Cleaning up my wife's credit

[hikenc]

Good evening everyone!

My wife and I were married back in April.  I knew she had a few baddies on her reports, but it's nothing we can't work through.  Most are legit, one is fraud.  I wanted to get your opinions on the plan of action for these accounts. 

First Financial Bank.  This one is probably the most difficult to deal with.  Her mom opened a credit card using her name and SSN back in 2006.  A couple late payments in 2009, then the account went late on May, 2013 and has been charged off.  The current balance is $432 and it updates as late on a monthly basis.  She was contacted by the bank in 2013 and she told them that the card wasn't hers.  She hasn't taken any action to this point.  We also noted on her credit reports that her mom's last name is listed as one of her aliases (Wife's first name with her mom's last name).  Very unusual.  This happened in NC, but we now live in TX.  Her mom still lives in NC.  What should we do about this?

Santander.  This is a big one as well, but I think we have options on it.  We moved to TX early last year for her job.  It took me several months to find work, so we were living off her income.  She fell behind on her car payments and didn't say anything to me about it until it was repoed in September.  I know that we were having a hard time, so I can understand why she let them fall behind.  I don't want to focus on her mistake and I'm not looking for "relationship counseling."  The issue here is Santander sent absolutely no communication to her after picking up the car.  They didn't notify us of the auction or give us a chance to redeem it.  Heck... they haven't even sent us a bill for the balance owed.  They picked up the car from our house in TX.  My wife said that she notified them of our new address when we moved.  They are reporting as charged-off $5040.  Since they didn't communicate after the repo, does she have any legal ground to stand on?  Can they be barred from collecting?  Can she have it removed?  Should we hire a lawyer?

Next in line is a charged-off JC Penny account.  $0 balance.  DOFD is June, 2009.  No longer reporting monthly.  Hasn't reported since August, 2010.  Should we just wait for this to fall off?  Possibly a PFD for the charged off amount?  We don't want to wake a sleeping giant. 

The last two are open collection accounts.  One for Time Warner Cable for $583 (original balance $258).  The other is for Nationwide Insurance for $76.  The CA is the same for both.  It is listed as Credit Coll on her reports.  There is no contact info.  Dated on these are 10/14 and 6/14, respectively.  I'm guessing we offer PFD for these?

Thanks in advance for all the insight!

[gdale6]

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@hikenc wrote:

Good evening everyone!

My wife and I were married back in April.  I knew she had a few baddies on her reports, but it's nothing we can't work through.  Most are legit, one is fraud.  I wanted to get your opinions on the plan of action for these accounts. 

First Financial Bank.  This one is probably the most difficult to deal with.  Her mom opened a credit card using her name and SSN back in 2006.  A couple late payments in 2009, then the account went late on May, 2013 and has been charged off.  The current balance is $432 and it updates as late on a monthly basis.  She was contacted by the bank in 2013 and she told them that the card wasn't hers.  She hasn't taken any action to this point.  We also noted on her credit reports that her mom's last name is listed as one of her aliases (Wife's first name with her mom's last name).  Very unusual.  This happened in NC, but we now live in TX.  Her mom still lives in NC.  What should we do about this?  You have 3 choices use the section in the FCRA (605) to have it removed, this entails filing police reports. The second is to offer them a PFD and the third is to do nothing and just let it age off.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/Victim-of-Identity-Theft-What-To-Do-to-Protect...

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

Santander.  This is a big one as well, but I think we have options on it.  We moved to TX early last year for her job.  It took me several months to find work, so we were living off her income.  She fell behind on her car payments and didn't say anything to me about it until it was repoed in September.  I know that we were having a hard time, so I can understand why she let them fall behind.  I don't want to focus on her mistake and I'm not looking for "relationship counseling."  The issue here is Santander sent absolutely no communication to her after picking up the car.  They didn't notify us of the auction or give us a chance to redeem it.  Heck... they haven't even sent us a bill for the balance owed.  They picked up the car from our house in TX.  My wife said that she notified them of our new address when we moved.  They are reporting as charged-off $5040.  Since they didn't communicate after the repo, does she have any legal ground to stand on?  Can they be barred from collecting?  Can she have it removed?  Should we hire a lawyer?

