I feel like sharing my credit story again. Those of you who are tired of hearing it, please just skip over this post. Those of you who are new and might find this interesting, I posted this for you. 4/99- my student loans defaulted. All 11 of them. Wow! The whys and how are not important but I was in a tough situation with horrendous credit b/c besides the loans, I had not been too responsible with credit prior to the defualting. 4/99- got a solicitation from FNBM(first national bank of marin) and took it. It was a $200 secured card. I still didnot know how bad my credit was. I just knew I was having a hard time renting an apartment and got an apartment from a landlord which had student loans problems herself. Bingo! I had somewhere to live. 11/99 - finally got serious about cleaning my credit and got a secured card with capital one. $200 secured visa. Now, I was never 30 days late with the FNBM or Cap1 card. So these two cards generated "pays as agreed" on my credit reports. 12/99 - I ordered my credit reports for the very first time. Wow was I surprised. It was terrible besides the student loans. There were several things I didnot agree with. So I bought "Guaranteed Credit" at BarnesandNobles and got to work. 2/00- I sent out my first dispute letters which I got from the book. Then I started reading websites like this one. I started reading all the free material online about credit repair and learned a whole lot. 4/00 - got my equifax score from e-loan before they were shut down. My score was 593. OUCH. Still had alot of work to do. 4/00 - My student loans were consolidated. So the 11 charge offs were changed to paid charge offs. This might give hope to those with student loan problems. I waited until my consolidation was completed and then I disputed the student loans again. They came back verified in the first round. Besides the 11 defaulted student loans, I had * Arrow Financial -chargeoff (this was deleted in round one at Equifax and Transunion. no prob. Experian kept the item. * PSEG electric bill $139. I paid the bill and then they removed the account thru the agreement payment for deletion. I told them I never received the final bill and that was enough for them. * Discover card (only on Equifax and Experian and it still remains) * 11 defaulted student loans (9+2) Experian : The (9) were changed from charge offs to Paid never late.....hehe; the 2 remained Equifax : The (9) were deleted ; the 2 remained Transunion: The (9) were deleted; the 2 remained As for the guarantor agencies for the 2 loans above, they reported the 2 loans 3 times. The all remained. This was USA Group. They dont verify. That is good info for anyone who has them. They dont verify after consolidation. I had them removed from Experian and Equifax. I just sent out the TU dispute for USA Group 3/01. Now, I had major success in the two rounds of disputing. I had a few come back verified here and there, i am simplying this a bit, but from 4/00 to 10/00, I had many deletions by sending out a form letter that I reworded a bit. I never got a credit repair letter or frivolous denial letter. I always got a investigation done. You may need sometime to get yourself organized but it certainly can be done. Now, in conjunction with all the disputes, I was applying for more credit. I found that once my loans were marked paid thru consolidation, I got providian and Orchard bank. Providian and Orchard bank had turned me down just 2 months before. I got FCNB, First Premier, ORchard and Providian in around April & May 2000. Remember I already had Capital one and FNBM. In August and Sept 2000, I got a car loan (Householdauto finance), Chase Bank, Citibank (2card), Capital one unsecured and then Speigel. Then in Feb, March 2001, I got Macy's, Target, Victoria Secrets and GM Mastercard. Now, I have too much credit. I closed 5 of the older accounts and kept the oldest one, capital one. I am not telling you to get as much credit as I have. Get only what you can financially feel comfortable with. The point is this credit repair biz can be done. The secret is to CLEAN your credit and immediately start rebuilding credit. At every interval as my credit got better, I applied for better credit. I feel this way I helped my score the most. I know many of you sit on your inquiries, but really low inquiries are not gonna help you without enough positive trades. And remember dont apply for credit that is out of your range either. No need to apply for platinums with scores in the low 500-600s. Good Luck everyone. I hope I didnot bore you too much. IF you have any questions, I love to answer them. roni
Re: I Feel Like Sharing Info.. I forgot one more thing. I had a Bell ATlantic bill which I got deleted after paying it. I tried to negotiate but no go. So i paid it and then convinced the supervisor at BA to delete it. It took 3 phone calls and an eloraborate story but it worked and it is gone. Do what it Takes. roni
Re: I Feel Like Sharing Info.. In Chronology it sounds like my story... I do have one question.. what's is your degree(s) in? Wow 11 loans.. I'll be taking out my first out next semester. Don't need the cash for tuition but could sure use the installment accounts.
Re: I Feel Like Sharing Info.. Roni, I have questions. Here's one. Equifax deleted all my lates when I went chapter 7, but Esperian did not. They said it's their policy to leave everything on the report. In your opinion can I get deleted the lates and the one charge off that was included in the BK?
