Anyone have success settling with Unifund?

They want 30k when you only borrowed 11k?!?!? Please do not pay these clowns 80% of 30k when you only borrowed 11k. Your debt settlment company is failing you if that is the best they can do. That is just sad. I think you could easily settle that debt for 80% of the 11k and with some tough negotiations you could get it down to probably 40% of the 11k. I personally would not settle it for more than $5500 or 50% of the original balance unless a judge forced me to pay more.

How old is this debt and when did you make the last payment on it? How do you even know unifund has rights to collect on this debt? If this debt is pretty old you might be out of the SOL. If the debt is pretty old then unifund probably did not pay more than a couple hundred for it and they are trying to collect 30k. That is laughable. If you actually received 11k from a company as the original loan then I would not settle years later for more than that 11k. Frankly, I would try to settle it for no more than 50% of the original balance or $5,500. Before you do any settlement though you need to get the debt validated. At that point you need to dispute at least 15k of this debt as excessive to make sure they don't 1099c you for 30k of debt. After that you need to get the settlment offer in writing.

I am checking my records more closely for the last time I made payment but I am pretty sure that it is close to the MN SOL of 4 years. My debt settlement company has already gotten the settlement offer in writing for the 80%, is it too late???

An offer in writing from the creditor does not commit you to a payment and it will not change the SOL as long as you have made no payments and you did not sign anything. Creditors send settlment offers out all the time that people turn down.

Personally I wouldn't pay them anywhere near that 30k amount even if it is a fresh debt and the SOL has not even come close to expiring. For that amount of money you could easily afford an attorney that would probably tear these guys up. I'd kick that settlment company in the butt too for not giving you better advice. I think they should know better unless I am missing something about your situation.

Just look at it this away. I think you can settle for around 6k. They want you to pay 24k. That leaves you with 18k to pay a lawyer which will buy a pretty darn good lawyer. If you play your cards right you could tag them for fdcpa and FCRA violations along the way and reduce the amount you owe even more.

I didn't see the part about the debt approaching 4 years deliquent and being time barred. I bet that company bought your debt for maybe a couple hundred dollars. That is disgusting. If you are close to the SOL then try to stall and make the SOL expire. I bet that company can't even validate. Personally I would gamble on that and hire a lawyer if they sue. You need to probably take the matters into your hands and send them a DV letter and cut the settlment company out unless they provide lawyers.

Well I have looked at my records in depth and it shows that I last made payment to Universal Card/Citibank on June 2005. This gives me about another year before the SOL runs out. The debt first went to Arrow, a collection agency, and then Unifund bought the debt, this is the company adding the disgusting fees!

I think you are right about the debt settlement company. I have about $9000 in trust with them. I get it back if I disenroll out of the program. If I put that money in a savings account could Unifund then go after it? If I stall the rest of the SOL, I could save money for the lawyer and any settlement that can be reached.

The only way for them to get the money is to sue you first and win a judgment. At that point they could confiscate assets which would include money sitting in a checking account if they know about it. They will find it if it is in your name. The only way for it to be safe from a judgment is to keep it in a shoe box probably. They could confiscate that as well if they knew about it. It also might be protected if it is still in that companies fund but I am not sure.

I really don't think this thing is going to cost you over 11k anyway if you play hardball. Again I would push for a settlement well under the 11k and if they start heading toward a lawsuit then hire a lawyer. I am pretty sure a decent lawyer can get most of those fees to go away if not all of them. If you get a really good lawyer then they could make the entire debt disappear based on poor validation and fdcpa FCRA violations.

my wife and I last paid on our Chase card over 2 years ago and the last balance prior to us defaulting was a little under 12K. Uni-fund purchased our debt and has never contacted us. The only way I know they have my debt is from our credit report. Since they have obtained my debt they have added late fees and charges. My debt is continually increasing and is now over $15K. That is not legal by any means. We are beyond the SOL and I am wondering how I can settle this. I offered to pay 9K of the 12K and they didn't take it. They wanted 85%. Any suggestions what I should do?

if this is truly past the SOL.then it shouldn't be on your report.dispute the entry with the CRA'S.do not deal with these clowns until your disputes are heard.

Actually it can legally stay on your report until 7 years and 6 months after the Date of First Delinquency. They can technically also continue to request that you pay the debt pretty much forever. However, if the debt is truly past the SOL date then what they CAN NOT do is get a judgment of any kind via suing you. However, should they bring suit against you you HAVE to go to court and submit documents showing that the debt is outside of the SOL. If you do go to court and show said documentation then the court will dismiss the case. IF they sue you and you DON'T go to court and provide evidence that the debt is outside of the SOL you have a strong possibility that the debt collector will win the case. Therefore my suggestion is for you to contact the Collection Agency directly. Be firm but polite and offer to settle this obviously old debt. Tell them that you know that the debt is outside of the SOL and therefore that you know they aren't going to sue you for this. Tell them fuerther that the Date that this will fall off your credit report on it's own is 7.5 years after the Date of First Delinquency. SO if they want to receive ANY money from you to settle this then it will HAVE to come in the form of a written agreement by them that payment will result in them completely deleting the account from your credit report.

The collection agency in this case is seriously out matched. Once you have this much time passed between when the account first went delinquent and the present then the tables turn to give the debtor the upper hand. Your credit can only be negatively impacted for 7.5 years after the date of first delinquency. Furthermore, if the Statute of Limitations for Debt of this kind has passed then the owner of the debt can no longer receive judgment in court. Therefore the only way the collection agency can make ANY money at all on the debt is if you agree to make some kind've settlement arrangement. In which case it doesn't benefit you in any way to accept terms that don't include them deleting the information from your credit report. Conversely, it also makes little sense that you would have to pay more than 50% of the ORIGINAL amount owed to the original creditor at the time of delinquency.

OF COURSE, this all depends greatly on having ACCURATE and infallible evidence of the Date of First Delinquency. But all companies are required to report such information to all three of the Credit Reporting Agencies.

Do not pay them anything! You can win this because they will not have the paper trail, the form you signed. Therefore, they cannot prove this is your debt. I just beat them in court in Orlando, FL so I know.

Do not pay them anything! You can win this because they will not have the paper trail, the form you signed. Therefore, they cannot prove this is your debt. I just beat them in court in Orlando, FL so I know.

Unifund is full of shi%. They are no even authorized to collect a debt in the State of Florida. Look them up on sunbiz.org. Their corporation (Unifund CCR Partners) is INACTIVE. Per Florida Statutes, a corporation that is not actively licensed in the State of Florida cannot legally collect jack.

Unifund is a crooked company