Help! Charged off account!!!

Hello~

Yes, I am sure the company still has the account, they put it into their 'recovery department'. Its a long story, but technically it was a second mortgage. Our house foreclosed, and since the company (Citifinancial- can I say the name?!), didn't get their money, they threatened to come after me and get a judgement against me. My ex's name was not on the loan, so it was only me that would be hung out to dry. I didn't want a judgement in my life, (felt like I had been through enough, and wanted to get my life back on track), so I started sending them monthly payments.

They did offer me a settlement about two years ago, which I could not afford at the time. Since then, they have not offered me any type of settlement.

So, when you say leave it alone, do you mean, keep making payments, until it is paid off, or stop making payments?

Thanks for the help!

very interesting.
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Hi all,

Thanks for the advice. I actually never stopped sending payments. I have also tried to talk to someone at the Citifinancial office, but they just refer me back to the 'recovery dept.' I have checked my credit report, and the amount has decreased, so that's how I know they are applying the money I am sending them to my account. I just have a feeling they are waiting for me to stop sending payments, then they will try to nail me with a judgement. I just don't want them to have that excuse!

So, is the consensus that I just keep making payments until it is paid off or can make a settlement? I know that it will still be on my credit report and won't look good no matter what, but would it look better if it was totally paid off or does it matter? What is the best way to talk to them to get them to settle?

Thanks!

Cap One BK reports the account as Charge Off EACH AND EVERY MONTH. My problem is that I paid a settlement amount 3 years ago that was supposed to have it marked "Paid In Full". I never received documentation for this, of course, and have received numerous collections letters throughout the years that do and don't reflect a payment by me on this debt (which was the settlement, or so I though). THere are several D.C. involved now.. can they report twice (I have an debt of unknown origin on my credit in the approx amount as the CAP ONe debt) which by the way shows NO Receipt of the Payment made 4 years ago.

negotiatied, went to mediation for 18000 settled for 10300.00 credit card attorney nor personal attorney let me pay the debt by the deadline i called and called and called attorney said he would post pone the collection for 30 days never heard from him now there is a 27000 judgement on my credit due to attorneys not playing their role to collect the money from me.

i have a judgement against me with a bank which is national penn bank boyer, pa and we r trying to get another mortgage which we got approved and at the time of closing we need a letter saying we paid them off but we didn't and the judgement was already on their for 7 yrs. what can we do or is their nothing that we can do

they also resold the home too

I have a charged off credit card account. It just happened. I fully want to make payments, but the collectors are saying they can't take anything less than triple the amount, plus paying $400 right now. Can they force me to make those big payments?

My situation is very similar. I have around $100 charged off account (utility bill). Would it help if I send Pay to delete letter to them, settle the account in full and ask them to remove it from the credit report? Appreciate your help.

My credit card became a charged off account recently, less than 30 days ago. Do I have to send the payments to the collection company or can I pay the credit card company? If I don't do anything with either of them can they garnish my wages in the state of Wisconsin?

i RECENTLY GOT A CHARGE OFF WITH AMEX. i PAID IN FULL WITHIN LESS THAN A MONTH OF THEM REPORTING THE CHARGE OFF. i WAS LOOKING AT MY REPORT BUT THEY STILL REPORTED THE CHARGE OFF 2 MONTHS AFTER i PAID. cAN THEY STILL DO THAT? ALSO i PAID THEM IN JUNE BUT THEY HAVE ME CHARGED OF SINCE MAY, i AM CONFUSED. oN A BETTER NOTE THEY DID GIVE ME A OPTIMA CARD. CAN i EVEN ASK THEM TO TAKE OFF THE NEGATIVE REPORT NOW?

We had 1st and 2nd mortgages thru GMAC/ Ditech. 1st mortgage modified 3/07, 2nd mortage went into charge off status 04/07. Now I'm getting foreclosure hearing notices from a mortgage company I don't even know that says we have a mortgage with them and we are in default. This is the charge off 2nd mortgage. Can a mortgage co. buy a mortgage note that is in charge off status? Can they really foreclose on this even though we are in good standing with our 1st mortgage ,since our loan modification we have been current on our payments for 24 months. Is this a legitimate foreclosure threat or a debt collection company trying to collect a debt?....HELP!!!!!!

Hello Friends,

I have some debt on my credit cards (in total over $50000)
I cant make the payments (Jobless) actually, I am 5 months behind the payments and they are calling me and inform me taht it will be charge off
My question is : If I leave it alone( I dont pay) how long does it take to Judgement?will they sue me? Im living in California and the SOL is 4 years.
Best Regards,
Sha

My husband got a judgment against him so I’d been making regular payments to Mel Harris on behalf of CitiFinancial for a few years over a repossessed SUV (we owed $450 when they took it and refused to let us pay the money). We tried to fight the amount owed ($5K after 5 years on a $10K/5 year loan – long story on that scam) but followed the directions on the summons to appeal it instead of hiring a lawyer. Stupid us.

