Hi there. I took a seminar over at Motley Fool with PsychDoc (among others). He suggested I¢¥d find a community of like-minded individuals here and he was right! After reading the board for a couple months heres how I think I want to go about things. Thanks in advance for any advice! RunawayJim *Overview* Ok, the basic idea is to clean up mine and my wifes credit report. Everything is paid in full except one account for less than $200 (I'll just offer payment for deletion on this one). Since these are fully paid creditors, I'm not claiming these accounts are false or not mine, etc. I seek verification of the details. I never checked up on any of these accounts. As soon as I became aware of Credit Reports, I just paid anyone who said I owe them money whatever amount they claimed. It will be interesting to see what comes back. We are going to take a two round approach because we are out of the country for two years and can't follow through all the way to small claims court (I don't want to send intent-to-sue letters if I can't actually follow suit). So instead we are going to have a first wave where we only proceed part of the way. This will take care of the creditors who fold right away (a fair amount of them from what I've read here). Specifically, this means sending Nutcase, waiting 30 days, sending Son of Nutcase, waiting for the LGC (little green card) and than filing CRA disputes. Because this first wave involves a CRA dispute after the Son of Nutcase is sent, I only want to have 3 letters out at a time so the CRAs don't toss out the disputes. The second round will start towards the end of our service so that when we get through NC, SNC, and Intent to Sue, we can actually follow through and file suit, assuming the CA's violate our rights, which is sounds like they will. *Our Cases* The three "columns" are in alphabetical order of CRA (Equifax, Experian, Transunion). Sorry that the columns don't line up so well, but I couldn't put tables in this post. I have the individual reports if there are any questions. 1. Old bill now with CA This makes up the majority of our problems, all bills under $200 that are fully paid. For these I plan to send Nutcase to the CA, then Son of Nutcase (if necessary) and do a CRA dispute after sending second Nutcase. Here¢¥s an example listing off a 3in1 report: (Equifax, Experian, Transunion) Ownership Individual, Individual, Individual Date Open 02-1999, 02-1999, 02-1999 Balance Date 07-1999, 01-1999, N/A Balance Amount $0, $0, N/A Date of Status 07-1999, 07-1999, N/A Status PAID, PD COLL AC, AUTOMATED ACCOUNT 2. We have an old bill listed with two CAs. Do we just send Nutcase to both? 3. Bounced check, listed with CA This was a restaurant and the check is now fully paid. Do you handle NSF's any differently? I'm thinking standard Nutcase, but I feel like the check might easily be produced as verification. All three CRA's (three columns) -Ownership Individual, Individual, Individual -Date Open 08-2001, 08-2001, 08-2001 -Balance Date 02-2002, 02-2002, N/A -Balance Amount $0, N/A , $0 -Date of Status 02-2002, N/A, 02-2002 -Status PAID, PD COLL AC, AUTOMATED ACCOUNT 4. Newspaper, listed with CA I place a classified ad for $30 with this paper over the phone and they sent me a bill. I forgot all about it until it appeared on my credit report! I never gave any information like an SS#. Is this legit? Anyway, I figure this is a simple Nutcase since they shouldn't be able to produce anything I signed. 5. Old checking account, listed with CA This was an old account where I left a negative balance (<$200) for so long they sent it to collection. Is NC appropriate here since the OC is a bank? I'm thinking it is. -Ownership Individual, Individual, Individual -Date Open 11-1999, 11-1999, 11-1999 -Balance Date 01-2001, 01-2001, n/a -Balance Amount $0, n/a , $0 -Date of Status 01-2001,n/a , 02-2001 -Status PAID, PD COLL AC, AUTOMATED ACCOUNT This was a bank where I had a negative balance for so long they sent it to collection. Not sure if NC is appropriate here. How do you handle old bank accounts? 6. CA listing with no OC! This account is only reported by EQ and TU does not say who the original creditor is, even on the EQ original report. Very strange, but I guess that doesn't matter since Nutcase verification is only through the CA. Still, it is strange. 