Hi everyone! I am very new to the whole credit repair. I will be the first to admit that I do not know everything and I am a sponge and will love to learn as much as I can! I can't read enough from everyone's posts!! My credit score is a 698, I am 26 currently my credit report shows two 60 day late payments. And one collection account that happened when I was in the Army deployed to Iraq. I was told the water bill was taken care of by an ex, but it wasn't and at the end of my deployment I finally got a letter saying it was in collections. It was $50 bucks and I paid it immediately. I was also super immature about credit and got a card for davids bridal, borrowed the money paid it off in the interest free time period then had the card closed. I did the same thing with a loan I paid it back in the same as cash time period and then closed that account too. Those are the only items showing negative on my account and they are from 2007. I should probably post separately for this next topic, but I may be able to knock two birds with one stone! This will sound weird to most, I am helping my step-son's mom with her credit. She needed a car and I used to work at a dealership so I was her coach so to say at buying her first car. Her credit score was a 540. After we got her a decent deal on her car I asked if she would like help with her credit. Like I said I don't know much, but I do like to help people as much as I can. She has 19 accounts listed on her credit report and 19 of them are in collections. Some of them are medical, some of them are retail cards, and some of them are original creditors like BOA, and USAA credit cards. I understand vaguely about goodwill letters, but I don't know entirely what to do about collection accounts. I will also say this. She was blacklisted from having a bank account back in 2006ish I believe. All of her debts are from 2004-2007 and after all this she has been living paycheck to paycheck with no bank account, no car loan, no new lines of credit. So what happens then? I have heard the 7yr thing is a myth that it will "fall off" her credit report. But it has not, will she still have to pay back all those lines of credit she took out way back when and hasn't paid a dime on since? She is trying to start fresh. Any help you could give me on how to go about helping her I would greatly appreciate it. I am doing this because the better her life is, the better life my son has. Throw it all at me! I am a very smart sponge and can handle it!! THANK YOU ALL well in advance for any post and advice or opinions given! You won't hurt my feelings promise I have some thick skin! Again thank you for your time!
Congratulations on a relatively clean credit profile. Most people who come looking for help start many *many* points below you. Since you already paid the collection account, there's less room for negotiations, with however, the exception that you were in the service and deployed. I would think (hope), that with evidence of this, the CA would agree to delete this now paid account, or perhaps you could go back to the OC armed with this proof and ask them (if the account had been assigned and not actually sold to the CA), to instruct the CA to delete. As far as the 60-day late pays you have on the other two accounts, you can perhaps try for a GW letter to the OC's; I've run into a couple that are willing to forgive at least one late pay.....if this becomes the case, always choose the newest late date (logic is that will give the account the quickest path to converting to a positive one). You said they are from 2007, did you mean the late payments? If so, you're anywhere from 1 to 12 months from them converting to a positive TL anyway. Myth? Not quite: § 605. Requirements relating to information contained in consumer reports [15 U.S.C. §1681c] § 605. Requirements relating to information contained in consumer reports [15 U.S.C. §1681c] (a) Information excluded from consumer reports. Except as authorized under subsection (b) of this section, no consumer reporting agency may make any consumer report containing any of the following items of information: (4) Accounts placed for collection or charged to profit and loss which antedate the report by more than seven years. (c) Running of Reporting Period (1) In general. The 7-year period referred to in paragraphs (4) and (6)6 of subsection (a) shall begin, with respect to any delinquent account that is placed for collection (internally or by referral to a third party, whichever is earlier), charged to profit and loss, or subjected to any similar action, upon the expiration of the 180-day period beginning on the date of the commencement of the delinquency which immediately preceded the collection activity, charge to profit and loss, or similar action. ............... If any of those accounts are over 7 years, dispute them through the CRA as obsolete. However, before she even does that, I suggest she gets copies of her credit reports. http://annualcreditreport.com allows a free report from each CRA every 12 months. Once she has them, see what is really still reporting, and what the DOFD (date of first delinquency) is reporting as. As far as her being in Chexsystems from 2006 -- typically negative info falls off after 5 years, so she should be fine to apply again. The medical accounts....Google "Whychat method" to solve those problems, it's a tried and true method.
Thank you!! Does getting a 3 CB Report through creditReport.com count? Or do I have to get them directly from Transunion, Equifax, and Experian? We live in TX and I read the SOL for Texas is 4 yrs from the first non-payment... If that were true and it's been well over 7 yrs technically she can ask for them to be removed, and they should do it?
No, that's a private site and it may be a tri-merged report. I would suggest getting a copy of your report from each bureau individually. Those tri-merged reports can't always be relied on. You have to go through annualcreditreport.com in order to get each of them for free. Going directly to the CRAs website will be a pay report unless you certify you meet certain criteria (i.e.: unemployed and looking for work, denied credit in last 60 days, etc.) Well the statute of limitations and the reporting period are two different things. SOL is how long the creditor has to legally collect on a debt. Each state is different, but as you pointed out in yours, the creditor has 4 years from the DOFD to take legal action. The reporting period is 7 years and this is a federal law. This too is from the DOFD. So if it's a collection account, it will simply drop, if it was a CC and that late was surrounded by on-time payments, the account at the 7YR mark, will convert to positive. If it's been over 7 years and she has proof of such, DEMAND removal, no "asking" LOL. Dispute as obsolete. Disputes can be done online or by mail. Which you choose is your choice, we have members who will only dispute via CRRR mail, and others who have done so online and both have found success.
Mindcrime! I have some other questions. I have my letters written for disputes, but do I send a letter to EACH CRA, or do I just send it to one and they let the other two CRA know about my dispute. I know I can send more than one dispute in a letter but not too many because I don't want to look frivolous. If the case is to send them to each CRA individually, then would a fax confirmation receipt be just as good as sending it certified mail? Whether I fax my dispute or mail it, do I need to include an entire copy of my Credit Report with the errors highlighted, or can I just send the page that has the errors?
If you're disputing through the CRAs, you'll send a dispute to each of them. However, before we get to that, what is the dispute? Is this a collection account? Charge-off? etc... depending on what it is, you may want to take the debt validation route first. Fax confirmations, especially by a third-party are just as good as certified mail. You do not need to include a copy of your report or even just the page with the account you are disputing. Just list the items you are disputing and the reason why....but, like I said, give us more information on what you are disputing (don't need specifics like account numbers/names, of course) so I can be sure we're guiding you down the right path.
