Debt Negotiation Advice

How do I contact the collection agencies to negotiate and pay off debt?

Public Comments

1. If they are calling you, ask if you can negotiate a payoff. :) Sometimes they will offer to just settle for x-amount which is usually less than what you currently owe. Make sure when you do this that you get the number and name of the person you are dealing with, as well as a written request showing a zero balance due to them.
2. DO NOT PAY OFF COLLECTION AGENCIES. The reason being is that the original creditor as allready written your debt off as bad and sold it to the collection company. The in turn contact you and offer some bogus settlement. The damage to your credit is done and will not be reversed unless you get that in writing from the creditor. It will be listed on your report as debt settled/paid by debtor but it wont help.
3. Depends on the nature of the collection agency. Some agencies do work for certain creditors in an attempt to return the account into good standing. Keyword is some. MOST agencies buy these debts from creditors after they have been written off or charged off. At this point paying a collection agency will not help your credit in any way. They will only be required to list the debt as a paid collection account, or a paid chargeoff. You can try to negotiate a pay for delete deal with them. That is you pay the debt if they agree to delete it from your credit report. Don't pay them unless they agree to this. If the wont delete it you will be paying for it twice. You likely have high interest rates or are unable to get any type of credit as a result of this account being reported. Simply paying will not get rid of the collection account. So you will still have to suffer high interest rates, or suffer with likely not being able to get credit. If they delete the account you will NOT have to suffer this. Consequently get the pay for delete agreement in witting, nothing verbal. Don't let them tell you they aren't in charge of the the reporting of the debt. They bought the bad debt so they are in charge of its reporting. It's not your fault they bought your bad debt. Also never give them credit cards, bank account info or payment info of any kind until you intend to pay. Hope that helps somewhat best of luck.