Heya all. Newb to the site and am I glad I found it. A little too late, but....
I normally pay my bills on time, but last year I had to sell my house because we couldn't afford it and my wife wasn't working for about a year because we had another baby. Long story short, we fell behind on some bills. I currently have 3 collections agencies that are calling me. One is Atlantic Credit and Finance (Capitol One Dental loan), one is for an American Express card and the last is Viking Southwest (credit card debt) totalling about $14,000.
Each of them has offered a settlement to get rid of the account before I deploy next month (military). I am really thinking about settling so that I don't have the collections hanging over my head while overseas, but I don't want to ruin my credit any more than it already is. The settlements would be for about 55% of my total debt.
I might have a way to get most of the money, this week and I can pay two off completely, and one partially, then make payments until it is completed.
Would it even be beneficial for me to pay the full amount, since it is already going on my credit in such a negative manner? Or should I take the settlements and just wait for the negative report to wear off over time?
Thanks in advance.
I know since you are in the service you want to take care of the debt. I think they have extra leverage to get payment out of you when you are in the service.
What you can do is try to negotiate deletion of the reporting or them showing that you paid in full even if you settled for less then full balance.
Once you are done paying the account you can try to dispute it and get it deleted off of the credit report. Start out disputing not mine, or don't have a debt owing to such and such company. Sometimes they ignore disputes when they know the debt has been paid. I have gotten paid collections off that way myself.
At worse they update paid or settled for less and the collection listing can stay on the credit report 7 years from initial default date of the original creditor listing.
I will also advice you to negotiate for a pay for deletion agreement before paying off your debt to the collection agency. Only if you can make them agree for a PFD you can have the debts deleted from your credit report else they will stay in your credit report and hamper your credit score.