My husband and I are relocating. He will be the only one on the mortgage, as my credit is trashed. His credit report is almost spotless, HOWEVER, recently we dropped the ball on two AMEX accounts (my fault, he also has a corporate account that gets paid automatically so I threw away the wrong statements). Anyway, the accounts were turned over to Collect Corp and GC Services respectively - both on October 17. We paid Collect Corp immediately, and have paid about 1/2 of GC services - we still owe about $2600 which we can pay, but we want to try to negotiate deletion. I checked his credit last night on privacy guard. Neither AMEX account is showing as late, nor have the collections appeared except as inquiries. His PG score is 653, which strikes me as low because he has no lates anything, and he has a long payment history with credit cards as well as current mortgage and car lease. He paid most of his accounts down and has an overall utilization of less than 30%. We have a little $$$ in reserve and can pay that down lower. We made an offer on a house this weekend with a close date about 3 months out, and need to apply for a mortgage. Questions: Should we pay off the rest of GC now, and hope it never shows up? There doesn't seem to be any way to negotiate for deletion given there's nothing to delete. Should we apply now, while the amex stuff seems to be hiding? Or should we pay off more debt and wait til that hits his reports and hopefully raises his score while praying that the collections don't show? Any other thoughts about why the PG score seems low, and what to do about it? Thanks for any and all suggestions - we have to decide QUICK! Poochie
You could talk to the CA and pay of the other half in exchange for them NOT reporting it since they haven't already. That way you know it's not going to get reported and put on your husband's reports. Call it insurance. I don't know about the rest of your questions though.
thanks for that advice Connor - I was thinking that too - just tell them we want an assurance before making payment. Anyone else for the rest? Do y'all think the AMEX nightmare is about to hit??
If you want to pay the CA, get their assurance in writing. Never trust a collection agent. It is better if you can call Amex directly, explaining that you lost their bills in your recent move, and if they would consider taking payments directly instead of having to deal with the CA. One of my friends had an Amex card, was late once by 90 days, had his account turned over to CA; but later he continued to make payments to Amex directly, and those checks were cashed normally. He took copies of those cancelled checks, challenged the CA's authority to collect on Amex's behalf when Amex itself is accepting his payments; never heard a peep again from him. There was a fallout however; once the balance was paid down to zero, Amex cancelled his card, and even 7 years later, he still does not get Amex promotional offers in mail, but he does get all other offers. His credit is now spotless, recent FICO = 738. Goes to simply prove that Amex maintains a blacklist, and does not forgive ever!
Oh, I forgot ... Amex 90 day lates did appear on his report, but fell off after 7 years. He simply bid his time, and did not apply for any credit card during that time. He made do with a single Citi AAdvantage card, and made it a point to pay down balances in full.
