Charged off debt

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Borbiusle I've been disputing a paid/closed account with CITI for about 6 months now. I already disputed with all 3 CRA's, they verified it with CITI and won't remove it. I sent a certified mail letter to CITI, asking them to provide me a copy of my original contract that I signed and documents stating when my account was closed, else I'll file suit for FCRA violations. They sent me a generic letter that ignored my requests and asked for a copy of my credit report and the item in question, even though I provided them the account # and my social. I tried calling CITI out of desperation but the rep and her supervisor basically stonewalled me, and tried to redirect me to the credit bureaus. I don't see how sending my credit report to them is magically going to change anything, but I might give it a shot. Asked for advice on another forum, they basically told me to get a lawyer(they charge 200/hr where I live) and go to federal court to fight it :P. I'm really out of ideas as to how to proceed right now. Any advice? Here's why I'm disputing if anyone is interested: Prior to joining the military, I had to call all of my creditors and let them know of my active duty status and set-up payment arrangements with all of them via checking account. I even have a record of this on paper with all the phone numbers I called and the people I spoke with so I know I didn't miss any creditor. Everything was smooth-sailing from there except with CITI. During my time in training, they kept dinging me with late payments. 6 months later, I finally had access to a computer with unrestricted internet, looked up my credit report, and saw that the account had been closed with a string of late payments behind it. I tried calling them to find out what was going on, they acted as if we never made an arrangement. Tried negotiating 100% payment in exchange for deleting the account on my report, they wouldn't budge. I grew frustrated with arguing with call representatives so I finally caved in and paid it off. I lost all my bargaining power at this point so I didn't do anything about it until recently. My credit has improved greatly since then, I've gone from 540 to 723 in the span of 2.5 years, 0 late payments since 2006, all accounts in good standing. The problem I'm having is that everytime I go apply for credit, this account always comes up. I'm usually approved but I always get socked with an insane interest rate (29-36%). When I'm not approved, it always deragtory acct and late payments as the main reasons for disapproval. I've gotten by using credit unions and military-friendly banks but they can only do so much. Things got really bad once I tried to rent a place. Even though the acct is paid off and 4 years old, they treat it as if it happened yesterday and I often get denied on those grounds.

I'm sorry that I don't have any answers for you. I have try to teach that once an account goes into charge off the debtor should vow never to pay anybody a crying dime on the account and most especially not to a debt collector. The only possible outcome of paying a charged off account is more grief. You would have been in the same boat if you had not paid them off as you are now. In net effect you gained nothing by paying them off and paying them off ended up costing you time and money with no resultant benefit.

In my opinion it is always better to fight than it is to knuckle under and pay. Sorry I don't have a solution to your problem. I hope someone else here can give you some answers to your problem.

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