Hi everyone. Here's something I'm not sure about, so I thought I'd see if anyone could help.
I have a friend who is having a rough time with his credit. He is behind on payments, is, or is about to be, in collections on at least one account, and is generally not in good shape. He has already filed for bankruptcy once many years ago, but is considering doing it again. (I know, he apparently didn't learn from the first one.)
As for me, my credit was BAD back in the late 90's, but now, my 7 years is up, and my credit report is clean. I've got one unsecured credit card, that I've had for 3 months now, and no FICO score. (I'm on the long road to credit repair.) Fortunately, I didn't have to file for bankruptcy.
My friend and I both have concerns about him using a debt consolidation company, as we keep reading bad things about so many of them. I'm sure you've seen what I'm talking about, where the company takes the money from your bank account and then doesn't make the payment, or does make a payment, but to the wrong account, or even the wrong person's account, simply because they're handling so many debts for so many people. I'm not saying they're sleezy by any means. I know that if I had to handle even 100 people's debts, and each of those people had an average of 5-7 accounts that I had to make sure got paid different amounts, well, I'd screw it up. Debt consolidation firms handle a LOT more than that tiny little example! Also, my friend works 2 jobs, 6 days a week. He's gone from 5:00 A.M. till 11:00 P.M. all 6 days. That doesn't really leave him much time to go see a financial counselor, or to call each credit card/loan company himself and request lower rates, payment plans, etc.
Here's where I come in. I did all that myself, back when my credit was bad. I have time on weekdays to make those types of phone calls, and I'm fairly good at it, having done customer service type work for a while. I'm willing to make the calls for him, and he's willing to give me his information, including the private stuff. He's also willing to add me as a representative/authorized user on his accounts, someone with permission to make changes to those accounts, including close them, or do whatever is necessary.
Now I've heard that the rules have recently changed. As I understand, you can no longer boost your credit score by piggy-backing on someone else's good credit, but, is the opposite true? If I'm an authorized user or representative on his accounts, and he fails to meet his obligations once I've made those phone calls, can he damage my current credit, such as it is? We're not related, and we don't live together, and we're not married, but could his collections folks start harrassing me? I can't improve my FICO score by attaching myself to his, or anyone else's, accounts, but can being authorized on his bad accounts hurt my FICO score once I'm able to have one again, in 3 months? If trying to help him could end up hurting me, can anyone recommend some good, reliable, debt consolidation companies, that seldom/never make the types of errors I mentioned earlier? What other suggestions, if any, is anyone willing to offer. I'd love to be able to help a close friend, but I can't afford to hurt myself in doing so. I'd appreciate any and all help.
Thanks!
Elara
