Hello all! It's been a while since I've posted. Hope everyone is succeeding in their credit journey. Hopefully, I can get some advice for this situation I'm currently in. Long story - short, I've been very good about cleaning up my credit -- no "real" derogs, everything paid on time, low CC balances (on 1 card, other 2 have $0). A year or so ago (before First Union changed to Wachovia), I "thought" I closed my checking account there -- we moved to a credit union. A few months ago, I get a collection notice for $300 from them -- and sure enough, it's showing up on my CRs. I have not contacted them yet, but I want to have my strategy down before I do. My goal is to have them remove the derog. I don't care if I have to pay the $300 -- that's a drop in the bucket. Any thoughts? Thanks! BTW, My scores are between 630 and 670
You might try writing a goodwill-type letter to the bank. Say you thought you had closed it out and now you're getting notices from a collection agent, but you never received any notices from them that you owed money. Tell them that you assumed if it wasn't closed out, you'd be getting statements and you haven't been. I'd wait and see what they say. Maybe they'll admit it's an error and take it off. If not, maybe offer to pay some of it as a "goodwill gesture." I've never been in this situation. but when I have had problems with things not posting correctly, etc, I've found most banks to be reasonable. By the way, welcome back!! I hope you'll stick around and help out some others. A lot of the old-timers have moved on. I don't get here as much as I used to, because I have so much work to do that I don't have the time I used to have for the boards.
