Well I registered here 3 years ago but now I am back and ready to really tackle this mess I am in, although its extremely better then it was 3 years ago, it still needs help. I have read the boards for the past day or so really trying to get a hang on what exactly to do, but really I just need some confirmation. I am sure I will be embarrassed to put my info out here, but it can only get better, and this will help. I have an unsecured credit card that I got in march through 1st Premier bank, I had to pay a fee to get the card but I pay it in full each month and it is showing up as Paid on time so that is only helping me right now, so its a start! Here are my stats: TOTAL ACCOUNTS: 18 9 13 OPEN ACCOUNTS: 7 3 4 CLOSED ACCOUNTS: 11 6 9 DELINQUENT: 0 0 1 DEROGATORY: 9 7 8 BALANCES: 12534 8645 12479 PAYMENTS: 303 20 139 PUBLIC RECORDS: 2 2 1 INQUIRIES (2 years): 16 2 6 Breakdown: Credit Score: TU: 550 EXP:537 EQ:581 My main question is, I dont know who to send validation letters to and what I should just forget. The judgments against me I am paying. Actually one is paid off, and another I have a about $1800.00 left to pay on it, and I am paying $175.00 a month and hope to actually pay that off in about 3 months or so with some extra money. I am not really receiving anything in the mail from anyone at all bugging me or calling me about these debts I have. In the next post I'll post what I have, and if someone can give me some insight on where to start, I am going to start right now. Thank you!
Details: 1st Premier Bank--Open & Current HSBC NV--(Not even sure what this is)--Closed (Paid) Balance $0 Status: Collection/Chargeoff reporting by TU HSBC NV--)Again not sure what this is, different from above)--Derogatory Balance $0, Collection/Chargeoff Fashion Bug--Reporting Derogatory from TU & Equifax $207.00 balance on all 3, all show Collection/Chargeoff Rogers & Holland--Open--Balance $0 and Current (never late on this) Younkers--Derogatory by EXP & EQ, and Closed (paid) by TU, $0 balance on all 3, and Collection/Chargeoff on all 3 HSBC NV--Again no clue what this is, different from both of the 2 above from this company, TU reports Derogatory $0 balance, Collection/Chargeoff, EXP reports Open and thats all, and EQ reports Closed/Transferred $0 balance and Late 120 days JCPenny--Exp reports Closed/Transferred $0 balance Collection/Chargeoff and EQ reports Derogatory $0 balance Collection/Chargeoff Local Bank Credit Card --TU reports Closed $0.00 but I am current (this was one of the judgements) UNIFUND-- All 3 reports Derogatory, balance all 3 show is $7700.00--I had setteled this for $5,000.00 back in October of 2002...its obviously not taken care of. Car loan--Closed, Balance $0..Current, Never Late LVNV Funding (Sears)--All 3 reporting Derogatory $352.00 balance, and Collection/Chargeoff & Late 120 days Discover Financial--One of the judgements--the one I pay $175.00/mo, Derogatory by TU & EQ balance says $3872 and Collection/Chargeoff Apparantly as well my checking aco**** is now on here, its reporting current, but yet as an unsecured loan, which I dont have...weird..but at least its reporting current! Cavalry Portfolio--Sprint PCS All 3 reporting Derogatory $183.00 This all stems from when I was 18 and stupid, I lost my job and really fell on hard times, instead of making the minimum payments I just didnt pay, probably because I had to buy food from what money I had and it just sucked, so because of my stupid decisions I am paying still, and I want to fix it. I just dont know who to write letters to and where to start. Thanks for ANY and ALL help!!
sheri, have you tried disputing any of your 0 balance charge offs? if not, that would be a good start. it is always easier to get those wiped off than accounts where you have a balance. i think that should be step one. from there, i would concentrate on your now current accounts and try to keep those on time. the problem with chargeoffs is that they snowball. original creditor, collection agency 1, ca 2..etc. i have also had good luck with contacing the bbb and my states attorney general. say this is not my account. they will send a generic complaint letter to the creditor and sometimes the creditor will get scared and delete the neg info. i believe this method should be used once you have tried to dispute with the cra's. you would be surprised how easy some neg info is removed! (once again this seems to work the best with zero balance accounts) the key is to start developing pos tradelines of credit asap so as the clock moves forward, the old crappy stuff matters less. start with the baby steps and be prepared for this to take some time before you see some change. the good thing is that there is light at the end of the tunnel. about 2 1/2 yrs ago, i had a fico of 520, now it is 720. hope this helps feel free to email me
Thank you so much! I really do appreciate all the info you have given! A few months back I went and received my free credit report from that www.annualcreditreport.com and I did dispute some of the items, and a very few were deleted, but I am not sure which CRA they were removed from. I'll log back in to my reports tonight, i signed up for the credit monitoring for all 3 CRA's so I'll try and dispute again When going through the BBB or something of the sort, how exactly to I word what I am writing to them? That would be a huge help if you could clue me in on that. Thank you!
Hmmm...so I just logged on, www.truecredit.com and it appears I have to send the disputes in writing, is that what you are meaning? Before I was able to dispute online. Thanks!
Are you saying that you can dispute a zero balance negative account on your credit report? I have a few that are paid off, but still report negative due to past late payments. Can I request them to be removed? Will that help my credit rating?
i'm saying that you can dispute anything you want, but your chances are better if it is a zero balance. any neg info removed from your report will increase your score.
I am going to start disputing these today, I assume I'll need to do this in written form, I've browsed over the sample letters, I just don't know exactly which ones I need for what I am going to be doing. Thank you!
Just bumping this back up, I want to get started on these letters but I am still confused as to which letters in the same letters thread best suites what I need to start out with. Any help is appreciated!
i know a lot of people are hardcore about the mailing in disputes with return recpt, but in my experience, it is just faster to do it online. just print out your dispute as proof, and they also send you confirmation email, which is can be used in the same manner as the ret recpt you get from the post office. you do need to have ordered your report from each company to get a confirmation number (except transunion) also it is faster (and cheaper) online, because you don't have to send them proof that you are you, since you have your credit report number and don't have to send them copies of your drivers license and utility bills. just do it online and dispute as either not mine or paid on time. the cras don't want any trouble, and stand to lose a lot of money if they don't follow the proper procedures. if you feel more comfortable mailing your dispute in, just keep it simple. dear cra, i believe these accounts are being reported in error. credit card a not mine, please delete credit card b this is not mine, please delete credit card c, i have paid all of my bills on time, please correct this error. etc just the facts maam! anyway, just my 2 cents, good luck
Thanks again! However when I log onto www.truecredit.com where I have my 3 reports through, it won't let me dispute online It tells me I must send a letter in writing. Grr. I guess I'll start writing today! Thanks!
online disputing on truecredit.com go to reports, inaccuracies, and go to the bottom to dispute online with transunion and experian equifax you can dipute online, but you need a confirmation number (you have to buy a report for $8.95) then dispute at https://www.econsumer.equifax.com/consumer/sitepage.ehtml?forward=online_dispute i have found that transunion was the easiest to get deletions. good luck
Thank you Ontrack for showing me that online disputes! I mislooked that! I disputed everything I could with "no knowledge of account" with Experian, and with TransUnion and I'll purchase the extra credit report with Equifax at work today and dispute with them as well. I hope this gets me started! Thank you again!
The online reports do not always match the official ones you get when you request a hard copy. Before you start, you should get separate, hard copy reports from each CRA, not the trimerge online ones. You are entitled to one free report from each agency per year. Don't rely on the online ones. Also, if you think there will ever be any legal action that will involve your disputes, do them in writing, certified, return receipt requested.
