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Originally Posted by Disk_Pusher
Dear NoSoup and greeneyes,
Thanks for doing this - I've been learning a lot by reading this thread. I've got a problem of my own making, and I'm not sure what to do, nor is my family (who has never had a credit problem in their life other than that they NEVER carry a balance...).
I had a cell phone through Sprint when I was 19. About 9 months ago, my financial situation came to be that I could not make payments on it anymore, nor could I afford the $200 terminate contract fee. I called Sprint, who told me to pay or... well, PAY. Well, I can't make money out of thin air, and my financial situation did not clear up within these 9 months. I found out today that $500 has gone to collections from Sprint.
What should I do next? How do I take care of this so that maybe, one day, I'll have a chance at getting a home/auto loan? My credit report now consists of one negative deliquent account, which looks miserable I know. Had I the resources to take care of this before it went to collections, I would have. I'm not going to bore you with why I couldn't - like they say, money problems are full of drama.
Thanks for your input.
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Well, I would recommend that you contact the collection agency - if you have the money to pay it off, offer to pay the full amount - providing they will take it off the credit bureau all together. Hopefully that will work - you may be able to negotiate the debt down, but they will be less likely to be lenient with the bureau if you don't give them all the money.
If they refuse, you have nothing to lose by negotiating the amount of debt down and at least getting it closed. Time is your friend - unfortunately, you just learned a tough lesson that will affect you for the next seven years, but it will hurt less and less as time goes on. I would suggest you start building some credit up to help get you set up for when you want that auto/home loan - it's never too early to start.
For a bit of additional info on building credit, you can refer to
this link. If you have any extra questions, please let me know!
Also, if you have any questions regarding the specifics of negotiating with collection agencies, feel free to either post em or send me a PM.
Good Luck!