First off I would just like to say what an amazing group of people! I think it is great to see so many amazing people come together and help each other based on a common interest. I am very new to all of this and up and till I did a little research I thought about utilizing lexington law's services. From what I can tell that would have been a bad idea. I like many others have struggled with college debt(credit cards/student loans etc) and have had my head in a vice for so long trying to get myself out of that debt. My new years resolution is to do just that!! I am sure over the course of the next few weeks/months I will have several questions and am very fascinated by everyone's' posts and successes. My first question would be how does one priortize which derog. to work on first. For example I have a few collections(some of which I do not know what they are which is very scary for me! Others are student loan debt from Wachovia that went 60 days late without even knowing about it.) My question is are some items easier to get removed than others? Also, if I have a credit card account that was closed by credit grantor but is paid off and has been for several years now.What would any of you recommend to handle that? or does it even make sense to try to correct something of that nature? Sorry for the long winded email! Thank you all so much for your help in advance! Jason
The more recent a negative account is, the more if affects your scores. Since the FICO model is both proprietary and complicated, no one can tell you exactly what effect any given action will cause. First of all, the student loan isn't going to go away. Is it now current? How long ago was it delinquent, and for how long? Is it a federally-guaranteed loan? If you haven't already, get the individual reports from each credit bureau, rather than the tri-merge that you get so many places online. The trimerge uses one common set of fields, but the individual agencies may have their own. When it gets put together, the way it is shown to fit the common format may not be the way that it is on the individual report. Once you have the reports, you can start posting what items are wrong on each bureau. You need to analyze every field, so you know exactly what is reporting incorrectly. You want to make specific disputes instead of a general "not mine." Good luck!!
Hi Jason, I used Lexington Law Firm a long time ago. I found it to be a mixed bag, it is pricy but it worked for me. At the time I knew i didn't have the discipline to write the letters and follow up so having some one else do it and paying them a fee was worthwhile for me. When I was in college and for a while after I had a bad habit of paying late and paying off stuff as soon as it hit my credit report. Also had stuff that I was 100% re-aged, stuff I know I could have got reversed if I did it my self now in hind sight. One last thing with Lexington, Itâ??s also a long term thing; you have to give them time to do what they do if you expect a return on your investment. So it can get costly. Good Luck, Iâ??m just sharing my experience with those guys with you. I have heard stories from people where Lexington disputed positive items and got them removed and other things as well my experience wasnâ??t like that. I could have saved a ton of money if I would have used the template to dispute they did and used the resources on credit net but in hindsight I didnâ??t have the discipline back then to do it. They also worked for me so I have no regrets.
That's the real point. Do you have the discipline to do it yourself? If so, you will save money and possibly get it done faster. If you don't have the discipline, evaluate firms carefully. Apex's firm does this type of work as well, you might want to look at them.
I think that is truly it as well. I will have to evaluate myself over the next few weeks to see. But, I would like to give it a try first. The student loan is now current. The late period was back in Feburary of 07 and was delinquent for 2 months which brought it to a 90 day(I thought it was only 60). It is a federally guarenteed loan as well. I have pulled the individual reports and the only place it is showing late is on Experian. Transunion/Equifax show it was in a deferred state. Knowing this is there a particular way you guys would proceed? Thanks again, Jason
Billsfan, When you worked with Lexington, what level of service did you purchase through them? Do you believe their is much of a difference through out their pricing levels? Thanks, Jason
I say start with the standard service. I started with their top tier service, big expensive mistake. They say they write the collection agencies and do some other stuff. I didn't see any value it in it, the only thing it did for me was spike the enrolment fee. I switched to the standard deletion process after the first month. So I would say no, start low and then move up but I didn't really see a difference. At the end of the day, you want them to do what they are good at which is write dispute letters and that is it, in my opinion nothing more. Lexington is a factory, they send out mass letters, it's not individualized attention and I don't think they have the business model to do it so my advice and this is from my experience with them almost two years ago now don't pay for it. You get access to your accounts online, you get access to an 800 number and the rest is a matrix from my experience. I'm not sure how Apex company works, but if they can give you individualized attention and comparable rates it might be worth a try. Like I said Lexington is a factory, so the big three pretty much know their zip and their process but a company with a different approach and different zip may give you more bang for your buck. Like Hedwig said research the companies and then go with one based on your research and customer feedback.
