What is a Pay for delete letter?
A Pay for delete agreement is normally made with the original creditor or a collection agency (CA) to remove an outstanding debt listing from your credit report.
If the name of the creditor or the CA gets listed in your credit report with a particular debt, you should first ask for debt validation by sending a Debt Validation (DV) letter to the creditor. Once your debt gets validated by the creditor, you need to send a Pay for delete letter.
A Pay for delete letter is sent as part of your negotiations with your creditor for a repayment plan to pay off your outstanding debt. If the creditor agrees to a Pay for deletion agreement, the negative listing gets removed from your credit report once the debt has been repaid in full. You should always get the Pay for delete agreement in writing so you have proof that the creditor agreed to delete the negative listing from your report, if they refuse to remove the negative item from your report after you pay off the debt.
Sample Pay for delete letter/Pay for deletion letter
Name of Collection Agency
Address of collection agency
Re: Collection Account for Original Creditor Account Number
Amount: $50.00
Dear Sir or Madam,
This is for your information that I am disputing validity of the debt referred to above. I am not aware of the account number and you have not informed me of the existence of this account.
I am willing to pay this account IN FULL (or a settlement percentage, whichever is feasible) if you agree to immediately delete the account from the credit reporting agencies (namely Equifax, TransUnion and Experian) that you have reported to, and validated this account. My sole purpose is to get this item removed from my file. This letter should not be interpreted as recognition of the debt or acknowledgment of liability for the debt.
If you accept the terms of this agreement, the certified amount of $50 will be sent to your collection agency provided there is complete deletion of any reference to the debt from my file on all the credit bureaus that you have reported to, and the debt is validated. As the full amount demanded will be paid back, there should not be any waiting period to delete this item from the reporting bureaus.
Your agency should delete all information regarding the account from my credit files within 10 business days from the receipt of the payment, as mentioned in this agreement. The terms of this agreement will not be discussed with anyone but the original creditor. No third party will be informed if contacted and no acknowledgment of the debt, any kind of payment, or settlement will be discussed if I am contacted by the Reporting Agencies.
Following the acceptance of the agreement, please prepare a letter on your company letter head unambiguously agreeing to the aforementioned terms and conditions and have it signed by your agency's authorized signatory. This letter will imply a legal contract, enforceable under my state law.
If I do not receive an approval letter within 15 days of your receipt of this letter, I will withdraw this offer.
Please communicate regarding this account to the address mentioned below.
Your Name
Your Address
State Zip Code
Since the car loan is accompanied by a repossession agreement, if you fail to make the full payment on the debt, the creditor might repossess you car and sell it to recover the entire debt. I think that you should contact your creditor and ask them whether they would agree to the payment you want to make.
pay for deletion
what if they only have a P.O.BOX for address, how can I send the letter certified?
do you have their email address? if you have ask them their full address where they can get the letters (certified letters). i suppose you will have their email address. best luck :wink:
Certified Mail to PO Boxes
As long as it is a USPS Post Office Box, it can receive Certified Mail. The Post Office will put a card in the box requesting that they come to the service window to sign for the letter.
This doesn't work with Private Mailing Boxes (Address says PMB) such as those provided by UPS or Stationary stores.
i just found out that its best to ask first for a deletion letter. i have paid in full already a debt i had. can i still ask for a deletion letter? is it is a bad idea?
Since you have already paid off the debt, there is no use sending a pay for deletion letter. You can however request the creditor to remove the item from your credit report, but I doubt whether they will remove it or not.
You should ask for PFD before you pay off the debt. Moreover, once the creditor agrees to PFD, you should always get it writing. However, the creditor may not agree to PFD.
Hello guys!
I moved out of an apartment last June. Management claimed I owed 143 Dollars to them ( supposedly carpet needed to be replaced). I had proof that the carpet was clean. Manager said I do not owe any additional money.
Today it showed up on my credit report. I NEVER got anything in the mail.
This was a march 3rd. I found the pay-for-deletion letter here. Took the first one thatw as posted here by the user "diem". ( first post here ).
Now I just got this from the collection agency...
Dear Mr. X
In response to your correspondence, you will find documentation regarding the above meantioned amount.
Since proof has now been provided you should remit the amount due; we look forward to resolving this matter.
That's like nothing! Does not even say they will delete it. What am I supposed to do now?
Actually the creditors do not agree to remove a negative item from your credit report if the debt is small. However, even if they do not agree to pay for deletion, I think that you should pay off the debt to avoid any judgment which the creditor might bring at a later date, because judgment may adversely affect your score. However, once you pay it off, it will be shown in your credit report as "paid in full".
What???
