Success: only collection now wiped off the face of my credit report - Finally! This is an old thread about one account of mine. Today it finally was removed in its entirety. My account at experian.com now shows that today my credit score took a 47 point jump - to 761. It was pretty long and gory, how I finally got this local vendor (former doctor) to back off while even his own bookkeeper was defending the debt as being real. I found that his daughter was office manager for one of his satellite offices, so I called him on the day he was at the office she worked and asked for him. Of course I got her (daughter) as office manager, so I "had" to explain why I needed to talk to her dad. I told her how sad I would be to have to file small claims suit against Dad. He, I, and two of his employees would all need to take a day off work and spend it in court, and after that her Dad would be in a position to pay me all the penalties that I've paid over the past 4 years (higher car ins., higher low rates, etc...) up to the small claims limit of 10 grand. I think once I convinced her how sad it would make me feel to successfully sue her dad on this open and shut case, she had a word with dad, he made one phone call to the CA, and now its history. I've read a lot of advice on how to fix a credit score, but never have I heard this technique used. btw, it does help my case I think that its all the truth as well. I really do not owe that old debt and I really never had once received any notice of the debt until it was already an old bad debt on my report. And yes I really would have filed suit. And yes I really think I would have won in court. But I'm happy I don't have to prove that. I'm happy to answer any questions about the hows whats or whys of this. This board helped me get to where I am now, with a real experian.com score of 761 as of today. Thanks all.
and a new car loan at 0 dn 1.75% Another short note about my long road to having restored my credit. A month ago I bought a new car for zero down, 1.75% interest, and no payment (whatsoever) for 6 weeks. This was when my score was teetering between 695 and 705 due to hard inquiries during a way too long 3 month buying effort of mine. Funny thing was that after 3 months my 705 went to 695 and at the last second during the car buy they denied me credit. I stood my ground telling them their own credit dept. approved me three months earlier but it took this long to get a good deal on one (and by then I was 695). It was dicey but I got my loan, which shot my score up 10 points immediately on experian.com. For anyone that has read my older posts on here you'll know that there is no way I used to be eligible for any car loan, much less one at great terms. I am so glad I started my pet project to whittle away at my credit score. Otherwise I'd still have no credit today. This board is an excellent resource; thanks!
An update on all of this: Still zero negative info on credit report. Zero. Yay! With the possible exception of not enough tradelines, though one or two go back 15+ years, I am presently dinged (I think minorly) for having too brief of a credit report. I was looking at a layoff from work due to an injury, and at my age wondered if that means its a permanent situation. I figured once laid off I would find it hard to get any credit cards so I then applied for many, while I could still qualify. Yes I know that inquiries cause short term damage to credit scores, but I was more interested in the long term. I got approved by all of them. I was shocked to see the first one approved for a 22k limit; I hadn't seen that since the days when I was an AMEX Platinum spender (top 2% worldwide) and travelled 5/7 days/wk, back in the 80s. Even with 7 inquiries still on my record right now Experian has me at 764, saying my 4K use of revolving credit currently is using 93% of available credit. I now have been laid off and wouldn't qualify for crap probably. But I have my credit in case I need it. I've said it before but I'll repeat; thank you to this board for inspiring me to do the repair work I did and to help train me to manage my credit rather than let the moneylenders have the heinous fees that they get from those with lessor credit; that I paid for years. No more. I love seeing my car payment stub each month. At 0.75% interest on over 20 grand borrowed, my interest paid over the 4 year life is amazingly small; yay! I don't have any credit challenges myself right now, but I wanted to pop back in here to see if there was any help I could offer others. One of my file cabinets (just a 2 drawer) was entirely used for this effort; if I stacked all documents we're talking 3+ feet tall, probably 4. I can't bring myself to shred/burn it. I was detailed as all get out in my filing and record keeping so I could hit every single deadline and opportunity and be able to quote my last ones to them easily. Most of the ideas within those letters and learning the right occasion to send each were all learned right here on this board. Sorry to be so long winded in my thanks to all here. I just hope others can find this board and use it like I have. Thanks All!
Congratulations! It's a pretty awesome feelings, I agree. Good you got your accounts in while still employed. Those inquiries will age off, and after 12 months have little effect on FICO.
Awesome story! A Huge congrats to you, and I'm glad to hear that Creditnet was a great resource for you throughout your entire credit repair journey. It's been about a year since your last post, so how is your credit situation looking now MrGreen? I'd love to hear another update.