In March 2009, I finally did a settlement and paid the thing off. However, after that was paid, we discovered that CitiFinancial put on my husband’s credit report that this was a charge-off in January 2009, despite the fact that we’d been paying on it for a few years. Too late for a pay for deletion, I’d assume. (Never knew about those until last night anyway.) Because of that so-called “fresh” charge off and the comment to “skip” loaning my husband money, we got denied a loan for a SUV my husband wanted. We were told it was because of that charge-off, too. So my questions are this:

1) If CitiFinancial won a judgment against my husband, shouldn’t it be reported as that…a judgment? We’ve had a couple others years ago and that’s how they were reported. As a judgment, not a charge-off. Then the judgment was taken off the report when the account was paid in full.
2) Can CitiFinancial report the account as a charge-off in January 2009 when 1) we’d been making regular payments on the judgment for three years and 2) according to their rep, the charge-off was in January 2006, not January 2009. (The judgment might’ve been summer 2006).
3) What can I do to fight or fix this? We’re obviously livid as this is just another sleazy trick CitiFinancial has does that’s earned them the outstanding reputation they have for “customer service”.

Besides the CitiFinancial b.s. on his CR, there’s the BMG Music thing I’m fighting which is totally bogus (we’ve never ordered from them) and a few overlooked minor medical bills I’ve gone ahead and paid off. So the only real thing hurting him is the so-called Jan. 2009 charge-off. What to do? Thanks for the help!

When we paid off the other judgments, they were listed as paid in full. Not "judgment paid in full". And a charge off means the lender NEVER expects to get back the money they loaned. Now, we'd been paying for over five years before we tried to fight it. And then we'd been paying regularly for an additional three years when they listed it as a charge off. I don't see how they can claim they never expect to get paid if 1) we're paying regularly and 2) it's actually a judgment which is now paid off. I'm not wanting to get the paid judgment removed. I guess I'm expecting common sense.

The judgment isn't listed as a judgment. It's just listed as account paid in full. So which is better? Judgment paid in full or the charge off on there and that it's been paid in full?

However, the whole issue with the judgment ticks me off after reading another thread on here. We DID answer the summons in time as it stated and then we waited to hear from the court about the scheduled court date. Next we got a call from Mel Harris asking us when we were gonna pay. That's when we found out they'd already won the judgment. The thing is paid off but I wanna know if the city court dropped the ball or if Mel Harris had the court papers sent to a different address to win by default. They've been known to do that. A lot. I wish CitiFinancial never bought out the other company. They were on the up and up and didn't use unethical tricks.

Another thing, why are they allowed to wait three plus years to report a charge off? I've never had any company wait several years to report that I was 30, 60, 90 days late or to suddenly decide to state I haven't paid a bill. It's either reported immediately or updated regularly but never new out of the blue years later. This makes it seem like something that happened yesterday. And wouldn't it have to disappear after seven years of the 180 day missed payment deal? That'd only leave maybe three years it can stay on there but the way they've reported it makes it look new and as if they can keep it there for seven years going out from Jan. 2009.

Just keep telling the credit agency "it's not yours" perhaps you are testing the verification process or have a bad memory. I've had a public record removed, it took a year to to a full repair just keep firing certified letters at them every 45 days.

Hi Rachael. Thank you for the precise definition. Yes, I know what a charge-off means and when a creditor writes off the debt as a loss for the company, it's because they never EXPECT to get paid, whether they continue the collection process or not. That's not something I'm confused about. CitiFinancial was getting paid regularly so for the company to act like they never expected payment is b.s. because they WERE getting their monthly payment and had for a couple years. I just wish I'd known what they'd put on his report before I offered to pay it in full because I would've been insistent that the remark comes off.

Also, CitiFinancial did not buy a bad debt. Not sure if that's how it was interpreted by what I previously wrote. I just never would've done business with CitiFinancial voluntarily is all I meant. CitiFinancial bought out the other company about a year or two into the original loan.

Something else that bugs me is that this WAS a judgment. I have the paperwork to prove it but CitiFinancial has never listed it as a judgment. I'm sure having it listed as a judgment paid isn't the best for his credit but at least it'd be truthful. To have "account paid" along with "bad debt; charge off; skip" on his account irks me when he was doing what was required and they promised to fix the error of it being listed as a charge-off when we called about it.

