This isn't one of those posts where I tell everyone how many accounts I have had removed and everyone congratulates me....because honestly, how does that help anyone else...
Most people reading these posts want to know HOW something was done because they are looking for help themselves...so here is my story and where I started...
A year ago, my mid score was 575....I signed a 1 year lease option purchase on a house I wanted to buy, because I knew this was the house that I wanted and I also knew that I was not in credit worthy shape to get the loan...maybe 5 years ago you could have pulled something off, but the way banks are today, they have gone to the extreme opposite side of common sense and are killing deals that make complete sense because of new regulations aimed at 'protecting themselves'....
Anyway, I had 13 baddies on each report, and probably about a 100k in collections...
Now I have 5 total and owe $0 to anyone....and one of those baddies is a few 30 day lates that are about 3 years old...
I put a 25k deposit on the house when I signed the deal, so this was no laughing matter for me...this was 'get it done', or lose 25k in a year...so I pulled out all the stops with CAs, CRA's...you name it...anyone that stood in my way, I was planning on bulldozing them...
And that's the mentality you have to have to win against this CRA's... You have to get as much information as you can on how to beat them, but don't limit yourself to the advice of others...this is a list of mistakes as well as good advice that applied to my situation...maybe or maybe not they will help you with yours...
MISTAKE #1 - Do not listen to every piece of advice that others give
- I have broke a few cardinal rules that everyone on this forum repeatly told me...Why? Because my gut told me to do so and I was starting to run low on options...some of the rules I broke and had success with...
"Never give a CA your bank account information"
"Do not sue a CA if you don't have a strong case"
Every CA I settled with (and then subsequently got removed), I gave them my bank account info and had them withdraw the money electronically...now granted, they were all FULL SETTLEMENTS with documentation...but I have never had a CA take any additional money then what we agreed to...
I sued Midland myself, I sued Wells Fargo myself....and guess what...I have no Midland accounts on my report and I also have no negative Wells Fargo information either... In fact, the judge was pissed off at WF because they didn't even bother to show up to court... I let them off easy and just had them correct my report instead of cashing out on them as well....
GOOD ADVICE #1
ALWAYS SETTLE IF YOU ARE IN THE SOL OF BEING SUED AND YOU HAVE THE MONEY DO SO, AND YOU KNOW YOU OWE THE DEBT...Meaning, do not do 'payment plans' UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO...Absolutely have to means you have to, like if you are in court and the judge offers you a payment plan in lieu of a default judgement...
People on this forum will tell you to PIF if you can, however, I do not subscribe to that logic... My advice is to PIF if you are going to get something out of it...like a PFD... Otherwise, whether you pay in full or settle for less, it is still SCORED the exact same....the worst that can happen to you is they will put a comment saying "settled for less" which can only hurt you if your application is subjected to a manual review...
With that said, most big CA's (Midland, Asset Acceptance, Portfolio Recovery, etc etc) will not do PFD's...it is very difficult to get one of them to do PFD's...If you can then my advice would be like others have said here, do the PFD... One of my accounts I was able to PFD, but it was a small medical collection accounts... Medical collections and smaller CA's will usually do PFD (from my experience)...but if you can't PFD, then settle if you are in the SOL, and only go to payment plans as a last case scenario, but whatever you do...avoid the default judgements!!
MISTAKE #2 AVOIDING CREDIT REPAIR AGENCIES LIKE LEXINGTON BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE SAID YOU CAN DO ALL THE WORK YOURSELF
If you have the money and can afford it, I would highly recommend using Lexington Law Firm...Now with that said, my review of them is not that great at all, but they do serve a purpose... My LL story....
I used LL about 8 years ago and had fantastic results with them...they even got a JUDGEMENT removed that I could not get off no matter how hard I tried... I still have no idea to this date how they pulled that one off...
