Have 5 collections, credit card charge offs and more!

[AmandaB]

This is my first time on here and I need help! Me and my husband are finally moving on with our life and our credit is hurting us really bad! We were both in the military with great credit (mine was 724) and we satisified our military contracts and go out in 2011. We had a hard time adjusting and getting work. We couldnt afford to pay our bills because we needed to pay rent and feed our two children. Well a year later, my score is 540!! I need help on where to start and how to get things deleted off my credit reports. Where do I start? Who do I disupte first? How to talk to collection agencies? They are constantly calling me and I never answer and I dont know what to say. We are 24 years old and are wanting to buy a house, now that my husband has a career. Any advice will help. Thank you.

[guiness56]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

Being in the military brought me to this site a little over 5 years ago and has done wonders for me.  It will you too.

First, if you haven't already, get all 3 of your reports from annualcreditreport.com.  You get 1 every 12 months from each CRA.

You will need to know what the DoFD of each account is (date of first delinquency) and your states SOL (statute of limitations) for debt.  It normally goes by the state you currently reside in.

The DoFD is the date that determines when an item will be excluded from your credit report.  It is the date you became delinquent and never brought your account current before it was sent to collections or charged off.   Your SOL normally starts from that date also.  However, if you have made a payment after that date, depending on your state, it could restart the SOL.

When going over your report look for obvious mistakes like accounts that are not yours or ones that have been there longer than the 7.5 years allowed.  These you can dispute.  Others I would wait on.

Don't talk to a collection agency if at all possible.  Do everything in writing.

As for the collections accounts, if you have the money to pay in full, send them a Debt Validation letter, CMRRR.  If they validate, then send them a pay for delete.  A DV letter is supposed to be sent within 30 days of initial communications with the CA.  If you live in Texas, they can be sent at anytime.

You can read some of the stickies in my signature to help you out. 

If you have any questions about some of the accounts on your credit report you can post them and someone will help you.

You are not alone.

[myjourney]

Welcome to the form

We will need more info who the creditors are, whats on your CR, CO's,CA's?

Have you pulled your annual reports to see what's on them?

This will help you in getting specfic information about how to proceed.

Best wishes you taken the first step to better credit and to that I say BRAVO

---

AmandaB wrote:

This is my first time on here and I need help! Me and my husband are finally moving on with our life and our credit is hurting us really bad! We were both in the military with great credit (mine was 724) and we satisified our military contracts and go out in 2011. We had a hard time adjusting and getting work. We couldnt afford to pay our bills because we needed to pay rent and feed our two children. Well a year later, my score is 540!! I need help on where to start and how to get things deleted off my credit reports. Where do I start? Who do I disupte first? How to talk to collection agencies? They are constantly calling me and I never answer and I dont know what to say. We are 24 years old and are wanting to buy a house, now that my husband has a career. Any advice will help. Thank you.

---

[AmandaB]

Thank you for replying. I have got my credit reports and all the contact info from the CO, CA, and all the account info. I am not sure if I can or cant post personal information on here. But I can say I have a CC that is over $5000 and is assinged to an attorney. I am scared about that one. Another CC that is over $3000 in CA. I have some smaller ones too. My CC's show up as CO and also in collections. Wondering what I do about that. I do have some paid off Collections was wanting to send a GW letter if you guys advise that. Some of the creditors are Sears, Capital one, Miliary Star, Credit One Bank, utility bill, and etc. Any tips and let me know if I need to post for info. Thank you. 

[guiness56]

You can post the TLs just remove personal information.

It is legal for the OC and a CA to report the same debt.  If the OC shows a balance they own the debt and it was assigned to the CA.  In this case I would contact the OC and not the CA.

If they show a 0 balance it was sold and you have to deal with the CA.

Yes, for paid debt, send out GW letters.

I would contact Military Star and see if you can make arrangements with them.  They can and will take your income tax and garnish your wages.  They don't have to get a judgment because they are government.

When did the accounts go delinquent?  What is your states SOL for debt?

[AmandaB]

My SOL is 6 years. All my accounts went deliquent aorund Dec. 2011 and reported as major deliquency between june to sept. 2012.

[guiness56]

They are still within suing SOL.

Are you able to pay any of them in full? 

[AmandaB]

I can not pay the big amounts at this time. We just moved and I am about to have baby #3 so we have to save up. It will take a couple months. I do have another question. My citibank/sears CC status is closed. $5909 written off. $1730 past due as of Aug. and at the bottom the creditors statement: Purchased by another lender, which is the attorney I mentioned earlier. Does this mean they deleted my information or do they still have it for thier safe keeping? Should I disupute and validate this or leave it alone? How should I go about this one? This is the big one.

Also my Military Star card status says transfered and closed. What should I do about this one? I already wrote 5 GW letters tnnight. so wish me luck with those ones!

[guiness56]

It looks like Star card sold your debt which is unusual.

For the debts you can pay in full send DV letters to the CA.  If they validate ask for a PFD.

For the ones you cannot pay in full I would wait until you can.

No, the OC probably still has all of your information.  But you don't have a basis for a dispute if it is reporting correctly.