While I know in my gut exactly who put the charge off comment on his report, the whole company is a sham. I had that problem when we were in good standing with the company. We'd call to talk about the account and they send us to the 800 number. The 800 number says it's the wrong 800 number and tries to send us to the local branch and when we insist on speaking to someone who has authority since the local branch route got us nowhere in answering our concerns, they give us more 800 numbers where we get the same "wrong department" answer. I've spent hours and hours for several days talking on the phone with them. I know they do that so we give up and just don't fight the inaccuracies. That's not the kind of company I can trust or would want anyone dealing with. They're out to screw over their customers. And while they'll profit even more from those customers who are forced to pay the inaccurate bills, those customers won't ever go back to them. Ya'd think they'd realize repeat business is better than the one shot to screw over the business you have before you lose them. Idiots.

Well, I've since learned that I could have the account removed for reporting the paid judgment as a charge off because it's inaccurate and it can't be validated as such. Even the two women my hubby spoke to at CitiFinancial said it's NOT a charge off and shouldn't be reported as such. Yet, he doesn't understand why it's not been changed yet. Um, because talk is cheap. We can call and complain but until they get that threatening letter, they'll keep pretending they'll fix it and not. I'm sure they've been laughing all this time. I've been educating myself on our rights and what can and can't be reported, how to dispute, etc, and I'm not taking no for an answer. Report accurately or DELETE!

I just wanted to pass along a link for CreditBoards forum. I found them and reading it has been amazing. Just reading it has taught me so much about our rights and that CitiFinancial is in violation by not reporting my husband's account correctly. By reporting it as a charge off, if they don't fix it, I can sue them if it comes to that point. Of course, most would rather fix the entry or delete the error than go to court.

The information I found at creditboards (dot) com /forums/index.php?showtopic=142032&st=0 (remove spaces) is what I was looking for when I posted my concerns here so I hope it can help others. DEFINITELY check out the newbies section and PsychDoc's "Credit Repair for Beginners" transcripts (which should be the link). You'll learn a LOT! Good luck! I know I've got the power to fix the errors on our reports now. =O)

I've been a charge off debt collector over 11 years and just started a collection agency with a friend...HONEY , just call and SETTLE they will go as low as 25% sometimes (and no matter how much they try to convince you to pay in full) Your settle/paid letter is just as good for you credit report. It says to future creditors although circumstances happened...you did come back and pay the DEBT.

I am 76 years old and recently my health has been failing. I have a daughter who lives with me for whom I provide a home. I live on a social security check of thirteen hundred dollars and my rent is nine hundred dollars. I recently had to move to accomodate better living conditions. My daughter has MS. Until recently I was always able to pay my bills on time. Last June, I became ill and now have many medical bills and insurance deductibles. My son is able to help me with my insurance sometimes. I have a loan with Cap. One and have paid it for four years. There should only be about fifteen hundred dollars left on it but due to late charges etc. they now have it up to about two thousand dollars. I also have a charge acct with them for five thousand dollars, it was down to about four thousand but again when I got ill, they added seventy eight dollars to each payment and raised the interest to the limit. They are trying to offer me at this point lower payments but I cannot take the offer as I can't commit to them. I do not own any property, not even a car. We are at this point living from soc. sec. check to soc sec check. At 76 I do not feel I should have to be so worried as I am about this problem. I am sure I will not have to rely on my credit report as I have no money to buy anything and if I get rid of these cards, I will never try for another one. What would anyone advise? Can I just ignore the charge-off letters.
Thank you

My wife and I were on an ARM loan and they raised our first mortgage to an un believable amount. We were unable to pay this amount and the second mortgage. We were told if we stopped paying altogether that they would eventually help us restructure our ARM. That being said, the first did just that, but the second mortgage said they had charged it off. Now i am very confused on our next step. We are in good standings with the first and the second is charged off. Will the second still foreclose on a house that is more than a 100k upside down or will they just send us to a collection agency to pay them. Can somebody please help me understand this.

Very much appreciated...(indy mac is our second)

Thanks Dan

Can a third party take you to court trying to collect a debt for the other company.

My Citimortgage was charge off now i'm getting calls from a debt collector, can the debt collector start a garnishment on me. HELP NOW

In Oct 2006 I settled several accounts with Cap One only to find out that 2 of the 3 accounts were charged off and never reported the settlement. We negotiated on the phone and I gave verbal authorization for the payments. Payments were collected and I have copies of the payments but no letter of settlement. Cap One is trying to collect again and is reporting the charge off as a 2010 event.
The credit agencies had Cap One verify the accounts which they did but still w/o the settlement.
Do I have to pay again? Is there a way I can challenge Cap One? I really want to resolve this matter the best way possible.
I also received a 2010 statement for the 2 accounts - last time I received one was in 2006.

Please Help

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