Help with Rebuilding credit and ER Solutions

[Miguelanski]

Hey guys, IM new to the forums and here's my story..

I'm 23 and have an awful credit thanks to a couple Student loans and cell phone bills.  It wasn't until recently that I decided to start fixing my credit and have paid most of my debt with the exception of one student loan that I don't need to start paying till may 2012. To make the story short back in July I checked my EXP credit before I started paying off my debt and my score was 574. After paying all my debt with that one student loan being the only exception my credit score dropped all the way to 536. Both of the cell phone bills where sent to collection and I paid the T-mobile one in full which was the most expensive one of the 2 and for some reason it got deleted from Collections (probably Because I work for them LOL). My only account in collection at the moment is one from sprint in which I only owed 180 but never paid it because I didn't agree with it. I cancelled and pay my last bill and all fees, they told me I didn't owe anything else and then got charge that amount but for the sake of paying my bills I paid it to ER Solutions. It wasn't until later that I learned about PFD and GW letters and that brings me to the first of my many questions.

Any one here had any experience with having ER Solutions delete an account after being fully paid?  If so how did you manage to do it?

I try googgling information from them but all it comes out is customers complaining about them and it leads me to believe that they aren't a good agency to deal with.

My other questions are, what might have caused my credit score to drop like that after paying more than half of my total debt?

Also..I just recently opened up a Secured CC with Capital one.Any ideas of where I should go from there?

Thanks in advance and I apologize in advance if I'm asking too many questions..im trying my best to learn but I'm still a little lost when it comes to building back my credit.

[hoping2rebuild]

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@Miguelanski wrote:

Hey guys, IM new to the forums and here's my story..

I'm 23 and have an awful credit thanks to a couple Student loans and cell phone bills.  It wasn't until recently that I decided to start fixing my credit and have paid most of my debt with the exception of one student loan that I don't need to start paying till may 2012. To make the story short back in July I checked my EXP credit before I started paying off my debt and my score was 574. After paying all my debt with that one student loan being the only exception my credit score dropped all the way to 536. Both of the cell phone bills where sent to collection and I paid the T-mobile one in full which was the most expensive one of the 2 and for some reason it got deleted from Collections (probably Because I work for them LOL). My only account in collection at the moment is one from sprint in which I only owed 180 but never paid it because I didn't agree with it. I cancelled and pay my last bill and all fees, they told me I didn't owe anything else and then got charge that amount but for the sake of paying my bills I paid it to ER Solutions. It wasn't until later that I learned about PFD and GW letters and that brings me to the first of my many questions.

Any one here had any experience with having ER Solutions delete an account after being fully paid?  If so how did you manage to do it?

I try googgling information from them but all it comes out is customers complaining about them and it leads me to believe that they aren't a good agency to deal with.

My other questions are, what might have caused my credit score to drop like that after paying more than half of my total debt?

Also..I just recently opened up a Secured CC with Capital one.Any ideas of where I should go from there?

Thanks in advance and I apologize in advance if I'm asking too many questions..im trying my best to learn but I'm still a little lost when it comes to building back my credit.

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If it were me I would start sending a GW Letters to the CA.

I don't know what to tell you about your score drop as there are so many variables that go into that, but you probably lost a few

points due to your AAOA be a little lower for adding the new card

Don't apologize for asking questions that is what were all here for to help and learn so ask away.

[Miguelanski]

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@hoping2rebuild wrote:

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@Miguelanski wrote:

Hey guys, IM new to the forums and here's my story..

I'm 23 and have an awful credit thanks to a couple Student loans and cell phone bills.  It wasn't until recently that I decided to start fixing my credit and have paid most of my debt with the exception of one student loan that I don't need to start paying till may 2012. To make the story short back in July I checked my EXP credit before I started paying off my debt and my score was 574. After paying all my debt with that one student loan being the only exception my credit score dropped all the way to 536. Both of the cell phone bills where sent to collection and I paid the T-mobile one in full which was the most expensive one of the 2 and for some reason it got deleted from Collections (probably Because I work for them LOL). My only account in collection at the moment is one from sprint in which I only owed 180 but never paid it because I didn't agree with it. I cancelled and pay my last bill and all fees, they told me I didn't owe anything else and then got charge that amount but for the sake of paying my bills I paid it to ER Solutions. It wasn't until later that I learned about PFD and GW letters and that brings me to the first of my many questions.

Any one here had any experience with having ER Solutions delete an account after being fully paid?  If so how did you manage to do it?

I try googgling information from them but all it comes out is customers complaining about them and it leads me to believe that they aren't a good agency to deal with.

My other questions are, what might have caused my credit score to drop like that after paying more than half of my total debt?

Also..I just recently opened up a Secured CC with Capital one.Any ideas of where I should go from there?

Thanks in advance and I apologize in advance if I'm asking too many questions..im trying my best to learn but I'm still a little lost when it comes to building back my credit.

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If it were me I would start sending a GW Letters to the CA.

I don't know what to tell you about your score drop as there are so many variables that go into that, but you probably lost a few

points due to your AAOA be a little lower for adding the new card

Don't apologize for asking questions that is what were all here for to help and learn so ask away.

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Thanks for the advice..Other than GW Letters which im going to have to get on soon..Anything else you think I should do to start improving my credit?

[RobertEG]

As long as major derogs, such as a collection, remain in your file, you have what is commonly referred to as a "dirty" credit file.

Prior to doing the actual number crunching of your three digit score, FICO determines what algorithm it will use depending upon your file categorization, or "bucket."

You most likley were not scored such that improvements in % util were given the same weight as one who had no major derogs in their file.

I agree that clearing your file of major derogs would probably have great significance in your ability to move up due to other improvements.

Willingness of an individual debt collector to delete prior reporting after payment of the debt varies widely.  All debt collectors have the same reporting agreement with the CRAs, which expresses to them the standard CRA policy that prior reporting is not to be deleted based on payment of the debt.  So GW or PFD deletions are contrary to their reporting agreements.  If your individual debt collector adheres to this CRA policy, then deletion can be very difficult.  My advice would be to do more than just send paper GW requests, as those are responded to by the clerical underlings who most likely dont have the authority to veer from corparate policy.  Try going up the management chain, and find someone who has the authority to grant exceptions to standard policy. 

[LIGHTNIN]

Did you pull both scores, from the same place?      Where did you pull your scores from?

[Miguelanski]

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@LIGHTNIN wrote:

Did you pull both scores, from the same place?      Where did you pull your scores from?

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Well the 574 score was straight from the Experian website...the other scores i got from myFico.