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     | Sunday, October 31, 1999 - 08:10 am  On a message that was posted on 07 June 1999 at 10:46:55 by Sean [anonymous255@yahoo.com] Titled: Paying it off I would like to inquiry about this comment posted here by Sean. "...Phase 3: Someone you know (your friend, Christine, myself, whoever) contacts the collection agency with an offer to purchase the right to collect your debt. As part of the agreement to purchase the collection agency is barred from discussing the matter with anyone and they must forward all paperwork (original and copies) to the purchaser...." Is this a service that you or your company provides? If so, how can I apply to go this route? If not, who can I seek to do this for me? In addition, does a person have to be "license" to buy credit portfolios and report them to all 3 bureaus? Or can I not just give all the money that I owed to a friend to buy the portfolios back and report it to the credit agencies as stated by the message? Also, how different is this from going to a debt consolidation firm? "...Phase 4: You pay the purchaser of your debt the amount owed. They destroy the key documents that prove you didn't pay the original debt as agreed and issue you a letter saying, 'We purchased the right to collect on this debt from XYZ collection agency who purchased the right from ABC Original Creditor. We have reviewed the file for the original payment history and cannot find it. We have no evidence to indicate Chris Ryan failed to pay the original debt as agreed, nor can we determine if the charge off was handled correctly. We can, however, indicate his payment history with us. In the past XXX months, Mr. Ryan was never late and has paid better than agreed. If we can be of further assistance in this matter please contact us at (xxx) xxx-xxxx. A copy of the assignment from XYZ Collection Agency is included herein.'..." I think that I have read enough information on your site and understand that even if I do have all of the money to pay the debt off, that I would still have the negative inquiry on my report. If so, I would rather wait seven years instead if this is the actual reality of having several charge-offs listed. However, I guess my biggest concern is having a judgement made against me. Needless to say, I know that I really would like to take care of this soon before any judgement can be made, especially if I can avoid using an attorney. Please advise, Respectfully, Nick -------------------------------------------------- BEGIN TRANSCRIPT [File: http://www.bayhouse.com/forums/credit/messages/461.html ] -------------------------------------------------- Posted by Sean on June 07, 1999 at 10:46:55: In Reply to: Charge Off Collections Help?!?! Sean? Christine? posted by Chris Ryan on June 06, 1999 at 10:22:37: DO NOT PAY THIS THING OFF. THE FACT THAT YOU OWE THEM MONEY IS YOUR ONLY LEVERAGE. Phase 1: Contact the original creditor by mail requesting the following: A written statement of their charge-off policy. A complete account payment history. You should receive one of three responses: 1. "Here is the payment history and charge-off policy showing everything was done properly." If this happens you are sunk. Wait 7 years for the bad thing to vanish. 2. "We do not have the payment history and/or we incorrectly charged-off your account." Forward that baby to the credit reporting agencies and the charge-off vanishes. 3. "We do not have the payment history because we forwarded it to the other agency when we sold your debt." Phase 2: Send a letter to the collection agency saying something along these lines: "IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FAIR DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES ACT I ORDER YOU TO CEASE AND DESIST ANY AND ALL ATTEMPTS TO CONTACT ME IN REGARDS TO THIS MATTER." Phase 3: Someone you know (your friend, Christine, myself, whoever) contacts the collection agency with an offer to purchase the right to collect your debt. As part of the agreement to purchase the collection agency is barred from discussing the matter with anyone and they must forward all paperwork (original and copies) to the purchaser. Phase 4: You pay the purchaser of your debt the amount owed. They destroy the key documents that prove you didn't pay the original debt as agreed and issue you a letter saying, "We purchased the right to collect on this debt from XYZ collection agency who purchased the right from ABC Original Creditor. We have reviewed the file for the original payment history and cannot find it. We have no evidence to indicate Chris Ryan failed to pay the original debt as agreed, nor can we determine if the charge off was handled correctly. We can, however, indicate his payment history with us. In the past XXX months, Mr. Ryan was never late and has paid better than agreed. If we can be of further assistance in this matter please contact us at (xxx) xxx-xxxx. A copy of the assignment from XYZ Collection Agency is included herein." Bingo, not only are the bad items removed but for a small fee you can have the credit agencies add your payment history with the third party and you have a positive installment loan added. -------------------------------------------------- END TRANSCRIPT --------------------------------------------------
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| | Sunday, October 31, 1999 - 02:03 pm I was going to begin providing this service, however for "consumer protection" the FTC has decided to place regulatory barriers in/on credit repair companies. Apparently now you have to be licensed and/or registered, etc. I'm not certain of all the details, but could probably find out. The above scenario is presented in the event that you don't have the cash yourself to settle all the debts today in the form of cash. When you do have sufficient cash to settle the matter yourself the normal procedure is just to contact the collection agency yourself and offer to pay the debt; provided, however, that they agree to either delete any reports they have made to credit reporting agencies or update you to a neutral status such as a simple "paid" or "not rated" notation. Normally deletion is the desired report since any rating, regardless how positive, coming from "XYZ Collections" isn't going to look good. My theory, at the time I posted that, was that an