Collection agency reporting on credit report

Hi Cheryl1968

Your creditors sold the debt to some collection after it became uncollectible. During this time, your debt got reported as 'charged off debt' in your credit report.

Some agencies who have purchased the debt will keep contacting you to recover the money. Before you make payment arrangements with them, you need to get the debt validated so that you get the true picture of it.

Once the debt is validated, you can pay it off and also request the collection agency to update your file with the bureaus. This will give a better view to your financial worthiness and the debt will also be shown as paid to all your future lenders.

If you have any queries, please get it cleared before entering into an agreement with the collection agency.

Regards
Roxette

Can a collection agency be on the credit report forever and how long can they continue to contact you? I still have CCB listed on my report for a medical bill that has since been completely paid off with the medical clinic. The clinic had reported to me that the collection agency has been contacted and asked to remove from the report. However, the collection agency is now telling met that they can not remove from my credit due to the fact that I owe them for collection fees. How can this be true when I have paid off the debt with the clinic?

Thanks for your help. Paying it off is where I have a problem. I had a credit limit of only $300 with this company and I contacted them when I ran into financial difficulty to see if they could work something out with me. The card had about a $250 balance on it and I knew I couldn't make the full minimum requested that month. All I got was customer no service. I sent in what I could and then they charged me a late payment fee because I didn't send the full payment which caused me to go over the limit and was charged a fee for that. Well the next month, they wanted the minimum plus the fees and there was no way I could send it. While I understand it was my responsiblilty to pay for the things I purchased and make payments on time, It would seem like a company would be better off keeping a customer long term rather then them defaulting.
I have not made any payments since. Well they finally sold the debt after it got up 1900 and I think they sold it for about $400 because on my credit report it says charge off with 1500 written off. Which If they had worked with me for a month or 2, they certainly would have made more as I would have been able to take care of this and probably would still be using the card. So the way I see it they have actually recovered reasonably for the debt and know the collection agency wants $1900. Any suggestions on how maybe to negiotate with them? If they did pay $400 for it, what would you consider to be reasonable for a settlement amount?

Thanks

Hi Cheryl1968

If you feel confident to get the best negotiation with this collection agency, convince them that you won't be making further defaults on your payments and would like to arrange a payment plan. But looking at your past payment history, they may not be willing to set the best deal for you.

Though I think that it's tough on your part but it's not impossible. I assume that a consolidation company can do it better for you. Most of the consultants have a very good relation with these agencies and they know how to talk their language.

I will suggest you to take a free counseling in this website. The consultant will call you and get an idea of the whole situation. Then, he will call the agency and set the best deal for you with the minimum monthly payments in the program. If you feel satisfied, then only you will begin this program. Otherwise, you are free to quit from it.

I suggest you for a free consultation as it will be helpful in knowing some of the unknown options.

Regards
Roxette

Cindycrable,

Any accurate negative information is required to stay in the credit report for 7 years as per the reporting time of the FCRA.

If your medical bill was sent for collection, the clinic has put all the charges on it. The collection agency can add charges after the debt is sold to them. Since you have paid the amount to the clinic, ask the collection agency to validate the debt and put it in writing.

If they don't validate the debt and report incorrectly to the credit bureaus, you can take actions against them for violations of the Consumers Protection afforded by the fdcpa.

Does anyone know where CCB is or if it too has trouble following the Federal laws? I am not sure that I ever had any contact with them, just the medical clinic itself.

You can write to CCB at the following address:

Central Collection Bureau, Inc.
7510 Madison Avenue
Indianapolis 46227

Phone: 317-887-5165 or Toll Free 800-878-5165
Fax: 317-887-4291 or Toll Free 800-795-4291

Thank you roxette,

You guys to continue to help me in so many ways. I have recently gotten my credit reports from all 3 agencies. It looks to me that Assesst Acceptance continues to come up as an inquiry on my report form. If a person has an OPT OUT placed on the report who does this restrict from making inquiries? Secondly, does everytime they place an inquiry does it change the SOL on the "account", I am unclear if they set the date or if the original holder of the "account" sets the date of last activity?

You can protect your financial information from get shared with other companies by using the ???opt out' option. When you are using this option, you can notify any bank, credit card company, insurance company or a brokerage firm to stop sharing or selling your personal data with outside agencies. Till now, it's getting shared but when you inform a company of your choice, they are restricted from sharing it with others.

Inquires lower the credit scores but do not effect the date of last activity in your debt account. The date of SOL begins when you last made the payment to an account. No one can put dates on their own. It is when your account last became delinquent or started missing payments.

Once you starting paying again to this account, SOL gets renewed and will be calculated from your next default.