Shall I pay off an old charged-off account?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 06/16/2009 - 10:08
Forums

I have been following the posts for quite sometime now. This is my first post to the forum. You people have good info out her. Need your advice with this one. I have had some success in repairing my credit in the past few years. I have been able to settle and remove few charge off accounts. I have also been regular in paying my credit card accounts. I was approved an auto loan, at a reasonable rate of interest.

The issue is that I have on charged-off account that is still due. Recently I received a letter from a collection agency stating that they would settle for $6520. The actual amount was $15,800. But the SOL period would expire within a year or so. I was just thinking what my options are. Shall I pay it and be done forever or just ignore it. Can they continue to collect forever, no matter how old the debt is?

Hi gr,

Thank you for your appreciation. :)

The SOL period is the time within which the creditor/collection agency can sue you for non-payment of debt. But the expiry of the SOL period does not prevent the collection agency, from continuing to collect the debt. If the collection agency brings judgment against you before the SOL period expires, you will have to pay for the court costs as well. So I would suggest you to accept the settlement offer.

You must come to a pay for deletion agreement, before making any payment. According to the terms of the "Pay for Deletion Letter", the CA is liable to report to the credit bureaus to remove the debt account, after receiving the payment. If the CA does not agree to remove the debt account, you can settle for a "Paid as Agreed".

Tue, 06/16/2009 - 10:55 Permalink