I have been posting on a different forum and was recommended here by one of those members. I have pasted below my story/question to them. I also have another- kind of unrelated- to follow. Please spare me the lectures about using the CCCS. The damage is long since done, and the lessons well learned. I just need help for where to go now. Thanks Trish>>> Hello, Up until about a year ago I was the type of person who ALWAYS paid her bills, on time every time. I never worried about bad marks on my credit, because- except for large balances, there were no reason for any. Last year changed all that, starting with a hospital copay that I couldn't pay off. I actually made payments on it, but still got sent to collections. Sent payments to the agency, then they refused a payment, and I sent one last letter attempting to negotiate with them and since March no word. Not sure what to make of that. Either way that goes on my credit as a unpaid collection or something to that affect. A negative thing either way. Another problem started up in November last year. For a couple years we had been on Ameridebt, trying to get ourselves out of a hole we had dug ourselves into. It is a sizeable one, too. In just 2-3 years time we managed to rack up nearly 17,000 in debt (without buying a house or car or anything cool like that) and we only made about 20,000 gross a year. Math doesn't add up, does it? Believe me we learned a lesson or two about frivolous spending, but that won't help us now. In November we finally decided that Ameridebt was doing absolutely nothing that we couldn't do on our own. We had refused, at the time of signing up, to pay any of their "contributions" and thus I think we ended up receiving lousy service because of it. So, when we finally decided to try DMCC Corp we agreed to all of it. That's the first payment they keep, and 35/mo after that. The good news was they did cut our payments way down, and lower our interest as much as 7% lower than Ameridebt. But I'm getting tot hat. My monthly payment to Ameridebt, which only encompassed half our cards, was $251/mo. Our payment to DMCC would be $331, including ALL our cards (which would save us nearly $100/mo) So end of November I made the decision to switch to DMCC. Problem was with the first payment they kept. That's 331 out of my pocket that goes no where. So, knowing that was going to come out on Dec 6th or thereabouts I did my best to stop the 251 from being pulled by Ameridebt. I'd need the money to make min payments on my accounts until DMCC took over. Despite trying to put a stop payment on the bank, calling Ameridebt, and even emailing them I was unable to stop the funds from being drawn. Frustrated and broke I decided to try and protest the withdrawl with the bank, but it took nearly 10 days to get the paperwork. By that time DMCC had made their pull, and ameridebt would have distributed funds to the creditors already (at least normally that's what would have happened). So I said forget it. I didn't fill it out. Come about Dec 13th (remember the funds drew on Nov 25th) I get a call from Ameridebt asking if they could reattempt the draw for November. I was a little surprised and told them the money WAS drawn already (they showed NSF on their end for some odd reason). So they said that's all they needed, and they'd go verify that, and then distribute the funds. Not thinking until after I hung up I called back IMMEDIATELY and explained how I did NOT want them taking those funds, that I wanted those back and they said it was too late. They had already been distributed. (Right!) So you'd think my accounts got their money? NOPE. By the time Ameridebt figured out they had the money all along I had removed all but Amex from my account with them (only because I stood to loose my pay off balance if I moved Amex) so only Amex got that 251. I had 2 Discover cards and one mastercard that went unpaid. I had no extra money to pay them (since one alone wanted about 140.00 for min) so I thought once Jan came around they'd have their proposals from DMCC, their money, and all would be well. But that was just the beginning. Come January, even after I filled out the paperwork for the ACH for DMCC, the draw didn't happen as scheduled. I waited a couple extra days and nothing. So I finally called and asked why it didn't come out and they said they got a NSF (WHAT??) which I knew wasn't the case. Then upon further investigation we found that it was an invalid account number. I reverified the account #'s which were totally correct, but they informed me they couldn't reattempt the draw for this month that I had to find another means of payment. So I had to pay the fees to make an online payment, which was bogus!, and it wasn't until late Jan early Feb that my creditors began getting money. By this time they were showing 60 days dilinquent. Most of my creditors wanted over 100 at this point. Discover wanted over 300 for one. I simply didn't have that money to pay them while paying this other debt management company, and since I was looking to get considerably lower interest I was sticking it out. (One card came down from 16.99 to 8%, whereas on Ameridebt I went from 16.99 to 15.41%) The harassment began in February. Discover called NON STOP about these dilinquent accounts. In fact, in a two week period they called probably around 40 times, one day as many as 8 times! I made phone calls to the FTC, local state attorney general's office, etc. Nobody would help. I finally submitted a complaint to the BBB, which got the phone calls to stop- but Discover came back with a letter saying they had been "well within the means of the law". BULL CRAP! Either way, none of these accounts were happy with the money they got until april when I paid them all off in full (at least what I thought was in full). I had finally received a large tax refund check and was able to pay over 3000 off myself, then a family member (risking a lot to be sure) financed his truck so we got a loan at 2.49% to pay off the rest. We're good and current on that, believe me, and intend to stay there- but as far as credit history goes it makes no difference, I'm not on the loan. All this has left quite a mar on both of our credit records. We're still fighting it. Discover wants some $4 from me, big deal, but I think they owe me $70. So we're still arguing over that. I haven't heard from the collection agency in months re: the hospital bill, and now I have BMG and other clubs threatening to send me to collections (or they have) mostly over money I don't owe. I've lapsed on my phone bill, as well as other bills. The financial scene is falling apart at the seems, and with it I think are all my hopes of ever getting a house anytime soon. What to do?? Can I some how have any of this removed before 7 years? Thanks Trish
begin disputing the late payments with the CRA's. write for validation of the debts to the creditors. offer settlements on the ones that validate on the contingency of the tradeline gets removed. all the standard stuff. i'm impressed you paid them off, i think i would have filed BK.
I can't get any mailing addresses for the agencies. Do you know where I can get them. I'd like to dispute a lot of things. IE- an unpaid collection. . I got sent to collection on an account I WAS paying, then also got nailed with an "unpaid collection" even after I had been paying on it for 5 months! (grrr). I also think that the dilenquencies that Discover is still holding against me are unjust and not of my doing, and would at least like to plead my case- as worthless an effort it may be. Thoughts? Thanks Trish P.S. declaring bankruptcy would have ruined my credit far worse than any delinquencies would.
