I visitted their website because I want to get out of the 500 club, desperately! I am not trying to illegally wipe off negatives. I just want a way around these 2 paid collections. Anyone who believes a paid collection is better than an unpaid, try and get a bank loan and it's all the same. Collection is a red flag, no matter how prettily it is updated. But anyway, I called the number, twice, and this lady answers and says the credit guy isn't there anymore. I emailed using the link, it came back to me saying invalid email address. Anyone have suggestions? Or am I just stuck with the 568 while I pay everything off in lump sums just to get the debt ratio down. I figure by April I will have paid off cap one's paltry limit, first national's paltry limit, household's paltry limit, victoria's secret is already gone, fingerhut is next, and then I'll focus on the high limit mount everest apr cards like providian mastercard and visa, fcnb, target chadwicks, etc.
-----quote from Eileen----------- Anyone who believes a paid collection is better than an unpaid, try and get a bank loan and it's all the same. ----------------------------------- You got THAT right! Not only that but it extends the time the CRA will report the negative account because they update the DATE OF LAST ACTIVITY (your payment date) and leave it on your report for another 7 years. Keep chugging away...jump on board the Holiday Dispute train leaving the 5th to the 10th of December. Maybe you'll have better luck with the disputes. -Peace, Dave
On a number of (but not all) of my paid collections, I successfully disputed without lieing (I'm convinced there is NO correct spelling of that word). I looked at the data very closely, and in each case found something that was not accurate, particularly where the numerous late pays were listed, I simply said " I have no record of this, please verify", which is true, because after a couple of moves, who knows where all my records are? I certainly don't. I know, I know, that's teetering right on the edge of falsehood; I'll make my own peace with that. Bottom line; for our own reasons, my wife and I chose to pay off every single debt, regardless of whether we were going to be awarded any medals for doing so, which we weren't--- no parades, no "Atta Boy's", nothing. We just knew it was the right thing to do. Still do. We found that many of these people don't have much fight in them if they've already got their money, so a little better than 50% dropped off of our CR's without much effort. The rest verified twice, followed by the CRA's refusal to reinvestigate, and so now we're taking the heavier handed (but still honest, probably more so) approach espoused by Mr. Bill. BTW, I haven't had any problem getting in touch with him lately, though I haven't tried today. Are you sure you got the right contact info? Don't bother trying to click on his e-mail link at the bottom of his posts, just copy and paste into the "To" field in your e-mail client. Good Luck!
[QUOTE Bottom line; for our own reasons, my wife and I chose to pay off every single debt, regardless of whether we were going to be awarded any medals for doing so, which we weren't--- no parades, no "Atta Boy's", nothing. We just knew it was the right thing to do. Still do. [/QUOTE] Quixote, I am so glad to read from someone who has the same sentiment that I have. I have medical collections that although I'm not certain that the amount I owe is completely accurate, I do know that I owe the various hospitals and medical groups for at least some type of service provided. I feel a sense of relief and accomplishment in the accounts I've paid off so far, but the meanness that I have come up against in trying to negotiate deletions is numbing. Why should these places care so much about ruining your credit when they have every penny due them? On one account that I just paid off, the collection agency violated the FDCPA by not notifying me of the account turned over to them and giving me 30 days to dispute, which I wholeheartedly would have done since my insurance was dragging it's feet so badly in paying the creditor. The creditor lied to get me to pay, and I did, and now they refuse to delete it, only update it to paid in full. A lot of good that does me. I don't know. I'm tired of fighting tooth and nail. I'm gonna get an ulcer and incur more medical bills!!!
