How much to settle a 6 year old debt of $489?

Question

its charged off

Answer 1

If it's charged off, that means the debt is considered uncollectable.  After all these years, if your conscience is bothering you, perhaps you can call the company and find out what they will take.

Answer 2

The debt will not be deleted from your credit report.  Debt will show no outstanding balance. However, it will just be noted that is was settled for reduced amount.

Answer 3

You didn't get very detailed, so here are some options.

Do you agree with the debt?

Has it been reported (is it on your credit reports)?

If you don't agree and it hasn't been reported, then its probably best to ignore it.

If you do agree and it has been reported, then I would call them and make a "deal" to either remove it or report it positively in exchange for payment and agreement that no other interest or charges have accumulated on it.

Either way, its pretty much viewed as noncollectable after 7 years (less in most states).  The 7 year rule starts as of the last date of any activity on the account (any charge, payment, etc starts the date over).

The 7 year rule (again, varies by state), usually means its simply noncollectable (can't get a judgment, garnishment, etc.) and can't be reported, but doesn't mean the company can't hold it against you personally.  So, if you wish to do business with this company in the future, its best to pay it off.

"Written off" means a lot of different things to different companies.  For some it just means they don't care about it and "wrote it off" so they could claim a tax credit for it, for others it may mean they've sold off the debt.

In almost all cases its best to deal with the original company and not a debt collector.  If the company tells you "its in collections", then ask for a manager.  The only real exception to this is if the company has sold the debt.  In that case its paid as far as the company is concerned.