Why would they delete an entry where I owe 10 000's of Dollars, where I probably did not pay on time intentionally ( mostly ) instead of a very tiny small amout?
I sent them a validation letter again. The one asking them to provide a signed agreement that they are allowed to collect it etc. This time they seem to be slower in responding. I can just hope.
P.S.
Even if I paid it off, my score was 740. Now it is 640 ughhh!! My score illustrator says it will ony be around 685. I worked HARD on my credit score, so this low score is not acceptable at all.
I am so upset about this.
Hi Sven
Can you tell me the reason why your credit score has come down? Is it due to some delinquent accounts which got listed in your report currently or is it due to some hard inquiry listings. I think you should check your credit report first and find out the reason behind it. If there is any unauthorized hard inquiry in your report, you can easily get it removed from your report and improve your score.
Good info
Good examples, this will help a lot of people
Carol, as I already explained above , it's beause the apartment sent the 143 to the collection agency:) That is why.
Certified mail
I noticed there are more than a few certified mail comments throughout these posts. I've sent 3 deletion letters so far. 2 were actually agreed to, paid and deleted. None were sent certified. Is there really a need to do so?
Of course you don't have to, but you wo't have any proof that you did send them the letters in case they play dumb.
Hi Rick,
You have been lucky that the negative items in your credit report have been deleted after paying them off. But in certain cases it is a lengthy procedure requiring time and patience. It is always better to sent all letters to the creditors, collection agencies and credit bureaus through certified mail with a return receipt requested. The purpose is to retain all documents, of whatever effort you have made to repair your credit record.
What is a pay for delete letter?
How long does it take to delete the debt record after it is paid? Also, could it be a possibility that even after the paymeent is made the creditor might delay the deletion due to certain reasons?
Deletion paper
I am having problems with IC systems they say per company policy they do not do deletion papers what to do now?
credit
need to repair my credit
John,
It seems by your site that you would have alot of good advice to offer, why don't you participate with advice. I think you have alot of good information that could be used by others here.
how to fix credit fast
when u have inquires also u get lowered on score so u should try to pull as less as u can
Co-signer
Can this letter be modified to include a co-signer as well?
Co-signer
Can this letter be modified to include a co-signer as well?
hi
its great keep it up .....thanks
Post Pay for delete
I tried settling with a creditor but they wouldn't settle because I was making monthly payment to the collection department Wow!! I wish I knew about "pay for delete" I recently paid off the account in 2 payments($500 and $200) but it is still on my credit report. Is there anything I can do to get the account deleted since I already paid in full?
Thanks to all!
I am so happy to have found you guys! There is so much information here! Thank you!!!
I read all 13 pages and still have a question about my situation.
There is one of my credit cards (CHASE) that has the status of "Charged off" 06/08 and given to a CA but has not been sold. The current agency is not reporting it on my credit, only CHASE is, however, CHASE is unwilling to deal with the closed account directly.
What would be a favorable strategy in this case?
1 - Validate debt with CA or CHASE?
2 - If the debt is valid, pay the full amount and request (CA or CHASE?) the status to be changed to "PAID IN FULL".
3 - If #2 doesn't work, settle for a % of the initial amount and request (CA or CHASE?) the status to be changed to "What?".
Can you settle for a % of the amount and still request them to change the status to "PAID IN FULL"? Is this possible?
Also, would this erase the negative monthly reports that I now have with the credit bureaus over this CHASE CC? Or should I request that too?
Thanks for your help!!!
<Creditor>
<Date>
Dear Sir or Madam:
With regard to account #xxx (OC – xxx), which I do not acknowledge to be a debt I owe, I make the following settlement offer in order to conclude this matter as swiftly as possible. This is not a renewed promise to pay and it is not an agreement unless you sign it and return it or we mutually sign a written agreement document. I maintain my right to seek further proof of this debt.
I will pay you $xx.xx in full satisfaction of this debt. Upon receipt of the payment, your company will report this debt to all three major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) as “paid as agreed†and you will remove all references to delinquency on this account or agree to not verify this account upon being contacted by any of the three credit reporting agencies previously mentioned. As the company reporting the status of this account, you have full authority to change the way it is listed with credit agencies. This is a restricted offer. If you agree, sign and return this letter indicating which method you prefer and I will send payment by certified mail or pay by phone. If pay by phone is a preferred method please include information on who to call to make the payment. Please make every effort to follow through within 15 days upon receiving payment to complete this agreement.
The terms of this offer are confidential. I will make no payment without a written agreement.
Sincerely,
And another one....