So when I was on my credit journey that started a year ago, the first thing I thought was..."i am definitely using LL because of my past results"...well, times change and so did LL...Their service is NO WHERE NEAR AS GOOD AS IT USED TO BE......but, to their defensive, they did get 2 accounts removed from each of my reports...and they almost always seem to get it done immediately...my mistake with them this time, was continuing the service...because after the first 2 months, I never saw one more thing get removed....so after 11 months I quit their service... 8 months x $80 a month is $640 i could have saved...however...if you told me that I would have had to pay a $1k to completely remove 2 accounts from all 3 reports, I would still do it again...but my suggestion would be to you would be this...."use them until you stop seeing results or feel like you have hit the wall with them and then fire them lol"...because most likely you will just waste money from that point on....
MISTAKE #3
Modcut
Credit accounts are like people, there is no 'perfect' one and ALL of them are 'flawed'....
It's just up to you to find the flaw...Every single account has a flaw, and if you can't find one, then the CRA's and CA's are more then happy to create one for you if you just give them the chance....That's because they are human also, and they are perfect...and the system was built by humans, and it isn't perfect either...
Want proof that any account can be flawed? Modcut
"We cannot remove the dispute tagline from the comment section unless the account holder sends an update to remove it"..............that is a flaw.......because the FCRA clearly states that CRA's are not allowed to report "inaccurate" information....Yet they will put a statement on your account that says you are disputing an account and then will refuse to remove it even when you, the consumer, tell them you are not disputing....Remember, you are the consumer...and nobody else can say whether you are disputing an account but you, and even more so, NOBODY CAN ARGUE THAT YOU THE CONSUMER, REALLY WANT TO DO SOMETHING ELSE THEN WHAT YOU ARE TELLING THEM YOU WANT TO DO...at that moment, their refusal to remove that comment, places them as reporting inaccurate information and thus you have a right to take them to court to have that account removed...see where I am going with this? Every account already has, or has the ability to be inaccurate...
I will end this post by saying that I will update this posts with more DO's and DON'T's that have worked for me...but what has worked for me, might not work for you... It's a trial and error process but whatever you do, you cannot give up...If you need to, give up on one and start with another and then come back to that one...
My score is now in the mid 690's and my loan was approved after a hard years work...but I still have work to do so I will update you on how I get the rest of them beat...but for now, here is my list...
2 Midland accounts totalling 12k...would not PFD, would not settle for delete......settled for 5.5k, refuse to remove after Intent to Sue letters, complaints to the BBB, complaints to the attorney general, complaints to the FTC, disputes, endless calls and letters, Lexington Law challenges....finally removed after I sued them...never even went to court, just a call from their attorney telling me that they would tradeline delete in return for me dismissing the case
2 Asset Acceptance accounts totally 60k....would not PFD, would settle for delete....settle for 12k, refuse to remove after numerous challenges, agreed to remove after filing a complaint with the BBB
$200 Medical collection with small time agency....would not remove through disputes, agreed for PFD with PIF
Wells Fargo 30 days late - Would not adjust after disputes, calls to their executive home office, complaints to the BBB, complaints to FTC, LL challenges..finally removed after I sued them and they didn't show up to court but we got one of their attorneys on the phone who agreed to not report the lates
Wells Fargo 30 days late (seperate account) - removed with LL
Sears account - $500...paid and would not remove...removed with LL
As you can see, I spent a good chunk of money to get this done....but it can be done...100k in the whole and one year later I am completely debt free and it took me about 20k to do so...
Oh, and I did recieve some rather LARGE 1099C's but since I was insolvent at the time of the debt being paid, there was no tax due on them....
Hope this helps...
Edited to remove information that is in violation of the myFICO TOS.
Shogun, myFICO moderator
Starting Score: EQ 575 EX 595 TR 524
Hi tmobileguy,
Thank you very much for this information! What was your basis for the BBB complaint with asset acceptance? I'm having troubles with them & getting their TL removed from my credit report. I tried opening a BBB complaint but I don't think I did it under the right basis.
Thank you!
Starting Scores (10/18/2013): EX: 603 | EQ: 572 | TU: 659