Calling all senior members(bizwiz, etc)

Okay, first we need to establish your objectives, which I will assume to be cleaning up your credit report.

The Florida SOLs (of 4 years) are for legal remedy of collection, but they can remain for seven to seven and one-half years on your credit report.

There are two elements here, your credit reports and scores, and the debts themselves. So, let's seperate the two for now.

First,

I assume you have copies of your credit reports from all three agencies. If not, then get current reports to find out where you stand. If you have not already used it this year, go to www.annualreport.com for your free copies.

Second, learn patience and the discipline of "following the process". There are countless testimonies on this board of eagerness coming back to hurt repair activities. I know you are anxious, but credit repair is for the long term.

Step 1: OPT OUT: call/write the three CRAs and request to "Opt Out" from their lists.

Step 2: Remove all old addresses from your credit reports. This can be done on-line, or you may elect to do this in written form. Be sure to keep copies of all activity.

Step 3: LEARN & RESEARCH: read both the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, these are readily available at the FTC website. www.ftc.org Read the primers and posts here on this website also. Learn as much as you can BEFORE you start disputing and repair activity.

Step 4: AFTER you have (fully) completed steps 1,2 & 3, then review your credit reports for the negative tradelines that are having the most impact on your reports. Prioritize by degree of negativity, and most recent. Review each tradeline in detail for any possible error or misreporting. (this is where reading the FCRA & FDCPA come in!).

Step 5: Dispute activity:
a) Dispute original creditor negative accounts with the CRAs, NOT with the original creditors. If at all possible/applicable, dispute as "Not Mine".

b) for the collection agency accounts, first request "Debt Validation" using one of the form letters available on this site. Be aware that the CAs do not have to provide this after the intial 30 period following receipt of first notice of debt. But, send off requests by Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested. Once the "green card" is received by you, THEN dispute the collection agency tradelines per above.

c) Explore "Pay For Delete" opportunities: review your collection accounts versus your ability to pay them. If there are any you can pay now, then request in writing a "Pay For Deletion" agreement. Since you state these debts are past SOL in your state, you may have some negotiating leverage here.

d) Avoidance suggestions: you state that Cap1 is with them, if it has not gone to a collection agency yet, try to negotiate something directly with Cap1. You want to try and avoid having a collection account added to your credit report.

Step 6: Be prepared to follow the process over and over, and start preparing yourself mentally for taking legal suit action if it comes to it. It is possible to "draw the foul" in credit repair, but you must have the mindset to go to court and fight if needed. "Threats" of "Intent To Sue" have lost their effect, and are taken as empty now by data furnishers.

Longer term: you need to examine if you can pay off these debts, as you will still be open to collection activity, and further possible credit report damage. Review your finances in detail, and closely look at your spending habits. I recommend the sites of www.about.com/financial and www.bankrate.com for great financial help. Negative credit is generally a sign of a problem with financial management, and you need to find the true reason you got into this situations, so as to permanently correct the issues.

Create a plan to pay off all debt, you may legally not have to (due to past SOL). This will permanently put them behind you, and you will feel better about yourself.

I hope this helps, and please post any details that may help with your individual situation.

Good Luck!

 

Super post and info.

I cannot second the patience input enough as stated, many people get in too big of a hurry and make mistakes they cannot undo. It is extremely important in credit repair to go slow, have a map or sequence of each item you are tackling and also a goal that you want to reach. Keep "great" records, I kept mine in a file folder all in order with my to do list on the front, once I completed one, I crossed it off.

Patience and great records is a must.

I was able to clean more then 30 items of each of the reports and I did it with allot of work, patinece and recordkeeping. Of course a willingness never to quit until the job is done.

Good Luck, and yes, read the FDCRA, it will help you understand what information you need to learn about your credit report.

This should be a sticky, perfect info for a newbie to read!

 

Thanks for the compliment, and kudos to your achievements. It is great to hear success stories, and to have the second voices of "learned wisdom".

Patience, planning, perserverance and documentation are the keys to successful credit repair.

One of the main things we all need to take away from our repair journy is the learning of what got us into these situations, and what to do in the future for a genuine change in ourselves.

Thanks again,

 

First, your welcome, and I hope everything helped.

Now to get a bit creative,

Re: Bell South account, you may try making the payment directly to Bell South, so as to try and remove the collection account tradeline from your reports. It may not work, and they may just forward the payment, but it is worth a try. Per industry guidelines they are supposed to remove the tradeline if the account is "transferred". After paying the account (in full), I would dispute the account with the CRAs, stating "account does not apply to you". You will also need to micro analyze the tradeline for any detail that is/may not be correct, and dispute based upon that detail.
The other approach with Bell is to pay, and then keep working up the ladder with a goodwill/"sob story" removal request. Not sure what the circumstances were, but someone with authority may give you a break. The last request to make to a representative of Bell is to "supress" the account (if they will not remove). An account that is suppressed only shows to you and the CRAs, no one else. Even with a full hard pull, the account does not show, and does not get factored into the FICO score.

CapOne is always very difficult; what is the current status? Is it a Charge Off?
Wait for the reponse re: PFD, but do not expect anything, again they are difficult. Cap1 is also vey diligent about verifying accounts. Your best bet is to dispute, again looking for any detail. Cap1 often does not post Date Of First Major Deliquency, and you could focus on that. Cap1 is currently reducing its staff corporate wide, you may get lucky with a lack of verification by Cap1.

Other than that, there are no miracle answers, you're doing all the right things right now, just keep it up. Also understand that many of the tactics used for credit repair in the past, do not work the same now. It is getting tougher to remove "baddies".

I recommend reading the "CDIA Manual", which I've posted in this forum. It is long (210 pages), and yes, boring, but it has great information on how the reporting system is supposed to work. Review the manual against your accounts, and you may find the detail to dispute that works.

Good Luck, keep up the good work!