HI ANYONE, I HAVE BEEN STUDYING POSTS HERE FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS, AND ALTHOUGH I AM GETTING SOME GOOD INFORMATION, IT GET' S CONFUSING WHEN SETTLEING IS CONCERNED. HERE IS THE SITUATION: MY HUSBAND HAS BAD CREDIT. HIS CREDIT SCORES DON'T SEEM TOO BAD COMPARED TO OTHERS ON HERE, BUT NO ONE WILL FINANCE HIM FOR ANYTHING. EQUIFAX 699 EXPERIAN 522 TRANSUNION 487 WE REALLY NEED TO BUY A HOUSE BECAUSE OUR LEASE IS UP IN MAY, SO WE ARE BASICALLY LOOKING FOR THE FASTEST SOLUTION. A COUPLE YEARS AGO WE TRIED ICR SERVICES TO HELP WITH THE PROBLEM, BUT IT DID NOT GET VERY FAR. AT THIS POINT WE ARE READY TO PAY. A FEW OF THE ACCOUNTS WILL BE DROPPED BY THE END OF THIS YEAR, BUT WE DON'T HAVE THAT LONG TO WAIT. I JUST NEED TO KNOW THE BEST WAY TO APPROACH THIS. HOW MUCH TO OFFER. SHOULD I CALL THEM TO NEGOTIATE THEN FAX A LETTER ( DOES ANYONE HAVE A TEMPLATE???)AND WHEN THEY SIGN PAY THEM BY PHONE? ALSO WHAT NUMBERS SHOULD I START WITH. THE SMALLER ONES I AM EVEN WILLING TO PAY IN FULL IF NEED BE. i ALSO OWE, BUT THEY ARE SO MIMIMUL THAT I WILL JUST PAY THEM ALL IN FULL AS LONG AS THEY ARE DELETED FROM MY CREDIT. HOW LONG CAN I GIVE A COMPANY TO HAVE THINGS REMOVED FROM CREDIT? AND CAN IT REALLY BE DELETED OR JUST PAID AND CLOSED? I KNOW I HAVE A TON OF QUESTIONS, BUT I AM IN A CONFUSED STATE OF MIND. INFO. OVERLOAD! i AM ENDING WITH ALL OF MY HUSBANDS INFO. MINUS OUR CURRENT CAR PAYMENT WHICH THEY LET HIM COSIGN WITH ME. WE KNEW PEOPLE AT FORD. ANYWAY BOTH CARS ARE IN MY NAME WE NEVER PAY LATE. ACCOUNT:CBUSASEARS ACCOUNT BAL: 1838 OPEN" 8/1995 LAST REPORTED: 10/1997 AMOUNT PAST DUE: 1838 ALL 3 TUC: CHARGE OFF aCCOUNT: AFNI_BLOOM (I CAN'T FIND INFO. ON, ADDRESS, PHONE) BAL: 810 LAST REPORTED: 5/1997 P PAST DUE: 0 EFX ONLY ACCOUNT: CHARTER ONE AUTO FINANCE HIGH LIMIT: 5869 BAL: 0 PAST DUE:0 OPEN: 6/1996 LAST REPORTED: 03/2003 THIS I HAVE THE MOST QUESTIONS ON !! THERE IS NO BAL: SO WHAT DO I PAY THEM OR WHY ARE THEY THERE. XPN, TUC XPN: CHARGE OFF TUC: COLLATERAL: 1990 FORD MUS AFNI-BLOOM (AGAIN) BAL: 508 PAST DUE: 0 LAST REPORTED 06/1997 EFX ONLY ACCOUNT: BURDIN/FDSB BAL: 481 PAST DUE: 481 OPEN: 12/1996 REPORTED: 10/1997 STATUS: CLOSED TUC ONLY CHARGE OFF BANK OF AMERICAHIGH: 8,000 BAL: 0 PAST DUE: 0 OPEN 1/1995 REPORT: 11/2002 EQUIFAX ONLY ACCOUNT: AND FIN NET BAL: 508 PAST DUE: 0 TUC ONLY: DISPUTED BY CUSTOMER ACCOUNT NCO FINANCIAL SVCS BAL: 0 DUE: 0 XPN ONLY: COLLECTION DEPT./AGENCY/ATTORNEY THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP. YOUR A LIFE SAVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In most cases the credit reporting agency can provide contact information for the companies on their report. Settling is the last step, since most of these are ancient, chances are they are about to fall off due to age, but you can help to throw them off the report a lot faster. CitiBank acquired Sears portfolio of credit card accounts, since this hasn't been updated in a while chances are good that it may fall off if you dispute it. But since this is the OC you may not be able to get them to validate. But its worth a try. http://www.searscard.com/ I copied the information for the general sears card, if it was a MasterCard the addresses will be different. Billing Disputes For your protection, all billing disputes must be handled in writing. SEARS CARD Sears PO Box 818017 Cleveland, OH 44181-8017 All Other Written Inquiries SEARS CARD Sears PO Box 818014 Cleveland, OH 44181 Payment Address SEARS CARD Payment Center PO Box 182149 Columbus, OH 43218-2149 AFNI = Anderson Financial Network Bloomington, Illinois Corporate Headquarters Afni, Inc. 404 Brock Drive Bloomington, IL 61702 Phone: 309.828.5226 or 800.767.2364 Fax: 309.828.0931 I would send a validation letter to them certified mail with the account numbers as they are showing on your report. Add "I have never received any correspondence from your company, however a review of my credit files shows a listing from your company." as the first paragraph. Then at the same time (after you get the green card back or the post office web site confirms delivery), dispute with all three CRAs. If they can't provide the validation, and after more than six and a half years of NON-REPORTING, chances are they won't be able to; it'll fall off or they'll send