As I continue to do research I find that there are some highly rated credit repair services. Specifically one called SkyBlue. As I develop a strategy I am trying to determine whether or not to use them. Here is what I believe to be the correct approach: 1. Try and do as much as I can myself first. Since most of my debts are my own fault I need to work with the OC & agencies to try and get as much paid as I can. 2. After 3-6 months of doing as much as I can get SkyBlue working for me. By then a lot of what I have will either be marked as paid or removed. They can then work on trying to get the "paid in full" and "paid less than full amount" stuff removed. Does this make sense or should I start using them in conjunction to what I am doing now? Or, am I crazy to even use a service? lastly, is there a more personalized service that I should consider to do all of this for me including negotiating with my creditors and working out getting stuff removed? I ask because I know this is going to require a significant time investment. I do not mind doing it if it is the best way but if there is another path through a reputable service that has more experience and would get the same if not better results I would use them. Also, for the record, I am a very good communicator and can write great letters since I am a technical writer. Thanks
Personally, I would try it yourself first. You are capable of doing the same thing that you would hire someone to do. However, they have all the letters written up, know exactly what to say to the creditors, and know how the whole process can run smoothly. I am considering signing up with Lexington Law if the stuff I want to be accomplished doesn't pan out. It is really hard to even get responses from some creditors. You have to talk with them over the phone, and then they won't send you a letter with your agreement anyhow.
Why would you even consider a credit repair service? You can do as well or better yourself as they can do for you. National statistics prove that both have about the same level of success. Absolutely! Pay your just debts to the company that extended you credit. First, last and always if at all possible. Even if they won't work with you now they can change their attitude months or even years down the road. Even long after they have turned it over to a debt collector they can still be convinced that getting paid in full in return for getting your credit card reinstated is the best possible outcome for all concerned. Most large creditors won't work with you on that but some of the smaller banks will. Now that is one of the worst mistakes you can make. Pay a debt collector and you may reset the statute of limitations in some states even if that isn't true in your state your credit reports will state that you settled the claim or will make other adverse comment. Getting it marked as having been paid may seem like a great benefit but it isn't going to raise your score by much if any and future lenders will see that the only way the debt got paid was because some debt collector forced you to pay it. That isn't good at all. Letting the debt go and refusing to pay a single penny to a debt collector will cause far less damage to your credit report than paying it will. As the debt ages it has less and less impact on your credit scores. Lots of luck on that one. Let's be real. You admitted that the debt was yours and the amount was correct by paying them and then you expect someone else to clean up the mess you deliberately made? Not much chance of that happening. I think that is the right answer Try Me, Myself and I Inc. How do you contact them? Look in any mirror. I don't think there is any better service than doing it yourself. Just takes some learning. You may be a great communicator and know how to do technical writing of all sorts but that isn't necessarily the key. Knowing what to write is the key. Most of the time the less you write the better.
I've spoken before about a friend of mine who had a federal FCRA case against BOA. He owed them $13,000 and they had a judgment against him. He took them to federal court and sued them for their violations. He called me and told me that he had settled his case with them. He got rid of the $13K debt, got their inquiries off his credit report and all their adverse listings out of his credit reports as well and got $2500.00 in cash on top of that. Now that is the real way to fix your credit, not messing around with the credit bureaus and trying to pay off the debts. That only helps depress you score even more. Learn how to do it the right way. If you would like to hear my friend tell all about his settlement there is a link to the audio at the bottom of the sidebar on my links page which you can access by clicking on the link in my signature line below. When my friend first told me about his problems about 2 years ago I told him how I thought he should go about fixing his problems. He was very doubtful about the whole process and fearful of what they might do to him. I told him that I would be glad to help him learn how to take them to federal court and win. He took his first case to federal court and got essentially the same settlement in that one as he did in this one. He had a judgment against him in that case too and made the attorney and the debt collector pay the $3800 judgment to the credit card company, get rid of adverse listings and paid him cash money as well. Then he started his second federal case and now has won that. He also taught his father how to win in federal court and his father won as well. Now he has a case against Sallie Mae for FCRA violations and that case is about to go to settlement in the next 3 or 4 weeks. That's the way to go and the audio recording of his phone conversation this afternoon proves it beyond any shadow of a doubt. He also filed a bar complaint against the attorney in his federal case. As part of his response to the bar complaint the attorney said my friend was a semi-professional pro se litigant who apparently has made a hobby out of filing federal lawsuits against financial institutions. That coming from the opposing attorney is quite a compliment.
I want to do all of this but where do I learn how to? It seems overwhelming! I have been reading a lot here but do not understand how I can turn around a defaulted CC into a settlement? Thanks Phil
Learning how is not easy. I've spent a good 15 years learning how to do it. Maybe more but I certainly can't teach anybody how to do it in this or any other forum. I wouldn't do that even if I could. I get RSS feeds and emails from just about all of the egroups, both Yahoo and Google, as well as from just about every legal resource like blogs, wikis and web pages on the internet and I have yet to find any that will even attempt to teach anybody how to actually do what has to be done. On the other hand, there are bunches of such resources that are more than willing to teach nutty ideas about how to deal with courts, traffic tickets, IRS, child custody and divorce and just about any other type of legal problems one can imagine. Most of those have one or more patriots in residence who are not hesitant about charging huge amounts of money for their worthless advice. Some of those resources do have good advice from time to time. Shreds here and there but then the problem is separating the wheat from the chaff. I've had a great number of good teachers over time. Bob Hirschfield who is a disbarred attorney from Arizona, Dr. Frederick Graves who is a retired attorney from Florida, Richard Cornforth who gives seminars all over the country teaching law and how to deal with legal problems, this message board has lots of great information, Cornell University law web site, Pacer, Justia, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, my local law library, taking short courses at my local university and many more. From those and many more far too numerous to mention I've learned what I know very slowly and it hasn't exactly been cheap either. One factor here is that many folks have little or no money with which to attack their problems. Many would have to file in forma pauperous because they have lost most if not all their income so can't afford attorneys or anyone to teach them. My links pages have lots of resources but it sure won't teach you how to do all the paperwork that you would need to get the job done. Even though you have the funds and even though you know how to prepare the paperwork that still isn't enough to win in most cases. You also have to know strategy. In my friends case a situation came up that I didn't know how to handle so I called Dr. Graves to see if he had any suggestions as to how the situation might be handled. He did and we followed his suggestion and it seems to have brought them to the table. No matter how much I know there will always be some situation that I won't have the answer to but if I don't know how to deal with a problem I have several friends I can contact to get the best answer. That helps a whole lot.