Advice on Rebuilding my Credit Score

[Whitneyy]

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@ShaunLB84 wrote:

Is there a link I can find that has PFD letters I can copy to send to these collection agencies? Or a guide for a "How to PFD". Thanks for all the help so far!

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You also asked did you have to pay your payment arrangements in full at once. I am living testimony that you do NOT have to and they will still delete upon recieving last payment. I have set up three payment arrangements in the past and have gotten the tradelines deleted, I currently have TWO payment arrangements and when they are done it will delete as well. The collection agency wants their money, at the end of the day. I have also ran into collection agencies that wanted to charge a fee to collect their money, I tell them no I'm not interested in that case, and they all of a sudden waive that fee, lol. But best of luck to you, post some of the collection agencies you owe for some help on the particular ones.

[ShaunLB84]

Here are the dates and info of my current collections:

Jan 7 2012,  Agency = Convergent,  Original Creditor = Sprint, $446

Apr 16 2012, Agency = Choicerecov,  Original Creditor = MED1 02 EMERGENCY SPECIALISTS INC, $115

Aug 14 2012, Agency = Fair Cap Rec,  Original Creditor = MED1 02 THE ENT GROUP, $165

Jun 25 2013, Agency = SENEX SRVCS, Original Creditor = MED1 02 BETHESDA HOSPITAL, $384

Feb 15 2014, Agency = PMAB SRVC, Original Creditor = MED1 JEWISH HOSPITAL, $900

Should I start with the most recent ones or the oldest ones first? Do you recommend me sending them mail to request payment options or how should I go about that route?

[ShaunLB84]

Do you think any of these agencies will do a PFD? Which ones should I start off with trying for a PFD? Thanks!!

[Shogun]

How much money do you have to pay these?  If you have the cash, send the PFDs to all of them.  If not, then PFD the ones you can while saving for the others.

[NYSuperdoodle]

Hi. Last year I got two car loans with my wife. Terrible credit. Thought they would bring it up but they didn't. I had:

2 car loans w/ 22 out of 23 on time pmts. 1 30 - day late.

6 collection accounts for about $2k.

That was it. All my scores were about 540 and went to about 560 over the course of a year making double payments on the cars.

After reading this forum and a couple others, I got serious a few weeks ago and got 2 secured cc's from USAA, an MC and an Amex. I also disputed EVERYTHING. 3 weeks ago t-mobile collection account popped onto all three CRs too and I disputed that, too.

As of now I've settled one medical collection account and got a letter from them stating they will request deletion from the CRAs. T-Mobile still shows up on TU, and everything else has been deleted. My EX is at 698, EQ at 734 and TU still sucks at 579.

My point is you can make some progress if you tackle the problem head on. Go kick some butt. Don't keep your head in the sand and avoid the problem like I did until life kicks you in your butt.

[NYSuperdoodle]

I should add i dont feel like my scores are all that stable yet. ... But at least they are going the right direction! And thanks to all the forum contributors here who have given me the confidence to be so darn obsessive these past few weeks.

[firetech593]

Superdoodle,

Dont forget to prescreen opt-out and collections wont readily pop up when your file improves.

[NYSuperdoodle]

How do I do that?

[devineer1]

What is this Capital one Secured cared everyone is speaking of... I need to add another card and never use it and was looking for advice on who to choose?

I think my confusion is I have some old debt that I had been working on paying off.. the question now is should If it will hurt me even more?

[Jeff532003]

Go to capital one's website. They have a secured platinum MasterCard option. You have to pay a deposit and they'll send you a 300 dollar limit card. You can also try for the quicksilver one if your credit isn't really bad. It's an unsecured card and you'd be surprised with cap one. They've been liberal in lately. There's also fingerhut if you want another revolving line. They approve almost everyone.
As far as rebuilding id try now. Cleaning up old baddies and having new trade lines that will age as you clean up will boost your score much more. Just keep util low. And use it. You want to carry a very small balance so it reports to the cra's.