Hello all, I have been attempting credit repair for the past 4 months, unsuccessfully. Today I found your site and it's active helpful community seems to be my last glimmer of hope. I have read the sticky's and feel somewhat prepared for my newb question. So here's my story, your advice is much appreciated. End goal: Remove damaging charge off by Chase History: A year ago I got married, my credit card bill amounted in the 5 figures and my interest rate had sky rocketed to well over 20%. After the wedding my wife and I used the money to pay off the debt, completely! (it was a bitchin wedding, lol). I closed the account and didn't think anything more of it, my score was in the 700's and life was dandy. 6 Months later I apply for a loan on a car and get denied. Checking my credit my heart sank when I saw my credit had dropped to ~580. As it turns out, Chase charged me interest on the amount I had paid off! I had learned about this (don't remember how) and attempted to pay via phone and they told me to write a letter asking to be allowed to pay. In my frustration (stupid stupid stupid me) I forgot about the matter and never received further correspondence from them. Now I have a $200 charge off riding my credit score like a ... so begins my haphazard repair process. Repair Failures: 1. So I started researching, and decided to hire Lexington Law, long story short they accomplished nothing and I spent $300 to remove a $200 charge off and was completely unsuccessful. 2. I have called, emailed, faxed, and mailed Chase with whiny "please help" me letters. They have finally offered me the option to pay but said they could not remove the charge off, so I said I "no". I am presently waiting to speak to a manager. From reading your forums this is probably not the right course. Hope: I hope through this forum I will glean enough knowledge to fix this issue and get on with my financial life. My journey has already taught me a lot about finances and not letting this happen again. Your advice or suggestions are much appreciated, thanks in advance!
Actually, I would say this is the likely best first course of action. Try to get to a higher up at Chase - I would actually shoot for someone at the VP level, as opposed to a floor manager. At the very, very least, get it paid off so you don't have an unpaid charge off haunting you, or worse it is sent to some JDB that litters your reports. Your scores will recover.
thanks! Thanks! They have yet to call me back... looks like I'm going to have to be a nuisance. Should I try to get it in writing that they will remove the charge off before I pay? Would a large faceless company like Chase even do that? The Chase guy I talked to yesterday was "confident" that they would not, but I have a hard time believing them
I'd ask them to put it in writing, but you are dealing with the OC rather than a CA or JDB here. As far as the "Chase guy," as jlynn said, you need to go to a higher up. This man may not have any idea what upper management will do. Try to get to the executive offices.
Because this is the OC is there a specific way I should approach this? Is it generally a more difficult task? This sounds like it's going to be a long quest. I can't imagine it's going to be easy to get to the executive offices at Chase. Any tips?
I agree. Do not waste your time and energy with letters to costumer service reps. Get a good contact number or address for a VP and go from there. The amount is so low that you may be lucky if you explain your situation and are nice while doing it. I had a Zales concern a few months ago, got rejected like 7 times, called the director of costumer service and bingo all negatives were removed along with all late fees etc... Don't give up, you have too much riding on this. Good Luck Joe
There are two reasons that it's more difficult to deal with the OC. First of all, they are not subject to the FDCPA. Second, since they're the original creditor, they probably have all the records needed. Those records often don't go with the debt as it is passed around.
Update I have a Chase "escalation specialist" who is speaking with me tomorrow morning. Hopefully he'll give me some room to negotiate, otherwise I'm going to his manager. Update: 10AM Tuesday morning Those dirty... non communicative... insert string of expletives here. They did not call me back, and when I called them they just put me on hold indefinitely (1 hour). Also, I was reviewing my credit score and noticed that TransUnion is no longer reporting this as a Charge Off, they say: "DISPUTE RESOLVED REPORTED BY GRANTOR LOST OR STOLEN CARD LOST OR STOLEN CARD". Equifax and Experian still say it's a charge off though. Thanks LexingtonLaw? Should I be sending something to the CRAs?
