John111 Journey

[john111]

I used to have really bad credit. 4 years ago it was right around 500. I tried to improve my credit back then but was totally confused on what steps to take. There just seemed to be endless reading and I ended up just doing nothing. That brings me to today.

By writing this out in a journey, I'll hold myself accountable, and make daily / weekly / monthly progress until it's done.

Baddies

• ~$110 open collection. DOFD 2011. T-mobile => Midland.
• ~$3,000 open collection. DOFD 2009. BG&E utility bill => NCO Financial Systems.
• ~$1,000 CA tax lien public record. Paid and recorded in 2012.
• ~$4,000 student loan closed in 2012. 34 late payments.
• ~$12,000 student loan closed 2011. 15 late payments.
• ~$5,000 student loan not sure when closed, still reporting currently as ND, KD (Key Derogatory). This is only reporting on Experian.

Even with all this going on, my creditkarma FAKO is 669. I think it's because I cleaned up my act and am paying the bills consistently, and because all the bad tradelines are from years ago.

The Plan

- Midland collection seems tough. I really want to beat them since they harrassed me so many times over the years for what turned out to be a measly $100. I'll start with a series of DV and go from there.

- NCO financial systems I'm not sure about. I'm past the SOL, so no problems there. I guess DV to start off and maybe PFD. I'm not really sure with this one.

- CA tax lien will be tough. I'll need to GW letter a bunch of different people until someone eventually gives in. Heard the CA FTB doesn't give deletes, withdrawals, motion to vacates easily. Also I'm no longer in CA, so it might be tricky to manuveur there.

- student loans GW both of them until they remove the lates.

I'm hoping to be 720+ after getting rid of these baddies.

[baller4life]

Looks like you have a good plan. NCO folded very easily for me when I sent dv. Deleted within a week all bureaus.

[john111]

I received my Experian credit report, and it has an additional negative student loan tradeline that was not on Equifax or TransUnion. My credit score with Experian is 646. The lowest of the three. 

• ~$5,000 student loan not sure when closed, still reporting currently as ND, KD (Key Derogatory). This is only reporting on Experian.

I'm not sure what ND means on the Experian payment history. KD I think means key derogatory, which is 180+ late and last reported activity on June 2014. I'm not sure how to handle this, but I will DV the DOE on this debt and see what the response is. Does this sound right to you? Is there something else I should be doing?

I sent the CMRRR DV to both collections (Midland and NCO Financial Systems), which was just reworded based on this example DV letter: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/Debt-Validation/td-p/7133 I am also filing a complaint with the CFPB, state attorney general’s office, as per suggested by other members for the Midland collection.

For the NCO Financial Systems collections, If they don’t respond in 30 days, I’ll send them another DV letter, wait a bit, and then report my claim to the CRA’s, CFPB, etc if they still don’t respond. What’s the next step if they provide a valid DV response?

Instead of sending GW letters for the lates on student loans, I want to first dispute them with the CRA’s and see if they drop off. This means I'll send CMRRR to CRA's, stating that I don't have late payments on those tradelines, and see what they do. This was recommended over online disputing or phone disputing. If they don’t drop, I’ll keep sending GW letters to the creditors of the student loans.

To improve and utilization ratio and credit limit, I also applied for the Chase Freedom credit card, and bumped up my bank credit card from $500 CL to $2,000. In terms of revolving credit, I want to get the Chase Freedom, Chase Sapphire Preferred and a business line of credit.

[john111]

I'm so excited! Just checked this morning, and got the Midland collection off my credit report. Checking with creditkarma and experian, it's off both reports. I'm at 683 creditkarma, still 646 with experian unfortunately. I still haven't gotten in touch with the original lender for my NCO Financial problem. I also still have some good will letters to send out for the lates on my student loans and removing the tax lien public record.

I also applied for a Chase Freedom credit card, but was turned down. I think it's because they pulled experian, which is the worst of the 3. I need to call them to see if they'll reconsider. With this card I'll have two credit cards and two student loans with good payment history.

[Anonymous]

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@john111 wrote:

I received my Experian credit report, and it has an additional negative student loan tradeline that was not on Equifax or TransUnion. My credit score with Experian is 646. The lowest of the three. 

• ~$5,000 student loan not sure when closed, still reporting currently as ND, KD (Key Derogatory). This is only reporting on Experian.