Hi,
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Disputing something that I never had
Please Help me I am in the position now where I can start paying off my credit. Yet I found there are addresses and items for collections and charge offs that I have never had accounts with ex Credit cards and BMG and I need to know what to do. I have tried to talk to these people and they told me because this is a serious opast due account that the only way to get it removed is to pay it. It's not mine and they keep insisting that it is and trying to make me pay. I have disputed it through the credit bureaus and they won't remove it either. Help
validation of debt
Hi CerozattiaRBrantley,
Well, you have already disputed the item with the CRA, but they are not helping you. Then, I believe you need to write a debt validation letter to the CA asking them to prove that this account listing belongs to you. If they are unable to prove it within 30 days, as you are saying that it does not belong to you, then you are no more liable to pay any debt. Send the validation letter through a certified mail so that you get back the return receipt. Once, it becomes invalid, then it has to be removed from the credit report.
A collection
Hello,
Firstly thank you for putting this site together and the various sources of information/problem sharers. So I didn't realize I still had an outstanding balance with my CapitalOne credit card as I moved in the past year. I found out today that a balance that was originally just over $1000 has ballooned to $2600. Somehow the CA found my parent's cell phone number and called looking for me as my number changed. Nice, huh? Anyway I called the CA back and eventually agreed to pay the full amount in installments beginning at the end of this month as I have extremely limited funds, but I want to minimize the damage to my credit report. Is there any point in sending a PFD letter to the CA as I've read all 13 pages, and it seems the CA cannot remove the OC entry?? Could someone elaborate on this as I'm not exactly sure what the difference is in a credit report? Capital One (the OC) automatically transferred me to the CA when I called them. Is there any way to get this totally off my credit report? What should my next step be: a) PFD letter, b) debt validation letter, c) just pay it in full as scheduled without any written correspondence, or d) other?
Depressed,
Ryan
Is there a sample letter that I can send to the collection agency showing the payment arrangements that I'm offering? I've seen the pay to delete sample letter but i'm not sure how to modify it to show that.
I want to tell them that I will make arrangements to pay $7 per their settlement. They said the settlement was good until 8/31 but the debt had been validated by them with my ex-husband and my name. What you recommend that I say in regards to the interest? I want to put in there that I will pay the loan remainder because my ex is MIA but nothing more than that.
Sample Pay for delete letter / Pay for deletion letter:
Name of Collection Agency
Address of collection agency
Re: Collection Account for Original Creditor Account Number
Amount: $50.00
Dear Collection Officer,
This is for your information that the validity of the debt has been disputed. I am not aware of the account number and neither did you inform me regarding the existence of this account.
I am willing to pay this account IN FULL (or a settlement percentage, whichever is feasible) if you agree to immediately delete the account from the credit reporting agencies (namely Equifax, TransUnion and Experian) that you have reported to. My sole purpose is to get the item removed from my file. It should not be interpreted as recognition of the debt as valid or acknowledgment of liability for the same.
Incase you accept the terms of the agreement, the certified amount of $50 will be sent to the collection agency provided there is complete deletion of any reference to the debt from my file, from all the credit bureaus that you have reported to. As the full amount demanded will be paid back there should not be any waiting phase regarding the deletion of the items from the reporting bureaus.
Your agency should be deleting all information regarding the account from my credit files within 10 calendar days from the receipt of the payment as mentioned in the agreement. The terms of the agreement will not be discussed with anyone but your client on this account. No third party should be informed if contacted. No acknowledgment of debt or any kind of payment or settlement should be informed if contacted by the Reporting Agencies.
Following the acceptance of the agreement please prepare a letter on your company letter head unambiguously agreeing to the mentioned terms and conditions as the above settlement offer and have it signed by the authorized signatory of your agency. The letter will imply a legal contract, enforceable under my state laws.
In case I do not receive any approval letter within 15 days of your receipt of this letter I will withdraw this offer and request debt validation as per the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Please communicate regarding this account to the address mentioned below.
Your Name
Your Address
State Zip Code.
Here's the PFD that I'm sending to Merchants Credit Guide. Feel free to use or modify it if you like. I've used bits from 2 letters and added my own part about payments.
Dear Collection Officer,
This is for your information that the validity of the debt has been disputed. It is not to be construed as an acknowledgment of my liability for this debt in any form.
I will pay your company the amount of $6,000 in monthly installments of $100 per month as full settlement of this account. The payment made on 8/17/2009 of $120.00 will show as a payment. If you accept this agreement, I will send you a money order or certified cashier’s check for the settlement amount of $100.00 per month in exchange for a full deletion of all references regarding this account from my credit profile and full satisfaction of the debt.
This agreement is binding and will be void should you not hold up to your end of the agreement. Furthermore the debt will be deleted from my credit profile at all three credit bureaus, or the bureaus your company regularly reports to in the course of doing business. It should not be interpreted as recognition of the debt as valid or acknowledgment of liability for the same.
