cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

My Journey in Credit Repa

tag
Rinna86
Member

My Journey in Credit Repa

First of all I would like to say THANK YOU to all of you who have shared your stories. Your stories motivated me to kick my repair into high gear.

 

I've had bad credit ever since I turned 18. Instead of going into the long story into how I ended up with the bad credit I suppose I will just start at the point where I got to rebuilding.

 

Because I had bad credit, I went into a shady (at best) dealership and was put into a car with financing through Credit Acceptance. I really can't complain about the high interest rate because that is my own fault. About a week after purchasing the vehicle, everything that could go wrong with it went. In a nutshell it was not a car sold to acceptably under my states (NH) laws. (I did not know this at the time.) I went back to the dealership a week later as they gave me the wrong forms for registration and they had been closed and the building was under a new renter. I brought this to the attention of Credit Acceptance and they basically told me it was my own problem.

 

After almost 2 years of making payments and paying for repairs that never actually fixed the problems, I decided to try to get a new car. I went to a reputable dealership, sucked up my embarrasment and explained my credit issues. To my surprise they not only got me into an amazing vehicle at a lower monthly payment but he also took time to explain to me what was done wrong with my old loan and gave me the idea that I might have a case to get out of my old loan. So I did not use the car as a trade (although the new dealer would have paid off my old loan and worked in the difference to my new loan). I sent Credit Acceptance written notice of the vehicles location and that I was surrendering the vehicle to them. They did not go to get the vehicle for three months. Then I got the bill for the deficiency balance. I got to work on the research.

 

Due to my settlement agreement, I cannot post the specifics but lets just say that sending a letter and cc'ing both your state and their state Attorney General's Office, all three credit bureaus and the better business bureau gets results (and fast). I received a call from the "legal department" and due to being very prepared, knowing my contract and applicable state laws more than the attorney did, I am very satisfied with the end result and it no longer affects my credit nor do I have to pay anymore torwards a car I cannot use and should not have been sold. (I wouldn't do this on a whim and again I did ALOT of research.)

 

During this time I pulled my free credit reports, sent many letters and due to no responses that I am entitled to under the FDCPA, most of the collections accounts were deleted. (Some accounts did not even belong to me and were grouped in due to a same name.)

 

What was left as of mid-late 2013:

 

Eastern Bank: $5,184.00 ( Charge Off: deficiency balance from an auto loan from 2007)

ElectroMedical Associates: $295.00 (medical bill)

MidLand Funding: $990.00 (medical)

CapitalOne: $300.00 Limit $0 Usage (late payments in 2011)

Student Loans ( Which fortunately I have always paid on time since 2004 and are now paid in full)

GM Financial: $12,671.00 (Current Auto Loan pays as agreed)

 

Obviously, my biggest issue was Eastern Bank. After years of not contacting me, they found out where I worked and contact me twice within one month at my place of employment. (Against NH (not Federal) collection laws). The woman who contacted me also told me they would be suing me unless I set up a payment plan with her.

 

WARNING: What I did next I DO NOT reccommend anyone do without consulting with an attorney or doing the research I did. For many it could have undesireable consequences. I did this after heavily research both MA and NH state laws as well as Federal laws. I also reviewed contracts and state supreme court cases.

 

I sent Eastern Bank a letter. In my letter I stated the debt was disputed, that the statute of limitations (3 years in NH) had expired and that they violated NH Debt Collection laws (Under NH law they are considered a debt collector even though they are the original creditor). I demanded that they remove any information from all reporting agencies and that since I was told that I would be sued, I expected to hear from their attorney or be serviced with a notice from the court within 10 days. (Yes I told them to sue me and meant it.) I only did this because I knew I could not be held legally liable as the statute of limitations had passed. 

 

Shortly after I received a letter from an attorney in MA who stated that NH statutes did not apply as in the contract it stated that the agreement would be governed my MA state laws. (6 years). and basically tried to bully me into paying. Luckily I was prepared and armed with research and ignored his letter knowing that a lawsuit would surely follow. Just before the 6 year anniversary of the claim, I was served with a small claims case. 

