I screwed up my credit through bad decisions in the early-mid 1990's. I incurred a Federal Tax Lien, some judgements, etc. I've been trying to rebuild my credit ever since then, by just paying everything off, getting a couple of sub-prime credit cards and paying them religiously...things like that. I have my last judgement coming off in six months. The tax liens will take longer (it's a lot of $$$). I'm still honestly afraid to apply for credit, but I'm working hard to prove my credit worthiness. In the next month, I will need a car loan or lease. The problem I think that can be helped: I have a collection account showing as a charge off on all 3 CRAs. This is for a medical collection; once I became aware of it, I called the CA to pay. They told me they don't have it anymore and referred me back to the hospital. I called the hospital and paid it immediately (mistake #1?), without asking for a deletion. i do have a receipt showing payment, and a statement from the hospital showing a $0 balance. THEN I FOUND THIS SITE. After reading for a few weeks, I think I handled this totally wrong. Can someone suggest what I do to get the CA charge off notation off of my reports? My Equifax is 633 Experian=666 TU=660 Also, why is Equifax so much lower?
Hi Leek! I'm a newbie too. I think what you might want to do, since you called your CA and they say they don't have it anymore, is just dispute it directly with the CRA's as "not mine". Good luck! NuB
to lbrown59 Re: Re: Advice wanted! some quick advice....i'm no expert, but have had some success using this site.... 1st - dispute as not mine on all three bureaus. Wait the 30 days and see if any fall off. 2nd - if they don't fall off your reports, write goodwill letter to creditor. to find goodwill letter samples, do a search on this website for goodwill and plenty will pop up. Good luck and be persistent! gilmores
to lbrown59 Re: Re: Advice wanted! Since the CA returned it, they no longer have an account or a reason to report. You do not owe them any money. Dispute it with the CRA as "not mine" and hopefully it will go away. If not, post back here and we'll go from there.
Hedwig Re: Re: Advice wanted! I guess I will give my 2 cent advice! I would send a request for validation to the CA, and I will bet a house payment that they will send you a letter within 1 wk or so, stating that "this account is no longer listed with us, blah, blah, blah" and "we have notified the CRA's to delete the TL....." Also, this is your proof if they ever get cute or questions arise later. The CA's reasoning is that most know what they can and cannot do legally, (though following it is sometimes another story) but when they see that a consumer seems to know what they are talking about regarding a request for validation, the chances are good they know they are WIDE OPEN for a lawsuit for inaccurate reporting. Of course it doesn't hurt to let them know you know it is "inaccurate reporting". I have used this method to MUCH success and I never had to send anything to the CRA's, (saving 4 bucks a pop!) but even if you decide to cross-dispute the TL with the CRA's, the extra money will be well spent.
