settlement offers and fall off dates

Submitted by Nessie1 on Thu, 01/28/2010 - 03:31
Forums
Credit repair

Hello everyone. I have a couple of debts that are going to soon be "falling off" of my credit report. This past week I have recieved offers to settle two of these debts. Should I bother to settle with these companies now even though these debts will be falling of sometime this summer? Im working very hard to repair my credit and the last thing I want is to put any more negatives on my report by settling a very old debt.

carol

Hi Nessie1

Paying off a debt can never adversely impact your score. On the contrary, it will only help boost your score. Moreover, since you owe the debt, you are required to pay it off. Now whether you would wait for them to fall off your credit is absolutely your personal choice. But, ideally, if you have borrowed money from someone, you are required to pay it back.

I think you have a similar post which I answered. Check here

http://www.creditmagic.org/repair/about9788.html#40653

Thu, 01/28/2010 - 07:54 Permalink
Vanessa (not verified)

thanks so much for your responses.

Thu, 01/28/2010 - 23:13 Permalink
Justin

Hi Nessie,

I completely agree with what cinnamngrl has to say. You should first check the SOL of your state, then you can decide what you want to do with the debts.

However what Carol has said is not absolutely wrong. If you owe a debt to a person, if possible and within your limits, you should try to pay those back. If you decide to pay back the debts, you should always keep in mind to get a pay for delete agreement from the concerned company.

Sat, 01/30/2010 - 11:50 Permalink
carol

Hi Justin,

Not every creditor would agree to a 'PFD'. However, it is definitely wise to ask for a PFD before making any payments. And OP, get any agreement in writing (this is for your own good). If it is a PFD get it signed by your creditor.

Sat, 01/30/2010 - 13:11 Permalink
cinnamngrl

Of course, Carol is not wrong. But I don't know if it is the best course of action for the OP. The consumer has to consider the effect on their family. The economy is bad. Taking money out of the budget to pay back debt, when the SOL has expired doesn't make sense.

Sat, 01/30/2010 - 13:11 Permalink
carol

Hi cinnamngrl

If someone borrowed money from me, I would like to get back the money since it is MY money (whichever way I earned it). No matter if the economy is good or bad, that would be the right thing to do. But that again would be a personal take on the matter. So... up to OP really in this case :)

Sat, 01/30/2010 - 13:15 Permalink
cinnamngrl

As I said, I don't think that you are wrong. But this board is here to help people improve their credit. writing checks to debts past SOL could reset the reporting. they need to go through all the steps and do what is best for their whole household. We are all here because at some point we had trouble paying our bills. It would be a little hypocritical to be judgmental about it. People know that paying your debts is the right thing to do. I try to give people the best advice for moving forward. there is no free lunch. using credit repair procedures to avoid debt will get you in trouble sooner or later. that's just karma.

Sat, 01/30/2010 - 14:24 Permalink
Justin

Hi Carol,

Yes not every creditor may agree to PDF, but it is an option no doubt.:)

Mon, 02/01/2010 - 10:34 Permalink
Dawn in NC (not verified)

Says they are about to sue. My husband has a credit card in his name only. He lost his job so I've been carrying the debt on my own which means we have fallen behind on a lot of things. Fortunately, not everything though. I pay what I can to try and keep our house, cars, power on, etc. I have not been able to pay it all though so I can't pay this credit card. I have told them that we just can't pay right now. Well now they've turned it over to a collection atty and they want to sue. I'm really scared because we have two children and I'm afraid if they seize our bank account we'll have nothing to provide for our kids. What should I do?

Wed, 02/10/2010 - 21:48 Permalink
Aaron

Hello Dawn,

It is always better to settle the debt rather than allowing the collection agency to take you to court.

What you can do is send them a hardship letter asking for a debt settlement. Settlement considerably lowers the amount to be paid. For this, first you need to make a chart of your income and expenditures. Then you need to recognize if there are any unwanted expenditures. If there are, try to avoid those. With this, you will be able to save some amount of money at least. As a result you will be able to pay your dues.

Other than this you can also check with the Federal Grants Program. The American government has come up with a program to assist low and middle income Americans. Check from the Federal Grants Program, if you qualify for the grants.

Hope this helps.

Thu, 02/11/2010 - 05:03 Permalink
Aimanzul

Paying off certain debts believe it or not does not necessarily improve your score. So close to falling off and you want to ..... there is a saying in credit repair "you might wake up a sleeping giant". Certainly check out the SOL for your state. I liked some of the responses.
Not all debts are taken to court, if it is a small debt it is unlikely to be taken to court. Read as much as you can, credit repair is not necessarily a logical process.
If you do want to settle than make it clear up front that you would want a "debt settled letter" and a ' delete from reporting' letter. So close to the 'end' collection agencies would do a lot just to get a little money.

Fri, 01/28/2011 - 15:13 Permalink