Fix my credit!

In My Humble Opinion
21

While I agree that paying your bills is always the best corse of action, when I typed my original post I was thinking “quickest way to good credit”. Once an account goes to collections, (for example sake, lets call it YEAR ZERO) it will stick around for 7 years. The original debtor has sold the account to Scumbag Collections. If you (admittedly, “do the right thing”) pay the full balance, or any sum you and Scumbag agree to during year FIVE, the clock starts over and 7 more years of shit follow you.

This means you had two choices in year five. Save your cash, or pay a “salvageable” account and your negative with Scumbag falls off in 2 years, or pay them, be out the money (the original crediter is out of the picture- they sold this account years ago) and start the 7 year clock all over again with a big, fat negative. It will still show as a black mark on your credit even if you pay it. Good business says shine it on. Karma says pay. Unfortunatly, there is no “Karma Report” that future creditors can review.

They could sue you, but chances are that they will not. If it was worth it to chase you, the original creditor would have done so years ago.

I would strongly discourage any kind of “credit counselling” service. This will also appear on your credit, and may automatically eliminate you from any new loan. The joint I did underwriting for not allowed to grant any new loans to folk in councelling. I didn’t ever get the complete skinny on the paticullars, but basicly, as I understood it, when you agree to go into “councelling” you turn over any responsibility to these services and basicly sign away your rights to request credit.

Given the half-assed nature of credit reporting (everybody is damn quick to report you delinquent, but never seem to get around to removing them or ammending for positive actions on your part), I saw many loans get shot down or delayed or bumped to “high-risk” (this means “take-it-up-the-butt” rates of 21.99%) because customers who had made “good faith efforts” to correct poor credit choices decided to screw around with old, deliquent accounts and collection agencies.

People screw up. Credit goes bad. If it does, write off the crap and let sleeping dogs lie. They will only lie for 7 years.

22

After re-reading my post, I would like to note in the strongest possible terms that I am ALL ABOUT PAYING YOUR BILLS LIKE A RESPONSIBLE ADULT, THE FIRST TIME AROUND!!!

I’m just sayin’ what I would do if someone wanted to get a fresh start. :wink:

Your pal, Gatopescado (who has awsome credit!)

23

Thanks,** gatopescado**. Very informative.

What about offering to pay part or all of the debt if the agency will totally remove it from the report? Can they do this? Is coughing up for a blank slate worth it?

24

“How about I pay you to lie about me?” Nah, doesn’t pass the “integrity” test. It sounds like your moral compass isn’t quite pointing to north just yet.

25

Pit me if you like, but please do not hijack my thread. I am not seeking anyone’s moral guidance.

26

If you pay off those old accounts, it will *not *improve your credit rating. In fact, sometimes it will only extend the amount of time they report you as a NEG. In theory it isn’t supposed to be that way, but in practice it usually is. So- gatopescado is more or less correct. But importantly- it will not help in any way shape or form your credit rating.

Never, ever, pay off an old account unless you have it in writing that they will remove it from your Credit report and they settle for just the principal. Since most of the current holders are Collection agencies- don’t even bother talking to them. Only talk to the original creditor- unlikely in the case of such old debts. So, yes, as gatopescado says- don’t stir up old shit. Other than to “dispute” it. If it’s that old, it is quite likely the original creditor no longer has your debt on verifiable record.

First step to fixing your credit is to get a copy of all Big 3 credit reports. Dispute everything that isn’t completely legit AND recent. Then- after all the dust settles- do it again.

This thread is not about what our OP’s moral responsibility is to those debtors. I can certainly argue that he didn’t borrow the money from the debtors currently holding it, and he very very likely paid off all the original debt. Likely all he “owes” is charges and interest of very doubtful legality. Be that as it may- for this thread it doesn’t matter.

For the question asked- do as I said. Of course- from this day forward pay everything on time.

27

Actually it’s possible to clear the debt before 7 years, but you do that by writing directly to the credit reporting agencies (you have to write to all three of them) and requesting that they remove the offending information from their report. I think it helps if you have some sort of extenuating circumstance–for instance, a disputed amount. This is what some companies that offer credit fixes do–they go through your credit reports item by item and send an explanation, and ask that the item be removed.

The items I had removed were: A “slow pay” for a hospital bill incurred by my son. It was covered by my insurance, but my insurance company screwed up (purposely, I am convinced), first denying it because they said my son had ceased to become a full-time student (the bill was incurred about two days after I’d just gotten a notice from them that he WAS covered as a full-time student), then for this, that, and the other thing. In all it took me 23 months of doing things over and over again to prove that yes, he was a full-time student, yes, that was a covered item, yes, I had paid the deductible. And then it appeared on my credit report. But it disappeared after I send the credit reporting agencies a registered letter explaining the circumstances, with copies of the pile of correspondence I had accumulated including a letter saying the bill had been paid by the insurance company, another bill dated after the letter saying the bill had been paid by the insurance company, and one last letter saying once again that the bill had been paid.

