I read through these boards for hours a few months ago hoping to help my friend improve his credit card. Let me tell you briefly what letters I sent and the results. I hope that some of you can help me out on the next steps. First of all, my friend's credit is a MESS. Low 500s. He basically ignored all of his bills for a couple of years. So here is what I did... Equifax: 1. Discover Financial - Credit report listed this as transferred or sold account and charge-off and 0 balance. I wrote a letter disputing it and it was verified. 2. Office Depot - Listed as transferred or sold, zero balance, charged off. Disputed and was verified. 3. Montgomery Wards - Listed as transferred or sold, zero balance, c harged off. This appears to have been deleted. 4. Sears - Listed as 120+ days past due. Last date of activity was in 1998. Zero balance, account transferred or sold. Collection Account. This appears to have been verified as well. So what should he do about those that were verified...if anything? Also, should I help him to dispute the other stuff on his report ...and what about the ones that went to CAs. Here is what other stuff is on there: A. Asset Acceptance Corp. - last activity was 1998 and all it says is that customer has located consumer. What can we do about this one?? B. Bank of America - Paid Charge Off C. Macy's East - Paid Charge Off D. Staples - Charged Off E. Credit Store - Paid Collection
Some avenues to pursue.Firstly, how old are these accounts forementioned? Secondly is this friend in a position to repay if indeed these are found to be his/her accounts? How clearly were these accounts verified? What documentations were given? Seek first validation.Write to each creditor in question directly and see if they are willing to work to settle at a lower balance? Some will do this if they see an act of good faith to repay. Do not though send money or commit until you are absolutely sure this is the correct account and balance owed. Get everything in writing! Once you start repaying an aged account you restart the time clock on the account. Tread wisely! The one company Asset is definitely shady. Becarefull with dealing with them. Thats just my personal experience though. Good luck and keep us posted on this!!
Once you start re-paying an aged account ,it reages? If I were to pay a charge off in full, would'nt that just be listed as a paid charge off and the statue of Limitation on the account would not change? Or are you talking about reaging as a result of making payments as opposed to the full amount? thanks
On they macys he may be able to get them to reopen the account and remove all the derogs. I have had great luck on that one. Sorry I could not be of more help
If they were verified did you request procedures used to verify? I would try to catch them violating by procedure requests.
Thanks for the advice. Now I want to clarify some things and request further clarification... You guys and gals are awesome by the way! Ok..for the Asset Acceptance Corp, the account is from 1998. Equifax appears to have deleted the Montgomery Wards account which was the orignal creditor on this one. So I should send a validation letter to Asset Acceptance? I have not yet asked for this to be deleted from his report on Equifax. As for how the ones that were verified were verified, I am not sure. Equifax has not sent him a letter. We pulled up his credit report again and saw that Wards was deleted but not others so I assume they were verified. For the Macy's account, the account is closed as of 1998. It is listed as a paid charge off. What do I do for this one? As for balances due, the balances on all of these are zero. He doesn't owe anything any more. For Bank of America credit card, it is a paid charge off and closed account. From 1998. Should we ask Equifax to investigate and delete this or is there anything else we should do? The Discover and Office Depot cards list as charged off and transferred or sold. We asked for these to be investigated and deleted but they are still on there. Should we send letters directly to the creditors? Teh balnce is zero on these and are from 1998. 1998 appears to have been a bad year for him! lol The Credit Store one is from 1995 and is listed as paid collection. Hope this clarifies things and would appreciate an answer to many other questions I have added. Thanks!
1. Write both Equifax and Asset with the same letter of inquiry. You are looking at this time to simply have this matter investigated. Ask Asset how they are representing the debt. Did they buy it? or are they still respresenting the main creditor. In the case Montgomery Wards. Have Asset send you "ALL" disclosure material, statements, contract, etc. Otherwise leave it as disputed until you feel that all information has been validated in order to have that derog on the report. 2.Macy's account hmmm...wait the 7 year time. Cant argue if its legitimate, or isn't it? 3. Bank of America, same as above. 4.For the Charged off Discover and Office Depot, best you can do is hope they werent turned over to a Collection Agency <which most are>...The CA is then responisble to contact the debtor for final payment of whatever was charged off originally. Tread litely on that one. Most importantly keep a paper trail. All documents and communiations are important in case further legal recourse is needed. Challenge only those that are suspcious. Hope this helps!
Thanks Tayla for the reply. Why do you say tread litely on the Discover and Office Depot? They have all been paid. That's the thing. He paid all of his debts at once last July and August. So even though it says chargeoff on some..all 11 of his tradelines should technically all read paid chargeoffs. However, that is actually not helping his credit. His scores are in low 400s on TU and low 500s on Equifax and he has been turned down for an apartment already. That is why this is urgent. If he wants to move or something next year, his score needs to be higher.
Vanili, its sounds to me that you can deal directly with the CRA since this is where his derogs are coming from. The CRA can place most items back on if they find there investigative information valid. In which case a 100 word statement by your friend can be added to his credit report stating why he thinks this is inaccurate. Referr to the guidelines for each independent reporting agency. In reference to the tread litely comment it was simply a way to add caution to the wind since the information I read stated that the Charge off was listed as "sold or transferred" .Your follow up with the fact that each account had been paid in full changed matters though. Sorry for mis-reading .