I'm not sure what ND means on the Experian payment history. KD I think means key derogatory, which is 180+ late and last reported activity on June 2014. I'm not sure how to handle this, but I will DV the DOE on this debt and see what the response is. Does this sound right to you? Is there something else I should be doing?

I sent the CMRRR DV to both collections (Midland and NCO Financial Systems), which was just reworded based on this example DV letter: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/Debt-Validation/td-p/7133 I am also filing a complaint with the CFPB, state attorney general’s office, as per suggested by other members for the Midland collection.

For the NCO Financial Systems collections, If they don’t respond in 30 days, I’ll send them another DV letter, wait a bit, and then report my claim to the CRA’s, CFPB, etc if they still don’t respond. What’s the next step if they provide a valid DV response?
Be aware - they are NOT required to respond to your DV. What they ARE required to do is STOP "Collection Activity" until they do validate (if they validate they have to tell you - and give you the required validation). If you dont hear from them after a couple of mon ths, do a Dispute with the CRA's and see if it drops off.

Instead of sending GW letters for the lates on student loans, I want to first dispute them with the CRA’s and see if they drop off. This means I'll send CMRRR to CRA's, stating that I don't have late payments on those tradelines, and see what they do. This was recommended over online disputing or phone disputing. If they don’t drop, I’ll keep sending GW letters to the creditors of the student loans.
See if you can rehab your student loan.

To improve and utilization ratio and credit limit, I also applied for the Chase Freedom credit card, and bumped up my bank credit card from $500 CL to $2,000. In terms of revolving credit, I want to get the Chase Freedom, Chase Sapphire Preferred and a business line of credit.

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[Anonymous]

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@john111 wrote:

I received my Experian credit report, and it has an additional negative student loan tradeline that was not on Equifax or TransUnion. My credit score with Experian is 646. The lowest of the three. 

• ~$5,000 student loan not sure when closed, still reporting currently as ND, KD (Key Derogatory). This is only reporting on Experian.

I'm not sure what ND means on the Experian payment history. KD I think means key derogatory, which is 180+ late and last reported activity on June 2014. I'm not sure how to handle this, but I will DV the DOE on this debt and see what the response is. Does this sound right to you? Is there something else I should be doing?

I sent the CMRRR DV to both collections (Midland and NCO Financial Systems), which was just reworded based on this example DV letter: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/Debt-Validation/td-p/7133 I am also filing a complaint with the CFPB, state attorney general’s office, as per suggested by other members for the Midland collection.

For the NCO Financial Systems collections, If they don’t respond in 30 days, I’ll send them another DV letter, wait a bit, and then report my claim to the CRA’s, CFPB, etc if they still don’t respond. What’s the next step if they provide a valid DV response?

Instead of sending GW letters for the lates on student loans, I want to first dispute them with the CRA’s and see if they drop off. This means I'll send CMRRR to CRA's, stating that I don't have late payments on those tradelines, and see what they do. This was recommended over online disputing or phone disputing. If they don’t drop, I’ll keep sending GW letters to the creditors of the student loans.

To improve and utilization ratio and credit limit, I also applied for the Chase Freedom credit card, and bumped up my bank credit card from $500 CL to $2,000. In terms of revolving credit, I want to get the Chase Freedom, Chase Sapphire Preferred and a business line of credit.

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Be aware as well, if you DO use CFPB, have a valid reason for doing so, or they will label you a frivolous disputer and pretty much ignore you.

[john111]

I cleaned up my credit to 740 -745 by removing the two collections. It looks though that the ~$3,000 utility collection got transferred and is showing up again on my credit report as a different collections company earlier this week, dropping my score by about 30 points on TU.

Are CA's allowed to do that? Do I need to go through sending this new CA a CMRRR DV letter?

[Anonymous]

Yes, and Yes.

[john111]

I never received any notice of the debt before Transworld Systems Inc started reporting this collection on my credit reports. So far I have sent 2 DV letters to Transworld Systems Inc. via CMRRR spaced about 30 days in between. I finally received a reply late last week but still no DV, not sure how to proceed. Any advice appreciated

In their reply, they ask for my social security number, original creditor, creditor's account number and/or reference number and billing address of the account, and copy of any correspondence from TSI.

So far I've been doing the simple DV request approach "Hi, I checked my credit report recently, and you claim I owe you a debt. In accordance with FDCPA, send me validation of this debt."

I am not sure what to do next, if this is enough information to request CRA's to delete the information, or if I should continute to collect further evidence from the CA, Transworld Systems?