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Success Stories and Encouragement

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Success Stories and Encouragement

Well only recently (1/04/08 to be exact) did my wife and I get serious about our credit. Earlier this month I got a letter from a law firm representing Americredit on a vehicle that was repossessed 3/2004. This is a work in progress and this message is not about the repossession as I have studied this forum and am going through the proper avenues.
 
However due to this I went to annual credit report and printed all 3 CRA on my wife and I. I was utterly shocked and sick to my stomach. On my initial equifax I had two collection accounts that I paid but were reported as paid in full. I had several credit cards that showed lates. A previous car loan (not the one listed above) was still showing late. Two credit cards that were closed and paid but managed through a debt assistance agency were showing. My experian was no better and Transunion was the same.
 
My wife's was worse as she had more credit cards with lates, a bankruptcy from 1998, a medical collection that we were currenlty paying on and the previous car loan (same.)
 
I was lost and didn't know what to do. I began to poke around on the internet for help. I came across alot of methods that, how can I say this nicely, appeared to be posted by wacko's. I did get some decent advise about how to dispute some, and write good-will letters to others.
 
I sent out GW letters to the collection accounts, and to the credit card accounts that had lates. I also sent one out to the car loan(same.) I also disputed the items I felt were not reported correctly.
 
I then found this fine forum (amazing what you can find on the internet Smiley Happy.) Wow what a wealth of good useful information. We immediately stopped paying the CA and contacted the OC on the medical. I spoke to the account manager for the OC. She mailed out a PFD letter for me yesterday that is instructing the CA to delete the collection from all three CRA upon payment. I followed the guidelines here. She was rather pi$$ed at the CA as they were not supposed to put this on my wife's CRA at all. I believe this lady that she is genuinly mad and that I know I will get the PFD. This is a local account and once we have this letter we are paying it in person to this lady, she has advised she will call the CA in our presence to get this removed and will provide us with a receipt showing account paid in full. I feel with the letter and receipt we are covered.
 
Now fast forward to today and why I am still up after 20hrs. (I work 5p-5a, yesterday was my day off, today is not gonna be fun at work!) I pulled our Experian and Equifax reports again. I literally $hit myself.
 
My experian went from having 9 negative items to having 3 negative items. My equifax went from 7 negative items to 4 negative items. Lates were taken off, old closed accounts with lates and negatives were just straight deleted, the two CA were gone. Three prior car loans are still negative on both. One that started my journey (CA), one that shows late 3/04 & 10/03, and one that shows late 12/04 & 1-11-12/06 & 1/07. My equifax has one cc that has one 30late that doesn't show late on experian.
 
My wife's experian went from having 10 negative items to having 6 negative items. Her equifax went from 11 negative items to having 9 negative items. On hers some lates were removed. She also has the same three auto loans as me. Also two more will come off each due to the PFD, and 10/08 her bankruptcy will come off. I need to take 3 lates off her experian and 5 lates off her equifax.
 
I could not believe my reports. Those GW letters worked like a charm. I have a little work to do on my report and then continue to monitor and maintain. I expect my TU report to follow suit. My wife has a little more work however when the CA and bankruptcy come off she is in alot better position.  I will continue the GW letters for our acccounts. Some have worked some have not but I lose nothing for trying!
 
We have a perfect mortgage (2yrs) through local bank and a perfect car loan (1yr) through GMAC. My wife has three RA but the balances are high. I have one RA but the balance is high. We are using our entire refund this year to get me at 5% and her at 15%. Currently my wife is at 95% and I am 76%. I applied for and was approved for a few new CC's with 1k limits that will help get me more RA. Getting those cards does not figure into my current RA% when they hit my reports I would be at 3% before paying anything of mine down. My FICO through here is a 623 after that is after getting the new CC's. My wife is a 619. I expect that with prudent use of the cards, with the balances coming way down, and the CA and bankruptcy removal on her accounts we should see very positive results. My goal is 700 by years end for the both of us.
 
I consider myself an extreme newbie on this. I have already asked for and will continue to ask for guidance and direction by the "FICO credit gods." I have told my family, friends and co-workers to pull their reports and have given them this website. I can only hope that someone that was as lost as we were on credit will maybe see these posts and realize it is never too late. I have rambled on enough now, maybe now I can go to bed.
 
