The credit reporting system is not designed to reach equitable settlements between a creditor and an aleged debtor. It is designed to 1) put pressure on debtors to pay, regardless of whether the debt is legitimate, 2) limit the risk to future creditors of lending to debtors that have a pattern of not paying, and 3) limit exposure of creditors and CRAs to liability for any errors they make. These are the interests of the creditors, not the debtors. Any obligations to the consumer were created by the passage of laws, refined over time, driven by excesses. If you want equity or justice, you have to work within the framework provided by law. If the law requires that certain steps be done to get access to the courts, then that is what you have to do.
You all are not listening to what klintdog wants. He just wants to get this over with asap so he can get on with his life. As soon as he gets these matters resolved, by whatever way, as months go by he should see his credit score go up and for the most part he will have all this behind him. And in the most kind way, it does not matter how long I have been posting, you dont know nothing about me and my experience. Its a public forum!!
Many of us just want to get some account behind us, but the system does not work in that way. It may be reasonable to us to pay an account off that we didn't open, and expect that the negative effects of that will end, but they won't. Our credit will continue to be trashed, and we will pay more for credit for several years. You need to know what the outcome will likely be before you make a choice, since after making it, you may be unable to reverse it. It becomes even harder dealing with an unauthorized account when the account address is the same address you were using for other accounts, as often happens when housemates or family members open accounts in your name.
Very true and to the point. However clintdog seems as though he wants to just pay it. If you read his replies he solely talks about paying it. And again I agree with you that sometimes we get into situations that has choices on what we have to do next.
Thanks for everyones input on this subject thus far. Basically my biggest goal at this point is to try and put all of this behind me and begin moving forward and rebuilding my credit. I'm basically chalking everything up to experience and trying to move on. With that being said, what would be the most effective way of putting this behind me and not having to worry about repeat collections, etc? My credit score has been hurt to the point where finding an apartment is almost difficult due to the landlords checking scores. Please help me with any advice you feel would help here. Thanks
Your initial decision is in how to treat accounts you did not open. Even though you may pay them in order to put them behind you, paying them may not increase your scores until some time passes. Although you may manage to get enough leverage to force their removal, that might be more difficult if you paid them, in effect admitting they were your accounts. It may not even accomplish your goal of increasing your scores.
At this point I do still have things like a car loan that is reported monthly, as well as my student loan payments. Both of these are reported to the bureaus, but they're not improving my score at all due to these three accounts still being on there. Basically here is my big question right now. Can I try to validate these accounts to see if that would help at all if they don't do anything in their 30 day window? Is there any downside to validating the accounts? Or am I just better offer trying to negotiate a settlement on all of them and then trying to move forwards?
Since you didn't open these accounts, have you even ever seen a statement? If you don't request validation, you have no idea what you are even paying off. You think you are paying off accounts opened in your name, but you have no way of knowing, and you have no way of dealing with a later collection attempt, even if for the same paid account.
I'm beginning to think validation is the best option at this point. My thought right now is to validate all of these, and then submit the validation attempt to the bureaus right away. Is there any kind of potential repurcussion I should be aware of due to validating these? What should I be prepared for once I send this out?
What is the SOL for revolving accounts in your state? If it is within SOL, you might get sued, or the threat of a suit. Offering $900 on a claimed $1600 account implies it may be past SOL, or they have some reason to doubt that you are the debtor, or they tacked on their own fees that may be unauthorized by the contract to get at the $1600. You would still want validation information to check the date of last payment that determines when SOL passes, and to determine what actual amount is legitimate. Without it, you're just playing poker. The accounts may not even be the one's you suspect, or may even have been paid. Did the original creditors sent you a statement when the account first went delinquent, or were you only contacted years later by CAs?
