Can a creditor remove a negative report from your credit?
Date: Tue, 03/25/2008 - 09:08
Here is the letter:
"Dear Sir/Madam,
It has been brought to my attention that there is still an outstanding balance on the above referenced account number, that I previously thought was paid. I would like to take care of my debt. I appreciate the interest taken by you to resolve this issue. I would like to fulfill my obligation to pay in full this debt at the earliest.
I will pay the full amount owed on this debt of $_48.19____. However, any references to late payment or charge offs on this account should be deleted from my credit file with any and all credit reporting agencies.
If you accept the above terms, please sign the attached letter of agreement and send a copy to me. Only upon the receipt of the signed agreement, I will send you a money order in the amount stated above.
Yours sincerely,"
I forgot to include that I will not be taking phone calls, and will only accept letters (so I had record). So of course, the collecter (scum) called to try to strong arm me into paying and they said they can't remove the negative info. To which I said "I was clear in my offer letter. So I guess you don't get paid". And hung up.
My question is: Do they have the ability to remove negative info? If so, why the heck wouldn't they? It seems that they are in the business of collecting money owed. So would it not be more important to collect the money? Or is it more important for them to let me "have it" and hurt me by hurting my credit?
And to top it off, it's only for $48.19! They have made several calls since.. It just doesn't make sense why they would choose to spend all this time harrassing me over $48.19, when all they have to do is remove the negative from my credit and get the money.
Doesn't seem like a great business decision to me to spend so much resources to collect on such a small amount, especially when the debtor wants to pay in full! Do they just enjoy harrassing people?
Anyway, bottom line, do they have the ability to remove from the credit report? And should I stick to my guns until they do agree?
Thank you for any help!!
Reports must be accurate and timely
Creditors are obligated to report accurate and timely information to credit bureaus, when they report information at all (not all creditors report information to all or any of the credit bureaus). They are required to correct information they report, so asking them to remove correct information may be problematic.
If they are a third-party debt collector, they may not have access to remove items reported by the original creditors. Also, it makes less business sense for them to agree to such terms because they do not lose much (they did not issue the loan) if they don????????t agree to your terms.
If they are in-house collections (from the original creditor), then there may be an issue of removing the information as not being an accurate or timely update of that information. Also, if all creditors were to remove accurate and timely information from their customers???????? credit files, then the credit rating system would be even less reliable.
So, technically they might be able to remove information from a credit file. However, for the information they do report, they are required to maintain its accuracy and timeliness (and removing accurate information may be considered an inaccurate thing to do). While it never hurts to ask, I wouldn????????t hold my breath waiting for them to remove the information.
Mistake #1 in your letter is that you confirmed the debt was you
Mistake #1 in your letter is that you confirmed the debt was yours. You now have no hope of getting it removed by other methods. Never confirm to anyone that a debt is yours. EVER!
In addition, you should have disputed the debt first by saying t
In addition, you should have disputed the debt first by saying that you have no knowledge of this debt and that it may be an error.
I paid a debt in full, but was late on several payments. The lat
I paid a debt in full, but was late on several payments. The late payments were reported on my credit report. When i paid the debt off, i called the creditor and asked if they could remove the negative marks. They told me they could not do it, but i guess they changed their mind because they had the negative marks removed from all my credit reports!! It now says "paid in full, never late"