 
Thanks to all who have helped without even knowing
 
 
Jereme
 
623 1/22
629 1/26
623 1/30 <---- only gonna go up now!
Message 141 of 280
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Success Stories and Encouragement

This is all so awesome.. I would like to begin doing this. How can I get a free credit report with the address of the creditors so I can begin contacting them? Any help with this is greatly appreciated.
Message 142 of 280
Trying_to_climb
Valued Member

duplicate accounts

Please help.  I'm trying to do the same thing.  I have one 30 day late on my previous mortgage.  I sold that home in January 2001 and as of Dec 2000 or January 2001 it's showing as a 30 days past due.  The balance of course is zero.  I sent it the letter from this forum to Transunion and they replied saying that the account was verified.  Doesn't 30 days past due mean that I still owe that money, and I am 30-days past due?  they are not willing to take it off.
 
A second item I have in my Transunion again, is that an equity line that I have for $50,000 is showing twice in their report once as a revolving and once as an equity line.  Again, I sent them a letter telling them is one and the same with the same account number.  They responded telling me it has been verified so they will not remove it.  I don't know what to do.  They can't or don't want to see that these two accounts are the same account number.

Starting Score (1/26/10): EQ:620 TU:659 (2/17/10) Exp: 700 (2/18/10)
Current Score(6/02/10): EQ:658
Goal Score(12/31/10): EQ:670


Take the FICO Fitness Challenge
Message 143 of 280
Trying_to_climb
Valued Member

Re: Success Stories and Encouragement

Awesome! Congratulations to you and your wife.  Keep up the good work.

Starting Score (1/26/10): EQ:620 TU:659 (2/17/10) Exp: 700 (2/18/10)
Current Score(6/02/10): EQ:658
Goal Score(12/31/10): EQ:670


Take the FICO Fitness Challenge
Message 144 of 280
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Success Stories and Encouragement



mic71 wrote:
This is all so awesome.. I would like to begin doing this. How can I get a free credit report with the address of the creditors so I can begin contacting them? Any help with this is greatly appreciated.



Go to http://www.annualcreditreport.com. This is the only website I know of that gives you your 3 cra's without needing credit card information. Print them all out and look for anything negative on them. If it is a legitimate error on the report, begin the dispute process with the cra that has the error. There are various was to do this and all are extensively listed here. If it is lates send a gw letter to the oc that reports it. Most of the addresses are on the cra reports for your oc. If it is ca's research this forum on ways to get it removed. I spend about an hour a day right now working on my wife's and my credit because there is alot of work. Once I get all the negative I can removed I'll maintain and review. Researching this forum for prudent credit practices to either establish, build, or repair credit is a must. Part of fixing credit is using credit responsibly. I've had awsome, quick success for now but I have read on here when it has been slow and grueling. Either way stick with it and YOU will benefit.
 
 
Jereme
Message 145 of 280
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: duplicate accounts



Trying_to_climb wrote:
Please help.  I'm trying to do the same thing.  I have one 30 day late on my previous mortgage.  I sold that home in January 2001 and as of Dec 2000 or January 2001 it's showing as a 30 days past due.  The balance of course is zero.  I sent it the letter from this forum to Transunion and they replied saying that the account was verified. 
You send the gw to the oc, not the cra. In it ask to have the late removed and current status to paid in full
 
Doesn't 30 days past due mean that I still owe that money, and I am 30-days past due?  they are not willing to take it off.
 
Cra has no obligation to remove if it is reported correctly. That is why you send a gw to yhe oc so they will report the account with no lates and paid in full/
 
A second item I have in my Transunion again, is that an equity line that I have for $50,000 is showing twice in their report once as a revolving and once as an equity line.  Again, I sent them a letter telling them is one and the same with the same account number.  They responded telling me it has been verified so they will not remove it.  I don't know what to do.  They can't or don't want to see that these two accounts are the same account number.
 
On this one I would get with the oc and ask them to take the duplicate account off. If they will not I would request a letter stating why this single account is being reported differently twice to each CRA. Fico gods correct me if I am incorrect


 

Remember the CRA has no obligation to remove correctly verified information. There are steps you can follow to make the CRA provide you with the information they received to verify the account. Accurately negative reported accounts should be handled with a gw letter to the oc. You might have to do this multiple times for the same negative and then they have no obligation to remove it. Just know that there is no law that prevents the oc from changing what they report to the cra. I had one tell me that on the phone. I politely asked them provide the title and section that this "law" was included in so I could review and educate myself. Some double talk and stammering later a manager got on the phone and told me since I was a valued customer they would remove the lates. They are now gone. If you need any more information I encourage you to read everything in this forum you can. Also I would recomend you start a new thread.

