Pay for Delete or Dispute | Free Credit Dispute Form Letter

Your website is so helpful. I’d just gotten through writing up a “pay for delete” letter to Direct TV when I had a thought…

My husband moved back to TX from CA last September due to a family emergency. He had Direct TV at the time, and they sent him a final bill for $225.05, $180.00 of which is shown as “Early Cancellation Fee.”

Doing a bit of research, I’ve found that there’s a class action lawsuit in CA for people who were assessed an early cancellation fee of between $100-449 (!) dollars. It looks like at least some of these people’s accounts were charged without their ok, and they were unaware that there was a minimum time period to honor when they signed up for Direct TV.

So my question is this: Should I contact the credit bureaus (on my husband’s behalf..he’s let this slide for a year now)…and dispute the charges, now listed as “charge off” or should I go ahead and contact Direct TV with a Pay for Delete letter? And if I should do the Pay for Delete, should I argue about the $180.00 early termination fee and cite the Class Action suit as a reason to not pay it? Or go ahead and offer up the entire amount, including the early term. amount?

I might add that he’s contacted Direct TV via telephone, and had no luck. The rep. told him they’d sent it to a collection agency, and he should contact them.

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