How to deal with Midland and Now What?

[fixingmycreditscore]

First of all, I would just like to thank everyone on this forum. I wrote goodwill letters to 2 creditors and disputed them using Equifax Online Dispute. CapitalOne and my student loan agency wrote back to say that they deleted the negative marks on my report and Equifax confirmed it. I also managed to get my collections account deleted, even though I have only made 1 out of my 2 scheduled payments. My score went from 615 to 664 in 2 weeks. 

I have 2 remaining black marks on my account- Bank of America and Midland. I stopped making payments on my BofA card for $835 in June 2008 and the account appears as "bad debt/collection" on my myfico report. The debt was sold to Midland in September 2010. They don't really bother me, occasionally they''ll send a letter asking for settlement. I have never responded. I am finally ready to get these marks off of my account but I don't know where to begin. Do I contact Midland first to try to settle in exchange for deletion? Than do I contact Bank of America to try to get that taken off even though it was charged off?

Where do I go from here? I have 9 accounts on my credit score, 3 of which are Open. I have not applied for any new credit in a very long time. Is there any way to delete closed accounts from my report? I want to delete my 3 store credit card accounts from my report since the balance on them is 0 and there are no longer any discrepancies on them. Hoping this will increase my score since paying on time will not affect my score according to the Score Stimulator.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[fixingmycreditscore]

Also wanted to say that my debt to income ratio is 8%, and credit utilization is 1% with a $120 balance on a $17,000 limit. My only debt is a little over $15,000 in student loans. I have learned to pay for things with cash. My mother, who has fantastic credit, uses the card with the $17,000 limit to help me build my score - she leaves a small revolving balance every month and always pays on time.

[llecs]

With the deleted collections, I'd make the remaining payment ASAP. If not, they'll likely resell the debt.

The only thing you can do with BofA is to GW. For the CA, send a DV. If they verify and you agree, then send a PFD.

Why would you want closed accounts deleted from your CRs? Length of history plays a huge part into FICO scoring. Removing them would very likely cause a score drop.

[fixingmycreditscore]

Thank you for your response. I am definitely going to make my second scheduled payment. If they were nice enough to delete, than I will certainly be nice enough to pay them the remaining balance.

Can you please advise what a DV is?

I guess I thought that having 9 accounts, most of which are closed with a 0 balance, were dragging down my score.

[llecs]

I'd suggest reading the following:

Common Abbreviations

Credit Scoring 101 - great for knowing what is in your credit score and to see how your score is impacted.

What Steps Do I Take - great for learning the repair process.

and Example letters - PFDs, GWs, DVs, etc.

A DV letter is allowed by the FDCPA and is intended to be sent to a CA within 30 days of their initial collection letter to you, often called a dunning letter. After 30 days has lapsed, and you didn't send a DV, then the CA doesn't have to respond to you at all, though most still will. There is no time frame requirement for their response (unless you live in TX), but most will respond within a month or less. Basically, a DV asks the CA to provide you with balance info, original creditor info, and contact info by which to get more info on the debt. If they respond, and you agree with them, then you can then send a PFD letter. DV letters go to CAs only and don't work for OCs (legally-speaking anyway).

If any debts are paid, then a GW letter is the best course of action. It's a request to get the OC/CA to delete entirely or to delete a specific aspect of their reporting (e.g. a late). If you have any paid CAs reporting, then you want them off. A GW letter works best in this case.

If any of the $0-balance accounts are OC accounts, and are reporting positively, then you don't want it off. The history helps and their demise can drop your FICO scores. $0 balance OC accounts, even if closed, are a very good thing.

[RobertEG]

+1

To clarify the distinction between a DV letter and a letter attempting to get items of information removed from your CR, they are similar to the extent that both are directed at verification of information.  But they are very different in both purpose and outcome, and are under two entirely different statutes.

DV letters are under the provision of  the FDCPA, and are related to collection practices.  They are strictly communications between the consumer and the debt collector, and the CRAs are not involved in this process.   FDCPA 809 has three primary purposes. 

First, the intent to  provide consumers early notice once a debt collector begins collection activities.  Under FDCPA 809(a), a debt collector must, within five days of any ititial communication with a consumer (which incldes posting to your CR), send you a formal collection (dunning) notice, advising you, at a minimum, of the name of the OC, the total amount of the debt, and your rights to ask for validation of this information within 30-days.

Second, if you do exercise your rights, and send a DV letter, this notifies the debt collector of your request..  Unless you live in Texas, the debt collector has no obligation to respond to your DV request. 

Third, what the DV letter thereafter does is to  block  their ability to conduct any future collection activities with you until such time as they may choose to respond.

What the debt collector is compelled to provide under FDCPA 809(b)  in a response to your DV letter is, in actuality, not much more than what they already provided in their dunning notice.  While many Dv letters you see posted on the net require a lot of information, most of those items are not required under FDCPA 809(b.  Minimum statutory verification amounts to additionaly providing the address of the OC, and possibly a detailed breakdown of the asserted debt.  But legal or ducumentary support is not required under FDCPA 809(b), and thus what you are left with, basically, is little more than what they included in their dunning notice.

If the accuracy of the information itself is contested, then you shift over to one of the two dispute processes under the FCRA (i.e, a dispute through the CRA, or a direct dispute with the party who posted the disputed information).  Unlike a DV letter, if you dispute accuracy, then the intitial burden is on the consumer to provide information supporting a dispute of accuracy of information reported to your CR.  This then places the burden on the party who posted the disputed information to respond to the accuracy of the information itself.  Also, unlike the DV process, disputes set specific period for response (usually 30-days) and failure to provide verification of the information itself can compel CR deletion.

In my opinion, sending a DV letter should be done, but dont expect big things from it.  If there are questions as to accuracy of items of information in your CR, then you can send both a DV and a dispute.