Another was one where a supplier (when I worked freelance) mistakenly billed ME instead of the ad agency I was working for. All I had done was deliver the type. The first I heard about this one it was already in collections, and once again it was a major hassle and the collection agency kept telling me there was nothing I could do NOW, I had to pay it–around $1700 for something I hadn’t even seen, just because I had delivered the copy to the typesetter. (To add insult to injury the ad agency, of course, did not pay me either, and then it went out of business.) The collection agency claimed they had an enforceable judgment against me and I should just make a payment schedule, and I ended up with a court date and got the judgment vacated (?)–or anyway, it went away–when I explained the whole deal to an ALJ. (It really helped that I had not even SEEN the typeset copy, which was what the charge was for). But then this turned up on my credit report. Again, registered letters made it go away. Way more trouble than it was worth, probably, because I don’t really use a lot of credit. But this time there were a lot fewer pieces of paper to copy and send, basically just the judge’s order.

The important thing to keep in mind here is that the people who keep the information, the credit reporting agencies, are NOT the people who are trying to collect the debts. The credit reporting agencies get their information from the collection agencies, but merely clearing the debt with the collection agency will not necessarily remove it from your credit report, with or without something that says the debt has been paid. But you can’t negotiate with credit reporting agencies by offering to pay all of the debt.

There once was a website that had the procedure set forth step-by-step, including sample letters. I think I found it by googling “Credit Repair.” But the first step is to get copies of your credit report from Equifax and there used to be two others, but maybe not anymore. (They could have merged.)

28

Furt, I still think you should talk to some non-profit credit counsellors (that is, ones that aren’t aligned with a bank or bankruptcy agency). I don’t see how making an appointment and talking to a counsellor would show up on your credit report. If you go ahead and do something like a debt repayment schedule with them, that will definitely show up on your CR, but the counsellor would go over all of that with you. This is a very complicated issue, as you can see from the conflicting responses in this thread, none of which are right or wrong.

29

One thing that you can do today that may help is to call any open credit card accounts you may have, ask to speak to a supervisor, and ask to have your interest rate reduced. Those late payments really drive it up (without much notification even - it’s something you signed when you got the card) and they may agree to reduce your rate, even if you haven’t paid it off yet. (Especially if you’ve had the card for a long time.)

I paid off that damned Capital One card this week from all that stupid college debt I amassed, yay! So I called them yesterday to see about lowering my interest rate from, are you ready for this? 25.7%. (If some guy named Vinny the Goat came and asked if you wanted to borrow some money at 25%, would you ever say yes?) Now, I’d meant to do this for a long time nad hadn’t, so I don’t know if they would have reduced it if I hadn’t just paid it off, but they offered me 19.something. I told them if they couldn’t do better I was going to close my account and take my business to my bank’s Visa, and they gave me 13.96 - not amazingly good, but a hell of a lot better than 25.7!

In other words, it costs you nothing and it’s worth a shot, if you still have any accounts open. Just don’t let them sell you any amount of “insurance” or anything while you’re on the phone with them. They tried to use the tsunami to convince me!

30

Credit reports are not free for everyone in the US yet.

www.annualcreditreport.com

31

I understand that if you slip the word “bankruptcy” or “orderly payment of debt” into the conversation, it can go very well for you.

32

Furt may I suggest some credit related boards such as
www.creditnet.com and www.artofcredit.com

33

I called one of my CC and told them the same (they had given me a 0.9% Introductory offer, then it went up to 12.99%). The offered me 4.99 and 0.00% for six months on all new purchases (going back to 4.99 after that). Not bad. He’s right- never hurts to ask and never buy any of that damn fool “insurance”. I do have very good credit, mind you. However once upon a time I had very very bad credit. It took me 7 years, many letters and "disputes’ to get it back to good. It was worth it. I can get 4.99% pretty well on demand now, and am constantly offered great Intro offers. My car was 0.9%.

34

These look very useful, thanks.

Sorry I can’t respond any more; no internet at home and I’ve become very busy at work.

35

In his defense, I have to say that I thought you were. And I’ll bet he could list, what was it, five good reasons why he thought he should say what he said. When I opened the thread, I was expecting a person seeking advice on how to have and maintain good credit. By “fix”, I thought you meant “repair”. If all you’re trying to do is erase your bad credit history, then the easiest way is just to do nothing but wait for seven years. And then you can do the same thing next time around.