Large Amount in Collections...What do I do?

Anonymous · ‎08-04-2015

Hi everyone! I joined myFico on June 20th with all 3 scores in the 490s...pretty terrible! Today I've got 523 EQ 528 TU and 543 EX! Excellent progress so far and I'm pretty excited. Also, I never had a car loan and qualified for a car loan through Toyota Financial and the first payment is due the 15th so I anticipate in a couple of months of that bringing my score up more. I've also put my student loans on auto pay and have a secured card through a credit union and a Fingerhut account.

Here's the issue now. I'm looking to relocate out of state for my job and my credit history is making it very difficult. In 2013 I got a huge pay cut and couldn't afford to live where I was so instead of getting evicted, I moved out into a much cheaper place I could afford. That broken lease shows up as $4000 in collections from Natl Crysis. Then a couple months later I ended up getting laid off and had to move back home with family. To avoid the eviction on my record again I moved out. That's $5000 in collections through Natl Crysis. So now I have some questions...

1. When a potential landlord runs my credit, do they see that these debts are owed to apts or do they just see that I have accounts in collections and poor credit?

2. This is a huge chunk of money. How much will it improve my scores if I settle, make payments, and eventually pay off these debts?

3. I have made progress in just one month. If I contine moving forward with on time payments on my car, Fingerhut, secured card, perhaps add another secured card, will that be good enough in 6months to a year where these collections accounts won't matter as much?

What should I do?

Anonymous · ‎08-04-2015

Have you run your full report to see what the notes say? Also, I would verify that that collection company doesn't just focus on collections for apartments/landlords since that would be a red flag for future landlords.

Anonymous · ‎08-09-2015

I would keep in mind that they might sue you for that chunk of money. I would try and settle with a PFD or if you can't afford it, try to make payments. But I'm not a pro on here, just giving what advice I have.

Anonymous · ‎08-09-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi everyone! I joined myFico on June 20th with all 3 scores in the 490s...pretty terrible! Today I've got 523 EQ 528 TU and 543 EX! Excellent progress so far and I'm pretty excited. Also, I never had a car loan and qualified for a car loan through Toyota Financial and the first payment is due the 15th so I anticipate in a couple of months of that bringing my score up more. I've also put my student loans on auto pay and have a secured card through a credit union and a Fingerhut account.

Here's the issue now. I'm looking to relocate out of state for my job and my credit history is making it very difficult. In 2013 I got a huge pay cut and couldn't afford to live where I was so instead of getting evicted, I moved out into a much cheaper place I could afford. That broken lease shows up as $4000 in collections from Natl Crysis. Then a couple months later I ended up getting laid off and had to move back home with family. To avoid the eviction on my record again I moved out. That's $5000 in collections through Natl Crysis. So now I have some questions...

1. When a potential landlord runs my credit, do they see that these debts are owed to apts or do they just see that I have accounts in collections and poor credit?
2. This is a huge chunk of money. How much will it improve my scores if I settle, make payments, and eventually pay off these debts?
3. I have made progress in just one month. If I contine moving forward with on time payments on my car, Fingerhut, secured card, perhaps add another secured card, will that be good enough in 6months to a year where these collections accounts won't matter as much?

What should I do?

I would say pull up your 3 credit reports and see what's there. It's also possible that those collections may only show in only 1 or two reports, so apply with a landlord that pulls up the credit report hich doesn't have the broken lease collections. Kinda sneaky, I know, but some landlords are also more lenient on past credit problems.