Another complicated question?

Question

I took out a student loan that was actually a personal loan from a College but wasn’t responsible enough to pay it on time so therefore it went to collections. I doubt this is possible but do you guys have any idea if I could write a letter of “Pay for Delete” to the CA (Immediate Credit Recovery) despite the fact that I already paid?

I guess it doesn’t hurt to try. The best thing for me to do is to wait till I get a copy of my credit report which I already requested. If it shows that’s been paid then I’ll write a goodwill letter to the CA. Now if my credit is out-of-date then I’ll write a dispute letter to the CRA and see where it goes from there. Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

If you have paid it off, then you have no leverage to the company to delete the information.

However, there is a good chance that if you send in a dispute to the Credit Reporting Agency(Equifax, TransUnion, Experian) requesting verification of the listing it might be removed. The CRA will request verifiction from the collection agency and several(but not all) of these will not respond to these verification requests if the account is paid in full. So if they don't respond the CRA will delete the listing. Be sure that if you do send a letter to send it by Certified Mail with a Return Receipt.

Now, if they do respond then it can only remain on your report for 7 years from the date of the first delinquency. It does not matter when you paid it off, this date can not be re-aged. So even if you paid it last week, the 7 years still starts from the date you went delinquent.

Answer 2

You would send a goodwill letter and not a PFD letter.
Though requesting that a CA delete after payment has already been made makes it more difficult since you have lost all leverage

First, check your credit reports for "any" inaccurate information the CA is reporting. If they are still reporting a balance instead of a zero balance, if they are reporting it as past due, if they are reporting it as X number of months past due, etc., etc., etc.
You might do some reading in the FCRA and learn what would constitue a violation in reporting.
(I have a link to the FCRA and other FTC sites listed in my profile on here)

If they are reporting incorrectly you should start by disputing the inaccuracies with the CRA's. The CA should either correct the inaccuracies and if not then it should be deleted.

If the CA does not correct the inaccuracies but verifies them, file complaints with the BBB, FTC, your AG and the CA's AG.
Then file another dispute with the CRA's and include a copy of your FTC complaint.

If by some slim chance the CA is reporting correctly (ha) or corrects the tradeline then you might send the CA a goodwill letter asking them to delete.

Requesting goodwill from them to delete after already paying them is a long shot, but it might work.

edited to add
OC posted while I was typing this response, I agree with everything he posted.

Answer 3

Yes, anything that was paid in full and is on your credit can be removed. Send a copy of something that you have showing that it's paid in full. You can even asked them to try to get it where it will show up as positive credit instead of negative.

Answer 4

No. They already have your money, they don't care.