A GW letter sent to a creditor to remove a CO

[Carbusys]

This a GW I sent to WFCB/Blair asking them to delete a derog from my credit report. This account went into collection in 2005 and I paid it full in August 2008. I asked them to remove the neg from my three reports. I just mailed it today and hope for a positive resolution within a month or so. I will the group know the result when it happens.

Michael C
1430 ****** **
City, NC *****-****

May 26, 2010

WFCB/Blair Catalog
Credit Department
PO Box 29239
Shawnee Mission, KS 66201-9239

To whom it may concern:

I have been an Blair name customer since 2005 and during that time, I have enjoyed my experience with Blair greatly. I am writing to see if you would be willing to make a "goodwill" adjustment to your reporting to the three credit agencies. My Blair account went into collection after I experienced some personal difficulties back then. I became diabetic, was in and out of the hospital and lost my job. Since that time I have learned to control my diabetes and I am now back on my feet.

I paid my Blair account in full August 2008 and I am still a very satisfied Blair customer. My three credit reports are excellent, without a blemish, except for the 5-year-old charge-off account from Blair. Because I am in the process of buying a home, I would like you to consider removing the negative account from my credit reports. Because of my illness, the missed payments are not a good indicator of my actual credit worthiness. I hope that Blair is willing to work with me on erasing this mark from my credit reports.

I have been a very happy customer in the past and hope to continue a long relationship with Blair. With today’s credit industry so competitive, I know how important it is to maintain good relationships with customers. Blair has been exceptional in my book so far and I highly recommend it to all my friends and relatives. I hope that you will deeply consider my request and prove once again, why Blair is heads above the rest. I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,



Michael C
SSN: ***-**-***
DOB: **/**/19**
Blair Acct. # *********....

Have anyone had any experience with Blair? They are an online men's clothing site which also sends out a catalog. My three cr's are perfect ecept for two charge offs from 2005 that were paid in full. The amounts were ridiculously low, just $83 and $179. I didn't think about asking for a PFD back then. By the way, everything said in the letter is true. I have been an insulin-dependent diabetic since 1991.

[llecs]

Letter looks good. Good luck. BTW, in the future, I'd omit your SSN at the least. In this day in age of ID theft, I wouldn't be too open about that. However, I would continue to include the account number, your contact info, etc.

[Carbusys]

Thanks!  BTW, I have not received a reply yet from this creditor, but it has only been two weeks or so. 

[llecs]

When I was in the middle of repair, I send hundreds (no, really) of GWs and PFDs and only got a response to maybe 10%, give or take.

If they don't respond after 3-45 days, then send another and then start looking for alternative addresses, contacts, faxes, e-mails, etc.

[Anonymous]

so in sending hundreds of GW/PFD's, were you successful?

[llecs]

At the peak, I was sending over 12 letters monthly per OC/CA, but I had some tough ones: CapOne, Verizon Wireless, Verizon (landline), a local CA which never budged, and AFNI. CapOne did delete 2 lates (a 30 and a 90) on TU only. DW had a CapOne and they finally threw out an offer to delete (approaching 7 yrs this Fall). Verizon Wireless finally accepted a PFD after a year of trying. Verizon Landline deleted after sending a PFD, but never accepted it (they sold to a CA). The local CA is being a doofus and never responded to anything I sent. And AFNI never responded to my PFDs, but did go away on a reporting issue.

IMO, the number of times you try doesn't matter one bit. It's the final result, a deletion, that matters. It only took 1 minute to print a letter and mail it or one minute to call. I figured in the end, if deleted, I'd never recall and get upset with myself for sending so many letters; I'd only focus on the success, which I do. Conversely, if I didn't send a letter, and read of someone else's success, then I knew I'd kick myself because that success could have been mine and I wasn't proactive enough to act upon it.

[Carbusys]

My thing is I have only two bad marks on my CR, both are collections that were paid in 2006. I haven't had any luck getting them off. I was told my credit cards are at 80% of their limits and I need to get them down to 20% or less. That will take months, though. My scores haven't changed for months.

[Anonymous]

I was able to get 2 collections that were paid in full removed through a gw letter.  All though I'm still waiting for them to be removed. It was only last month I sent the gw letter... They were from the same company. I sent a gw letter through email to the region manager of Cox and he responded the same day and was very willing to work with me. The next day they sent out a letter to all 3 credit bureaus. So you probably just haven't got the right person. See if you can find an email address for maybe a manager or someone with authority at Blair. Good Luck!

[Carbusys]

I just had an old CO taken off all three credit reports through a GW letter. However, it cause a drop on two of the reports. TU lost 2 points and EQ went down 10 points. Nevertheless, I am glad it is off. Now I am waiting for an answer to the other old CO from 2006. If they take that one off, I will be squeaky clean. I am working hard now to get my credit cards balances down. I am currently at 79% utilization. I have ten cards with balances on all of them; the total balances, though, is only $2589. I sorted my cards by interest rates and throwing every extra dime I have at the one with the highest rate and will work my way down the list.

[Carbusys]

I finally got both of the old CO accounts removed from all three CRs. I had two coleections paid in 2008, but still showing on my CRs. I GW the two OCs and they have both removed the COs. My scores dropped a bit because these were old accounts, but at least they are off. Now I have no derogs on any of my CRs. My scores remained in the low 600s because of high credit usage (79%) and high inquiries (12 in two years.) Working on that!