Hi everyone, I've been playing newbie for the past month or so and feel I've finally got my feet wet enough to ask some questions on here. Here's my situation: Between 2000 and 2002 I was living with my girlfriend at the time. Apparently she had opened a Discover account (2000), Dell Financial (2001) account and Best Buy (2002) account in my name and forgot to mention this to me. Being the stupid person I was, I never checked my credit report during these periods and was oblivious that this was happening until I tried to get a car loan about 2 months ago. It appears that she made a few payments on the Dell and Discover accounts, and never made a payment on the Best Buy account. I have since been getting deliquent notices from CA's that have jacked up the interest and the amount owed. Today I received an offer from Northland Group which now has the Best Buy account. They are listing the balance as $1600 and have offered to settle for $900 and list the item as Paid in Full. This is currently listed as a charge-off on my credit reports, so I'm not sure if I should jump on this, or respond with a counter offer contingent on them either deleting the tradeline, or deleting all late payments associated with it. How should I proceed with the other two accounts? I have not disputed these accounts, nor have I attempted to validate them yet at this time. Money is tight, but I think I can wheel around $3000 to get these all taken care of if needed. I'm looking at buying a house soon and would like to get these resolved ASAP to restore my credit rating to where it should be (especially since I have never been late with a car loan payment or anything). I'm looking for the advice of the experts on this board. If anyone can present me with a plan of attack that will work, it would be appreciated more then you can imagine. I'm a good person who got screwed over by someone I trusted. Any advice would greatly help. Thanks
With the information that you have given you have a few of options: 1: Don't pay on it because the statue of limitation for the Discover and Dell accounts may be expired. This of course depends on the state that you reside in. 2: For mortgage purposes, we do not look at accounts that are over 2 years past due. 3: If you are concerned with your credit scores, if in fact the Best Buy account that is with Northland is willing to report to the credit bureaus as "paid in full" rather than "settled in full." Then I would suggest to get this in writing from them and then pay them. DO NOT PAY THEM BEFORE YOU GET THIS IN WRITING. $900.00 is a little high for what they are asking. You should be able to negotiate around .40 cents on the dollar. If you are not willing to negotiate with them for this .40 cents on the dollar then just pay them but again get the settlement offer in writing.
Thanks for the quick response. To clear a few things up, I live in North Dakota, and I believe the SOL here is 7 years. The following is an exact quote I received from Northland on this: "The current creditor is offering a discount on the balance. Upon receipt of $923.85 cleared funds, your account will be considered satisfied and closed. We will issue you a letter stating this account is satisified and closed. As of the date of this letter, you owe $1649.73." I was hoping to try and negotiate this down to around $700 if possible. How do you think I should respond to this? Should I send them a negotiation to try and get $700 and have the entire thing removed? Should I dispute? Ugh!
No problems for replying. The SOL for your state is 6 years. The way I would proceed with negotiating on this account is by stating that you have 700.00 available that you will be able to obtain from a relative or some other source. Advise them that they are not the only one that are waiting to get paid. (Be firm and don't back down) To work this towards your advantage....do not tell them where you work or if you work. Nor give them any financial information that they will try to ask. Try to call them towards the end of the month, they become more flexible with settlements to meet their quotas (this is how they get paid...by commissions and an hourly wage) Stick to your guns and don't let them scare you with threats.
Should I offer over the phone to pay the $700 in exchange for the entire thing being deleted? What's the most likely thing they will go for that will repair my credit the most? I'm assuming I should request the offer in writing before agreeing to anything.
I know it could be nerve wrecking to call them on the phone.....but you can do it. Do not put it in writing because negotiations with settlements go back and forth. If you put it in writing then they will hold you to that bar of 700.00 when they counter offer you. Yes do not pay until you get this final settlement offer you negotiated with them in writing. Having to pay them and then having it deleted is counter productive. Its better for you to have them report it as settled than to pay it and not have it reported at all. This will take away from your credit history that you are trying to build.
If the account is currently listed as a Charge Off or Collection, what impact will having it listed as settled have? Will it still show as a negative hit on the report, or will it begin to increase my score rather then hurt it?
A closed account thru settlements is better than a charged off account or a collections account. The settled account would be seen to loans you apply for as a possitive because your debt to income ratios would be less. Also a collections account still shows a balance and for FICO purposes (from what i understand) hurts your scores because of the balance that it carries and this balance has a factor on your scores.
That makes sense. Can anyone else verify this? I'm looking for all the advice I can find. If you guys ever make it up to NoDak, I owe you a steak or something!