I am NOT saying DO NOT pay the account. I AM saying that simply paying does you NO GOOD will EXTEND your derogatory mark, and you lose ALL your leverage when you pay. Work out a settlement for DELETION from your credit reports in return for PAYMENT IN FULL. Once you pay you can do NOTHING for 7 years to clear that up, but dispute and hope they delete it - crap shoot. My conscience is sleeping very soundly...and I have NO PAID collections on my report. I wish I was sleeping so well...I need a nap. -Peace, Dave
OH NO.... DID BILL SKIP TOWN?!?! SAY IT ISN'T SO! This thread should be moved the discussion forum. If you're going to have rules, ENFORE THEM and equally.
Had I to do it over again, with the benefit of having actually read the FCRA ( http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcrajump.htm ) and FDCPA ( http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpajump.htm ) and learned much from this board, I can tell you I would not have tolerated any of the abuse that I did. In fact I would have gotten a recording device on my phone (with the appropriate legal announcement, of course, or it would do me no good), which would most probably have put an absolute stop to it. Any of them that were stupid enough to go ahead and heap on the abuse (some of them no doubt were) I would sue them until I owned their company. Beyond that, I would have made them completely prove the debt, as is my right. When they presumabably could not (as they, for the most part, cannot now do), much of it would have been wiped away. At that point I could have really tested my scruples, because I'd like to think that I would go back and pay every one of the debts anyway as funds allowed. I've done that with some private debts that were never recorded on the CR's. But who knows?
They may TRY to reage the account, but it is not legal. They can not report it for an additional 7 years. That's incorrect. What is correct is the FICO's formula uses the DATE OF LAST ACTIVITY for scoring, not the actual date an account is late/charged off/etc. So it can hurt your score if it's updated....
Insurance issues have no business being reported. Quixote, I am so glad to read from someone who has the same sentiment that I have. I have medical collections that although I'm not certain that the amount I owe is completely accurate, I do know that I owe the various hospitals and medical groups for at least some type of service provided. I feel a sense of relief and accomplishment in the accounts I've paid off so far, but the meanness that I have come up against in trying to negotiate deletions is numbing. Why should these places care so much about ruining your credit when they have every penny due them? On one account that I just paid off, the collection agency violated the FDCPA by not notifying me of the account turned over to them and giving me 30 days to dispute, which I wholeheartedly would have done since my insurance was dragging it's feet so badly in paying the creditor. The creditor lied to get me to pay, and I did, and now they refuse to delete it, only update it to paid in full. A lot of good that does me. I don't know. I'm tired of fighting tooth and nail. I'm gonna get an ulcer and incur more medical bills!!! [/QUOTE]
Unless, I suppose, they get a judgement. But that presents its' own opportunities for you to make them toe the legal line, in terms of how they proceed in getting and enforcing it. I have no experience down that alley, but I have seen some fairly recent threads you might want to search for should the need arise.
Thanks for catching that Doc... Of course I mean the FEEDBACK discussion forum... The one you had problems finding yesterday.
I would think he would respond to you here. He posts and reads the board regularly, if not I don't know what to say, except maybe i'm glad I didn't sign up last week.
I would not want to accept your problem in that case. It isn't that I don't have success getting paid items off because I sometimes do. It is that I would not want to accept a situation where I feel that you could do about as well as I could do and you can do it for free. Let me explain something to you. The types of situations that I do best at are those where you owe money, not those who have no interest in trying to do something for or against you. Once you have paid them there is no collection activity, you have already admitted your indebtedness by paying it off and so that is that. Too bad that we did not have Westcap's restrictive endorsement to help you out with. We now have a rubber stamp which carries the wording he suggests. The stamp is so large that it is very expensive, and since that is so, not everyone would want to spend that much money for a stamp they might use once or twice in their lifetimes. So in order to help folks out who wish to pay their bills we are going to let them borrow Westcap's stamp to use on their checks. The way we are going to do that is to have them make out their checks, put them in a properly stamped and addressed envelope and mail them to us. We will add the restrictive endorsement and forward it on to it's proper destination. Simple. Hopefully it will work as well as Westcap says it does. Absent a better way to go, what other alternative do we have? But I would not take your money when you have an apparently lost cause in the first place.
