Feeling Overwhelmed

[Anonymous]

So I got served with a court summons for a debt with LVNV funding and it scared me into finally tackling my credit. I am very mad at myself for letting things get this bad, but I guess I have to start somewhere. I read through many of the posts on this forum, but it feels like even the most beginner advice is way too advanced for me. I have a budget, and am contributing 10% to savings to make sure I don't put myself in this position again. Here are the debts I have, everything is in collections, basically: 

$800 - LVNV, currently being sued for. Was told if I pay by the end of the month the case would be dismissed. I plan on paying on my next pay date 12/22. 

$1800 - Capital One, has been sent to Shermeta Law group, but no lawsuit filed. I called them and set up a payment plan. 

$3000 - Discover, charged off, I called them set up a payment plan and they agreed to match my first $200 payment, which was nice. 

$500 - ATT, sent to Southwest Credit collectons - I called AT&T and they agreed to remove the account from collections but I haven't seen that actually happen yet. 

$600 - Ann Taylor store credit card, sent to Midland for collections, I am planning on going to their website to set up a payment plan today. 

I also have student loans and a car loan, all of which are current. 

My current credit score is around 500 and although I actually am in a position to pay these debts off (in my budget, I can pay everything off within a year, if not sooner. I also got a 2nd job to pay even more toward the balances.), it still seems hopeless when it comes to reparing my credit score. Thankfully, I don't need to buy a house or car or anything else soon, but I want to get this weight off my shoulders as soon as I possibly can and put myself in a position where I could seriously start thinking about buying a house in a few years. 

Any advice on what strategies I should take when tackling this? Right now, my plan is just to pay the collections off in the order listed, which is basically most severe to least. I am budgeting and saving money to create an emergency fund. I don't think I'm in a position to even think about getting a secured credit card or anything. It just feels like it's going to take forever before I can even start moving forward. 

Thanks for any insight! 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So I got served with a court summons for a debt with LVNV funding and it scared me into finally tackling my credit. I am very mad at myself for letting things get this bad, but I guess I have to start somewhere. I read through many of the posts on this forum, but it feels like even the most beginner advice is way too advanced for me. I have a budget, and am contributing 10% to savings to make sure I don't put myself in this position again. Here are the debts I have, everything is in collections, basically: 

$800 - LVNV, currently being sued for. Was told if I pay by the end of the month the case would be dismissed. I plan on paying on my next pay date 12/22. 

$1800 - Capital One, has been sent to Shermeta Law group, but no lawsuit filed. I called them and set up a payment plan. 

$3000 - Discover, charged off, I called them set up a payment plan and they agreed to match my first $200 payment, which was nice. 

$500 - ATT, sent to Southwest Credit collectons - I called AT&T and they agreed to remove the account from collections but I haven't seen that actually happen yet. 

$600 - Ann Taylor store credit card, sent to Midland for collections, I am planning on going to their website to set up a payment plan today. 

I also have student loans and a car loan, all of which are current. 

My current credit score is around 500 and although I actually am in a position to pay these debts off (in my budget, I can pay everything off within a year, if not sooner. I also got a 2nd job to pay even more toward the balances.), it still seems hopeless when it comes to reparing my credit score. Thankfully, I don't need to buy a house or car or anything else soon, but I want to get this weight off my shoulders as soon as I possibly can and put myself in a position where I could seriously start thinking about buying a house in a few years. 

Any advice on what strategies I should take when tackling this? Right now, my plan is just to pay the collections off in the order listed, which is basically most severe to least. I am budgeting and saving money to create an emergency fund. I don't think I'm in a position to even think about getting a secured credit card or anything. It just feels like it's going to take forever before I can even start moving forward. 

Thanks for any insight! 

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Credit repair is a long term process. Credit maintenance is a never-ending process.

Look at this as a minimum two year process to get to a place where you can start using credit to your advantage - buying a house, buying a car, without getting raked over the coals on interest rates. Think of it as a training period.

