Hey there I have been lurking for a while and trying to work on rebuilding my credit.
I recently pulled my free credit reports. EQ and TU looked ok. They had my negative accounts that consisted of a sallie mae CO and late payments on credit cards back in 2011 when I struggled with part time work and didn't face my creit probelems head on. I worked through a credit counsleing service to reduce my monthly payments and help me pay off debt. Citi was the one that hurts the most as they reported my account late until I made enough payments to bring the account current as if I paid below the min payment each time. However both reports show my ontime payments and my reduction in overall debt. Since then my scores have also gone up from a low of 550 in 2011. After paying off 3 of the 5 credit cards my scores are EQ 710 and TU 700.
My problem score is EX 630. I reviewed the experian credit report and it too showed the SM CO and my late payments to my credit cards, but it also showed two accounts in collections. One for a medical bill $120 and another for libray fine $40. I knew of the library fine and I paid the library directly. However it seems they had already sent the account to collections. I did the online dispute with EX and claimed the account was already paid. Have yet to hear anything back about this dispute.
Now for the medical bill I did have trouble paying it at the time and once the bill went to collections I pulled up enough cash and paid the medical bill directly to the facility and not the CA. I know that was a mistake now as the CA still has the record that I didn't pay. The CA is NCO Financial. I disputed the claim on my report in hopes they didn't have the correct information on it and it would be removed. Well this attempt has backfired cause this morning I recieved an alert from the EX credit monitoring (Free from the target breach) that I had a new negative account listed and it is from NCO Financial. Great an acoount that was listed as in collections in 2011 is now listed in collections in 2014. I was working on improving my credit so I could apply for some good travel reward cards this summer to use on future vacations. I don't know how the CA relisting my collections will hurt my credit score.
I'm looking for some advice as to how I should procede. I was thinking of sending a PFD letter to NCO to get the collections removed. I hate to pay for the bill twice but currently I can afford to do this and if it helps my credit it could be worth it. Has anyone had success with PFD especially with NCO. Or should I try something else. Thanks for any advice.
EX: 680 CS: 716, TU: 715 CK: 680, EQ: 695
Amex PRG, Barclays Arrival+ $5000, US Bank Kroger Visa $1000, Cap One Union Plus $1300, Cap One QS $2250, Amazon Store Card $1200, Belk $600, JCP $800
