Ok I am new at this. I have pulled my reports(YIKES). I do not want to get ahead of myself here. I made a list for each CB of the worst items. Well the are all bad. I have many charge offs. Anyway I am not sure after reading if I am supposed to send validation to the OC and the CB. Also which validation letter do I send? I don't want to jump in with both feet and mess this up. I think I will start with one toe. Any advice would be great. I will keep reading and learning until I get some advice from all you wonderful people who have climbed this mountain already. (Hopefully I will see you soon at the top). Thanks
Welcome! The first thing you'll be advised to do is read all of the newbie and FAQ links and then READ READ READ as much as you can here. Then...... you mail out by CRRR (certified return receipt requested) letters to all three CRAs to get your old addys off. What you want to do is get the addresses off that are associated with these accounts because I guess that a lot of validation is by just checking to see if the name and address match. Then, you mail out a validation letter (see sample letters on this site) CRRR to the CA's (credit agencies) but try and edit them a bit - not to where you have no idea what you're saying but so that they don't look like the same ones they receive all day long. Personalize it a bit. Use the USPS site to track your green cards and as soon as it shows delivered (which means that your green sigy card is on the way back to you), mail out your disputes of the same accounts to the CRA's. As it was explained to me, the CA's don't have to validate to you, BUT they then can't validate the debt to the CRA UNLESS they have validated to you as it constitutes further collection activity following your request - causing it to drop off of your CR (credit report). IF they validate to the CRA without validating to you, it's a violation. Violations CAN in some situations put $ in your pocket AND be leverage to have the TL (trade line ... the info reported to the CRA by the CA) removed. Have your letters ready because it's all in the timing - you want to mail to the CRAs IMMEDIATELY after the CA;s have your letters in hand. While the CA's don't have a time limit to validate with you, the CRA's only have 30 days to investigate it. Oh.... one last thing. PAPERTRAIL everything. Get folders and keeps copies of everything and date mark anything you get in the mail. You can lose some of your rights if you don't respond in a certain time period. DON'T sign any of the letters going to the CA's or even OCs (original creditors) and DON"T reply to any "we need further info) from the CA's, the OC's or even the CRAs. IF you respond or contact the CRAs during their investigations, you automatically give them another 15 days to investigate, thus changing your 30 days to 45... opening the door for the CAs.
Instead of spending the money to get addresses off by CRRR, you should try calling them first. I have been able to get rid of addresses from all 3 CRA's by simply calling. Save the expense of CRRR for later.
Yes... you're correct. I didn't recommend it though because I tried and it was a nightmare. You'd have thought I'd asked for a date with the president of the company..... gazzilions of questions.
