Folks, I'd appreciate your thoughts on this. I'm helping someone else get their credit mess cleaned up and need some advice. Absolutely nothing has been done yet. We're going to be dealing with collections, mostly small, paid and unpaid. Chargeoffs, mostly paid. Lots of lates. No liens or judgements. Duplicate accounts with OCs and CAs. And, a few good accounts which are current with past lates. Would you guys recommend doing lots of CRA disputes right now, combined with appropriate validations, and then follow up by redisputing during CHOD? Or do you think we would get the biggest bang if we wait till CHOD and hit them all then for the first time? Thanks for any input you can offer. DemPooches
Good Question.... I was wondering the same thing. I have read alot about how quickly the CRA's verify the second time during a dispute. I think I am going to wait (since time is so close) for CHOD but interested in other opinions as well. Happy CHOD everyone!!
I say time is money, or in this case, deletions. You normally dispute about 4 or 5 items per round. It sounds like there is a lot more than that. You have plenty of time to do a first round, and then slam them for CHOD also. I would start with the oldest first, as those will most likely be the easiest to dispute off. When you get the results, you can then send out validations to those that verified. When I was cleaning up, I never sent a validation until I got the dispute response. It took me 10 months, but I probably got rid of close to 50 different things. So, I know the way I did it works. Others may disagree or may not have had the luck I did, but I will suggest my way everytime. Although the CHOD is a great idea and some will probably get good results, I think, and don't get upset, that too much hope and emphasis is being placed in CHOD.
LKH, Thanks for your thoughtful reply. You've brought up something that to this day I still go back and forth in my mind about and I'd like your thoughts about this if you wouldn't mind. (and anyone else can certainly feel free to comment as well.) I have limited experience with dealing with CAs. Both of the experiences I've had have been for tiny accounts that turned into nightmarish messes by the time they were finally resolved. (and one is still only half way resolved.) I kept thinking "this seems so straightforward for everyone else, why not us?" So that brings us to the question.... Isn't it the existence of the 30 day clock on the dispute with the CRA that is the only thing that locks a CA into having to respond to a validation request within 30 days? (Or be in violation for continued collection activity without validating)? By waiting till after the dispute has been verified to request validation, don't I lose the 30 day clock on my validation and the potential violation? On the flip side, since EQ and EX both mark tradelines as "in dispute" when they're disputed through the CRA, if I dispute and validate at the same time don't I lose the potential violation of the CA not marking the account as "in dispute" since the CRA will have already done that? I'm asking these questions because you ARE so experienced in dealing with these areas and I am a lot more effective in what I'm doing if I am completely solid on why one way over the other. If the answer is simply "you go one way or the other, you lose something either way" then that's acceptable. But if there is something important that I'm missing I would be very grateful if you or others would take the time to help me understand. DemPooches
I think most of the experts here would recommend sending the validation demand to the the CA first, then disputing a few days after the green card comes back, which forces the CA into Not verifying the dispute at the risk of a violation. Also, you have some proof for the CRA, if needed, that you disputed the debt with the CA, as well.
As for the 30 day clock,when you request validation, there is no time limit that a ca must respond in. We use 30 days as a reasonable length of time that if necessary, a judge would agree with. If you do validate, the ca actually does not ever have to respond, but if they verifty with the cra at any time after receiving the validation, and they have not yet validated, then that is a violation. When a ca marks an acct as in dispute, the cra usually marks it with something like "acct disputed - satisfies FCRA requirements or FDCPA requirements" as opposed to "consumer disputes - reinvestigation in progress" when a consumer disputes with a cra. So I don't think you will lose the potential violation if you dispute and validate at the same time. Don't forget that at the end of 30 days, or sooner, the consumer disputes statement is going to be removed. If the ca has reported it as disputed, the first statement would still be there. I maintain, that if you start with a cra dispute only of the oldest items first, then continuing to the newest, you will then know who you need to validate with. If you validate right away, you may end up having to negotiate for removal of something that may have been deleted if you had just disputed it. As the results come in, you will then know who you need to validate with and you can continue down that road as is necessary. My first round of disputes I got 8 for 8 on TU. 4 of 6 on Exp and 5 of 6 on Equ. The first to be deleted, were the oldest. I then went on to send validations to those that verified. I had a few send me letters that they were deleting from the cra from just the validation letter. Of course, I soon had problems with Exp and had to sue them, but that was much later. Anyway, these are my suggestions. I'm sure others would disagree with me. But I think if you follow my suggestions you'll come out pretty good. Good luck.
