I wish I had done more research on Credit Counseling programs before I had enrolled in 1999. However, all I knew was that I was in way over my head, could barely keep up with all the payments, and needed to get things under control. I enrolled in a program, and later found out that it reflects almost just as bad as a bankruptcy. Imagine, I could've saved myself $500 per month if I had filed bankruptcy. However, I didn't... I paid $500 per month from mid 1999 until the end of 2002, when my husband and I sold our home and paid off our credit cards and were "free of the program". The bummer is that our credit scores didn't go up very much even though we paid everything off - we had so many lates on our history, and prior to selling the house we had two lates on our mortgage and two lates on two different auto loans. I tried disputing the lates on the mortgage once, but came back verified. The lates were in mid 2002. How soon after a late is done is it likely I can get it removed? The later the better? No chance if less than a year? Anyone know the time period where it gets easier? Also, now that all these cards are paid off, do I have a chance at calling some of these credit cards and asking them to remove lates on closed accounts, or at least removing the "paying partial payments due to Consumer Credit Counseling???". My scores are pretty bad (the average was 597), and I'm looking for the quickest way to get the most gain on my score.
Many of the credit counseling companies make a deal that they remove it. I guess yours didn't. You could start by asking them if they could help. But at this point it's probably a long shot. I think the credit cards may be easier, especially if they're closed and you've moved. Dispute all your old addresses first, then dispute the late accounts. Do a lot of research and reading here on this board. You might want to look at the goodwill letters. If you have accounts that you have kept and brought current, they might take some lates off as a goodwill gesture. Others may have better ideas, so I'll leave more thoughts to them.
"THEY" know that CCCS is bad for consumers and MESS THEM UP ROYALLY...I would write a nice (GOOD WILL) letter to each one and ask that they report PAID/NEVER LATE BALANCE $0 "ACCOUNT CLOSED BY CONSUMER" ALL THEY COULD DO IS SAY NO
Do you feel I'm better off writing them and asking them to report that way as opposed to disputing them? Also, some (most) of them have lates attached to them as well. Does that still make a goodwill letter the best way to go?
Do I dispute the old addresses and the lates as well as the Partial Payment/Credit Counseling at the same time for each account (doing at max 4 so I don't get flagged as frivilous)? Also, since the last late was sometime in mid/late 1999, how long typically do credit card companies keep the "proof" that I was late and when does it normally drop out of the system which makes it harder for them to verify??? Thanks for all your advice!
This brings up another question - if I ask for a goodwill adjustment FIRST, and get denied, does it make it easier for them to verify if I then dispute thru the credit reporting agency??? Does it put my account on a different status for recent activity (them looking in their computer for my information)?
Dispute your addresses first. When they're removed, dispute the accounts with the CRAs. They may be old enough to not be verified. Do all of the addresses together, then do three or four accounts at a time. After that, if they aren't deleted, try the goodwill letter.
