Hey all, I've spent a couple of weeks reading through the forums, and I have a pretty good idea of what I think should be done. However, I would like to sound my plan of attack off some of the more experienced members on this board. My goals are to finance a vehicle within the next nine months, and to possibly buy a home within the next two years. I pulled all 3 reports today from myfico.com, and here are the results: TU 618 EQ 576 EF 565 Here is a listing of the derogatory items that appear on the reports, from highest severity, including the date of last activity and amount where applicable: 1. Voluntary Reposession/American Honda Finance 7/2002 2. Charge Off/Wells Fargo Bank $3,806 12/2001 3. Collection/Megan Valibeigi, DDS $494 7/2000 4. Collection/JJR Emergency Medical Group $371 7/1999 5. Collection/Sprint PCS $181 7/2001 6. Collection/AT&T Wireless $314 12/1998 7. Collection/AT&T Wireless $176 8/2001 8. Collection/United Western Medical Center $50 6/1999 9. Collection/SNET $30 11/1998 Here's how I plan to address these issues. 1. Honda Finance - leave well enough alone. I voluntarily returned the car to the dealership, as I could no longer afford it. Honda sent me a letter demanding payment for approximately $10,000, since I was upside down on the lease. I chose to ignore them in 2002, and haven't heard anything since - I think they're not being difficult since they have the car. It's listed on my CR as Paid/Voluntarily Surrendered, not CO or collection. 2. Wells Fargo - this I need to deal with, but I'm not sure how since I don't have 4 grand. ;-) Although it is not listed on any of my CRs, I know that it has been assigned to a CA since they contacted me by phone at work in 8/2002. I told them never to contact me again by phone and that I would contact them in the future when I was ready to make payment arrangements. At that time, they offered to settle for 2,700. I tried disputing this with experian.com, which failed ( 30 days up today ). I was hoping on settling with Wells Fargo/Collection Agency. Any ideas on how much of a percentage I should offer? Should I ask for deletion? How would I go about doing this? 3,4. Doctors, hostpitals. Ugh. I was fully insured on both of these occasions, although through some payment SNAFU they never received their money. Since I have no receipts or documentation on any of this, it's difficult to throw out. I tried disputing these with experian.com, this also failed. Since the SOL in California is 4 years, I have a much stronger position with these two CAs. Again, should I offer them a percentage in return for deletion of trade line? 5. Sprint PCS - $181, I guess I'll just pay them. This only shows up on EQ anyway. 6,7,8,9. I disputed all of these with experian.com - they were all validated. So, I went and paid all of them off, and have letters to that effect. SNET actually deleted the trade line on EX, but failed to do so for EQ and TU. I plan on disputing all of these again. Since I have the documentation to back it up, I'm not worried about these. What do you folks think of my strategy? More specifically, I was looking for advice on how to negotiate the settlements with the CAs for the major delinquencies. Also, am I handling the situation with Honda Finance correctly? Thanks so much in advance for the help! -ned
yes I agree with chipper.. a repo will kill your score.. get it off asap.. also make sure any settlement offer you have includes deletion of the tradeline.. Before I came to this board I was under the mistaken impression if you paid the bill it would come off your cr. After you pay them the only thing they have to do legally is report it as paid. A paid collection is only slightly better than an upaid.. I know it sounds odd to me too.. before you pay sprint or any other make sure they agree IN WRITING to remove the negative tradeline.
Before I came to this board I was under the mistaken impression if you paid the bill it would come off your cr. trekie ================ I don't know where folks get this idea. Tossing money at a NEG is not a magic wand that will make it go away! When you make it right and pay up they still screw you for doing it. That's what the purple line in my signature is all about. ><- <>- ><- <> ~~~ ><- <>- ><- <> ><- <>- ><- <> ~~~ ><- <>- ><- <>
Re: Re: Credit Repair Plan: Newbie Advice I think it beacause thats what the CAs will lead you to believe. Also its seems logical enough.. without places like this board I would probably still believe the lie that there is nothing you can do about your bad credit..
