Hello all, I've spent the last week lurking and reading before I finally registered to post. I need help...or do I? Basically the scenario goes like this: I royally screwed up my credit just a little under 7 years ago. I have several(charge-offs)6 on TU and 7 showing on Equifax. One of these was settled, but I don't have any of the information regarding that transaction. Also I have 4 collections on TU, 3 of which I can pay off,(amounts under $100 each). All of these debts are scheduled to expire by years end. And Best Buy(The settled account), First USA, MBNA and Discover haven't reported to EQ since 2000 or earlier. My question is should I act in any way on these or just let them expire? What's also interesting is the two MBNA, the First USA, The Discover, and the Bestbuy all show $0 balances. Is this because they are charged off? Can I letter write these away or is it best to simply let it all expire? If I haven't provided all necesary information, please let me know. I'm open to any suggestions and I'll provide any information possible. I've read the FAQ twice already, but if my answers are there I'm open to re-reading it again. TIA for any help. THEE ONE - n00b 3/15/03 EQ 553 3/15/03 TU 514
Basically you have asked a question that only you can answer and that is whether you should attempt to clean up or would it be better just to let them expire. Whatever you do could take a year or more. You might very well get rid of a few by writing letters although that can be very time consuming and frustrating to say the least. I think you just have to make up your own mind as to what to do and go from there.
Ok, do I incur any additional risk writing letters opposed to just letting them expire? I don't want anything I do to come back and bite me in the butt. Thanks for you reply BTW.
If the negative stuff falls off this year, why bother disputing, letter writing, registered mail, etc, etc, etc.? Unless you want a card now, or buy a house/car very soon, just let it fall off. It is almost April already, BTW, what month does the last negative fall off?
Bill: RE letter writing...I'm not sure, I was hoping to get advice on that. I was thinking validation, but as I'm new to this I might be totally wrong. Considering the age of most of the accounts and the fact most of the OC's stopped reporting over 2 years ago. Am I off track here? Brad: My last negatives fall off December of this year...
I'm afraid I won't be able to help you with that. I never send anything to the credit bureaus. I'm pretty well convinced its nothing but a big waste of time for the most part. Some have success at it and others don't. I guess I just happened to be one of those who didn't so I quit trying that which didn't work for me and went at it another way.
Thanks for your time anyway. I saw a post over on your boards that is similiar to mine here. At least partly anyway. http://pub50.ezboard.com/fcreditwrenchfrm1.showMessage?topicID=977.topic I posted there, but not sure if I'll have much luck, because there probably isn't much luck to be had. I can wait for these negatives to lapse, though if I can hurry them along it would be ideal. I'm in the exploratory phase of starting a business and having a decent, if not good credit rating would go a long way in securing credit for said business. But it'll wait if it has to. Again thanks for your help Bill. Anyone else have another take?
I have had decent luck disputing expired and peaceful TL's using the online dispute system with each CRA.
Luckymom: I don't see how it could hurt, so I'll try that. My main concern is not to mess up anything considering all of this stuff will expire at the end of this year anyway. Bill: Thanks, I saw your reply. It helped alot to make up my mind believe it or not. At this point I'm starting to think validation isn't worth the time and effort, considering when these negative TL's expire. Maybe I should concentrate on rebuilding with new positive credit? Instead of worrying about old soon to be expired TL's?
I tend to think that in your situation that would indeed be the best bet. I sure would not turn to credit cards for rebuilding credit to begin with. That will just lock you into the subprime stuff instead of giving you a shot at the better stuff.
You need to determine the statute of limitations in your state, and check your debts against it. Most likely, all of these debts are past the SOL. That keeps them from suing you and winning, as SOL is an absolute defense. Disputing with the CRA"s will likely return some deletions. Just a simple "not mine" dispute. Keep in mind that if these are larger amounts of money, and the SOL is closing in, stirring the pot may stir up a lawsuit for payment. If you are past the SOL, dispute and validate to your heart's content. If not, you have to balance the need for immediate deletion (as opposed to waiting the 7 years out) against the liklihood of a lawsuit. -Radi8
I'm in Illinois so the SOL is 5 years on Open accounts. All of these are Credit Cards with one exception, which was a MBNA LOC account. In this case they are over the SOL and it should be OK for me to dispute and validate to my heart's content. = ) I've read WhyChat's SOL posts and that seems to be what he implies. Bill: Other than CC's, how else can I rebuild my credit? I'm not in the need of a car, so I'm not sure how else to do it.
Re: Re: Help - I'm a Newb!!! C'mon Bill, tell us all how to help build our credit without cc's. The only othe way I'm aware of is small, secured loans at about 2 or 3 banks at the same time.
Re: Re: Help - I'm a Newb!!! If you want to go the secured credit card route, American Pacific Bank has an excellent reputation. Min deposit for an individual cc is $200, for a business cc, $1000. You must send proof of income for the individual card, articles of Incorporation for the business card.
Re: Re: Help - I'm a Newb!!! LKH: The problem I have with doing as you suggest is the snoops, not the giving of the information for free. Who cares? It's been "common knowledge" for many years now. We already give out so much free info around here that we currently have the McNeil Lehr news hour apparently getting ready to do an expose. We really need that kind of attention, now don't we? I don't know if they are watching this board or not but I have to assume that they are. Next we will all be on 60 minutes. Publicity on those kinds of programs will never be good and the truth is always stretched and twisted until it is almost unrecognizable and will always be slanted against the common man and made into how we have all got to be deadbeats trading messages on the internet to learn how to cheat our creditors and how we are responsible for the ever increasing prices at the stores, how what we do is teach terrorists how to clean up their credit so they can finance yet more terrorist attacks on the US. Before they get through with us we will be the terrorists. That is yet another reason why I will not put all of what I do on any message board. What I do is so successful that it probably could be seen by some expose artist as being a danger to their idea of what our society should be. Anything that works and is put out on public message boards for all to see will very soon be known to those who don't like what they see here and they will figure out a way to combat it and if they can't figure out how to combat it they will soon pass a new law against it. Anything that threatens the security of the money bags will be seen as a threat to society and all we need is enough adverse publicity from the media and the game is all over. The bankruptcy laws were a reasonably good thing for millions of people and now that is going to get changed so it won't be much good to anybody. Loose lips will ruin anything sooner or later and usually sooner rather than later.
Thee One, I replied to your email but it came back as being undeliverable. You will have to give me another email addy I guess.