You might also just file an identity theft report with the police. You did not open the accounts, nor did you use them. Were you aware of them? Did you ever receive the bills? When you broke up, did you move out, or did she? Was the account mailing address changed to some address you never lived at after you broke up? Did you benefit from her purchases, or did they mainly benefit her? If she, say, ordered a Dell computer on that account, did she take it with her when you broke up? Also, what's to stop her from opening a new account in your name, if she has already done it three times? You may need to place a fraud alert on your credit reports.
I got a letter today from the CA that has the Dell account as well. They want $3300 for a $2000 account. This is the first communication I've seen on this account for a long time. I'm wondering if I should try validating this account, or just send them a proposed settlement and see what they do.
If your intention is to get this resolved with payment on a negotiated settlement offer, then stick to your guns and write them the offer you are willing to pay. You can also fax them your settlement offer letter to save you some time and some head aches of them stating they did not receive it by mail. If you do not have a fax then mail it with a delivery confirmation or certified return receipt. Hope this helps.
When you send these letters, or faxes, who do you typically direct them towards? Sorry for all the basic level questions, but I want to make sure I have all of my bases covered here. Thanks again!
I do NOT suggest you use the telephone to "negotiate" with any CA. If you are trying to negotiate a "pay for delete" be aware that the ONLY possible control the CA has is over their own account, not the report from the original creditor. In addition, the CA Northland is a JDB and NEVER has any documentation for any account as they buy legally UNCOLLECTIBLE accounts. The Discover Card account MAY still be within SOL IF you had signed the application, however since you did NOT, all you need to do is to send a dispute/validation/cease and desist to the CA, there are some good one in the letter area of this forum, or you can go to my website, linked below, and look at the FIRST one, (include the ID theft paragraph). The Dell account has a 4 year SOL as it covered under the UCC ( Uniform Commercial Code) statutes for SOL. My websitehas each State listed and the correct SOL statutes posted within each State page. You can either send this CA the same dispute/validation letter as the other one, or use the SOL letter from my website. After you opt out, (directions on my website) and delete any old addresses, you can send a brief dispute to the CRA's on these accounts. "This acount is not mine, I had no such account with this creditor for this date for this amount" Send it certified but NOT RR, you can track the # on line. If you decide to "settle" with any of these CA's you will be throwing $$ down a rathole, as they MAY mark your account with THEM as "paid in full" but a paid collection is just as bad on your reports as an unpaid collection, and it will have NO effect on any of the original creditor's trade lines. PLUS, the unpaid part of your "settlement" is frequently sold off to another CA who will re-age the account and eport it all over again.
Ok, I'm a bit confused now. Some are saying settle over the phone, others are saying that I should either validate/dispute/SOL this and go from there. At this point I just want to get these things taken care of and try to get my credit restored to a level that will allow me to obtain financing for necessitys as demanded. Between the methods suggested, what would you folks recommend for the situations listed above? Which of the methods pose the better chance of being accepted and getting this cleared? Thanks!
IF, as you say, you never applied for these accounts and did not know about the accounts, your identity was stolen. Go to the police and file an appropriate report. Then make *lots* of copies of the report. IMHO, "WhyChat"'s advice for *your* situation is sound because you are considering settling on debts that are not legitimately yours. "WhyChat" is also correct that there's a difference between settling with a CA and how the OC will list an account. It doesn't take months, it only takes patience and persistence to clear these items up. Your life *will* go on. Again though, keep *good* records. As one individual said here, "Records are our friends." Keep a copy of the copy ...envelopes. Make a good paper trail. If these were your legitimate debts, I would recommend that settlement offers should be made in writing. If you are in serious immediate need of a car, why not consider a used one with a life-span of months, not years? It appears that you're contemplating a few thousand might be available, so why not spend $600 on a used car instead of giving away a few thousand on debts that are not yours? With patience and persistence, it can be done.
You need to read all the "newbie" advice and understand what you are doing before you do it.If you are going to take any advice from anyone on this forum, or any other forum check to see how long THEY have been posting. I do not mean to "putdown" any of the advice that you have received that is contrary to what I suggested, however, that poster is new on this forum, and her advice was just plain WRONG. There are some people who post advice that is NOT intended to benefit the debtor,but to benefit the CA. Perhaps she just doesn't understand the truth about credit repair, or perhaps she is working for the "dark side". I post mostly on creditboards.com and only post here when I feel there is misinformation being given. If you check the resource area of this forum you will find that my website is linked.