Next in line is a charged-off JC Penny account.  $0 balance.  DOFD is June, 2009.  No longer reporting monthly.  Hasn't reported since August, 2010.  Should we just wait for this to fall off? GW letter campaign or let it fall. Possibly a PFD for the charged off amount?  There is nothing to PFD here its 0 balance. We don't want to wake a sleeping giant.   http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/GW-letter-Q-amp-A-Examples-and-GW-Success-Sto...

The last two are open collection accounts.  One for Time Warner Cable for $583 (original balance $258).  The other is for Nationwide Insurance for $76.  The CA is the same for both.  It is listed as Credit Coll on her reports.  There is no contact info.  Dated on these are 10/14 and 6/14, respectively.  I'm guessing we offer PFD for these? That is where I would start. Just be sure anyone you contact that is still within states SOL you can pay it in full since they will still be able to get a court judgment for the debt.

Thanks in advance for all the insight!

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[Anonymous]

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@hikenc wrote:

Good evening everyone!

My wife and I were married back in April.  I knew she had a few baddies on her reports, but it's nothing we can't work through.  Most are legit, one is fraud.  I wanted to get your opinions on the plan of action for these accounts. 

First Financial Bank.  This one is probably the most difficult to deal with.  Her mom opened a credit card using her name and SSN back in 2006.  A couple late payments in 2009, then the account went late on May, 2013 and has been charged off.  The current balance is $432 and it updates as late on a monthly basis.  She was contacted by the bank in 2013 and she told them that the card wasn't hers.  She hasn't taken any action to this point.  We also noted on her credit reports that her mom's last name is listed as one of her aliases (Wife's first name with her mom's last name).  Very unusual.  This happened in NC, but we now live in TX.  Her mom still lives in NC.  What should we do about this? As Gdale said use ID Theft provision of FCRA 605B to get this excluded. Yes you will have to file an ID Theft report, but you need not point fingers at anyone or present them with any suspects. Since its in another state, no investigation is going to occur anyway. You just need a report for administrative purposes. The next best alternative is a PFD, and if you can't get that, just settle it to stop the report updating.

Santander.  This is a big one as well, but I think we have options on it.  We moved to TX early last year for her job.  It took me several months to find work, so we were living off her income.  She fell behind on her car payments and didn't say anything to me about it until it was repoed in September.  I know that we were having a hard time, so I can understand why she let them fall behind.  I don't want to focus on her mistake and I'm not looking for "relationship counseling."  The issue here is Santander sent absolutely no communication to her after picking up the car.  They didn't notify us of the auction or give us a chance to redeem it.  Heck... they haven't even sent us a bill for the balance owed.  They picked up the car from our house in TX.  My wife said that she notified them of our new address when we moved.  They are reporting as charged-off $5040.  Since they didn't communicate after the repo, does she have any legal ground to stand on?  Can they be barred from collecting?  Can she have it removed?  Should we hire a lawyer? I would definitely suggest consulting an attorney. I'm pretty sure Texas has some specific laws regarding Repos and deficiency claim notices. Santander has been known to be pretty abusive in their repo tactics.

Next in line is a charged-off JC Penny account.  $0 balance.  DOFD is June, 2009.  No longer reporting monthly.  Hasn't reported since August, 2010.  Should we just wait for this to fall off?  Possibly a PFD for the charged off amount?  We don't want to wake a sleeping giant. $0 balance so there is nothing to pay to them, its been sold off. It would be against the law for them to accept payment on the account. You can ask for GW deletion, or just let it age off.

The last two are open collection accounts.  One for Time Warner Cable for $583 (original balance $258).  The other is for Nationwide Insurance for $76.  The CA is the same for both.  It is listed as Credit Coll on her reports.  There is no contact info.  Dated on these are 10/14 and 6/14, respectively.  I'm guessing we offer PFD for these? I'm pretty sure they are required by law to include contact info on your reports - dispute it with the CRA's. The Time Warner account appears to be excessively inflated, unless its very old.

Thanks in advance for all the insight!

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