Next Steps

Always DV first. Many times, depending on the CA, that will cause them to send it back to the OC. CA's want to deal with the low-hanging fruit and don't want to put any effort into it. You can send a cease-comm but many times your next contact is in th eform of a summons.

If I am willing to work with the OC, and notify them in writing that I wil only deal with them, seems strange to me that they would sue me??

The OC's want to hear that before they sent it to collections or charged off the account. They were willng to work with you while the account was current and likely up to 90 days past due but if you didn't reach out to them early, they have nothing to make them beleive that you will stick to any agreement now.

Well, I can thank James Lombardo for that.......... He failed to do his part, and has left me with this mess. I'm hoping to explain that as part of the letter to the CA.

I had an AmEx account that they turned over to a CA at about 90 days. The CA called me once and was very aggressive. I asked for their address so that I could send a CD, and after repeated requests for their address, the guy finally gave me their fax number. I never did fax the CD because I decided to wait until I got something in the mail from them. Lo and behold, the next contact that I had was from AmEx telling me that they had pulled the account back from the CA. They asked me if I had sent a CD to the CA and implied that the reason they pulled the account back was because of the CD (that I only threatened to send).

So it's possible that if you CD the CA, they may send the account back to the OC. But, as Nascar said, it could also cause a risk of lawsuit, especially since it has already been charged off.