 

 

Jereme


Message 146 of 280
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: Success Stories and Encouragement


@Anonymous wrote:


@Anonymous wrote:
This is all so awesome.. I would like to begin doing this. How can I get a free credit report with the address of the creditors so I can begin contacting them? Any help with this is greatly appreciated.



Go to http://www.annualcreditreport.com. This is the only website I know of that gives you your 3 cra's without needing credit card information. Print them all out and look for anything negative on them. If it is a legitimate error on the report, begin the dispute process with the cra that has the error.


This is correct --the one thing that I would add is that if you dispute via your freebies, they have 45 days to respond, whereas if you dispute off a report that you've paid for, they only have 30 days, which gives you some leverage if they're running late. But this might not be true of TransUnion.

I did a search just now here on the forums for "dispute annual" and found this:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&thread.id=5500

But anyway, jnj, what a great story! It shows what research and persistence will do, plus that hour a day. Hope the coffee kicks in for you at work today! Smiley Wink
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 147 of 280
rbrown973
Regular Contributor

Re: Success Stories and Encouragement

Hi, i'm searching for help to fix my student loans on my credit report. my loans came out of deferrment without my notice and was placed in default. Since then I have consolidated all my student loans but however, there still showing on my Credit report as paid but still in collections and showing all the late pays. Can you please give me some type of advice?
The Grass Is always Greener On The Other Side
Message 148 of 280
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Success Stories and Encouragement

Me thinks this one better posted here!
............................................................

I’m just flipped out with the way all this works. At 49 years old I am still able to become utterly amazed.

I didn’t know until coming here a few weeks ago that I had a chance at ANYTHING in the credit world. I just assumed that 5 years into a Bankruptcy ( I was stuck working in totally impoverished rural south Georgia as a home owner at $8.86 per hour when I finally had to file) that I was pretty much credit doomed for 10 years. I had no real idea. I kept a $138 a month car payment but had to let everything else go in the BK. 3 years later that junk vehicle was done-for. Out of desperation I talked to CarMax and was dumb-founded that I was approved to purchase a used $10,000 Toyota 4 cylinder straight truck….at %15. I gave up my world and gambled my life on a move to the city. I was making 50K a year now. I started reading MSN Money after that and read about “Bankruptcy Friendly Credit Cards” and Orchard was at the top of the list. My intensions were good….to rebuild credit but I was positive I wouldn’t get it. Though I knew about credit reports for many years, I only just found out about FICO scores when I started reading MSN Money and I decided to give the credit card thingy a shot. I got instant approval for $300. On that day, at the moment, I became an equal member of the human race again; one who could go out to dinner with co-workers and sometimes pick up the tab and pay the same way responsible “normal people” do.

This is the good part. After 3.5 years of living cash to cash, I bought a used truck on an essential lark. A year and a half later an article on the Internet gave me the courage to try for a credit card and I was approved. I knew I was being robbed with that truck at 15% but I did buy the most reasonable vehicle I could get and I took 15% as a blessing at only half way through a BK when I was desperate for a vehicle and I simply figured that this was the price for rebuilding credit. I also knew I was taken for a ride with the $300 card also at %15 but I made enough money now to NOT have to live on credit cards.

Then I read about myFICO. It took me many weeks to get up the courage to order my first FICO scores. That was 3 weeks ago. I didn’t even know what good numbers from bad numbers until I got the report and it explained to me how scoring works. My used truck was wrecked by a drunk driver at Christmas and I was in need of a new vehicle. I ordered the FICO scores to see if I had a shot in hell at a new car. Those numbers were as posted in my current sig below. I just couldn’t believe it.

The FICO report turned me on to these forums where you folks told me my scores could get a new car and that I needed to shop for rates and how to do it. Today I have my first new car in over 20 years and I feel like a lone rooster. Fully realizing what may temporarily become of my FICO scores, I immediately used what I learned here to pursue a second credit card. I got it. Now I sit for 3 months until old truck inquiries fall off and then I get one more card. I don’t need a thing today. I can just sit back and watch my new perfectly balanced trade lines mature. At 5 more years the scars will be gone.

Ya know what’s really funny about all this? I’ve been getting dozens, if not hundreds of pre-approved credit card offers in the mail for almost two years now and thought they were all just a bunch of bunk. I didn't have a clue.

Will I be a homeowner again?Smiley Surprised

Message 149 of 280
llecs
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Success Stories and Encouragement

Congrats...that's good stuff!
Message 150 of 280
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