Two years on time, but little score improvement

Mar 042011
 

Hi all,

I’m calling on your infinite wisdom for this one. As you can see from my signature, I’ve been diligently working on my credit hard core for 2 years and a month. I haven’t missed a single payment and I believe I’ve followed the rules well.

 

The changes I’ve made in the last two years are as follows: I’ve paid down a significant portion of my credit card debt. My utilization is down from 65% to 52%. (It would be much more due to my payments, but I’m an AU on my parents’ credit card and their balance has slowly been creeping upward over the years. I’m not sure I should remove myself, though, because they have a VERY long and impeccable credit history).  

 

Also in the last two years, I’ve made the final payments on a small personal loan, and I took out a loan for a car which I paid perfectly for over a year and then refinanced in November 2010.

 

The negatives that made my credit score go this low in the first place were all late payments. 90 and 120 days late (Ugh, I know). There are no collections, bankruptcies, or any kind of judgments on my report. One of my CCs was closed by the creditor due to late payments, and it still had a balance of $3500. Since then I’ve been making just over the minimum payments and have the balance down to about $2400 now. I’m using the snowball method and since I recently paid off my highest interest rate card, I’ll be making much higher payments on this card going forward and will be able to pay it off sooner.

 

I haven’t had a single late payment in over two years, and my only dings are credit inquiries from taking out my car loan. Why has my score only gone up 50 points? I would think I’d be at least over 650 by now. I get being patient, but this is kind of ridiculous! Any ideas as to why my score’s still only a 631?

Medical Debt – Statute of Limitations question

Feb 092011
 

I’m on the way to FICO recovery. Got my first “big girl” card in the mail the other day. A Chase Rewards card with a credit limit of $3000. Go me! TU is 696 and my EQ is 717.

 

I have an old medical debt that is scheduled to drop off this September. While I know it will come off my credit reports, I’m not sure about how long I can get sued. From everything I’ve read, the statutue of limitations for a written contract is 15 years. So….. while it will disappear off of my report, it will still be legally collectable for another 8 years right?

 

This old medical debt (~$4000) has been bought by several different CA over the years. Can they sue me or only the orginal owner of the debt? That’s where I get confused.

 

I was recently contacted by the current CA that owns it. They offered  a settlement of about half. I don’t have the money now but could probably scrape it up by the fall (when it comes off my reports). If I settle for less than full AND it’s fallen off my report, will my payment reage the debt? I can’t seem to figure that out either. 

 

Any help is apprecaited. 

Deleted Item Request

Jan 262011
 

Over the years I incurred several parking fines to one village. Each fine was reported and appeared on my credit file. I made arrangements with the creditor to settle the debt in full. I then mailed a letter  and included the following verbiage: 

 

I would appreciate if you co-ordinate with the credit bureaus and remove any negative entry related to this account. It will help me re-establish my credit rating.

 

I hope you’ll find the above terms acceptable. If it is so, please sign this letter of acceptance and return a copy to me. As soon as I receive this signed acknowledged agreement, I shall forward you the settlement amount (as stated above) through a money order.

 

In turn, I received a letter from the creditor with the agreed settlement amount and the creiditor stated that they would notify the creditors to update my file history.

I did not receive anything specifically stating that they would delete the file.  I paid the agreed amount and the entries are just listed as paid.

 

Is there any chance of having these entries deleted ayear later given the above situation?

Awoke the sleeping bear – what to do?

Dec 142010
 

Getting my credit in order and was successful in jumping about 55 points the other day by getting a recent paid medical off my reports. 

 

I received a phone call from NCO this morning letting me know that I had a medical bill that is still due from more than six years ago. Looks like I’ve become attractive since jumping above the magic 700′s! Grrrr. Either I woke the sleeping bear or it’s a heck of a coincidence.

 

When I look at my old (pulled earlier last month) CR’s, I only show this baddie from Oct 2004 on my TU. Premium Asset Recovery owned it at this time last month. I received the phone call from NCO this morning letting me know about this unpaid debt. I didn’t admit anything other than I thought it had been paid by the insurance company that I was hired to do the job for when it occurred several years ago. I don’t know if that was a good thing or bad thing to do. 

 

Anyways, anyone have any idea what might/could happen next with these guys?

 

I’m not panicking or freaking out, just wondering if they will escalate it. I know several letters have come in the mail for this thing over the years from various CA’s but I haven’t received any type of notice, settlement offer or any phone call within at least a year or two from anyone over this.

 

It’s for $4200 and no, I can not pay in full at this time.

 

If they start to get aggressive and threaten a judgement, what kind of time frame am I looking at in order to get the money together before actually having to appear? I am not familiar with this part of the process and i”m hoping that it doesn’t come to this but want to know what steps the CA can take if they want to. After all my hard work I’ve done so far, I’d hate to have another ding (and a super horrible one) because they escalate this issue. 

 

If threatened and they agreed to a repayment plan, what would hit my credit report?

 

Thanks

Help: Neverending charge off from 1990′s Belk Card -

Sep 262010
 

This is my first post here. I’m new so be gentle. I need some advice.

 

I am recovering from terrible credit score and have achieved a score of 687. I am trying to improve it by reviewing and cleaning up my credit report. I have one pesky item on one of my credit reports.

 

It is a charge off for $380 on a Belk credit card. I opened this account in 1991. It was my very first credit card. It was included in a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy in 1997. I defaulted on the Bankruptcy payments in 2001 before it was discharged. Some of the original creditors did come after me and I took care of them over the years. However, Belk reported this charge off in 2007. I just realized it was on report (had not reviewed this companies report for a few years).

 

I called Belk because honestly I have no idea what to do about this debt. I have not received a single bill ever. They told me that the only info they had on file was that I had an account that was charged off and the debt was sold to a CA. They don’t even know which collection agency. They said they cannot remove it from my report and it will stay there forever (obviously not true, but very unhelpful customer service rep.). They told me to dispute with credit reporting agency if I don’t agree with it. They have no idea which collection agency they sold to and I have never heard a peep from a collection agency regarding this debt. Ever.

 

I’m willing to pay. I don’t want to pay Belk because the collection agency owns the debt and Belk isn’t interested in being paid. They didn’t even try to get my new address or phone number. I can’t pay the collection agency because I have no idea who they are.

 

The original bill was probably charged off sometime in the early 90′s then included in the Bankruptcy. Now this is going to stay on my credit for seven years from the date they reported the charge off which is 2007.  It will be there until 2014 almost 20 years after I stopped paying! This just can’t be right, but what can I do? I have suffered enough. I feel trapped in bizarre red tape and I’m willing to pay!!!  No one will even take my money. Please help.

 

edit: I live in Maryland if this makes a difference. I think our credit card SOL is 3 years.

Headline: Man Sues Debt Collector for Harassing, Racist Voicemails; Wins $1.5M

Jun 032010
 

Man Sues Debt Collector for Harassing, Racist Voicemails; Wins $1.5M

body
Allen Jones of Lewisville, Texas has been awarded $1.5 million by a jury in a suit against a collections agency over profanity-laced voicemail messages, according to ABC News.
Employees of the Pennsylvania-based Advanced Call Center Technologies (ACT) allegedly left Jones eight vulgar voicemails in August 2007. The calls originated from an $81 credit card debt that Allen said he had paid. He said the calls kept coming even after he informed them that this debt had been resolved.

Dean Siotos, a lawyer for ACT called the messages “indefensible” and said the calls “must have been in some sort of personal attack unrelated to the business.”

“It’s not in any way, shape or form consistent with the way ACT’s collection department attempted to collect debts,” Siotos said.
The content of the messages is shockingly offensive. Here is a snippet from an early morning call, obtained by Dallas/Fort Worth’s WFAA-TV:
“This is your motherf—— wake-up call you little lazy a– b—-. Get your motherf—— n—-r ass up and go pick some motherf—— cotton fields.”
Jones, who is African-American, was obviously outraged by this and other nasty and unnecessary voicemail messages. “This shouldn’t be tolerated,” Jones told WFAA. “Nobody should have to experience what I had to experience.”
In addition to the expletive-filled language, Jones’ lawyer Dean Malone said the calls came in as early as 6:30 a.m. and as late as 11 p.m. Malone reported that one of the voicemails even had a sexual message about Jones’ wife.
“It was just significant, over-the-top harassment,” Malone said. “I’ve handled hundreds of these cases over the years. This is by far the worst I’ve ever seen.”

The employees named in the suit have been let go by ACT. The jury awarded Jones $50,000 for mental anguish, $143,000 in attorney’s fees and $1.5 million in additional damages after a two-week trial that found ACT and the former employees had violated Texas debt collection rules.

As many Americans find themselves struggling with debt as a result of the economic downturn, claims of abusive collection practices have been on the rise. The Federal Trade Commission reported 88,190 FDCPA complaints about third-party debt collectors.
Maybe Jones’ case will serve as a wake-up call to those collectors who give the industry a bad name by needlessly harassing people who may or may not owe money.

Best Plan of Action

Mar 112010
 

Hi Guys,

When I was younger (just out of high school) I made some stupid mistakes by thinking that since I had a nice job that paid well I should drive fancy cars and spend like crazy. Needless to say I got myself into some debt collection issues and finally a voluntary reposession after a layoff in the IT market. After this incident, I cut all my cards, canceled the accounts and bought payed off vehicles for the years following. This led to basically no active credit activity for quite awhile. The debts would be considered small (under $5K total for everything).

 

I have matured over the years, now run my own business, and am taking the time too truly learn and care about managing my credit and setting goals to see greener pastures along the lines of interest rates. I have one vehicle loan that is about 18 months old with perfect payment record. I opened my first credit card account last month that I have had in years. I don’t need the credit card, but was told it would be good to show that I have some small activity, but pay on time.

 

My question has to do with the fact that I have most of my collections (8 total) dropping off within the next year or two, including the voluntary repo. I have started to get quite a few offers to settle these accounts for pennies on the dollar. Should I pay them or will this start entire 7 year process over again? I am one who is now committed to paying all outstanding debts and would love to do this, but I also don’t want to shoot myself in the foot for another 7 years. Even paid in full these are small amounts (a total of $2,816), minus the voluntary repo ($10,582).

 

One other quick question, I was told that reposessions have been extended to remain on your record for 10 years now by a local finance office at a dealership. Is this the case?