an update to delete. If they update before validating, pass go collect $1,000.00 If they last reported in 6/1997; the chances are that this account could be disputed off of all three as "OBSOLETE/NOT MINE" in other words, not only did I never hear of this company, or this account, but it is beyond (or close enough to it) the FCRA reporting time-clock. Information can still be reported even if there isn't a balance, however if you dispute it they may delete since they don't have anything to gain by continuing to report it. Do you remember when the date of last activity would be. Again, they appear to be the OC, but depending on how old the account is, you may be able to get rid of them by disputing it. NCO I would request validation of the account, and dispute it as well. What is the "this item is to remain until: xx/xx" date for this tradeline, that will tell you how old this account probably is.
BTW: You probably want to focus more on TU and EX; the EQ score as is is probably good enough and may get better when you dispute the accounts that overlap the EQ report, but I wouldn't focus on accounts that are only reporting on EQ. At least for now... Also if one of the paid ones won't delete, don't worry as much about it, chances are if you find a mort co that would approve, they will be more concerned with the unpaid, than paid notations.
will it still drop when the time comes if i pay, or will it recycle? For the Charter One, do you think I can call them to ask them to drop it. or is mail always the best solution?
what does oc mean? Do i dispute with the company themselves or the credit bureau? Wouldn't settleing be faster? Are there any sample dispute letters? Can the letter be the same for all of them
okay, so i printed out some validation letters and dispute letters. let me know if i have this right, I send the validation letter to the credit bureaus and i send the dispute letter to the actual creditors?? and which ones would you suggest i pay?
Re: Re: How To Settle. Please Help!! NO! You send the validation letters by Certified Mail Return Receipt to the Collection Agencies (CA's) . When you get the green card back from the Post Office you dispute the Tradeline with the Credit Reporting Agency (CRA)
Re: Re: How To Settle. Please Help!! Good catch PD. A lot depends upon the circumstances of a particular situation. I would hold off on doing anything until you learn more about what you're doing. Don't wanna make any mistakes. .
Re: Re: How To Settle. Please Help!! THANKS, BUTCH! DO YOU HAPPEN TO HAVE ANY ADVICE ON WHAT MIGHT BE MY BEST APPROACH??
Re: Re: How To Settle. Please Help!! mini-alphabet-soup... OC=Original Creditor CA=Collection Agency CRA=Credit Reporting Agency The first steps are to read all the intro posts at the top of the forum list, then to read all of the threads that are in Butch's signature. You'll also want to read all these threads from start to finish, yes, in some of them the discussion veers of track momentarily, but even when it does, good discussions can come out of them. Once you have an idea, then you should be able to grasp how to proceed. Settling is probably not going to be any faster, because even if they sign an agreement to delete, they could either forget to delete; or drag their heels deleting. If you request validation, from the CAs, and dispute with the CRAs as soon as you know that the CAs have received the disputes, you may be able to get some of the older collection accounts deleted in a little over a month. Any that can validate -- and then verify the accounts with the CRAs, then you can offer to settle after they've provided the validation. By forcing them to prove before settling, you can make sure that they aren't trying to add anything that isn't allowed into the amounts that they are attempting to collect.
Re: Re: How To Settle. Please Help!! okay, i think i am finally understanding. I have read up some more and I am ready to validate. I am going to use some templates I foud for validating and disputing. I will send validation to the CA's and Dispute to the CRA's once I receive the certified mail return. Now the account numbers on my credit report are not fully listed they have half the number then xxxxx. Do I need the full account number in the letter or is how I have it ok????????
