Couple of accounts that are in Charge offs

Hi, if collection agencys are on your credit report then you will have to deal with them and pay your debts off to them. Then afterwards, once accounts are paid, they will need to go to the credit bureaus and report 'paid charge off'. It will still remain as a charge off on your report. That won't go away until the seven year time frame is up. But if you pay it, it will show up as a 'paid charge off'. which isn't great, but its better than just a charge off. It shows that you paid it.

I've heard it said that its better to deal with original creditor and its better to pay directly to them if you can. But I got stung big time doing that. I was making payments to original creditor--after charge off--then collection agency came in 'after fact' and wanted me to stop paying original creditor. I wrote them back and told them that I had made arrangements with OC and was making payments to them. I got one more letter after that, once again wanting me to pay them instead of OC. I wrote back and said I was paying OC. Next thing, sheriff is at front door with court papers, they sued me and got away with it. The whole time original creditor was cashing my checks!!

so see, its my experience that if collection agencies are already contacting you and are on your credit report, you need to deal with them.
You might be able to write original creditor and express that you'd rather deal with them. I really don't know if that will get you anywhere or not.

hope I've helped somehow here. This is what I went through. not fun and some of these people aren't playing, they mean business. shirley

Thank you so much! I will just be glad when this is all over with!

I think it's lousy that they came after you like that when you were making payments. Seems to me that they would need to go after the original creditor for the money, since the collections agency basically "bought" the debt...

One other question about this...

The original debt will go away in 7 years...So the collections will go away after it is finished 7 years from THAT date correct? So basically 2 different dates?

This is what I wrote in another thread in response to your query.

Quote:

Quote:

How can you tell if it's still owned by the original creditor? Just call them and ask?

Hey, if you can answer that question then you'll own the goose that lays the golden egg. LOL
I went back and forth with some of my accounts trying to find out. I would write original creditor and not get an answer and of course after writing CA and asking for validation, I never got an answer from them either. It wasn't until recently when I got copies of my credit report, that I found who actually owns the accounts. If its a 'charge off' but shows that you have a '0' balance, then they've sold it. These are the only two ways of finding out that I know of, write/call and ask, or check your credit report. Just my experience here. If anyone else can add to this, please jump in. shirley

Shirley took the responsibility of finding out the actual status of her account. Perhaps, that is the only way to do the hard work and getting the facts straight.

Only three companies can know about your accounts - your creditor, CA and the CRA. You will have to verify with each of them and know the latest status of your account. fdcpa laws will help you in finding the facts.

So if it still shows a balance, can I try to deal with the original company?

Sorry if I seem to be asking the same question over and over, I just want to do this right.

No problem... If your original company has not sold the debt to some collection agency, they can accept payments from you. They might have hired some agency to collect the debt for you.

But, in case, your account has been purchased by some third party, then your creditors won't collect anything from you. They actually should not do so. Since your account is with the CA, you have to make payment arrangement with them only.