So I'm 27 years old and found the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with. Our relationship however has been put on hold because of my inability to manage money/my debt. It's time to grow up. I'm 'lucky' enough to only have about $5000 in debt. My credit score as of Sept. 27th is 564, which honestly, is much better than I thought it would be. I've been taking steps to fix the obvious blunders on my CR like incorrect addresses and actually found 2 debts that are not mine. Experian and Equifax both put fraud alerts on my account for 90 days, and started investigations on both. I've been doing a lot of reading, but it's a lot to absorb and I'm looking for the advice of the experts here. My problem is I haven't had a bank account in 6 years because I owe Bank of America money (next to nothing, really) and have 2 judgments against me. I've always been afraid of these judgments seizing my bank account and leaving me hung out to dry. However I really need a bank account in order to get serious about paying my debt. Another concern of mine is the majority of my debt is over 5 years old. One of the judgments is 6 years old, and I'm afraid if i start paying these old debts they will regenerate the dates in which they will be removed from my CR, and effectively hurt my credit score even more. There are a few however where the "date opened" is less than 2 years. Possibly because debt was purchased from a previous collection agency. Apologize for how long winded this post is, I'm just desperate for some guidance so I can get started. Thanks in advance for any insight. -Brian
Judgments are different than, say, an old credit card debt. Someone with actual advice on that can chime in here because that's out of my realm of experience. But as far as I know, your 7-year-period for reporting delinquencies starts, put simply, when you miss your first-last payment. In other words, if your last payment was in January 2000 and your next payment was due Feb 2000, you'd expect it to drop off your report between Jan 2007 - June 2007, even if you paid the thing off in Jan 2006. I'm not fully aware of what the criteria for the exact start of the reporting period are, but a good, general-purpose rule of thumb is to assume 7 years from the date you first go delinquent plus 6 months.
that doesn't really address my concern, sparq, but i appreciate the info and for taking time to reply.
well, i need to know where i should start. what can i do to ensure that if i get myself a bank account, it's not siezed... if on my credit report it states that my oldest judgment will expire august of 2010, do i bother paying it? should i start sending 'pay to delete' letters to all my debts? will that work for judgments? like i stated, i have done a bit of reading, but there were a lot of contradictions.
If it seems like there are a lot of contradictions, it's probably because: a) some of the suggestions are wrong b) every situation is sligtly different and will require a slightly different approach depending on the circumstances. Remember that there's a difference between how long something is a collectable debt and how long it can be reported on your credit report. Where to start? Start with a current credit report from each credit reporting agency. Dispute the innacuracies. Dispute the negative entries. See what happens and then go from there. Some CAs will will start calling you. Some will remove the entries. Some might send you a summons. Your judgment creditors might garnish your wages. Etc.
Be careful of saying a judgment will expire. It may be removed from your reports, but that's the least of your worries. In many states, judgments can last as many as 20 years, and they can often be renewed. If there are judgments against you, not only can your bank account be seized, but in many states your wages can be garnished, and the sherriff may be able to seize your possessions and sell them to pay the debt. If you clean up your credit report, the holder of the judgment will likely think that you now are in a better position financially, and may make that move to collect. Judgments are serious. Your best bet is to try to get together some money and offer a settlement.
Get the judgment settled, then open your account and work on the other accounts. While working on your judgement, send the info to the bureaus and start the process of disputing them. once you have a stipulated agreement with the owner of the judgement, you should be free and clear to get your account. From what I have seen, judges usually will not order a garnishment or writ of repossession unless someone defaults on a stipulation. If you are in an stipulation with the owner of the judgment you should be ok to find an account. keep in mind, in order to get a writ of repossession or a writ of garnishment, they have to get a judgment against you. If anyone else decides to file one against you, you will have some time to react. But keep in mind, like someone else said, as soon as you start to clean up your credit report; you are going to start getting calls from the collection agencies who have your debt.
thank you, that's exactly what i was looking for. now in order to get the contact info from my judgments (since i haven't received any mail from them in a LONG time) i have to go to the courthouse where the judgment was settled and get the public record correct? would it be smart to send a letter of Payment by Deletion with acceptable terms for payment to my judgments? I've been sending these to other agencies with success. I'm fearful of calling anyone because I've heard calling agencies pretty much renews your debt with them regardless of the outcome of the call and they're more likely to act. as i stated the majority if not all of my debt is very old, so i'm weary of renewing anything as it would hurt my score. btw I've disputed probably 60% of the negative items on my report, not unlawfully as I'm owning up to what i owe, but for inaccuracies, duplicates and debt that have been paid in full already.
Don't bother with a pay for delete letter when you are settling a judgment. The judgment information on your report comes from the public records of the courts. There are companies that go through the publice records and report things like this. If they are reporting a collection account, you might have a chance of getting that removed, but it's doubtful you will get the public record removed. And I believe judgments can be reported for ten years after they are satisfied, although I'm not positive on that part.
