I thought it would be interesting to hear from the board members what mistakes or errors they have made in trying to repair their credit. Sharing these might keep others from repeating the errors. So I'll go first, My biggest mistake so far was: Missing deadlines - I didn't send a followup letter on time and had to start over on one item. Thanks all, JohnM
3) Never send supporting account-related information to the CRAs...like BK Discharge Papers....EVEN IF THEY ASK FOR IT....equivalent to shooting yourself in the foot. To this day...I still have nightmares for making that STUPID mistake....I wish I knew about this board before doing the credit repair on my own....
Made the same mistake as Ted. Sent BK stuff to TU. DUH! 3.) Paying a collection before getting the UDF.
biggest mistake I have made so far. Was when I decided to start working on my credit. I jumped in without reading anything about the ftc laws or CRA's and CA's. You need to get organize first and get educated a little. kathy
Disputing collections and judgements as "paid," rather than "not mine." Now, nothing short of an act of God will get these items removed before their seven years are up. wajaba
My big mistake was talking to the collection agency on the phone & trusting that they were being honest....now isn't that funny, a CA being honest.... Oh well, i found this site so it will never happen agian...........
My biggest (and ongoing addiction): Seeing my score jump and feverishly searching for an online application with instant (dis) approval and ending up with another inquiry!
Ditto here - I sent docs to prove a tax lien was paid, viola! They have MY paperwork to prove it belongs to me. No dispute on earth works now - they still have those docs!!.
Because when I sent official docs to them, I verified that the debt was mine and it gave them correct info, so that now I cannot dispute these tax liens off. I gave them the proof they need to verify every time and they keep it on file!! The unfairness of the system is - these liens were filed in 1992, released in 1996, they are still the #1 reason code on my score.
Question regarding your lien issue.... I had a tax lien in 93. Found out about it 6/95. Paid in 6/95. Allegedly the St of CO released the lien 1/96. Never was recorded so it is still on the bureau. Called the St of CO and received lien release doc. Arrgghh! They state, "lien released 5/2002". NOT! Anyway, here is the Q: I have proof of 6/95 payment. I printed part of the FCRA and it states "Paid tax liens which, from the date of payment, antedate the report by more than seven years." That means that my payment is 7 years this month. According to the FCRA, when they receive this documentation, they should delete immediately. However, my fear is that they will use the 'release date' instead of date of payment....
Faxing TU supporting documentation the day after I filed a dispute. They considered it "additional information" and said that gave them an additional 15 days on ALL my disputes.
Why is this a MISTAKE? RE: CredtQuest's inquiry about sending in Acct-Related Status Docs... Breeze hit it right on the nose... Now YOU'RE SCREWED... You PROVED for them that you BK discharged those accounts...and now you have hindered your chances of removing those accounts entirely as "Not Mine" disputes... This also includes the BK Public Records as well... The only "saving grace" is a possible (emphasized) CHOD...
1. Make sure the release has been filed with the court. 2. Provide the CRA with your proof of payment (the 1995 date) - it should come off. They won't verify anything. Use official docs, so they can't say they think you created the docs yourself.
I can testify to the fact that attempting to get these items deleted after you have verified them yourself will lower your score and does not get them off. I have used every trick in the book. What they do is update the date verified - the scoring software reads it like a new entry and your score will drop like a rock. Really, don't bother, IMO. Best to let it fade into the distant past and build new credit to raise your score.
I had perfect credit when I cosigned a student loan. The borrower defaulted and did not tell me. The bank had a policy that they did not notify cosigner of a default, only the main borrower. I found out about the default one week after it had been turned over to a collection agency, NCO. i called them immediately. NCO convinced me that the attorney had already prepared the lawsuit against me , not the borrower, and would file that day or the next. The only way to avoid it was to pay the debt ($5000) plus over $2000 in "attorney fees". I paid that day, using a credit card. They verbally agreed that no negative marks would appear on my credit reports. Nothing had been reported yet. Mistake one: believing that the lawwsuit was prepared and ready to go. This was one week after the original default, and I now know that was pure bs. Mistake two. believing that NCO would not trash my credit report. A couple weeks after the payment by me, they reported it as an unpaid default. Mistake three. Dealing with Wells Fargo. Dispite promises to document the "attorney fees". they have never done so. Also, had I realized that their policy was that they would not notify a cosigner of a default, I never would have dealt with them in the first place.
Add us to the "sent-paid-docs-and-self-verified-the-liens-club". We're still beating ourselves up over that one. Although, amazingly after multiple disputes, EQ has now deleted all three of them. Now waiting for CHOD to try again with TU and EX on the two that remain. Second biggest mistake was not understanding the importance of documenting proof of actual damages as we went along. Third biggest mistake was sending the nutcase letter to a fully paid creditor before sending a "regular" validation letter. We never considered the fact that it might end up as part of our lawsuit documentation since it was the first request for validation we had ever sent to the CA. Would have preferred to have first contact documentation that was a bit less "nutty" for court. Bottom line - the biggest mistake is sending a single piece of paper or making a single phone call or submitting an online dispute before knowing what the future steps will need to be. DemPooches
My biggest mistake was, after filing a chapter 7 bankruptcy, not looking at my credit reports and starting the cleanup process for two years. Also I should have gotten two secured credit cards right away. It has been just about exactly 5 years now and my scores are between 660 and 680 but I firmly believe that I could have gotten here in four years if I had known.