7. Credit Card (OC, no CA) This is listed twice on EQ and EX. Nothing is owed and it was paid off. All reports show "closed by grantor" and some show 120 day lates. Date of last activity was 10/99, which was me paying it off. There might be a re-aging issue because I didn't use that card for quite some time before paying it off but it is aged from 10/99 (assuming "last activity" means the date it is aged from). I'll have to research this. This is also a larger (fully paid) account, almost 5k. I would've done will negotiating on this one for full trade-line deletion, oh well. Assuming the aging thing is no issue, I guess the idea would be Nutcase here too, hmm? 7. Student Loan This account is paid but TU shows a $21 balance from an original balance of nearly 45k. It also says $0 is past due and it is closed. Is this a problem? Why do they show a balance of $21? Or is that just the last balance that was reported. I checked this out with the student loan provider and there is no balance. Assuming the $21 thing is no problem, I don't need to do anything about this account. INSTALLMENT, INSTALLMENT, INSTALLMENT -Ownership Individual, Individual, Individual -Date Open 09-1999, 09-1999, 09-1999 -Balance Date 05-2002, 05-2002, 05-2002 -Balance Amount $0, $0, $21 -Monthly Payment $0, $0, $145 -High/Limit $48348, n/a , $48348 -Account Status TOO NEW, PAID ACCT, Unrated -Prior Delinquency, nothing reported -Past Due Amount n/a, n/a, $0 8. Credit card listed by CA This is the oldest account still listed on my report. Other older accounts have dropped off. I will do a Creditnet search on "length of credit history" because I believe I read here that they don't determine your length of credit history based on what is on your report. I hope not because knocking this off would otherwise shorten my credit history to just a few years! This is a normal overdue account (fully paid). Nutcase series? REVOLVING, REVOLVING, REVOLVING -Ownership Individual, Individual, Individual -Date Open 11-1994, 11-1994, 11-1994 -Balance Date 08-2002, 09-2002, 04-2000 -Balance Amount $0, $0, $0 -Monthly Payment $0, $0, $0 -High/Limit $700, n/a, $700 -Account Status AS AGREED, CLOS NP AA, 120 days past due -Prior Delinquency 08-1998, 09-1998, n/a -Past Due Amount n/a, n/a, $0 8. Current credit card This is a current card in good standing. But the high/limit shows an amount higher than the actual limit of the card. Is this bad? What can I do about it? We are a good customer of theirs (several auto loans, this credit card). 9. Many Addresses We've moved 10 times in the last 8 years (college town, college apartments). Is this something we should tackle (have some addresses removed?). I've also read here that eliminating addresses can make it harder for CRAs to validate. 10. Credit Card (No CA) Somehow my old credit card is now on my wifes report. I don't know how this happened but it happened before we were married. I know we never reapplied to add her name to the account. It's possible we made her an AU but I don't think we even did that. I don't think they could produce anything with her signature or application. I guess a regular Nutcase letter would take care of this. Can nutcase go to OC? 11. Department Store This is a credit card that has one 30-day late. We closed it this year. The question here is can you go with a goodwill adjustment with a company with whom you've closed an account. You are no longer a customer, but then again, it's only 1 30-day late after several years of good history. -Ownership Individual, Individual, Individual -Date Open 12-1996, 12-1996, 12-1996 -Balance Date 08-2003, 08-2003, 08-2003 -Balance Amount $0, $0, $0 -Monthly Payment $0, $0, $0 -High/Limit $200, $200, $200 -Account Status AS AGREED, PD WAS 30, Paid as agreed -Prior Delinquency 03-1997, 03-1997, -Past Due Amount N/a, n/a , $0 12. Student Loan This was a short-term student loan that was quite delinquent. My first thought, of course, is Nutcase. What makes me hesitate is the other good accounts we have with this University (other student loans that are currently in good standing). Ok, in reality I guess the real hesitation is that this is an organization I have been involved with for many many years, unlike most of the faceless CAs and Credit Cards I'm used to dealing with. I even feel like I could call that dept. and work something out, even thought it's a very large institution. But maybe I'm not being objective here, maybe I'm being sentimental. Nutcase to OC? 13. Credit card open in good standing. This is a credit card that is still open and in good standing with one 30-day late over two years ago. This screams Goodwill to me. The only thing that makes me hesitate is that we don't use this card, so we've actually done very little business with this company. Go for Goodwill anyway? (EQ, EX, TU) -Ownership Individual, Individual, Individual -Date Open 01-1998, 01-1998, 01-1998 -Balance Date 06-2001, 07-2003, 06-2001 -Balance Amount $0, $0, $0 -Monthly Payment $0, $0, $0 -High/Limit $550, $550, $600 -Account Status AS AGREED, CUR WAS 30, Paid as agreed -Prior Delinquency 04-2001, 05-2001, 05-2001 -Past Due Amount n/a, n/a, $0
