Sent a letter via PFB re the two Paid ChargeOffs that we have with Cap1. They are the biggest portion of the derogs on our CR's now, reporting on all six of them (my 3 and The Lovely Mrs. Quixote's 3). Twelve derogs out of 28 left. Ouch. And they verify every single time. Anyway, bottom line; Mr. Cooke is an awfully friendly fellow; probably be a great guy to invite over for a barbeque, but was no help whatsoever. Can't remove, can't reinstate, nothing. I can't say I'm surprised, in that I have no negotiating leverage here. They've already got their money. I've heard such glowing reports here, I thought maybe it was worth trying. Well, I wasn't pinning my hopes on this tactic being succesful. They should be receiving their estoppel letter today or tomorrow after failure to validate, and I included them in my CHOD efforts. So, I'll just continue down that path. Was just hoping to get lucky...
Same thing here: no reinstatement, nothing better than an R5...although in their letter they did agree to update the account status from an R9 to an R5 within 72 business hours upon receipt of my last payment. I probably should've been more hard-nosed when it came to negotiating the settlement, I dunno. Somehow I get the feeling that if a lot more was at stake, say, a few grand, instead of just a few hundred, then the range of solutions would probably have been more creative.
If you've already paid off the charge-off's, you've lost your bargaining power.. That is why people say to negotiate before you pay.. That being said, I'd try to open a Capital One account (secured if you have to...you'd be surprised what they'll give you even after you've burned them), maintain good history with the card for a few months, and then try PFB again, saying you're a valuable customer.. jmart
It's worth a shot. I also remember asking him if such a settlement would automatically preclude any chances of getting another card from them. He said that they don't maintain an internal blacklist, per se, but the existence of a Cap One derog would definitely impact their decision (implying, I guess, that it would weigh more so than a Citi account with a similar status, or something like that).
Maybe there are 2 Mr.Cookes @ Cap1 ...sorry, folks, but after reading through some past threads regarding Mr. Cooke, I'm feeling a mild rant coming on: (also, apologies to Quixote; I don't mean to coopt this thread) Most of the abovementioned posts regaled us with stories of Cap One generously reinstating seriously past-due accounts or issuing other cards; forgiving late pays; issuing upgrades to Gold / Platinum / some other precious metal; increasing credit lines tenfold; sending someone out to resurface your driveway; etc. All from a pfb letter and/or phone call. Don't get me wrong; I truly commend Cap One for their overall exemplary customer service and attention to individual matters. It's just that--I don't know what I'm trying to say--Mr. Cooke seemed so wishy-washy, even uncomfortable, when it came to negotiating my particular account. Maybe I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth (he did, after all, offer the settlement of < 50% in the first place), but I sure wish I would've know what to say during our phone call to net some results similar to those above. So that's my rant. Thanks for reading...I'll try to make future rants a little more succint and productive
I agree..I just tried to negotiate paying the $800 that was charged off on my account. He didnt seem to flexible, if I paid.. I would get a "paid" charge off listed. I didnt commit....and Im just going to give it more time....and a half dozen disputes. Cheers! Sette313
Hey wajaba! No need to apologize. Seemed to me like you were right on topic. I personally have hijacked so many threads I should a camel. jmart, I agree that may make sense for a future move, but is not practical just yet. The ball is already rolling on two other fronts. I sent in a CHOD dispute last week to all the CRA's, which was hot on the heels of en estoppel letter (following non response to request for validation) the week before sent to Cap One. I was listening very carefully to Mr. Cooke for any sign that he was aware of this or that it was a factor, but I detected none. Who knows? So I just need to let those finish playing out over the next few weeks. I have so many plates in the air right now it's scary. The landlord just decided dhe wants to sell the house we've been renting and will list it in about 30 days. So I've got roughly 60 days to find new digs. I had planned on trying for a mortgage by April or so, but now I'm going to have to try earlier. The CHOD thing couldn't have been more fortunately timed for me. I've sure got my fingers crossed. Also fortunate; I am already a ways down the road with the whole CreditWrench thing under Bill Bauer's tutelage, so there's a reasonable chance we can have a bunch more of the uglies off by the first week of January (just got two deletes earlier this week). Hopefully enough to get a decent rate on a mortgage. If not, it looks like there's a decent home nearby we can go lease option on for 12 months, which buys me some time to finish my crusade. And at the same time, I'm carefully opening negotiations with the boss over my comp plan. The next month is going to be interesting around the Quixote home.
I have a similar problem with cap 1. I settled my account approx. 12 months ago before I disvovered credit repair. It's due to fall off 11/04. Cap 1 agreed to reset my R9 to R5. This change is too cosmetic and still does harm to my report...just as bad as a charge off IMO. It's one of the two remaining derogs (the only one on EX) and is a major killer! I want it off my report but my problem is how to dispute it. I just cannot say it's not mine. I PFed cap 1 not too long ago, so they can pull out my email and nail me down!! Any suggestions as to how I can dipute this?
Well, well, well. I saw the post from raiderpam earlier today saying Cap1 had changed her R9 to an R5. I thought, what's the worst that could happen, nothing? So I called Mr. Cooke back up this morning and pleaded my case very politely one more time. He was, as always, very considerate, and said "I don't think there's anything I can do, but I'll try." He just called me back and said he WILL change both accounts to R5 from R9 across all six of our CR's. Not quite a deletion or reinstatement, but progress nonetheless. I checked my CHOD dispute status online this morning and Cap1 had verified both accounts yet again, so I'm glad it will at least be improved to R5 status. Citi MC, BTW, deleted off my Experian, but verified on my wife's. Weird. But, again, We'll take what we can get, and keep coming back. As re Cap1, I'm particularly happy about the timing, since, they should be receiving an estoppel letter any time now, following their non-validation. On the housing front, just came back from meeting with a realtor. He has an investment property in a really nice community nearby. He's giving me a lease option on it that I can excercise any time in the next twelve months. My daughter already has friends in the area from her school, which makes the process easier. As an incentive, if we excercise the option by June (which we'll be able to do), he is going to finance it 100% at 7.5% APR (interest only for the first year to help us along!), which is slightly high for the market, but better than I could get right now with my credit as-is, plus easy paperwork, and no PMI. It's expensive for us ($310K), not exactly what you'd normally think of as a starter home, but priced really well for the area (surrrounded by $400K homes and a golf course about to be built), and best of all NOTHING DOWN! I can tell you that the credit repair work I've done so far was absolutely instrumental in this. I just decided to lay it all out there, Open Kimono, if you will. I showed him where we were, and where we are, including the three deletions this week. It was very helpful, critical even, that I could look him in the eye and honestly say that every one of those negatives has been paid. That counted for a lot with him. I think I'm going to nominate him for sainthood. They say the harder you work, the luckier you get. But, it's almost kinda frightening when things start going your way for reals. Not sure how to act. My sincerest thanks to all of you who have shared your knowledge with me so that all of this could happen.
