Hi, as you might have guessed i hvae less than perfect credit history, much less. here's my question. I have 15 negative listing on my credit report from experian. All of which are from years back, most recent one are more than 3 years ago. I have since then been paying off those Collection agency for all of them except for 1 since they never ever contacted me. except for that one the last one was paid off about 2 years ago. I have recently checked my credit report and it shows that those records from the collection agency that i paid was still on there as a neggative listing and some are not even reported settled or paid. Should I call up the credit report agency and send them those receipt of payment so they can mark it as "paid" or should i just leave them since the majority of them say it will go off the record in 2 years. will calling the credit agency extend this remain-on-file period because of the change in last activity date? Thanks for your help
Actually I would dispute all of them, and I mean ALL of them with the CRA and see what turns up. Don't say they are paid. Just say NOT MINE, IF the Collection Agency says they are yours and doesn't update them. Then you have ammunition to get them deleted.
1st forget about calling the CRA's. 2nd the date they will "fall off" your report will not change by disputing the listing. 3rd sending the CRA information has proven a futile effort, even though they are supposed to use any evidence we consumers provide. 4th the collection account listings you are speaking of will be NEGATIVE even if you HAVE them marked as paid...and their negative effect is almost as bad as if they remain mis-marked as un-paid. Therefore your best bet is to dispute them as incorrect with the CRA's and hope they get deleted. I would send validation letters for the account that did not contact you, as well as any that you are still paying on. Make them prove that you owe them what they claim you owe. -Peace, Dave
A collection account, paid or unpaid, will always be listed under "negative accounts". Any account, that has just one derogatory piece of information contained within it is considered "negative". Don't call the CA's. You won't get anywhere with them, especially now that they have your money. When paying off, or making payments on a derogatory account (collection) will not re-start the 7-year reporting period for negative information. So, if the drop off date is two years away, whether the CA marks the account as paid or unpaid, it will not be "pushed" farther forward in time. As far as the collection accounts you have already paid on, since you did not negotiate for deletion upon payment, those accounts will remain. However, you do have options. I suggest you read up on the board, check out the FAQ's section, review the FCRA (particularly sections 611 and 623) and the FDCPA. Once you feel comfortable, prepare what is called a "validation letter". This letter is a demand from you to the collection agency, asking them to validate this debt that they claimed you owed. Just because you've paid it does not mean it was really yours to begin with. Now once they receive this letter, they will now be required to mark their collection account as "in dispute" or something similar. If they do not, they've violated the FCRA. You're now in the mist of creating your paper trail of evidence against this CA. The end result of "validation" is to either make the CA produce it (which you don't want actually because then the account could stay on your report), or to get them to delete the account, thus helping your credit/scores. Here are links to the FCRA, and FDCPA: http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra.htm http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/fdcpact.htm Welcome to the board.
thanks for all your help. I'm working on dispute letters right now to send to the Credit Bureaus. Should I do 1 entry at a time for all 3 CB? and how long should i wait until moving on to the next bad entry ?
I would dispute maybe 4 or 5 per credit bureau each time. When you get the results back, then you can send out another set of disputes. Make sure you send them certified mail, with return receipt requested.
