Hello all! Thanks for the advice and work you do here. Been reading a while, and now time to take some action. Pulled my CR last week and saw a new/old entry. I had a land line in college with Verizon south that I started in Sept '01, and that was disconnected 7/10/02, and put into collections 9/22/02 (all this per the CA, and kinda fits what I remember). When I was still in college, it showed up on my CR with another CA, NCO, and fell off at some point. Now a few years later, all of a sudden, a new entry in June with a new CA. I looked up the SOL in Illinois here, and it is Sales 4years Open Account 5 years Written contract 10 years (by the way, which would I use in this circumstance, 5 years?) I found out about this because I want to buy a new car, and my fico was the upper 600s, but now with this new entry, it dipped 50-60 points. Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of time to figure this one out...perhaps to the end of July or so, because of rebates and because I need a new car to travel in my new position, so I know I am against the wall some here. I just called the CA, per some advice I read here, and offered them $95 on a $315 bill WITH a letter of deletion. They quickly got a manager on the line and asked if I got the settlement letter for $157, and I said yes (I didn't), and he said the deadline for it had passed (June 6th or so) and that they wouldn't accept my $95 or give a letter of deletion. I politely (had to bite my lip some) said goodbye, and paused, and got no response, and hung up. I will try another day, with another person. I found out during the call that this CA represents another CA that owns the debt now, bought from Verizon at some point. On the CR it says for this collection: Type of Acct: open Date Reported 6/08 Date Major Delinquency First Reported: 3/07 Creditor Classification: Utilities Date of First Delinquency: 3/02 Comments: Collection acct DOLA: N/A Months reviewed: 15 type of loan: factoring company account (debt purchaser) Some questions: Is this out of SOL? If so, I don't legally have to pay, but they can still post on CR, or no? Should I deal with the owner CA only, instead of the CA doing the collecting? I originally called the owner CA, since they were the ones listed on the CR, but the gave me the number of the other CA to deal with. If it comes down to it, and they won't deal, and I am stuck to get this done quickly, if I paid off without a letter of deletion, just a letter showing paid in full, will that increase my score at all? I heard somewhere that if you dispute an entry with a CB, that they temporarily delete the entry until they figure things out; is this true. If so, why wouldn't someone just dispute everything negative on their report right before a purchase? Doesn't make sense. Any other suggestions for this? Thanks in advance...
You should dispute the collection agency tradeline with the credit reporting agency, try to get it deleted. Yes I have heard of people disputing everything then applying for new credit in that 30 day period of time. I think I had heard stories of that working. Unfortunately if you pay this collection it will update and likely hurt the score further. I would get the collection agency address and write them a letter offering payment in full for deletion. They are more likely to delete if you pay them in full. Anything less and they will just update to show settled for less then full balance. What you should do is go to the dealership and ask them what credit score is needed for approval, and if paying off unpaid debt will make a difference in you getting approved. You can show the dealership or bank a copy of your credit report without allowing them to pull their own report until you are satisfied that you can get a fair chance at approval.
Or--go to your local credit union and see if they'll finance you. Go to the dealer with financing in hand. Don't bother with their financing.
Ok...thanks for the responses. I am unclear on the SOL. In my case, is it 5 years (see above). And from which date I have shown above? And the date for reporting on a credit report is 7 years, right?. Again, from what date above. It must be at the LATEST, 5 and then 7 years from 9/22/02, which brings it to 9/07 and 9/09, which is out of the SOL and 1 year away from the last point can be put on credit report. Since they beat that deadline to post on my CR, that means it can stay the 7 years, or off on 9/09 (IF that is the correct date I am using, of course)? Is there a problem working for a settlement delete and validation, and disputing at the same time? (as long as I don't agree the debt is mine during settlement, I would assume)
The SOL has nothing to do with a negative item being on your credit report. The SOL (period during which you can get sued) might expire but the negative entry on your CR will only drop off after 7 years. Why? To keep peoples' credit history in the toilet.