Incase you accept the terms of the agreement, the certified amount of $50 will be sent to the collection agency provided there is complete deletion of any reference to the debt from my file, from all the credit bureaus that you have reported to. As the full amount demanded will be paid back there should not be any waiting phase regarding the deletion of the items from the reporting bureaus.
Your agency should be deleting all information regarding the account from my credit files within 10 calendar days from the receipt of the payment as mentioned in the agreement. The terms of the agreement will not be discussed with anyone but your client on this account. No third party should be informed if contacted. No acknowledgment of debt or any kind of payment or settlement should be informed if contacted by the Reporting Agencies.
Following the acceptance of the agreement please prepare a letter on your company letter head unambiguously agreeing to the mentioned terms and conditions as the above settlement offer and have it signed by the authorized signatory of your agency. The letter will imply a legal contract, enforceable under my state laws.
In case I do not receive any approval letter within 15 days of your receipt of this letter I will withdraw this offer and request debt validation as per the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Please communicate regarding this account to the address mentioned below.
4 year old charge offs
i was the victim of id theft bofa sold accounts but is still reporting. fraud dept refused to declare fraud even though police report and ftc number provided with letters from other cards. CC agencies deleted debts, how should i proceed or ignore it since charge offs so old? I have sent certified letters to CRA's with police report and ftc # requesting they block creditor from reporting. My attorney is reluctant as bofa not attempting any collection, no debt owed.
I was the victim of id theft bofa sold accounts but is still reporting. fraud dept refused to declare fraud even though police report and ftc number provided with letters from other cards. CC agencies deleted debts, how should i proceed or ignore it since charge offs so old? I have sent certified letters to CRA's with police report and ftc # requesting they block creditor from reporting. My attorney is reluctant as bofa not attempting any collection, no debt owed.
Nathan,
It might be better to ask this in the main forum. Your question will have more exposure and a better chance of being answered by more people.[/quote]
As of today, I have not seen any letter back from Merchants Credit Guide. Should I send another letter?
You can if you have not recieved a response, but make sure that you send it certified mail, return reciept requested that way they can not say that they did not recieve it.
Make sure that you keep copies for yourself so that you can present them to anyone who attempts to collect the debt in the future.
You can if you have not recieved a response, but make sure that you send it certified mail, return reciept requested that way they can not say that they did not recieve it.
Make sure that you keep copies for yourself so that you can present them to anyone who attempts to collect the debt in the future.
I've been sending all the mail to them certified with receipts saved in my email. Is it usual for the CA to take longer than 15 days to respond?
I was not aware that this type of an arrangement was even available!! Thank you for posting this. I feel like a more empowered consumer now!
1and1
vent hosting server
Traffic ticket debt
I just received a letter stating that I have bad debt due to unpaid traffic tickets. Does this same concept apply for my situation? I need to get the tickets paid off through the collection agencies so that my license does not get suspended, should I use the pay for delete letter or just pay them right away?
Already Paid
Hi All,
I already agreed to pay two business accounts that were suddenly reported on my personal credit without any warning. Is there any hope of having these removed off my personal credit account? My score has been sunk overnight by at least 125 pts.
Already Paid
Hi All,
I already agreed to pay two business accounts that were suddenly reported on my personal credit without any warning. Is there any hope of having these removed off my personal credit account? My score has been sunk overnight by at least 125 pts.
But what if...
What if they don't remove it within 10 days? What then?
Pay For Delete
I have a conf. signed on a "pay for delete" with a CA. I paid have proof and the info was supposed to be updated on the 2oth. it is the 29th no change on my report. still showing unpaid. what do I do/
Is it possible for me to get things removed that I am actually responsible for. The accounts are closed now but still show up as negatives. Like foreclosures,late payments, etc...
Unfortunately, they will stay there until they fall off, usually it is about seven years on each report.
Hello and welcome to credit magic, Yes it is almost immpossible to get these types of marks removed from your report. You could try and dispute them and maybe the other company will not reply but thats pretty doubtful. The best thing you can do at this point is try and build your credit which in turn will build your score.Good Luck, if you have any further questions feel free to stop back and ask.
You can build your credit many different ways, apply for different credit cards, especially with the store cards, they seem easier to get then the regular credit cards.
Charge a little and pay a little to build a payment history, this will have a positive impact on your score for sure.
Also do not forget to mention..when you do get approved for credit make sure you do not use more than one third of the available credit line that is given to you. If you do it can have quite the different effect on your score. Having cards that are nearly maxed out does not show good on your report. It makes it look like you have a credit card problem. Just always try to abide by the one third rule and you will do fine.
True fireyone it is always good to keep a good portion of the card clear for available credit.