@8317537 wrote:Hi everyone.
Really starting to clean up my act and have had some small success, bringing numbers in the high 500s and low 600s up to mid-to-upper 600s. Feels good every time that number jumps.
I'm looking for advice on two items that appear on my most recent credit report.
1. Charge Off back in 2008 for (if you can believe it) $24. Twenty. Four. Dollars. I don't recognize the company, but assuming for a moment that it is mine, is there any down side to just calling them up and paying it? Some other way I should handle it? I definitely want to pay it if it's mine, but don't want to do it in such a way that I open a bigger can of worms. Honestly this debt has done it's damage. You should check it's DOFD and make sure that it hasn't exceeded the 7-7 1/2 yr reporting by CRA's, and if it has dispute has debt too old to remain on credit report. Check your states SOL's and see what is the maximum length of time it can be lawfully used against you. If the SOL has exceeded for your state, I'd personally suggest you either wait until it falls off your credit report due to time and call it a day. Doing a debt validation at this stage of the game could be counter productive, as well as paying the debt of "unknown origin", knowing that it is, or not, your debt.
2. Collection item for $125 that is definitely mine. Thought I had paid it, but clearly not. Again, I want to pay it, but handle it correctly. Should I call? Write? Email?
My first instinct is to just call them both and pay up, but I've read some bad stories when one "stirs the pot," so to speak. Do you still have the receipt, or proof of payment? If so submit that to the collection agency as a direct dispute of them continuing to report a debt that has been paid in full. If you do not have such proof, you can contact the collection agency for debt validation, upond debt being validated, you can request a pay for delete.
Thanks for any advice or direction you can offer.
Beth
@8317537 wrote:Thank you both so much for your insights into these items. I think I'm going to take your advice and let the small $24 item drop off. My credit report tells me it's due to come off in October of this year, so I guess it's only a short wait.
I do not have a receipt for payment of the collection item, so I must have just INTENDED to pay it, without actually doing so. It is a pretty recent item, within the last year or 18 months, so I guess the best thing to do is just pay it and "my bad."
Thanks again...I have learned so much from these boards and I'm very grateful.
Do not just pay that collection, you can contact the OC and ask them to recall the collector in exchange for full payment, if they agree great the collectors authority is canceled and it will be deleted. If the OC refuses then you want to make a full payment PFD offer to the CA. Welcome to My Fico 
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/PFD-Q-amp-A-Examples-and-PFD-Success-Stories/...
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/PFD-Example-Letter/td-p/4519
@Anonymous wrote:call all three bureaus or file a dispute 3 months and upto 5 mos before October of this year and tell them its nearly 7+ years on this account and needs to be deleted.
The bureaus are taking it off some 5 months before its 7 and half years expiration. worth a shot
One would not file a dispute to ask for the early exclusion. The EE should be asked for by phone or mail.
@8317537 wrote:Once again, great information! I've decided to let the $24 item fall off and deal with them after it does so as not to stir the pot. I called on the $125 item and they agreed to remove it if I paid in full, which I did. I probably should have gotten it in writing, but I was so excited, I just took their word for it. I hope I wasn't stupid.
Thanks for the help and direction as always.
Beth
Good progress, a verbal commitment is just as good as a written one, if they decided to renig there are ways to enforce the agreement.