Utility My paid utility won't take it off....verifies on dispute. My question to you is: Were you or had you been disputing that account when the supervisor deleted it? Did they know you had been or was disputing it? Did they just not verify or did they actually update your CR? thanks Roni am
Frank I think anything is possible by disputing. You can do it yourself or hire JUNUM. Give it a try. Calling about things like that is not the best way. roni
am In my case they updated it for me. I told them a very good story about why I didnot pay it. It helps if you can make it appear you didnot get the bill, moved and didnot update addresss, you roommate said they paid it...etc. I did dispute it and it came back verified. But they didnot even know or check that I suppose. roni
Re: am wow roni! that's quite an ordeal...my gf and I are in similar situations but I didn't have any student loans to default on. However we both played (and lost) that credit card game in college. Although there are those who say you should have known better yada yada yada I ask you--what bank in its right mind allows a 20 year old *college student* to have a gold card (back when gold cards meant SOMETHING)? I graduated with about 22 credit cards under my belt--and it was all a game because my best friend outdid me: she had 28 cards! I had Citibank regular and gold, Amex gree/gold/Optima/Optima Gold, Norwest and almost every department store chain in the known universe! I didn't know about all this stuff of cleaning your report or challenging things until finding this board. One thing I need to do is help my gf with her situation--she's going through a counseling service like CCCS but she has only seen a couple of her card balances go down by a miniscule amount. She's been at it for 2 years! One card says that she has a credit balance on the statements yet this place still sends them money.
jonesing To be honest with you, credit card companies, usually verify so this dispute thing may not work for you. In your case debt consolidation and lowering interest and payment plans may work. If you are young, you have plenty of time to bounce back..Goodluck! roni
Re: jonesing Thanks roni We were debating on whether she should dump the current company since they haven't managed to get all of her accounts frozen in terms of interest or late fees. One company is still hitting her up for a $29 late fee every month. I was looking around on this board and saw all the reports about Junum but the problem is I haven't seen much of anything about anyone using Junum to negotiate with the creditors. It looks like that have that service. I'm going to look into it more because I don't feel like working today ;-) j
Re: jonesing Jonesing, I went through credit counseling but NOT CCCS. I specifically used Christian Credit Counselors. They negotiated everything for me and had all my creditors stop charging late fees and most stopped charging interest. Sounds like the service your gf is using is not doing very well. By the way, Christain Credit Counselors does NOT charge you a monthly fee. It's free to you. If you do a search on Christian Credit Counselors you should find my story. I had 13 cards in it to start and they had me on a 4 year plan...I paid it off in 2. If you have any questions, let me know and I can get you info.
Re: jonesing Thanks for the info! I looked up Christian Credit Counselors in Encinitas is this the place? I'll let her know about them and see if she wants to really do something about this situation.
Re: I Feel Like Sharing Info.. Roni, I've just started looking into this, and I'd like to thank you for such an informative post. I just applied for a mortage to get out of a suddenly-scary neighborhood now that we have a child . My "only", but quite significant credit problem, according to my CU is that I was late on my student loans (to USA Group, now Sallie Mae) a couple of years ago. I did a chapter 7 about 9 years ago too, which isn't hurting too much but isn't helping. I had 14 loans in one payment it, so looks I have 14 lates on my credit report! But like you, my loans were consolitated. Anyway, what did you way when you wrote Experian, Equifax, and Transunion to ask for verification? Did you claim they weren't yours, or what. I'm dying to know how you did this, because I really, really need to move. Thanks
I am attempting to delete derrogatory credit. I initially sent letters to the three major Credit Bureaus. The only response I received is from Esperian (21 days), which circumvented the initial letter of verification. The response is as follows: As a part of our fraud-prevention program we evaluated the addresses used to create your credit report. To assist you, we must verify your current delivery address. Please send us two items that verify your current delivery address, etc... These are stall tactics! How do I go around these barriers? I appreciate responses Thanks, Delighted4@aol.com
Roni, I read many of you entries. I started my inquiry, but the only response I received was from Esperian and that took (21 days). They really didn't have much to say except they needed more info from me proof for their fraud recovery unit...What is that? Stall tactics???? What do I do next? Thanks, Delighted4@aol.com
Hey Girl I wanted to see what you thought about my situation. This is what I have currently on my EX and TU report. I have a FCNB (3 months old) secured $1000.00 limit. I max it out then pay it off. Wal-mart $800.00 (1996) I owe $300.00 on that card. Student Load (I start paying on December) I owe $1900.00 on the loan Ok. I had a Wachovia Card (1996) Closed/ Paid As agreed closed by consumer. First USA (1996) Account Closed by me/ paid as agreed. They are not showing my limits on these accounts. I have one Collection (5/2000) Which card do you think I should apply for next??? (I would like a Citi) OR should I wait a few more months?? I do not have my FICO. I plan on getting it when I get my updated new CR from EX. BUT...I really need more credit or a Credit Plan ;-)b/c My husband and I would like to buy a home in June/July. Thanks for your help!! ;-)
Hello Roni, I just wanted to say that it is so nice to see you back on the board, you have helped out so many people and I myself benefited greatly from your advice (Im sure you dont remember but you helped me to get out of the clutches of Arrow Financial, so I am forever indebted to you. Im also pleased that you are one of those individuals who reaches success and doesn't forget about those people still struggling. I hope everything continues to work out for you...
GREAT Roni! well done! and great advice - even in your last sentence....don't click on Centurion if you have a part time job at McDonalds.... arff! dogman
