Pay for Delete or validation letter?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 02/13/2010 - 01:08
Forums

I overdrew a bank of america account for $48. I received a collection notice from NCO Financial asking for $59. First, is this legal to charge this much?

Second, would it be better to send a validation letter or a request to pay for deletion of negative information on my credit report?

I do owe the debt and I am not trying to get out of it, I simply want to know where they got that amount from, and negotiate for them to remove it off my credit report.

So, would it be better to go right away to a pay for deletion request, or the validation letter? If I send the validation request, and they do validate it, will they still be open to the possibility of pay for deletion?

yes this is legal and the amount that is charged for an over draft depends on the company. You should have received an agreement when you opened the account. Look at that again and it should tell you the amount that they charge for that kind of thing. You can try sending a pay for delete letter but keep in mind not all companies will agree to this. But it's worth a try. You could also try asking them if they could remove it if you pay it.

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 04:52 Permalink

Hi Sponge,

The company asking more than what you overdrew, is legal. You should check into the card details of the company. Companies do charge extra amount after one overdraws on one's account. This varies according to the company.

I believe it is better to send a validation letter to the company. After the validation, you can request the company for a "Pay for delete". What Debra has said is true. It totally depends on a company if they will agree to a "Pay for delete" or not. You can at least give it a try.

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 06:53 Permalink
Sponge14 (not verified)

Sorry, I should have made it clearer... The $48 was the total negative the bank account was left at, that's after the bank charged the overdraft fees. The $59 is what this collections company is asking me to pay... That was what I was asking if it was legal to do, that is, ask for more then what was actually owed when Bank of America charged off.

I realize they must agree for the pay for deletion, but I want to know is it better to go with validation, then pay for delete, or just go straight to pay for delete. As in, which way has a better chance of working?

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 21:28 Permalink

overdrawn balance are different from other debts. Have you searched your state laws?

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 23:22 Permalink
Sponge14 (not verified)

According to a website I saw, the collection agency can charge 6%. Now that isn't clear to me as if it's 6% a year, 6% of the balance, so I am not sure. The quote I got from a couple sites is:

Oklahoma Collection Laws Interest Rate

Legal: 6%
Judgment: 4% over U.S. Treasury Bill Rate of previous year. (1996 = 9.55% 1997 = 9.15%)

I have my Validation letter already made up and will be sending it to them probably tomorrow. We will see what their response is, and I will work from there as to the pay for deletion. I also ran my credit report and it is quite clean for as many mistakes as I have made. The worst thing that shows up for me is my student loans as being 180 days late, which is not correct, they should have been in forbearance. So I really want to keep this collection off my credit, as it is not there yet.

Mon, 02/15/2010 - 23:10 Permalink