Midland Credit Management/jeje's unsolicited two cents
[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Credit Forum Index ]
Posted by jeje
(207.171.180.101) on July 03, 2002 at 19:40:20:
I'm by no means an expert, but I recently settled a debt through Midland Credit Management. Everyone seems to find them to be a bear, but it was quite the opposite for
me. The OC was Providian, the CC was charged off, the original credit limit was $500. By the time Providian finished doing me dry, the balance was over a $1000. Gulf State got it and they wanted $1100. I wrote a long letter last year to Gulf State explaining that Providian had breached a repayment contract with me--a contract that each and every other creditor I had at the time chose to honour. For that reason, I would only pay $500 to settle the issue. Time passed. At tax time this year I got a letter from Gulf State offering to settle for $800-some-odd. I waited. Midland got hold of it in May and they wanted $1200. I made up my mind and just called them up, they connected me to Laurie. I just asked her straight out, "Are you interested in taking a settlement today?" "We'll take $780 to settle the matter." "Can you come down a bit?" "Hold on. *pause* We can take $743. That's the least they will take on this debt today." "Okay." It was over. They sent me a pay-off letter by fax immediately. My score rose 24 points at the end of the month just by having the word PAID added to that account. Once I got tired of being treated like a second-class, diseased, irresponsible deadbeat citizen on account of a silly credit report score, I came to a sobering conclusion: If the debt is mine, even if they can't validate it or don't have the paperwork, I'm going to pay it. I'd negotiate for a settlement amount, but I would pay. I also did my best to keep in mind that the collection agent on the end of the phone is doing their job. It just so happens that their job is to get me to give up money I may not have. It sucks for me and probably for them, too. Who wants to be a friggin' repo man, the bringer of seriously bad news? But, that's their job. I wouldn't want anybody hassling *me* over doing my job. So, I just treat them like people with an unpleasant job. This strategy has worked really well for me in that CA's are taking settlements from me all over the place. And, the ones that wouldn't were quick to offer deletions for full payments or payment plans and have actually followed through. I don't know if it's just the person you deal with or how you deal with them, but this has been the general trend of my credit repair/settlement efforts: fairly smooth. Maybe their just so happy to take a call that, for once, is not going to be a big fight. Or maybe word's gotten around that I'm eager to pay *something*, so they're less acidic with me. About validation...
If the debt is yours, and you know for a fact or have a strong suspicion that a CA will be unable to validate a debt, it may be faster and less painful to simply put that in your settlement letter. For instance, if you have a debt that's $700 from an old cable bill or some other silly thing, you might just want to say something along the lines of, "I contacted Warner Cable and they have no record of this debt. I don't recognize it either, but to avoid the misery of the validation process, here's $100-- as long as you sign here, of course. However, if you don't want to play nice and you want to waste my time and yours and risk not getting a dime, validate it for me. Have a good one." This has worked well for me in getting cheap settlements whilst simultaneously avoiding the seriously bad mojo of shirking my responsibilities. Just my experience and opinion,
jeje
Follow Ups:
Post a Followup
|
