sschmidt88 titles the posting
”What Should Be Documented in a Settlement Letter?”
but aaron’s answer on 08-22-07 seems so vague. Can we get some verbiage?

The collection company that mailed to me wrote “We have received approval from our client to accept $_______.__, via certified funds payable to ABC Recovery Services, Inc. to be sent for receipt no later than…….”
And “our client” is not the bank that issued the credit card. It is their client, apparently another collection, recovery, or services company.

The collection company writes “Upon successful completion of this agreement, there will be no further obligation on your part for this debt to either, “ABC Recovery Service”, or “XYZ Capital Services, LP” “ but that seems sufficiently vague. Who cares about their “client”? What about the bank? What about the credit reporting companies?

They also write “Upon completion of this transaction, all collection activity will cease on this account and the client will be notified to update the settled status to the appropriate credit reporting agencies”. Once again, who cares how the client updates their records? I want to know how the original credit card or bank will update their records. I want to know how Equifax, etc will update their records, or how they will respond to my notification/verification of the payment.

In the header of this letter the original credit card account number is referenced as “Original account #”
The original bank that issued the card is titled/referred to as “C/O:”
(“care of”)

The “Client:”, as I said, seems to be just another collection, recovery, or services company. It is not the bank that did the issuing.

A previous letter that I got on this delinquency had text like

"as settlement in full of the above-referenced account"
(as opposed to this new collection company writing “settlement of your account").

"Upon receipt of cleared funds, ( our service ) and our client will consider this account settled with zero balance. We will issue a release letter stating this account is settled with no further obligation due".
(My current collection agency writes: “We have received approval from our client to accept $_____, via certified funds payable to ABC Recovery Services")

But the other collection company came right out and specifically said
"Your JLK Bank account has been purchased by our client, XYZ Capital Services....Our client has authorized (us) to accept $_____ as settlement in full of the above-referenced account".

My current collection agency does not say what they do in obligation after they "accept $_____".

I'm just worried about a wording technicality causing me to throw away all my hard-earned overtime, and tax rebate, and applying my money to interest and fees, instead of a full, true settlement.

(Tonight, I called the Bank that the credit card was originally issued through and the customer service person only would say "ABC Recovery Service is collecting on 'our behalf' for the JKL Bank account". They had nothing that they could fax to me. I have not received any letters from the bank that stated that ABC was authorized to settle the matter, zero the account, or remove the obligation.)

Specific wording anyone?