Expert: Chris Ebert - 1/17/2010

Question
I may have asked a question a few weeks ago to you but have one more question. I recently looked at my credit report so that I can start trying to clear it up and take care of things in order to get into a low income apartment I'm interested in. I have 6 things against me (all for low amounts) 3 of which being credit cards and they each say charge off next to them and then 3 others that are collectors. Is it possible that the 3 collectors are for the 3 credit cards them self? I was told no and that I would need to pay all 6 however just want to make sure. I'm kind of confused because for example one of the credit cards is for walmart for 150 and says charge off and then one of the collects MCM is for 188..  I just got a bill from them and it says its for Walmart. So I'm guessing those are for the same actual credit card problem. Should I worry about paying off the charge-off's at this point and focus more on the collectors that are on my credit if I can't afford all? For the 3 charges offs it says my balance is $0. And the 3 collection agencies have actual balance amounts? I'm just trying to figure out where to start on paying these off and don't have much money so don't want to just start sending checks to all these places and paying for the same bill twice. I was told by a debt collections place that helps you that I would need to repay all 6 however remember a long time ago trying to help pay off a friends medical bill and they said it is no longer their bill and now the collections agency so I'm wondering if that is the same as the charge offs?

Answer
Angela,

Once the credit card company has charged off the account they usually will refer you on to the person they sold it to collect. In short, you should deal with the collection agencies. If you agree to settle the debt then you should ask for the deletion. The debt collector can only usually delete their own entry and not the original creditor's entry.

Here is a debt settlement sheet for you to use:

http://www.henleycreditlaw.com/269/


Chris Ebert
http://www.henleycreditlaw.com