Written Off Debt

ildemoi

Hi guys, I’ve recently been looking into my credit file and it’s showing a balance owing to Drafty, this was previously passed from them to a collection agency. The collection agency have advised that the debt has been written off but that they do not report to credit reference agencies. As it’s been written off I cannot pay the debt amount should I be able to contact Drafty to have them mark this as written off / zero balance with the reference agencies? 

Thank you

DullGreyGuy

What does the status show of the account?

If you didnt pay it off in full the status is probably Partial & Final settlement which tells everyone that you arent going to be asked to pay back the monies but you didnt pay it all off... the balance I believe normally remains to show others what they wrote off (but will stand corrected if someone else says otherwise as it was a decade ago since I had one on my record)

ildemoi

The status shows as ‘default’ at the moment, I am wanting and willing to pay the balance but Drafty have said it’s no longer with them and the collection agency have said the balance is written off so nothing to pay. 

sourcrates

The debt has defaulted, so will come off your file on the 6th anniversary of the default date.

Paying it will not remove it, and having a settled default is not much better than an unsettled one.

If the DCA says it`s written off, then it`s written off, but who actually wrote it off?

If it was the original creditor, then normally they would remove the credit file info as well, that hasn`t happened, so we are to assume the debt collector/purchaser, has deemed the account unrecoverable for some reason, and written it off their books.

If that is the case, then nothing can be done from the DCA point of view, if Drafty are still in business you could write and explain what has happened, and as a gesture of goodwill, would they consider removing the credit file entry.

It`s very unlikely that they will, but worth the price of a stamp to find out.