Re: Re: How To Settle. Please Help!! I also had a question on something else. RMA has been sending settlement letters to us, for American Express Optima, but they aren't even on any of my credit reports!!!!!!!!!
Re: Re: How To Settle. Please Help!! NEVER MIND ON THE ACCOUNT # QUESTION, I FOUND THE FULL ACCOUNT # ON ANOTHER CREDIT REPORT. STUUUUUPID QUESTION (LOL)
Re: Re: Re: How To Settle. Please Help!! Just use the account numbers as listed in the CR's. Be sure to use the same number of "X's". This may designate the additional number of digits in the real number. I still think you should slow down Jay. It's easy to make mistakes that have long lasting effect. I promised myself I would do nothing for 1 full month, and use that as study time. Once I got goin I remained motionless for more like 2 months. There's a LOT going on here. We care about how successful you're going to be. .
Re: Re: Re: How To Settle. Please Help!! YOUR RIGHT. I AM GOING TO TAKE SOME TIME TO ORGANIZE MY THOUGHTS. I JUST FEEL SO RUSHED TO TRY TO GET INTO A HOUSE BY MAY, BUT I GUESS IT WON'T DO ME ANY GOOD. 5 OF THE ACCOUNTS ARE DUE TO DROP BY THE END OF THE YEAR, SO MY OTHER OPTION IS TO RENT FOR 1 MORE YEAR, IT JUST HURTS TO THROW ALL THAT MONEY AWAY, ROUGHLY 12,000 IN THE YEAR. WHAT DO YOU THINK. IS THE BEST THING TO LET THE ACCOUNTS RUN THEIR COURSE???
Re: Re: Re: Re: How To Settle. Please Help!! We know exactly how you feel Jay. Many feel the same way about "throwing" money away on rent. The "extra" money lost by renting for another year is nothing compared to what it would cost you if you got into a house without first fixing your CR's. The interest rate you'll get on your mortgage is tied directly to your score. Here's a CN member asking about the same problem: Yuppie had a score of about mid 500's. I suggested she hold off for a while, but she needed a good reason. So she asked; how bad of an intrest rate are we talking on an fha loan with a credit report such as my own?? Here's a special thread; http://www.awesomecredit.com/cnsidebar/ruleof72.htm It shows the astounding difference between a few extra bucks out the window on rent, (while you fix your credit first) and being "rushed" to get into a home. It uses Yuppies case and compares that to what would happen if she got a mortgage now as compared to waitng a while. Here, I'll wet your appetite; She could go ahead and spend an extra $12,000 for the next year on rent, or LOSE; $566,594.69 Which one would YOU prefer? .
Re: Re: Re: Re: How To Settle. Please Help!! Here's what I told Freddie when he was in a hurry. Note that I had just joined CN myself; Originally posted by Butch on 7/27/02 Freddie, Let me see if I can explain something that may or may not help you, that's your decision. I joined this board 9 weeks ago. The first day I spent 18 hours reading these posts. The next day I realy got serious. I've read AT LEAST 20,000 posts. Studied FDCPA and FCRA 10 times. Printed out and studied AT LEAST 20 Cases ( lawsuits filed against CRA's and CA's). I'm a bit fortunate to be able to bring myself up to speed very quickly becasue I'm self employed and was in a postion to take a lot of time off to read, read, and re-read. After 9 weeks the stack of stuff I have printed out if 2 feet high, (that's feet not inches). And I'm a Financial Planner in the first place and have been since 1980 so I had a "leg up" to begin with. ALERT -> I AM JUST NOW STARTING TO GET A HANDLE ON THIS STUFF AND LAUNCHING MY FIRST ROUND OF LETTERS! There are several excellent case studies of what can happen if we act too quickly. So I waited 9 weeks to get started. And you oughta see my "stack of stuff" now. LOL .
Re: Re: Re: Re: How To Settle. Please Help!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT BUTCH!! THAT WAS SO INTERESTING AND HELPFUL. WAITING SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT IDEA NOW. BUT WHERE CAN YOU GET SUCH GREAT INTEREST RATES ON SAVINGS?? I KNOW MY BANKS INTEREST RATE IS MINIMUL. ANYWAY, WE SPOKE TO A MORTGAGE LENDER A COUPLE WEEKS AGO AND HE SAID HE WOULD GIVE US A LOAN AT A 2 YEAR FIXED RATE OF 6.5% WITH 10% DOWN. BY THE END OF THE TWO YEARS OUR CREDIT NEEDED TO BE FIXED SO WE COULD REFINANCE. HE ASSURED ME THAT HE DOUBTED THE INTEREST RATE WOULD CHANGE MUCH IN THAT TIME. WE JUST DECIDED AGAINST TAKING THAT UP, BUT I AM INTERESTED TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT.