Need advice from you seasoned Veterans

Mar 172011
 

Hi,

 

I am new here on the board. I came across myFICO when researching student loan consolidations/rehabilitations. 

 

I had started to rebuild my credit about 3 years ago but had a relapse :(  I digress.

 

I just wanted to share my situation and get some advice. 

 

I just recently completed my student loan rehabilitation. I have been steadily at about 548 with Experian since July, and just pulled Equifax (509) and TransUnion (552). 

 

I still have one of my many student loans from the consolidation showing as negative but did confirm with the DOE that they sent the remaining funds (115 dollars out of 10K) that had been outstanding due to an error or timeframe issue with the payoff. So that is the only one still showing as default. I immediately disputed online and the loans are all showing zero balances paid collection accounts and I understand they will be there until they fall off. 

 

My question is more about the rest of my credit. I currently have some other derogs including 2 small collection accounts for under $300 each from 2 old utility bills. I am wondering if it would be in my best interest to offer them a “pay for delete” as I have seen it referred to?

 

I have 3 Capital One credit card accounts charged off in the past couple of years that had original balances of 750, 500, 1500 although they are showing much higher as collections. Should I try to do the same thing with them as well (PFD)?

 

I know that is kind of a vague rundown and I have some other issues with my report, but figured this would be a good start. Trying to buy a house in the next 2 years need to get into the 700′s. I understand it will take time but I’m headed in the right direction. 

 

Also, I have no credit card accounts and was even denied by US Bank for a secured card for $300 because of all the collections. I was thinking of having a friend or family member add me as an authorized user on a couple of accounts to improve my utilization and that aspect of my report.  I was thinking of waiting a couple of months after paying on my current student loans and getting some things straightened out and applying for a secured card with Orchard Bank. Any insight there?

 

Thank you in advance.

sort of a HIPAA questions (but not really)

Mar 162011
 

I know the HIPAA process is no longer discussed here, but this situation is a little different and I am looking for some advice.  Up until about 2 months ago, I had a medical CA on my report from an emergency room visit I had a while back (very confusing billing led to missing one of the bills).  Anyway, the CA suddenly disappeared unexpectedly about 2 months ago.  About 1 month ago, I received a dunning letter from a different CA for the same bill.  This new CA is not reporting (yet).

 

What is the best way to keep this from showing back up on my reports.  I can pay the bill now, but I want to do it in a way that will prevent it from reporting.  Since the CA is not reporting, I can’t really use the standard HIPAA process.   If I pay the OC, I am afraid that the CA will not find out and report anyway.  I would be able to get them to update to “paid” in that case, but, as we all know, a “paid” CA really doesn’t help at all.

 

Is there a way that I can pay the OC in a manner that would make it so that the CA couldn’t report?  Kind of like the HIPAA process, but without the first round of letters to the CRA?  Or, should I just pay the new CA before they report (with a written agreement that they won’t report if I pay)?  Or would contacting the CA ruin the possibility of following the HIPAA process later if they do end up reporting?

Deletion letters

Mar 142011
 

This is my first post. I’ve been a longtime reader, just haven’t signed up till today. This is my situation. I recently pulled all of my credit reports and saw that I had 4 charge offs and about 6 collections. Everything is from 2006, so they are well past the SOL in my state (Louisiana). I went through a stupid time in my life when I was drinking a lot and gambling a lot and really didn’t know just how much having bad credit can really **bleep** you over later on in life. I’ve since gotten married and have 2 kids and a baby girl due in august. Anyways, I sent some DV letters to 5 of the collection companies and 4 of them sent letters back saying that they are going to delete them off of my credit report. The 5th one I decided to do a pay for delete. I have the letter saying that if I paid $350 he would delete the trade line. I sent him the money return receipt, and he sent a $0 balance letter back. My questions are these. 1) can they put the deleted accounts back on my credit report after they delete them? 2) how can I get the original creditors off of my credit report? Like I said, everything is from 2006. So I only have to wait a couple more years for them to drop off. By the way, the pay for delete was from a collection agency that bought a debt that is showing on my credit report (the OC was HSBC), can I send HSBC proof that I paid and will they delete it? Or should I just wait it out. Everybody I’ve talked to said to just not worry about it because any debt over 24 months old is not really hurting your credit. Thank you all for all of your help in the past and in the future.

FAKO? FICO? Woes of the ignorant.

Mar 112011
 

Having been obviously ignorant to credit and how it works, my husband and I both PAID for and got our credit reports and scores.  At the time, we figured a score is a score, and were after the scores, so we shelled out the money.  No biggie- only we applied for mortgage to find out our scores are much lower than scores we paid for.  After the embaressment, started educating myself (thank you myFICO) and realized we had FAKO scores, not FICO scores.  The LO told us our FICO score that they pulled, although I’m not sure from where he got them.  Anyways my point is this- we are putting ourselves on a 6 month boot camp to get everything cleaned up.  We could shell out another 30-40 bucks and get our FICO scores-  or we can put that 40 towards something else (like a bill or student loan).  How important is it that we know all 3 of our FICO scores?  Our main goal here is to raise our scores, and get all of these things taken care of-  Even knowing 1 FICO score, we have a ball-park area of where we started at…. what will matter is in the end- where we end up in 6-12 months etc….  

 

Is purchasing the FICO scores something you would recommend in this situation?  Or are we better off to use what we already have as a good starting reference point- and pay for them once we reach our 1st goal in 6 months?

Two Accounts Left / Both With Lawyers

Feb 222011
 

Hey all,

 

So my wife and I have been paying off all of our collection accounts. We are down from 11 to 2 now. Both are with lawyers offices and are around $2500.00; however, neither has had an actual suit filed. I’m a little hesitant at this point as to what my move should be. Should I send the DV to the CA? Or, are we past that point now? I don’t want to irritate the situation and have them file a lawsuit or refuse to work with us on a payment plan. But, I do want to get a payment plan started and get these taken care of. Should I just call the lawyers’ offices and talk to them? What should I do here?

advice on a score boost (authorized user)?

Feb 222011
 

Heres my situation. Debts are all paid off…rebuilding my credit …. I recently went into a mortgage broker to see where i was at. She assured me we shouldnt have any problems. (pushed us to put a contract on the house we want). It comes back and she says we now need to add 15 pts to our mid score to bypass underwriting….I have no more debts and my credit cards are at 1% so i have no leeway there. My question is if i have my mother in law put me on as an authorized user on her 500 limit cc with 8 years good history and 0 balance, can that add pts to my fico? My current open tradelines are a 10 year old student loan…2 low limit cc (one as an authorized user)both at 6 months old, and a new secured card. All with no lates. I believe if she put me on her card it would lengthen my credit history and possibly improve my score…? At this point im thinking adding any new accts wont help. Any advice would be appreciated….

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