Payment towards a charged-off account, original creditor

These major banks do not hire CA's that are not licensed in every state....it is a contractual requirement in when the collection agencies bids on these contracts.

Citi and Wells as a general rule do not sell off their paper...chase sometimes does. Assuming that none have been sold, these banks hire CA's after charge off. Once assigned, the original credit will not work with you...they are under contract with the CA not to get involved and they cannot recall accounts without cause. So bottom line is, you cannot pick and choose who you work with.

Also...paying charge offs will NOT remove them from your credit report. Creditors will continue to report for 7 years from the date of last payment as long as they are reporting accurately. These major banks do not goodwill and will not pay for delete. Paying them will not increase your score either, just prevent it from going lower with a lawsuit and a judgment.

Some OCs will negotiate with you, even though they have placed the debt for collection. The key is that they must still own the debt. Is the debt collector merely an assigned collection agent, or do they own the debt? Dont take it as a given that the OC will not negotiate with you.

Regardless, however and to whomever you negotiate payment, payment itself wont result in deletion of the prior, negative reporting, and thus wont improve your credit score. The usual tactic for dealing with unpaid debt is to send them a pay-for-delete offer, which is your offer to pay the debt in exchange for their agreement to delete the prior, negative reporting from your CR. Without CR deletion, the collection will continue to affect your score just the same as if it had remained unpaid.

Hey friends,

thank you so much for your advice. Regarding my situation, what's the best way I can raise my credit score at this point?

I do believe that all 3 have sold the debt since they wouldn't even speak with me the last times I've called their recovery offices. I'm 25 right now so I know I have "time," but I just want to (a) do the right thing as well as (b) recover my credit score as much as possible so I can eventually to get loans for another car and home, etc.

Thanks everyone for helping. I really do appreciate every advice/response I get.

A charge-off is an action taken by the OC that has zero to do with the debt collector. It is an internal accounting procedure taken by the OC.

Payment or nonpayment of the debt, and who it is ultimately paid to, have no bearing on the fact of the charge-off. Once the OC is out of the picture, such as by sale or collection assignment of the bad debt, they normally have little incentive or interest in dealing with the consumer. They have already received partial recovery of the bad debt by way of the tax benefit from the CO.

Requests directed to them to delete their reporting of the CO based on their "good-will" are tough, as the very act of the charge-off was based on their accounting of your debt as being "uncollectible."

As I said above, Citi and Wells rarely sell their accounts. They place with CA's and agressively sue.

I have seen the contracts used between Citi and collection agencies. Citi will NOT and cannot negotiate when an account in placed with a CA.....it can result in financial penalty to Citi for a contract violation with out due cause.