Alot of times they will want xx dollars, but will settle with you if they think that is all they can get. Keep us posted, and good luck..Karen

i filled in the form and received a reply that someone would help for 15% of my total debt. is this normal?

does anyone know of a good company that does not charge a arm and leg? i'm broke as it is. maybe someone free?

I am sending out a DV letter today return receipt requested. I have until the 30 of August to send it. I am basically using the one from our site. I received a third collection call and man was the guy pissed when I told him to validate the debt again. He said he was not going to honor his offer if I forced him to validate (hehe). He claimed he already sent the info but I know he did not. I will post again once I receive the information.