 

Now, again this would not work for everyone. My state has no borrowing clause in conflicts of procedural law. In other words, in NH statute of limitations are considered a procedural matter and governed by the forum. (Even if they weren't there was more relevance to NH laws than MA laws as I have always lived in NH, contract and dealership were both located in NH. The only relevance to MA was that Eastern Bank's Corporate offices were located there.) So I filed my response requesting a dismissal based on a matter of law not a question to material fact. Eastern Bank has not responded to this motion and I expect to receive notice that the judge has granted my motion within 2 days. (There was a 10 day hold period in which I had to wait to see if Eastern tried to fight the motion.)

 

It doesn't end there. I pulled my credit report and I guess that Eastern's philosophy was that if they couldn't win in court that they would try to ruin my credit some more and actually reported that I had made a payment in December of 2013. I sent them a letter via facsimile and faxed copies to all 3 credit reporting agencies, the FTC and the MA AG office. I advised them that reporting inaccurate information was against FTC regulations and demanded that they delete the trade line off my credit reports within 5 days and that if that was done, I would consider the matter closed and seek no further action. And as of today +34 points; +16 points +21 points! The entire history has been deleted. (Working for a law firm has helped in this.)

 

My 2 medical bills: I sent MidLand Funding a GW letter and expect to hear back soon. ElectroMedical: The bills were paid by the drivers insurance carrier and should not have gone to collections. I have sent a letter requesting validation of the debt to which I intend on responding with the proof of payment. ( I haven't heard from them yet and its been almost 30 days so I suspect I will dispute it directly with the CRA's and have them deleted that way. I have been approved for 2 new CC's to build up some points, have had my new car for over a year and made my payments timely. I'll be refinancing it to get a better interest rate once the last of my credit report issues are clear. 

 

CapOne does not delete late payments in exchange for GW's but were very prompt and polite in their response and being back in 2011 they are affecting my score less and less.

 

My previous debt was well over $30k and I can now see the light. I hope my story inspires others to do their research, and that it can be done no matter what the situation is. I will always keep my credit as clean as possible from here on out. Now it's about rebuilding and the next goal is a home purchase. Know your rights. Having bad credit does not make you a bad person. It feels so great once you finally overcome the obstacles that once looked so difficult. If anyone needs help with sites, what to look for, law resources, court resources... feel free to ask. Ill make sure I keep updating this as much as possible and again THANK YOU to all who have posted their stories, I hope mine serves as inspirational as yours were to me.

~Erin

2/18/2015: TU612 ; EQ: 641 EX: 599
05/01/2014: TU: 506 EQ: 540 EX: 480
Goal Score: 750 Across the board
Message 1 of 14
13 REPLIES 13
gdale6
Moderator Emeritus

Re: My Journey in Credit Repa

Congrats to your continuing success Smiley Happy

Message 2 of 14
Rinna86
Member

Re: My Journey in Credit Repa

UPDATE: I had a change of living situation which forced me to have to rely on my credit cards. My score dropped due to high credit use but I still made all my payments on time. I have recently paid all of the cards to under 5% utilization and expect my scores to pick back up as soon as the cards report. 

 

As far as collections go, I have managed to have all of my collections removed except for 2 medical bills for $79 & $169 & $525 (GW'd for PFD for Settle of $270) for AT&T that I was previously unaware of.. I have GW'd the collections office with a PFD letter. The agencies are I.C. Systems and ElectroMedical Associates. From what I have read about both companies, they are both quick to honor PFD's. Fingers Crossed.

 

I was also able to refinance my car by trading and cut my interest rate in half!

 

-The downside to this: I traded my car at the end of May. GM Financial reported a late payment in July and an on time payment in August. I just noticed this recently as I pulled my free annual credit report. I have sent disputes to all 3 credit bureaus, GM Financial and the BBB. I also sent a copy of a refund they had sent to me for an overpayment when the loan was paid off in June & a copy of date of my new loan. I expect this will be remedied. (It should be noted that my score did increase once my report reflected a paid off auto loan closed as paid as agreed)

 

I have also disputed all inquiries in the past year which I have found eliminates most if not all of them. 

