Hoping you guys may be able to help me try to repair my credit. I have one collections account from a credit card that is legitimate and large (about 24k). I have received a few Dunning letters from different companies and have always responded with a DV letter sent via USPS CMRRR within 30 days of receiving the Dunning letter. I haven't heard from anyone about it in a while (a few months at least), so I'm not exactly sure where that stands other than the fact that I do not have the money to pay off the debt. In fact, I'm not in a position to pay off even part of it because I am literally living paycheck to paycheck right now. I also have one 30-day late each for my car lease (which just ended) and my mortgage (which I've had for almost 10 years). Both 30-day lates were within the last 2-4 months or so, and they are the only 30-day late payments I have ever had on those accounts. I have sent goodwill letters to both banks recently but have not heard back from either one of them thus far. I'm not exactly sure what can be done to try to repair my credit, but I could really use some advice from the experts here. I hate that I'm in this position but I do realize that I can't change the past, so I'm trying to focus on not repeating the same mistakes moving forward. Thank you so much for any assistance.
What's the DOFD? SOL in your state? Is just the OC reporting, or are collection accounts reporting as well? Who owns the debt? The mortgage late will likely be easier to get GW adjusted. You've had the loan for 10 years (vs. presumably 2 to 3 years on the lease), and you're a current customer, though you may need to wait a few months to show resumed on-time payments. With the lease (unless you plan on leasing another vehicle through same bank), you're done with them and removing won't be a priority. How long ago did you send your GWL's? And did you send them to Customer Service, or did you research an executive to write to?
I'm actually not sure of the DOFD, but I do believe the SOL in my state (NJ) is 7 years. I think the CA are reporting on my credit report, not the OC. And I'm not sure who owns the debt right now. I guess I'll have to pull another credit report to know for sure. Where do you recommend I pull one from in order to provide all of the necessary information to adequately answer your questions? I really want to do everything I reasonably can to try to rectify this and fix my credit. I do realize that not having the money to settle limits my options though. As for the GW letters, I sent them a little less than a month ago. For Ally, I sent one to an address I found on my credit report and other to an address I found on their website (both mailing addresses, not emails). I did research executives or other places to email the letter but found that Ally information is hard to come by for some reason. For Wells I found a fax # that someone else had successfully used for a GW letter, so I sent my letter there.
The best place to get your credit report is always from the CRA itself, you are entitled to one FREE credit report annually.
It's 6. You are entitled to one free credit report from each of the 3 major CRA's every 12 months. Get it here: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action Free monitoring sites like credit karma are good for monitoring, but not for viewing your actual reports. Get your reports first and let us know the info I asked about. DOFD is very important in determining if this debt is still without your SOL. If it is not, you're in a much better position. Also it's good to know who actually owns it. IF the OC is no longer reporting, it may have been sold. If a JDB owns the debt and keeps passing it from assigned CA to assigned CA, THEY can be held responsible for FDCPA and FCRA violations. In the times I've used a GW, I would receive a response (positive or negative) within a week or two. I suggest trying again. Here's a list of Ally personnel who may be able to help: MediaRoom - Leadership | Ally Financial Of course there are no e-mail addresses listed, but judging by this (from another page on their site): Media Contacts Gina Proia Chief Communications Officer Ally Financial Inc. 646-781-2692 gina.proia@ally.com You may be able to figure out how to e-mail those other folks who can help you. Don't necessarily start at the very top. Give each a week and then move on. And have a good reason for the late payment when writing the letters.
Ok - just pulled my free report for Experian. Here is what shows for the collections account (with any personal info, account #'s etc deleted). Looks like my DOFD is 12/2011 so unfortunately I'm well within the SOL. CACH, LLC Agency Address: 4340 S Monaco St Second Floor Denver, CO 802373485 (877) 248-8343 Date Reported: 05/2014 Date Assigned: 04/2013 Creditor Classification: Banking Creditor Name: CITIBANK SOUTH DAKOTA N A Accounts Number: XXXXXXXXXXXX Account Owner: Individual Account. Original Amount Owned: $24,745 Date of 1 st Delinquency: 12/2011 Balance Date: 05/2014 Balance Owned: $24,745 Last Payment Date : N/A Status Date: 05/2014 Status: D - Unpaid Comments: Consumer disputes this account information
Thank you. I will send a letter to a few of those people one at a time until I (hopefully) get a positive response.
So you are at the 2.5 year mark. You are within the SOL, and from the BBB complaints about them, apparently they do sue, although in other responses to BBB complaints, they describe themselves as a PASSIVE DEBT BUYER. Which means that they buy accounts from the OC at a discount, then farm them out to a third-party CA or law firm to do the dirty work. The problem with this, for them, is that if they are not sending the collection letters, THEY have never notified you of your rights under the FDCPA. Normally, I would take an aggressive stand with them, however the most I could get under the FDCPA is $1,000.00 and they could still sue on the original debt for 3.5 more years for a multiple of approximately 24 times that. I find the odds of them going away are better when the recuperation ratio is the other way around, it provides them a strong motivator for them to slither under the next rock that comes around. Now, reading their responses to the BBB complaints is telling though... They seem to answer every complaint that they've resolved as "in keeping with our Fair Square Promise". Now, in my research Collect America (aka CACV, aka CACH) now known as Square Two Financial, had some interesting charges leveled against it; namely that it purchased a large block of debt from BOA, for pennies on the dollar, and BOA included debts that were actually PAID or SETTLED. I love this snipplet from an article... US Bancorp & JP Morgan Chase were also caught in similar challenges. Now, again, this account is more likely within the DRP (Document Retention Period) so validation should be fairly simple for them to obtain, just telling that a company that says that they are for keeping a "Fair Square Promise" would walk into a ginormous mess... But the people they want are the ones who will pay a debt without questioning it.
So I sent a GW letter via email to someone at Ally and I got a call shortly thereafter. The person I spoke with was super nice, and she even apologized for the fact that they even had to report a 30-day late payment on an account that had an otherwise impeccable payment history. She also commented on how well-written my GW letter was and that it explained the reason for my late payment perfectly; however, she also told me that they are unable to remove the late payment from my credit reports because they are obligated by law to report accurate information to the CRAs. She apologized profusely that this even happened, but she says that they can't do anything about it. The only thing she told me to do was to call each of the 3 three CRAs and have them add a comment on the TL explaining exactly what I said in my GW letter. Should I do this or is it a waste of time since the TL will still show a late payment regardless? Should I try to contact another person at Ally or am I just wasting my time?
It's not "can't". It's won't. There are a number of creditors out there that will make a one-time GW adjustment. Who did you originally send your letter to? Don't bother. Yes. Go up the ladder.
Originally I sent my GW letter to an address I found for Ally on my credit report. For this most recent one that I emailed and got an immediate response, I sent it to the President of Auto Finance.
Looks like there are still steps to climb with them. The bigger issue is probably because no longer a customer with them.
You may be right about that. Since I just got another vehicle recently through another bank, do you think they would know that I'm no longer an Ally customer? I haven't even had my new vehicle for 2 weeks yet.
Unless they're still AR'ing your reports, probably not. But, I think you said that your lease ended and you haven't renewed with them for another loan, so that makes you no longer a customer. Some people have had luck in simple persistence in sending a GW to various people in corporate until they decide to just fold.
What actually happened was the dealership agreed to waive the last payment on my lease (the last payment would have been due next week), so technically I guess I ended my lease early and started a new one with a different bank. Either way, I guess I'll just keep sending those GW letters and hope that someone cares enough to remove the late payment for me.
No, the 30-day late was back in February or March. The lease was already paid off so there are no issues there.
