Credit Card Debt Negotiation and Your Credit Report.

Remember to bargain with the creditor in relation to your credit rating!

Credit card debt negotiation means it's time to negotiate what happens to your credit report with the creditor.

This is extremely important since a "paid" collection can be as bad to your credit rating as an "unpaid collection" if reported in a way that isn't in your best interests.

All your efforts and money will be useless in rebuilding your credit report if you forget to negotiate the reporting to your credit history throughout the process.

1. You need to aim for a perfect or near perfect rating.

Your ultimate objective in negotiating settlement is to protect/improve your credit rating.

Your goal here is to get the creditor to register your credit rating after the settlement with a notation of "Paid as Agreed". Something less will negatively influence your credit score.

2. Creditors make money by collecting bad debts, not by registering negative credit data.

Since creditors usually understand this vicious cycle, they are often willing to erase any negative information after the debt has been settled.

But, you should also understand that creditors don't intentionally degrade your credit rating as a personal revenge. If it is in their best interests to collect from you and bring your rating back to perfect, they will certainly do so.

Talk with them to discuss your account, and how the two of you can come to a mutually satisfactory arrangement to settle your debt.

3. Collection agencies are always more willing to erase the negative mark compared to banks and other financial institutions.

The reason is even if they do change the rating, you still have the original report mark by the creditor.

4. Convince the collection agency to remove their notice from your report fully and get the original creditor to modify the rating to "Paid As Agreed."

Even in the worst case, keep in mind that you have the legal right to demand removal of the collection agency notice from your report.

Some debt collectors tend to say they can't control what the creditor might do with your credit report. While this might be true, nevertheless, the aim of the debt collector, as well as the creditor, is to have their money back. NEGOTIATE!

If the debt collection agency gets its money, so does the creditor, which means that it is in their best interest to collaborate.

Tell the debt collector to get it in writing from the creditor, and you will pay them their money. If not, you will turn to a more helpful creditor with the money you still have left.

However, keep in mind that not all collection efforts will come from credit cards. For example, a doctor bill cannot show up in your credit report. Nevertheless, collection attempts on these accounts may be included.

5. Many creditors, however, have an agreement with the credit bureaus preventing a negative listing from being deleted upon settlement.

Although this might happen, you can still ask the creditor to edit their report.

Anything reported by a creditor can be changed by a creditor. If this weren't possible, creditors wouldn't be able to modify incorrect information included on your account by mistake, and get in real trouble with the FTC.

In the case of bigger creditors, such as some credit cards or banks, you will probably need more time to convince them to remove a negative listing. However, remember that almost every creditor will finally agree if you are persuasive enough.

If you have to accept an imperfect credit listing as part of your settlement:

Be prepared to face creditors who will require more pressure before agreeing to remove the negative listing from your file. Sometimes, they may seem absolutely unwilling to delete the negative listing.

But again, keep in mind that every creditor will ultimately do what you want if you talk to the right person, are tolerant and determined, and make the right offer. But if you have really little time, and your lawyer can't make them agree to full removal, here is what you can do:

List the account as "Paid" only. You can offer the creditor to indicate the account as "Paid" instead of having to remove it altogether.

Besides representing a real indication of the status of the account, a lot of creditors will almost certainly agree to this wording. But remember that "Paid" considered a negative for a collection account or an account that includes other negative notions.

Try for a listing on your report as "Settled". Instead of deleting it altogether, you can counter-offer that the creditor indicate the account as "Settled". This notion is an intrinsically negative but not as bad as "Paid Charge-off." Therefore, you should agree to a "Settled" listing only if all other options are exhausted.

In fact, "Settled" could still generate a credit rejection, but the new creditor may also ask for an explanation, giving you the opportunity to explain extenuating circumstances. So, agree to this only if you can get other negative marks removed at the same time. And of course, even after this, you should continue to try to remove the mark through the credit report dispute process.

Should you accept a "Paid Charge-off" or "Paid Collection" or "Paid was 30-, 60-, or 90-days late" notation?

Although this is the creditor's original entry, it should be your last of all options regarding the marks in your credit file.

If you can't get it changed however, it is still usually a good idea to settle even though the creditor doesn't budge on removing or positively changing the negative listing. You can always try to remove the negative marks after payment via the dispute process with the major credit bureaus.

These credit card debt negotiation tips will help you when it comes to protecting and improving your credit report. They will take time to do however; so if you don't feel you have the time to spend on this, hire a reputable debt negotiation specialist to do it for you.



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