 

All in all I expect once the cards report the new low balances, the late payment on GM Financial is remedied and the collections are removed.. I should be closer to the area of the 700's. (Woohoo!   Smiley Happy   )

 

CapitalOne QuickSilver: $20 ($400 limit) all payments on time

CapitalOne Rewards: $26 ($750 limit) all payments on time since 2011

CreditOne : $0($400 limit) all payments on time

FirstPremiere: $0 ($300 limit) all payments on time

Ally Financial: $13,000 (ish) Auto Loan all payments on time.

Student Loans (paid in full no late payments)

GM FInancial: (Paid Auto Loan sent Demand Letter for removal of incorrect info) 

 

Planning on requesting credit line increases for all of my cards as I haven't for about a year now.

 

Collections:

ElectroMedical Associates: $208.00 (sent PFD)

I.C. Systems $525.00 (sent G/W Settle for Delete)

 

 

 

 

 

~Erin

2/18/2015: TU612 ; EQ: 641 EX: 599
05/01/2014: TU: 506 EQ: 540 EX: 480
Goal Score: 750 Across the board
Message 3 of 14
JoMellow
Established Contributor

Re: My Journey in Credit Repa

I have also disputed all inquiries in the past year which I have found eliminates most if not all of them.  <~~~ are you saying you did a dispute on HP's and they removed them?? Early??  I didn't know this was possible.... now I'm wondering if I should try it.  Smiley Surprised

Original Scores: EQ FICO 645, TU 672, EX FICO 663 (4/2014)
Current Scores: EQ FICO 824, TU 840, EX FICO 826 (3/2018)
Message 4 of 14
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: My Journey in Credit Repa

Keep up the hard work! As I have been finding out rebuilding your credit after a wild ride through credit card hell can be an overwhelming task. And frustrating at times. It is very frustrating for me when some financial institutions that I have had financial and credit relations with for close to two decades refuse to give an inch due to a 4 year rough patch in my life where I got behind on almost everything. Even though I DID eventually make good on all of them without legal or collection action with the original creditor. Yet others seem to understand and show a willingness to work with me. Gotta keep at it though. In a couple more years all of my bad delinquencies will be gone due to limitations placed by the FCRA. Then I will be able to do business anywhere I wish. The ones that have worked with me through this will continue to get my loyalty as a consumer. The ones that did not are fixing to lose a good customer when this is all said and done.
Message 5 of 14
Rinna86
Member

Re: My Journey in Credit Repa

Absolutely try it. I don't think it is worth their time to counter the dispute.

~Erin

2/18/2015: TU612 ; EQ: 641 EX: 599
05/01/2014: TU: 506 EQ: 540 EX: 480
Goal Score: 750 Across the board
Message 6 of 14
Rinna86
Member

Re: My Journey in Credit Repa

More good news. Both IC System & Electro Medical have agreed to delete the items from CRB's. IC System settled for $290 on a $525  Smiley Happy 

~Erin

2/18/2015: TU612 ; EQ: 641 EX: 599
05/01/2014: TU: 506 EQ: 540 EX: 480
Goal Score: 750 Across the board
Message 7 of 14
gdale6
Moderator Emeritus

Re: My Journey in Credit Repa


@Rinna86 wrote:

More good news. Both IC System & Electro Medical have agreed to delete the items from CRB's. IC System settled for $290 on a $525  Smiley Happy 


Great news Smiley Happy

Message 8 of 14
JoMellow
Established Contributor

Re: My Journey in Credit Repa


@Rinna86 wrote:

Absolutely try it. I don't think it is worth their time to counter the dispute.


Did you only disput ones that might be aging off soon.? I have at least one that I feel is disputable; but ya never know, right? 

Original Scores: EQ FICO 645, TU 672, EX FICO 663 (4/2014)
Current Scores: EQ FICO 824, TU 840, EX FICO 826 (3/2018)
Message 9 of 14
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: My Journey in Credit Repa

Congrats on the success!
Message 10 of 14
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.