OK, I need some advice. I was considering hiring someone to look into this for me, but found this site and want to give all you experts the first chance. Here is my situation. I cosigned for a loan for a car for my brother, who I will officially state is a complete moron, making me a moron for having ANY faith in his ability to function as a human being. To make a long story short, he totalled his car while being 3 months behind on payments and without insurance. The car was officially repo'ed by Toyota Financial Services. I never even knew he was late on a single payment because 1. he has a decent job and really didnt have any real reason to be behind 2. moved away and we didnt communicate much after his move. Well, I used to have a credit score...~810ish. Right now i am afraid to look. I paid the car off the instant i received the payoff notice from Toyota Finance. Toyota sent me a letter stating they were making a statement to the "appropriate bureaus" after the paying off and what not. The total loss on the auto was about 16,000 dollars. Here is my dilema. My brother was late 3 months on 3 separate occasions. I had no knowlege of this whatsoever and would really like this and everything with the car to be removed from my report. I have always had stellar credit as i live a lifestyle with very few credit cards and decent wages, high education and a lifestyle living well below my means. I would really really like to have that taken off. Is this something that is possible to be done or am I doomed for this credit hit for eternity?
Best bet is to pull your reports and see if it is there and if it is showing the late pays. Theres a chance it may not even be reporting on your report. If it is and if you have paid the balance owed I would write a goodwill letter asking for consideration for removing the lates. Grovel a bit and make it really beleivable, sounds corny but you really want to make an impression. Call up Toyota financing and get the name and addy of a bigwig to send it to. BTW, your brother owes you......big time!
First, thanks for posting, as I hope others can learn from this. This is another example of the dangers of co-signing for a loan, especially for a family member. But to your situation; as suggested first pull your credit reports and determine exactly what is being reported. Make sure to pull all three. Also check your FICO scores for the quantitative damage. You have two options on actions here: 1) Call, and write, Toyota explaining the situation, and asking for removal. You may get lucky... As a note, you may have had more leverage BEFORE you paid, but that is in the past. I would remind them that you paid immediately, and play on their good nature. Perhaps adding that Toyota could lose you as a customer wouldn't hurt either... 2) Dispute the transactions with the Credit Reporting Agencies. Again, you may get lucky.
ok, i will pull from the agencies. is there one agency that is the best to use to get the reports from? and, I wish i would have known the dangers before signing. this has caused a deep rift in the family situation. this all took place between october and january, and i still cant stand to talk to him.
Your allowed a free credit report from each CRA (Experian, Transunion & Equifax) once a year and whenever you are denied credit. You can get the free annual ones at: www.annualcreditreport.com If you have already gotton a free one you could go to each agencies website and order one for a fee. www.experian.com www.transunion.com www.equifax.com FICO scores can be gotton for a fee at: www.myfico.com Hope the links are ok. Tegleg
We have links to myFICO products on Creditnet.com, along with other options to get you a free credit report (with a trial membership, be sure to cancel if you don't want to be charged). myFICO products Credit reports through Creditnet.com
