Ok....Here is my situation....HELP!!!

1- Not a bad idea but, dispute it through the credit reporting agencies nonetheless; specifically, the dates of initial delinquency and account history,

2- Same as the above,

3- Same as the above

4- Not going to work. Dispute the incomplete data fields such as credit limits and dispute the dates of status. When they fail to update accordingly and do not mark the account as being in dispute file a complaint with the Virginia Corporation Commission. If that fails, institute a civil action,

5- Pay it before they sell it. Thereafter, dispute the account status, date of initial delinquency and account history,

6- Leave it be insofar as Citibank typically will follow the FCRA prescriptions,

7- You can settle it for 50%. Thereafter, dispute as set forth in paragraph 5,

8- Dispute as obsolete. Nothing to fear insofar as underlying matters are resolved and assuming arguendo that even if they weren't, its time-barred,

9- Dispute all data fields and hope for the best.

 

Ok, sounds like you have a good plan going! That is great! I am glad to see you have been researching and getting a game plan. You sound like you have spent alot of time working on this so some of what I say you may already know but I thought I would share my experiences.

Have you pulled an actual credit report from each CRA? Some CRA's require a report number to do any disputes with. If you haven't go to annualcreditreport(dot)com and request those.

Be sure when you dispute the old names and addys to give it a full 35 days or so to take, you may have some debts fall off that way. That happened to me, Trans deleted some debts along with an old addy. Don't be surprised if all old names & addys are not deleted, (/cough Experian!) just try to get what you can off. I wrote my request for names and addy deletions because I feared it could be a portal for potential identity theft since I no longer am known by that name and no longer reside at that address. I sent a copy of my DL for id proof.

I am fairly new to the process also but have had some good results with disputes to the CRA's.

Look at your reports and carefully review each debt for any inaccuracies.
You have the right as a consumer for your credit report to be factual and correct. And noone is going to do that for you. So it's your job to make sure it is.

Also take a look at the SOL (statute of limitations) for your state. This may factor how aggressive you want to be with a debt that could be "woken up" and sue you. If you know a debt is accurate and you owe it be prepared to to settle/PFD it before you wake it up.

For all debts I had a question about I sent a letter CMRR to the CRA asking the following:

"Please investigate this account is indeed mine and is reporting correctly"


The CRA must verify this debt or delete it after 30 days. I had a few be deleted because it could not be matched with an old addy (hence the reason to delete old names & addys) and the OC did not verify it. But there are always those resistant buggers that come back as verified. There will often be a notation that will be added to these debts that will say "Consumer disputes this account, meets FCRA standards"

I gave these disputes a full 35 days to be updated as verified or deleted before proceeding with more aggressive action.

After that is all done you will see where you stand with the debts that are still standing. Sending validation requests to any CA's is good at this point and verifications to any OC's. I really encourage staying off the phone whenever possible because you have no paper trail that way that shows what you have done.

If you decide on the PFD route be careful to do it correctly or you may be left with a paid/0 balance collection still on your report. Do a search for "pay for delete" and read carefully and make sure you have covered your toes that the debt will be deleted as a condition of cashing the money order. But if the OC refuses a PFD a paid/0 balance is better than an balance owed anyhow. In my opinion anyways.

Are any of the debts medical accounts? If so read up on how to dispute inaccurate medical accounts, they are a whole nother ball game.

The goodwill letters you proposed sound great and I hope you get good results from those.

Credit repair is time consuming, frustrating but ultimatly beneficial if you keep at it. Keep good records and paper trails to record your progress. Above all don't get burned out, that is very easy to do.

And don't forget the other half of credit repair, credit rebuilding, keep any active accounts in good standing and, if like me you have no credit consider starting with a rebuilding credit card or even a crown jewelers acct to get some positive tradelines reporting.

If you haven't you may want to subscribe to a credit monitoring agency where you can pull a tri-report every 24 hours to monitor your process. There are several out there, I use privacy matters and alot of peeps use Truecredit. They both cost about 14.95 a month. Equifax offers Scorewatch that allows you to monitor your Equifax FICO score for about 6.95 a month. Do some research and see which ones work better for you.

Hopefully those more savvy than me will pop in and guide you more. I am just stating what I have done and how it worked for me. I am no expert that is for sure and have several inaccurate items on my reports that I need to work on further. They are getting a temporary repreive though until I close on a mortgage.

Hope this helps a little,
Tegleg

 

Keep it simple

My plan, which I have used for myself and many friends/family, is very simple:

1) OPT OUT (888) 5 OPT OUT
2) Delete old addresses from each CR using telephone calls and letters
3) Write simple dispute letters to CRA, with the following: these accounts are inaccurate, please delete them.

First dispute letter is a blanket dispute of all negative accounts on a CR. With three CR's per person, this means the first dispute after deleting addresses is to write a blanket dispute using the US Mail.

Second round of letters is again to the CRA's, using the word reinvestigate. This helps trigger a true verification effort of each account because the computer scanners which read the letters look for keywords.

 

Pinpoint something actually inaccurate within the account tradeline. If you don't and its verified thereafter, you have nothing.

 

There is always SOMETHING which is incomplete, inaccurate, or unverifiable.

Very seldom is EVERY single field completed. Look at C1.

 

Jam,
What is C1?

 

YOu are so right about experian. I tried to get about TEN old/incorrect names and addresses removed and they wouldn't remove even one! The name on my credit report this very day is wrong! Wouldn't that mean I could dispute every single item in the report?