Loving the new look! Anyway, I have a couple of questions. One, I've been trying to clean up my credit - again! So far, so good. I did a no-no and opened four accounts within two months (Orchard $300, HSBC $300 and two store cards, Lane Bryant $250 and Victoria's Secret $250). I already had a Target store card at $200 for a couple of years now and then in December I got a Dell card with a $1500 limit. When I checked my scores in 2/07 they were EX 575, TU 590 and EQ 645. Almost all of the cards were maxed so I assumed that was why EX and TU were so low. I paid off all cards when I received my tax refund except for Dell (someone else is responsible for that amount) and now my scores jumped - EX considerably - EX 639, TU 617 and EQ 657. My question is that if I only use one card for routine purchases and just leave the others open, how much would my scores jump on average each month? My second question is something that I remember little about but need a refresher. I received a call from a CA that is harrassing my mother. I am not listed on her account in any fashion. They asked me to have her to call them but they didn't leave the company name. The person just left her name and number to call. Isn't this illegal? Should I call them back? I know that they probably won't give me the company name but I need to it so that my mother will be able to pursue legal proceedings.
It would be illegal (under FDCPA) for them to disclose to third parties (you) that they are attempting to collect a debt from your mother, without your mother's permission. But if they did disclose, she would be the one who could sue. As far as who they are, reverse lookup their phone number. Try www.anywho.com, or www.411.com, or try this site, for numbers that are not listed, but where others were annoyed enough to track them down: http://www.whocalled.us/ Your mother may want to pull her reports to see if they are on there. If they continue to call you, and in particular if they harass you, you don't have to put up with it. In particular, if they are already in communications with your mother, whether by phone, or if they have sent a letter, and she has replied with, say, a dispute and validation request, then their later contact with you is NOT to obtain location information, but is part of harassing your mother by trying to embarrass her thru disclosure to relatives. You are NOT your mother's attorney. Send them a "cease communications", as outlined in FDCPA, and if they call again, you can sue. Your legal action would be entirely independent of any dispute between your mother and the debt collector, based only on their failure to comply with FDCPA with respect to contact with you. Even if YOU are not the debtor, you are a CONSUMER as defined in FDCPA, and FDCPA applies to any contact by debt collectors with a "consumer" whether you are the alleged debtor or not. You might even want to just pass this off to one of a number of attorneys who handle TSR and Do Not Call violations.
To address your scores, I'm in the same range as you - mid 600's. I accomplish that by carrying $0 balance on my cards. Apparently, you really get smacked score-wise for carrying any kind of balance on low-tier cards like HSBC, Orchard, and store cards. For credit-challenged folks like us, we should never carry more than 30% of our combined limits on balance month-to-month. Also, never more than 70% on any one card. One month I got hit with a 60 point drop for only two things - having more than 30% of my overall available credit used and being about 90% on one single card. My PlusScore pointed out both of those reasons specifically as lowering my score. I paid the balances all off (expense check arrived after reporting) and my scores were back to [ab]normal the next month.
I would love to trace the number the CA called from but guess what? It came up as 000-000-0000!? That was the first time I EVER saw that before. And since they didn't say what company they were calling for, I guess I won't find out unless I call back, right?
There appears to be some confusion amoung CAs as to whether they should, or should not, leave their company name with third parties, based on whether that is disclosure of debt information on the debtor to a third party. There is similar confusion as to whether they are legally required to disclose it if asked, or whether refusing to disclose it violates other parts of FDCPA. Trace the number they gave you to call back to.
