Negotiating or Settling with Liberty Acquisitions LLC a Junk Debt Buyer

I had a credit card with Wells Fargo that was charged off and sold around 3 years ago. Wells Fargo reported the charge off on my credit and reported a zero balance. I called Wells Fargo to settle the debt recently and they said they sold the debt to Absolute Resolutions. I called them and they sold the debt to Liberty Acquisitions.

So far I've never received a letter from Liberty Acquisitions, and when I called them to see if they owned the debt, they said they did but said they sent a letter to an address on my credit report, which happens to be an incorrect address. I decided to see if they would be willing to settle on my original $6k debt, now at $7k with interest.

Liberty agreed to accept a little over $2k to settle and sent a settlement letter by mail and email. Now I'm worried about paying them because they did say that they are a non-reporting agency and have no control over what Wells Fargo reports. I've got the cashiers check, copies of everything and just not sure I want to send the check. Now I'm thinking I should have made them validate the debt, if I do that, the date will pass when the funds are to be received.

Should I make them validate the debt being they are a junk debt buyer even though I've got the settlement letter?

—Paul

Following the chain of communication you completed, settling the old Wells Fargo debt with Liberty Acquisitions LLC makes sense. The savings on the deal you negotiated with them is significant and inline with what I would target.

Requesting debt validation from Liberty Acquisitions.

Sending a request to Liberty for them to validate the debt is certainly your right. And it is a good option for someone who:

Is not sure about the debt being their own.
The accuracy of the balance being collected.
In some cases as part of negotiating and settling
You know the debt is yours, and the balance due is correct, but cannot do anything to resolve it because of limited resources.

You have already verified with Wells Fargo that they sold it to Absolute Resolutions Corporation. That was followed by Absolute Resolution confirming they sold it to Liberty Acquisitions LLC. The balance reduction on the table through settlement is pretty good, and about a third of the original balance owed to Wells Fargo. If your goal is to settle the account and move on, you are in a great position to do that.

How Wells Fargo shows on your credit report.

I could read your concern about following through with the settlement a couple different ways. The one I assume is the correct interpretation is that you were expecting to get the Wells Fargo account updated on your credit report. But that is not on the table.

Your Wells Fargo account should be showing the credit card account as charged off and zero balance owed. Is that what you see? If not, that can be fixed. Once Wells Fargo sold the debt to Absolute Resolution, no money was owed to Wells any longer, and should have been updated to reflect that.

If Absolute Resolutions Corp is showing on your credit report, it is also owed no money, as they sold the rights and ownership of your debt to Liberty Acquisitions.

Liberty cannot have any affect on how the account is being reported other than what they send the bureaus themselves. Is Liberty Acquisitions LLC showing on your credit report at all?

If you can answer the above questions in a comment reply below I can offer more feedback. Anyone with questions about resolving debt with Liberty, or even Absolute Resolution Corporation, is welcome to post questions and concerns in the comments.

About Michael Bovee

Michael started CRN in 2004 with a mission to provide people in need with detailed debt and credit help and education. Michael has participated as an expert panelist in federal consumer protection rule making, collaborated on state law changes governing debt consolidation, has worked as an expert witness in court matters related to the debt relief industry. He is available to speak with you about your financial struggle and helps people resolve their debt problems daily.