Re: Credit Repair Plan: Newbie Advi chipper, thanks for your help with this. does anyone have any experience with actually removing repossessions from your credit? my concern is that i have close to a $10,000 outstanding balance with american honda finance, and they are well within their ability to sue me at this point should they so choose. if i attempt to contact them, in order to have a trade line deleted or adjusted... it's rather difficult to negotiate a deletion, since i don't have 10 grand at the moment to pay them off! does anyone have any experience with repossessions/perhaps know an easier way, other than to pay outright?
Re: Credit Repair Plan: Newbie Advi I have had a repo removed from my credit reports but it was a little older and from a much smaller company than honda.. Look over your credit report.. see if there are any inaccuracies for this tradeline. If something is wrong with the listing you can attack it that way. You could try the "not mine" approach.. I am not sure that would work however.
Re: Credit Repair Plan: Newbie So, I was wondering if someone could confirm my plan of attack with the Collection Accounts I have. Here is what I was considering: 1. Send written request for validation to the OC. Require that they send you a copy of something bearing your signature indicating responsibility of the debt, and require that they report the item to the CRAs as disputed. 2. Send written dispute request about a week later to the CRAs. I believe this is an attempt to catch the OC in a FDCPA violation, if they did not report the dispute to the CRAs properly. 3. If you can catch a violation, threaten legal action. 4. If the OC does not return a request for validation, send a letter to the CRAs demanding removal ( or would you send this to the OC? ) 5. If they can, in fact, validate the debt, and you must negotiate a settlement, should I send a written letter to the OC indicating my willingness to settle the debt, and make them an offer ( i.e. 30% of the original debt )? In this letter, should I tell them that I will only pay them if they offer in writing a statement where they will delete the trade line upon receipt of the payment?
Re: Credit Repair Plan: Newbie trekie, The only discrepancies I can locate are within the payment reporting section. TU reports nothing, EQ reports payments beginning in 3/2002 ( I opened the loan in 5/2001 ), and EF reports payment activity beginning in 12/2001. EX does not have the credit grantor contact information on file, nor do they have the monthly payment amount. I am really afraid to touch this one... since I do owe them a large sum of money. Since they don't know where I am and haven't assigned it to a CA, I haven't heard anything from them in almost two years. If I start sending them letters demanding that they clear up inaccuracies in the trade line, they might actually report it as derogatory, they'll have my current address, etc. What are your thoughts?
Re: Credit Repair Plan: Newbie Before you even think about contacting Honda, or even disputing it, find out about the repo laws in your state. Many times they have violated the law during the repossession. If they have, you can use that against them. In a few states, I think they can't sue for delinquency balance, but I'm not sure. Anyway, check the law before you do anything else.
Re: Credit Repair Plan: Newbie Thanks Hedwig. I was able to locate some information on this subject. Basically, California law states that after a vehicle is repossessed, the lienholder must allow the borrower to make good on the loan, and if they are able to, they will return the car. The lienholder has the right to allow the consumer to catch up to date on their payments and continue the loan, or pay off the entire balance. Mabye my situation was different since I voluntarily surrendered the car, but Honda never mentioned this to me at all. I never received notice of how much I owed, and where I could send a check to get the car back. This is from the California Financial code, Section 22328. However, it would be very difficult to prove that I didn't receive this, since I really don't have any of the documentation assosciated with this event. Here's the worst part: (8) Includes a notice, in at least 10-point bold type if the notice is printed, reading as follows: "NOTICE: YOU MAY BE SUBJECT TO SUIT AND LIABILITY IF THE AMOUNT OBTAINED UPON DISPOSITION OF THE VEHICLE IS INSUFFICIENT TO PAY THE LOAN BALANCE AND ANY OTHER AMOUNTS DUE." This I do remember receiving.
Re: Credit Repair Plan: Newbie I just sent my attorney an email about this. Hopefully he'll get back to me in a couple of days.
Re: Credit Repair Plan: Newbie Just heard back from my attorney. He's vacationing in Morocco ( Damn! ). He returns on the 3rd - I will post then.
Re: Re: Credit Repair Plan: Newbie Advice Then why do they say it's paid here----->It's listed on my CR as Paid/Voluntarily Surrendered, not CO or collection.