interested party could settle the debt for you and get a reasonable profit by collecting the original balance from you. In concrete form, let's say you owe on a $1200 charge off or collection account. You convince your someone (a family member or friend maybe?) to purchase this debt for you for 60 cents on the dollar ($720.00) and you agree to pay that person the original amount of the debt ($1200) in 12 monthly payments of $100. You end up with a cleaned up credit history and the person who aided you ends up with a whopping 106.70% return on their money (which should compensate them for the high-risk they took in, essentially, loaning you the money). The mechanics of purchasing debt is pretty simple. You contact the creditor, make an offer, have it accepted and they write on the back of the original note PAY TO THE ORDER OF ________________ and sign and date. Again, if you have the money yourself to settle the debt, you're better off going that route. More information on the subtle techniques of debt purchasing can be found on www.wallstreetbrokers.com or out of the book "Smart Trust Deed Investment In California" which can be bought from www.noteworthy.com (I believe Amazon.com no longer stocks the book). I contacted Equifax about reporting my debtors credit history and they won't handle that directly unless you have at least 500 accounts. With less you'd need to pay to have the payment histories coded ... it was pretty expensive. But you don't necessarily need to report on the credit history, just having a good non-disclosure agreement and/or taking all the original documents during the purchase is enough to make the debt and payment history unverifiable. Disputed credit information that is unverifiable must be removed. If you're asking if I'd be willing to front the money for a venture that has the possibility of returning 106.7% interest then I sure would, but right now all of my cash is being funnelled to a young lady who got in trouble with "paycheck advance loans" where a company will give you the money from the paycheck you won't get for a couple weeks today. The catch is they usually charge a fee for this service which works out to be a 200-300% interest rate. I refinanced a lot of her debt for her and hope to be able to refinance all of it soon.
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| | Sunday, October 31, 1999 - 07:40 pm Well, I still got *some* money left, but it's going much faster than I'd hoped. I'm looking at some land in Alaska for semi commercial development, but I just don't know .... The idea of purchasing the debt of someone who you know will pay it off sounds really good to me. When I worked as a broker many of my clients were not the "executives," but the landscapers, waiters, drivers, etc., who don't have a fax and often had a hard time dealing with creditors/collections. And of course there is the issue of privacy. Do you really want the entire office to know that you're negotiating a collection? And some collection agencies definitely increase their collection efforts once they've been contacted by a debtor. Personally, I really don't like to negotiate on my own behalf. I don't do well. It's unpleasant. I'm too involved, put on the spot, don't have time to *think.* I guess I could make up a husband I'd have to confer with, but that seems a little lame. Anyway, I definitely think there should be a service for consumer to get this type of representation. Obviously the industry and the government don't want that. I know that there are people doing this, but they seem to keep a low profile. I for one don't need triple digit returns, I just want to get paid for my time. It's the perfect win-win-win situation for everybody. Example: The debtor settles a $5,000 debt for $2,000, (and can go on to buy a house or whatever) the collection agency gets paid $1,000 or $1,500 for an account they purchased for a few hundred dollars, and I'd get paid too. If anyone got more info on the subject, please post.
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| | Tuesday, November 09, 1999 - 10:19 pm I read all of your excellent advise Sean and Christine from all the way back and I ran into terrible trouble convincing, through an attorney mind you, 5 collection agencies that there is in fact a way to remove information from my credit report. The credit bureaus had them convinced that "Accurate information can not be removed" means that once reported, nothing can be deleted, not even by them, the reporters. For 3 of them, I took that "restricted endorsement" approach of having my lawyer send a letter with my check stating that upon cashing the payment the account was fully settled and any reference to it must be removed from my credit reports. None actually did and now I am stuck going to small claims court when I finally have time. (Christine, you are correct, no lawyer understands credit. The lawyer I hired to do the letters actually tried to convince me to declare bankruptcy, when I have the money to pay all the debts?? Hello. . .I want to pay the debts and I have the money now to do it.) For the remaining 2 unpaid accounts, I would like to pay someone upfront the balance owed and have them buy the darn account so that what you describe in your posts here Sean can be done. In other words I want to pay someone to buy the debts who knows what they are doing, not just a friend/acquaintance. Is this something you have any interest in doing?
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| | Wednesday, November 10, 1999 - 02:17 pm For finding an attorney you're better off looking for a litigator than a bankruptcy attorney. Someone who works in personal injury can work, it's just a matter of convincing him to take the case. It's best to start with a lie. Tell him someone slipped on your property and you're looking to settle the lawsuit. Ask the attorney how many settlements they've negotiated in the past year. Tell them you want to make sure the person can't welch on the deal. A person who has done quite a few settlements and can construct an air tight settlement agreement is the type of person you want. Lawsuits get settled all the time. A bankruptcy attorney will try to help you but they'll only be a fish out of water and may often try to convince you that bankruptcy is a better alternative.
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