Credit Rebuilding Advice Needed

[Johnny_Favorite]

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@Shogun wrote:

Always be extremely careful when sending a cease and desist letter.  It is like sending the creditor a card with a pop up in the middle of it that says sue me!  Make sure it is outside the SOL before you ever, ever do this.  Sometimes creditors will still sue you outside the SOL, but you would have that as a legal defense.  So always be very cautious if considering this.

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Good advice from Shogun here. You ever see a kid taunting the dog behind the fence? The dog just barks and barks and the little kid laughs and laughs and taunts the dog more sticking his tongue out and shaking his behind?

I saw that one time when I was a kid and the dog LEAPED OVER THE FENCE and got the kid.

Don't tempt fate unless you know absolutely for sure that you will win.

[llecs]

Ditto to the above. Even if SOL expired (yes, 3 yrs provided you haven't paid on the debt since), they are still allowed to report and collect. They can do so up to 7-7.5 yrs from the DOFD of the debt. If I had those, I would send a DV to each. If they verified and I agreed with the debt, then I'd send a PFD. The OCs should be reporting as paid if the CA is reporting. In the case of the OCs, send a GW for the paid CO.

Paying a collection won't help or hurt your FICO. In some cases based on how they report, there is a small chance of a negative score impact if paid if the CA hadn't updated in a long time (months/years).

[Anonymous]

If I chose to pay off the chargeoffs, what sort of negotiating should I do to satisfy the debt? I know settlements come in at smaller amounts than the original so what am I looking at paying? 

[madmann26]

Most charge-off debt is bought from the OC for pennies. I've settled a couple of my accounts for 55-60% of the balance. How this will help you is that the amount is still being reported by the CC company, which in turn effects your utilization, which in turn, kills your score.

When you pay the CO account, the CA will let the OC know that the account has been settled. Sometimes the OC will update accordingly, sometimes you have to dispute this with the CRA's to get traction. This takes a little time and gets frustrating, just stick with it.

[Yoli14]

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@Johnny_Favorite wrote:

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@Shogun wrote:

Always be extremely careful when sending a cease and desist letter.  It is like sending the creditor a card with a pop up in the middle of it that says sue me!  Make sure it is outside the SOL before you ever, ever do this.  Sometimes creditors will still sue you outside the SOL, but you would have that as a legal defense.  So always be very cautious if considering this.

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Good advice from Shogun here. You ever see a kid taunting the dog behind the fence? The dog just barks and barks and the little kid laughs and laughs and taunts the dog more sticking his tongue out and shaking his behind?

I saw that one time when I was a kid and the dog LEAPED OVER THE FENCE and got the kid.

Don't tempt fate unless you know absolutely for sure that you will win.

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Love the advice!