Hello all, I was a frequent user of this board over a year ago, but now I'm back... My wife and I are looking to buy our home soon, and our combined scored were 634 (me) and 611 (wife), so the mortgage broker said we could qualify for an FHA loan, but we still have to remove or explain any negatives on our credit report. I have a whole bunch of questions, but I figure I'll start with this one: I have an open account with a balance of ~260 that was referred to a collection agency in December, that is *not* showing up on my credit reports (as being sent out for collection). I have the money, and would like to pay the original creditor, if possible. I received several collection letters from this company, addressed simply to "Pat" (my name is Dan), so I didn't open them. When I *did* get a collection letter from the same agency this month (addressed to me this time), I opened the other letters, and the account number was the same... they had me listed as "Pat" for some reason.. Anyway, does anyone have any advice? Should I pay the OC, or deal with the CA? What is the best way to keep this off my credit report? Again, I have the $$, and want to pay it off, but what's my best course of action here? Thanks in advance, -Dan
If you are in a hurry because of a mortgage, all I can say is good luck. I tried the same thing and once I realized they weren't giving me the deletion upon payment, I knew I had lost the mortgage. I'm willing to accept that and wait another 1.5 years for my credit to be clean. If you are REALLY wanting this house, then I'll just <BUMP> this post for others to comment. Sorry I couldn't help!
Well, the original account is showing up as positive, right now at least. And the collection agency isn't showing up at all... But it's going to take a couple of months before we have our down payment (we're currently renting the house we're buying), and get a few other errors off our reports. So I'm worried that it might show up when we are ready to buy the house. If we could do it next week, it wouldn't be a problem. If anyone has any advice on how to keep the collection from ever showing up, so this doesn't show up when we pull our reports again in a couple of months, or the best course of action to then have it removed after the fact, I'd love to hear your ideas. Thanks again, -Dan
Have you sent the CA a validation letter. They cannot report anything to the CRA while you are disputing the debt. You could at least tie them up that way until your loan closes. I can't think of anything else. They might agree to not report for payment. You never know. Kim
Yeah, you could take your chances. But you may end up like me. I tried to validate an account, and they ended up reporting on it again. (It was a good account). Once I contacted them, they added all my lates and updated everything. It took a while to get everything off concerning the account.
Well, I chickened out and called the collection agency today, and they said that they don't report to the CRA's until they'd had the account for over 60 days, so if I paid by the end of the month, it wouldn't get reported at all to the CRA's (though the OC might still report it). I went ahead and paid over the phone, got a confirmation number and the agent's name (and took notes as to what she said, pausing and repeating what she said so she knew I was taking notes), and the agent I spoke to to said she would draft a letter stating that it had been paid in full, and that this account would not be reported to the CRA's. The OC is really bad about reporting... (they haven't reported anything since last October, and only reported two of my payments - the rest are dashes on my report), so I'll keep my fingers crossed with them... As long as it doesn't show up until after we get the mortgage, I don't care... I can always write a "sympathy good-faith" letter, since they wrote to me under the wrong name, and I paid the CA promptly. Both the OC and CA *did* send collection letters to my address under the wrong name ("Pat" with no last name - my name is Dan), so I have grounds to dispute with them if/when it shows up... Keeping my fingers crossed, though, as I know CA's are notorious for saying anything to get you to pay. Let's hope nothing shows up on there! Thanks for your advice, everyone. -Dan
