Hi I've been reading all the great advice. My credit was fabulous for years and in 2007 it started to crash. Story: I'm lazy and very busy at the same time. Work 40+ hours in of all things - the financial world. Underwriting commercial credit. Hmmmmm. Anyway - my purse was stolen in Winter 2006 with five credit cards. Since I was messing around with the cards anyway I decide to just pay them off. But I guess when I called all the card companies to report the cards stolen; two of them, Chase and Universal must have talked me into signing up for "credit watch service" or something. So my "paid off" cards were being dinged $5.95 a month + late fees until both cards were past due (150 and 120 days reported before I noticed). Citi oddly just shows it paid/closed in 2007 by Grantor -- probably looked at my credit score in 2007 Negative Items: These are my two worst delinquincies: Chase 120 days July 2007 - Paid/Closed by Grantor 2/12 with zero balance. Chase kept my card open - I paid off the $99 bucks. But I had not used that card since and my report now shows Chase paid/closed by grantor as of 2/12. Universal - 150 days 2007 - went to collection charged off by CO for $184.00. Other items are usually due to my (bad) laissez-faire attitude. I had a house already so - credit/schmedit. Capital One - Open - Zero Balance - 4 x 30 days past due -- Last one 12/2009. I have a $7K limit but threw away the card - SHOULD I GET A CARD and use this? Citi-Card - Closed/paid 2007 Department Store Cards - always a mistake for me. Banana - Paid zero balance - 30 days past due in 2007. Victoria's Secret - past due 30 days Jun 2011 --- Zero balance In summary: My cards are now PAID with my combined balance on active cards less than $1K on two cards that are below 20% usage. I could pay everything to zero. I have a PGE (Power Bill) showing with CO for $201.00 due in 9/2007. My landlord deducted this from my security deposit supposedly. Should I pay this or dispute it. I'm thinking of calling PGE directly (OC) to just pay it and request deletion off my report ????? I have Verizon Bill for $43.00 in collection from July 2010 - shows on my report as due as of 3/12 - ??? Falls off my report on 9/2014 -- Same question-- I Just Want it GONE -- $43.oo! Call OC? My worst offense (I think) is my crappy record paying my GE/CARECREDIT Loan..... I have a $1,900 balance out of $3,000 -- and it looks like this shows as an installment loan?? This was a $5500 bill to operate on my cat's broken leg (ouch for him and for me (Whaaaaa). I have the money to pay the $85.oo a month and have really not been good about it. Mostly because this is the only bill I did not have set up for online payments -- now it is. Installment Loans: GE/CARECredit: 90 days past due Dec 2010. 30 days past due on 5 occasions between Dec 2009 and now - most recently Jan 2012 (prior to that May 2011). This one is purely my carelessness and the pain I associate with paying $5K for a cat leg (not the creditors fault). On the plus side I have been paid/closed never late on two HELOCS, a mortgage, and a car loan. And have two active cards paid on time with balances below 20%. Despite a FAKO of 644 - I recently tried to apply for a card - to test my credit I guess and the decline letter showed my score at 598 (this was before I paid down my $4K credit card balance --so is my FAKO). My plan is to call Verizon and PGE and send pay and delete letters. I don't think I can do anything about GE/Care credit except maybe a goodwill letter explaining how I am busy with my job and two boys under 4?? Do sob stories work. I think I should also get hold of Universal Card to maybe pay the charged-off $184 in exhange for deletion? Anyway -- I am pretty debt free finally - but have to be more diligent. I think my true score is hovering in the low 600s
Welcome to Creditnet mystian! Before I get into my thoughts regarding the negatives, it sounds like your main problem in the past has simply been not utilizing autopay for your loans. All those late pays are absolute FICO-score killers, so make sure you use autopay whenever possible going forward. It'll obviously save you a lot of heartache. Now, on to the baddies. 1.) Chase card: send Chase a GW letter explaining what happened with the "credit watch service" and request that they remove the late pays. It sounds like you sort of got screwed on this one so hopefully they'll be willing to work with you. 2.) Universal card: who owns this debt now? Has a CA ever contacted you about the $184? 3.) Capital One: Definitely get a new card and keep this account active. You don't want to lose that $7 credit limit due to inactivity. Set it up on autopay too, if you haven't already . 4.) Banana Card & VS Card: Write a GW letter and ask for the late pays to be removed since you've been a loyal customer and these were simple oversights that will never happen again. 5.) PGE power bill: Contact PGE to find out if this debt has been sold or is still held in-house. If they still own the debt, I would push for a PFD. Is there a corresponding collection on your credit reports as well? 6.) Verizon bill: has the CA contacted you regarding this yet? Does Verizon also report a charge-off? 7.) Carecredit loan: The sob story probably isn't going to work, but that doesn't mean you can't try. Now that you've got this set up on autopay you won't have any problems going forward, so explain that you're now using autopay to ensure timely payments, etc. If you only had one or two lates I would be more optimistic here, but 5 lates may mean they won't have much interest in helping out. Fortunately, the late pays will have less and less of an effect on your FICO scores as time passes. Finally, pay off any existing credit card balances and bring your CU ratio under 10%. Of course, keep in mind that if any of negatie information on your credit reports is inaccurate or questionable, you always have the option to dispute it through the CRAs as well.
Thank you for the response -- I do not see anything going to collections so I assume all my debt is till with the OCs. I do sometimes have a collector calling (I have not picked up) regarding a medical bill. I am fully insured and not sure why that popped up but at least its not on my report at this time. 1.) Chase card: send Chase a GW letter explaining what happened with the "credit watch service" and request that they remove the late pays. It sounds like you sort of got screwed on this one so hopefully they'll be willing to work with you. 2.) Universal card: who owns this debt now? Has a CA ever contacted you about the $184? I have never been contacted about this, but its on my credit report so I will follow up directly with theM? Pay and delete??? 3.) Capital One: Definitely get a new card and keep this account active. You don't want to lose that $7 credit limit due to inactivity. Set it up on autopay too, if you haven't already . 4.) Banana Card & VS Card: Write a GW letter and ask for the late pays to be removed since you've been a loyal customer and these were simple oversights that will never happen again. Autopay is a good idea.... 5.) PGE power bill: Contact PGE to find out if this debt has been sold or is still held in-house. If they still own the debt, I would push for a PFD. Is there a corresponding collection on your credit reports as well? No collection .... 6.) Verizon bill: has the CA contacted you regarding this yet? Does Verizon also report a charge-off? No collection that I'm aware of....this one is probably even wrong but I won't dispute $43.oo 7.) Carecredit loan: The sob story probably isn't going to work, but that doesn't mean you can't try. Now that you've got this set up on autopay you won't have any problems going forward, so explain that you're now using autopay to ensure timely payments, etc. If you only had one or two lates I would be more optimistic here, but 5 lates may mean they won't have much interest in helping out. Fortunately, the late pays will have less and less of an effect on your FICO scores as time passes. Yah this was just being careless....
No problem...always go for the PFD first. It's worth a shot, and don't give up if the first response is a "no".
How quickly are you trying to correct or fix your credit? Do you have a specific goal in mind? Besides removing negative items on your credit you can also add yourself as an authorized user to one of your family members or friends existing credit card accounts. This can you give you a boost in your credit score, the longer the payment history and higher the credit limit on the card the bigger the increase you will see. Just make sure the credit card as perfect payment history and they can maintain a low balance on their card (10% or less of the credit limit). Thanks! Heather with BoostMyScore.NET
