RE: The truth about paying cha Thanks Steven!!! I am not paying one penny without a deal in writing!!! Do you know of any instance where a CA actually provided a letter to someone stating removal in exchange for payment? I hear about it but never had such luck! Do you know of anyone Kristi?
RE: Confused!!!...The Infamous To Kristi or Steven Z... I have one more question. If one charge-off is just as bad as more than one, does this apply to collections as well? I have creditors who weren't using collection agencies until I started disputing! Now they are adding collection agencies to my report!
RE: Confused!!!...The Infamous A charge off or collection account is the same. Both are an R8 to R9. As for your question of do I know anyone who has negotiated for rating removal, the answer is yes. I teach people to do it everyday. We use to do it for clients but with the rapid growth of the online presence, we have little time to do it manually so in addition we now have subjects listed for free on our site to teach consumers how to go about it. I am sure J Edgar or Steven Z have successfully negotiated at one time or another. Killer wrote: ------------------------------- To Kristi or Steven Z... I have one more question. If one charge-off is just as bad as more than one, does this apply to collections as well? I have creditors who weren't using collection agencies until I started disputing! Now they are adding collection agencies to my report!
RE: The truth about paying cha Thats great. Make sure you get it signed on their company letterhead. Now, you'll no doubt hear them claim that it is illegal for them to delete the record, thats LIE #1, for they can do and change it anyway they please, as many times as they choose as witness by the 100's of thousands of illegal and fraudulent reports done by collection agencies every year. Or, if its the original creditor that they signed an agreement with the CRA's that they would not retract or recant their records, thats LIE #2, then can do so at will rather they prefer passing the blame on to the CRA. Only if you cannot convince them to either delete the record or change it to an R1 (paid as agreed) should you consider attempting to reach an agreement wherein they would agree not to verify this account if contested. No matter what you have to have a signed letter on their letterhead, preferably from their legal department, that way you can sue their asses off it they welch on the deal. Though once they are paid they will take no further interest in your account. There are a number of self proclaimed 'experts' who are going around the credit sites claiming that if you contest the VALID debt enough times the collection agency will get sick of verifying it and let it slip by thus leading to its deletion. These people don't have a bloody clue! 1. After two attempts the CRA's will ignore all further challenges as frivolous. 2. They (especially Experian) may just lie and claim they verified it. 3. It takes seconds thats right SECONDS for the collection agency to mark off the "its verified" box, the MYTH passed around on these sites how they have to go through all the hard work of go through dusty tapes is a sad joke, these are collection agencies we're talking about, many of which are staffed by the biggest scum, liars, bullies and deadbeats imaginable, if you think for one second they will not lie and just tick off yes 99.9% of the time, your dreaming! That .01% is when they are confronted with either the possibility of or an actual legal challenge. Moreover, disregard any individuals who state that you should pay off the charge-off and insert a consumer statement on your credit report with an explanation. First off thats a dead giveaway that individual is either working for a CRA, financial institution or collection agency. But the sad fact is, that with the exception of medical reasons or fraud, it is totally and absolutely useless (Kristy and others go further and say its detrimental) besides which it is totally ignored by creditors and especially online applications. You know, it was about a decade ago when a friend of mine found out the very hard way that paying off a charge-off just 'months' after it had been reported gained him absolutely, positively nothing. I swore I would never wind up being a sucker like that. So when I had my last charge-off/collection I just either ignored the letters or laughed at the collection reps, to say they were not expecting that type of response was an understatement. Now as far as removing a charge-off/collection. I have definately heard and read of any number of persons who were successful in doing so and have seen letters and template examples on several credit sites. Personally, I had never even heard of such a possibility until I started coming on to credit boards such as this. But by then my own collection had not much more than a year left before being purged it really didn't make a difference. Though I honestly doubt I would have done anything if I had known sooner as I had been a cash only person most of my life and being blacklisted by the credit bureaus had absolutely no affect on me. Though I don't doubt that if I were in that position in the future with the knowledge I've gained on these sites and my attitude I am certain I would be successful in removing the negative.
RE: The truth about paying cha Thanks a million!!!!!! Now I know!!! Thank You! Thank You!!!! Thanks to You StevenZ and to Kristi!!!!! You both have helped me a great deal! I did not know that an R1 was a good deal. I had a creditor to offer that but I thought it was no better than an R9 and turned theem down! I told them I wanted deletion. I will call them and ask them to put it in writing. If the don't, no deal!! Thanks again!!!
RE: The truth about paying cha I have 1 charge off (paid) on my credit report. It's only for $150, and it was the creditor's mistake (FCNB), but they refuse to delete. HOWEVER, I am able to get prime cards (Bank of America) and loans (Toyota Financial, etc.). Maybe b/c it's paid, for a small amount, and dates back to 1996 I'm able to get prime cards.
RE: The truth about paying cha First off as I've always maintained. Both the amount and the age of a charge-off have absolutely no relevance. Your gonna be penalized just as hard on day 2554 as you are on day one, does this make sense? does this seem perverse, spiteful, illogical, NO, but thats the way the credit industry has set up this system ESPECIALLY in their decision matrixes when you do an online application. Now as far as your credit we must seperate it into two categories 1. Car loan 2. Credit cards A car loan is much MUCH easier to get than a credit card, since the loan is partially secured by the car and the initial deposit. Its a fact that with the exception of those with the absolute worst credit can obtain a car loan, the only question is what kind, prime or sub-prime and at what rate. Unless I am mistaken, the fact that you have a charge-off on your credit report meant you had to put a much bigger initial deposit and are paying a much higher interest rate than you would have had the "error" not been there. Any number of credit sites have charts showing how much extra money varying degrees of bad credit cost you. Personally, if it were me, and a creditor had made an error and insisted on reporting it, I would take them to court so fast it would make your head spin, I wager Pat M would do the same, rather than being ripped off at some sub-prime loan rate I didn't deserve. Now as far as credit cards (particularly prime cards) are concerned have much stricter acceptance guidlines. Most of them have a "one strke your out policy" for some even late pays are grounds for rejection. To give an example NextCard (they advertise like hell, worse still they have alot of individuals pushing their cards and claiming how easy it is to get accepted), how many 10's of thousands of individuals got burned by applying for this PRIME card with very strict guidelines. Yet some few slipped through (and naturally came around boasting here saying "I have bad credit and got accepted"). Which fits in quite nicely with another thing I've always maintained. If you somehow manage to 'fluke' yourself a prime card, then even though you may still have horrible credit, you may be able to put yourself in the drivers seat by re-negotiating your sub-prime rates, it makes it that much more possible to talk a rep into granting you another prime card, or send a letter off to a creditor that rejected you "see this prime bank, (best if its a more prestigious company such as AMEX) granted me their card so I don't need you" what do you bet they change their minds and offer you a card. You should be very happy that you managed this and use it to your advantage or as CreditWorks says "deal from strength" that means lay down the terms to all your sub-prime creditors and pull yourself into the prime world as Dogman and others have demonstrated once you have a prime card they JUMP.
Addendum NextCard Comment Steven, Now with NextCard's sub-prime offering, I imagine more consumers will be approved. And more applicants with fair to good credit scores will likely be pigeon holed into the Horizon Card... thinking they were approved for the prime card. I also think we should watch for the big boys like Chase, Bank One, and CitiBank enter the subprime game in the near future. Peace, BarryN
RE: Addendum NextCard Comment Nextcard is now offering sub-prime cards? Can you clarify what their requirements are? And when did they start doing this?
