I called Trans Union yesterday and they said that the only negative item on my report had been removed. The thing is I've been trying to nuke this thing for almost 2 years now. It was a repo and I was just about ready to pay up when I started reading all the posts from Marie and other member here and on yahoo credit. I took a lot of info from the validation letters, added a few things and sent them to the collection company who had been calling and sending me letters to pay up. I sent the letter FedEx overnight and then the collection company called me the next day and left me a message: "Sir we got your letter and at this point we are going to have to turn this account over to our attorneys office. You should be careful for what you ask for because you might get it." Well after that call I was smiling and not scared at all. I called the number for their attorneyâ??s office. Now this is were I really got happy...the guy gets on the phone, I can tell right away that this isnâ??t really a law office but more like just another room in the same collection company. It seems that this is a game a lot of collection companies play, in trying to scare you into paying. So anyway the guy says we are still trying to request all the original documents you requested. He then goes on to say they may advise the client to seek a judgment against me. I then say oh really, well you do know the SOL is up? He stops dead in his tracks and says, "Are you sure about that?" And then he asks ME what the SOL is in Cali, and I told him 4 years. He says "are you sure you've never made a payment after the charge-off?" I told him no way and that's fact. I also sent the same nasty letter to the original creditor and then I filed disputes with the CRA's. Like I mentioned above, TU has removed what they had always verified in the past (6 months ago I tried to delete it). Experian says they have not heard from the creditor and that in 6 more days it will be removed if no word. On Equifax the account showed as being in good standing so I never messed with it but I will now, just so I can have that auto loan balance deleted from Equifax. I've received a call from the creditor in the last week and they just asked me to return their call. They have only now phoned me after I sent them a validation letter, which they have not responded to by mail yet. Now my advice to people out there who might want to try this is this: Send Validation letters to both the creditors and collection companies first. Then about a week after you know they have received them, call or send letters to the CRA's to dispute the accounts. This has really worked for me and it's giving me opportunities that will really mean a lot to my future. Thanks to all of you and a special thanks to you Marie. I may be jumping the gun since I'm so excited but I have a strong feeling that the other two reports will come back clean and then I'm on my way
Good job ATM! I am happy for your success.. that sounds great! I am also on my way to trying to clean my credit as well.. and I hope to have as much luck as you did. I will also try sending the validation to the collection/creditors first, then wait about a week and send disputes to the CRA as well.. for now, since I still have about 4-7 months left on the SOL (CA = 4 yrs), I am going to wait that time out and just dispute through the CRA for now.. I think this would be the best strategy for me, what do you think? Also, were your debts unpaid such as the repo and others? AYou mentioned that you were almost tempted to pay them.. but I am assuming they weren't?
Ender: If I were you I would wait it out if you can wait another 4-7 months. If you donâ??t want to wait you could send the validation letter and keep the part in it that says you are not refusing to pay. For me what I did was ask them to validate the debt and when I spoke to them on the phone even before the letters I sent out, I asked them in such a way that it seemed like I was not just giving them B.S. to by time or something. I told them that the interest was off and that the auto had been sold and that amount had not been correctly applied to the balance and so on. I told them that I wanted to take care of this matter as soon as possible but that I need accurate info and records. So in other words if you want to try what I did and keep this above info in mind, then I say go for it. Send letters to the creditor first and then dispute with the CRAâ??s. Just make it seem like you really want to pay but first you need accurate records for the balance they are giving you now. If all this doesnâ??t work now then after the SOL is up, then get nasty with everyone (Creditor and CRAâ??s) if they wont verify or remove it then. Also right after the SOL is up, let them know that you know they have nothing left. I know for me it was a major factor once they knew I knew that. See the loan I had was co-signed with my mother and they use to call her not more than 8 months ago had tell her they would sue and garnish her pay. She was really scared but I told her I would deal with them and not to worry. Anyway I hope this helps you. Iâ??m no pro at this but I have learned a lot very quickly, thanks to Marie, this board and the Yahoo board. By the way, the auto was charged off in 96 with a balance of about $6,500.00. They claim that after interest and collection costs that I owed 12K. Up until these letters I sent out a few weeks, they were saying that I owe that 12K and that they had dropped it to $6,500.00 and that they would take 50% of that for a pay off. $3,250.00 was good enough for me but I just couldnâ??t get them to remove the account along with that so I wasnâ??t sure what I was going to do. They may still contact me but they now know that I know that they have no power over me anymore. This is the only bad debt I had left (after deleting 4 credit card charge-offs last year).
ATM: THank you for your lengthy reply and explanation of the steps you went through. It is great that your report has been cleaned up! So your recommendation is to wait out another 4-7 mos to insure the SOL is up completely, right? In a way, that is what I was planning on doing.. so i was only going to stir up activity with the CRA by doing disputes of "not mine". This will probably be able to kill a few months and I am hoping maybe it will be effective as well with a few of the tradelines on my report.. I spoke to NCO once, a collection agenncy that has 3 debts or so that they bought and all they care about is collecting on this and asking me to do a check by phone and such and that they are willing to work.. I am very careful not to state any specifics however because I don't wnt to acknowledge the debt.. because once I do that, I've heard the collection has power of you and that I wanted to avoid. I am surprised you spoke to the creditors and such over the phone about your problems because I thought yuou were not supposed to deal with them at all over the phone and only in writing? Also, which validation letters did you use? The ones I plan on using are the ones that are on the yahoo groups page.. the 3 consecutive letters to send and possibly also using a variation of the ones that Marie posted before as well. Once the the 3rd one is sent w/o a response back, I plan on sending the CRA a dispute as NOT MINE as well.. and hoping this combination works. If it doesn't, then I was going to compile all the 3 validation letters along with the return receipt proof copies and mail all that to the CRA and demand removal because of the lack of validation.. and if this doesn't work, I guess I will need to go LizardKing's route of the lawsuit.. I hope it doesn't get that far, but I am willing to do so at that point. Does this sound like the right plan? I am still a bit nervous and unsure of what I need to do, so I appreciate the time you take out in any replies.. BTW, how did you get the 4 credit card charge offs deleted? Were these in collection? Were these paid? How old were they? The worst line on my CR is a judgement back in 8/98, but it was settled and paid.. I am disputing that now to get it removed.. the rest are all credit card chargeoffs and collections that bought those. I also have Cavalry Investments, NCO, and COldata all listed which I've heard people have had problems removing those in particular because of the illegal reaging methods they do..
I knew you'd do great. If the original creditor can't validate you may want to send a letter advising them that, since the sol is up and they can't validate the debt, if they try to assign it to any other collection agency you'll hold them liable for defamation, etc. Congrats!!! You must feel VERY good. 12K off you! And I know you were willing to pay 3K... When this is all said and done, you can now use that 3K for some good!
