This may be a bit long, so thanks to all that read all the way through. I've been reading this forum A LOT over the past few days and have been thinking about a plan to get my credit repaired. I have taken my credit report from the 3 major CRAs and put them in an excel sheet in order to keep track of my progress and the organize the negative accounts. I haven't done anything in the way of sending letters yet, but I wanted to formulate a solid plan of action for all accounts before I did. I have a few questions that have popped in my head as I review my information. Most of my accounts are closed and have not had much activity in the past few months and others in the past few years. Some are student loans with late payments as much as 120 days on them and others are old car loans with the same. None of them were defaulted and there are no judgements. My question here is, what would I be trying to accomplish with these accounts? Is it in my best interest to try and get the entire account removed from my report or just the negative late payment remarks so I maintain the history? Would a goodwill letter be best suited for these types of accounts? I have two credit cards accounts that have charged off and settlements have been made. From my initial reading here, it seems like the "nutcase" approach may yield favorable results since the accounts are closed and I may not have much leverage with them. Is it better to try other avenues first and see where I end up? Only to use the "nutcase" approach as a last resort. There are 3 accounts that I have that are still past due. Two of them are for student loans and one is for an old insurance company I had like 3 years ago (which I had no idea I owed them money). What would be the best approach here? I'm in California and so the SOL would probably be running out on these items pretty soon. The balance dates (which I assume is the last time they reported me) on the accounts are May of 2005, Sept of 2005 and February of 2003. Are these accounts considered sleeping giants that will awake if I start disputing? Or would it be best to send validation letters to the OC and CA involved? I can't remember the last time I received a bill for either of these from either a CA or the OC. The strange thing (at least to me) is that some of my negative items don't show up on all of the reports. It's kind of spotty which I guess will make it easier to clean up, right? Anyway, I think those are all the questions I have for now. Thank you very much if you have gotten this far! Regards, db0
Possibly, start by contesting the older, paid off stuff with the CRAs. If it comes back as validated, then go to war with the creditors/collectors, using the tools described here.