[Adkins]

I'd read ABCD2199s guide to credit rebuilding, it's pretty solid. And it can take up to 45 days for a credit report to update. Did you write down who you talked to, and when, at at&t? Keep a paper trail of EVERYTHING. Get all agreements in writing. PIF is good, because it'll be zero on your credit report, but also getting the negative account deleted is even better! Good luck, and it's a marathon not a sprint! 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the encouragement! I read ABCD2199s guide and it was super helpful, but it feels like I can't even get started on a lot of it yet! I guess I need to be patient. I am definitely working on the negative entries on my credit report, but it's going to take some time to even get myself to a position where I can apply for a SECURED card and get approved. That is depressing but it's 100% my fault and I know it will get better with time and hard work. I'm at least working on the negatives and building my savings. 

At AT&T, I have a chat transcript saved where the representative agreed to remove the account from collections. I'm 99.9% sure that they weren't supposed to promise that kind of thing, but I have it on record now. 

I'm hoping that once I get the collections PIF (so far no one has agreed to PFD), I can use some of the tips in the forums here to get some of the collections accounts removed from my report. It feels like it will be impossible, but seeing people's increasing scores in their signature lines of the forum is very encouraging! And for me, at least, it seems like it can only get better from here now that I'm working on it. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

. 

At AT&T, I have a chat transcript saved where the representative agreed to remove the account from collections. I'm 99.9% sure that they weren't supposed to promise that kind of thing, but I have it on record now. 

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Unfortunately those are usually meaningless weaslewords, that in actuallity promise you nothing. "Removing the account from collections" to them simply means that once you pay them, they will call off the dogs - which they are required to do anyway, once a bill is paid. The key is to get them to remove it from collections before its paid - which they will almost never agree to do. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

. 

At AT&T, I have a chat transcript saved where the representative agreed to remove the account from collections. I'm 99.9% sure that they weren't supposed to promise that kind of thing, but I have it on record now. 

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Unfortunately those are usually meaningless weaslewords, that in actuallity promise you nothing. "Removing the account from collections" to them simply means that once you pay them, they will call off the dogs - which they are required to do anyway, once a bill is paid. The key is to get them to remove it from collections before its paid - which they will almost never agree to do. 

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+1000% agree

[Anonymous]

I definitely agree. I do think the chat rep made an error in what they said to me though, becuase they specifically said, and I'm copying and pasting from the AT&T transcript here:

"Do not worry, you will not need to pay any money. I will make correction on the account and the balance will reflect $0. This will remove the account from collection." 

...now, if they'll actually DO it is another story. Haha. It would be great if they would, though! At this point, it's just one item on a very long list of things to clean up! 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I definitely agree. I do think the chat rep made an error in what they said to me though, becuase they specifically said, and I'm copying and pasting from the AT&T transcript here:

"Do not worry, you will not need to pay any money. I will make correction on the account and the balance will reflect $0. This will remove the account from collection." 

...now, if they'll actually DO it is another story. Haha. It would be great if they would, though! At this point, it's just one item on a very long list of things to clean up! 

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OK, if they actually do that, you can dispute the collection listing saying "collector no longer has collection authority for this debt". Once it's remove, go ahead and pay ATT. I've had duplicate collections removed that way, and I got Direct TV removed that way when they changed collectors.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your help!

[Anonymous]

"Do not worry, you will not need to pay any money. I will make the correction on the account and the balance will reflect $0. This will remove the account from collection."

I can't say I love the phrasing here. I'm not sure you could make a strong case that the collection agent was stating it would be removed from your CR. I read it as "the account will no longer be in collection" which is true. I don't read it as a promise to remove it from your credit report. 

However, that's just one snippet from the conversation! Hopefully elsewhere in the conversation is a more implicit reference to having it removed from your credit report. Collection agencies are a tricky bunch and they do this all day, every day. The consumer is at a huge disadvantage when speaking with them.