“Credit History” Archive
Jun
15
Even my attorney cannot clearly determine, after looking at all the correspondence and my credit report, who exactly still owns the debts from American Express. As a first step and in an effort to determine who really owns the debt, the debts will be be verified in accordance with the Fair Debt Collection Practices act. Yes, this is little more than an attempt to make the debt collectors wait longer for any kind of settlement but it is also a potential avenue for them to make a mistake, in which case I will not owe anything. I don’t anticipate this to be the case so I have planned on settling the debt and am setting the funds aside to do so.
Assuming the debt is verified, my attorney will then try and secure a settlement of 40% of the original debt, along with the stipulation that any reference to a collection account be deleted from my credit reports and that AMEX will report the account as ‘paid in full’ rather than settled or charged off. I think the collection agency will oblige because logically they have no reason to keep the negative reporting on my report if they get paid. Collection agencies, particularly around the end of the month, just want to get paid, period! I will likely have to settle for something in between what I want and what AMEX will do in terms of reporting the debt, however. That’s fine to be perfectly honest. No matter what happens it will take a few years for my credit history to rebuild itself. In the meantime, I will use a debit card that either gives me frequent flier miles or cash back for the everyday things I need to buy, i.e. gas, groceries etc.
I hope to have some more definitive news in a few weeks once the debt is verified and the true negotiation begins. Who knows, perhaps the collection agencies will screw up and the debt will just disappear. Okay, wishful thinking 
