New guy on board....

[Anonymous]

Greetings everyone! Obviously I am another new guy that stumbled across this site today.   I read through the sticky threads at the top and, (WOW!), you guys have a lot of abbreviations! LOL

I am currently working as a contractor in Afghanistan and I figured this would be a good time to try to get things cleaned up.

I printed my reports from the 3 agencies and noticed there are some things I could do that would probably help along the path to repairing my credit. We, (my wife and I), have a few small charge offs that we could knock out right away. I would assume that PFD's would be the way to go in regards to those? I know one of them is an old T-Mobile account I used to have and another is a utility. There are a few other negative things on there that I need to try to resolve as well.

Our biggest issue, (at least I think it is), is that I bought a brand new truck in 2006 and then did a voluntary repossession on it in 2008. We were struggling with paying our house, my truck note, and my wife's note on her SUV. Things have gotten better and we are current on everything as of this writing and that will be the case from this point forward.

Right now, other than basic utilities, (phones, cable, lights, etc...), the only "debt" we have is our mortgage. We have been in the house since 1999 and we still have about 18 years left on our 30 year mortgage.

One of my ultimate goals for contracting in Afghanistan is to pay off our house. I could do that in about a year but I wonder if from a credit standpoint if that is such a good idea.

Also, we have NO credit cards but from what I have been reading that it might actually be beneficial to us to get a card or two to help build our report again. Is that correct?

Thanks all!

[Anonymous]

Also, I would like to add, that of the negative things we have showing on our report, some of it is medical. The largest being about $1600.

I guess I'm really looking for guidance on how to procede from here. Should I contact, and make payment to the OC, or the CA? In one instance, (T-Mobile), I show them and a CA both reporting the same debt.

If I pay T-Mobile will the then contact the CA or should I do that on my own just to make sure? Should I be contacting both the OC and CA across the board to cover my bases and make sure that everyone is notified?

Lastly, I would assume getting all of this in writing from the various parties involved is standard operating procedure when doing things like this, correct?

Thanks again!

[guiness56]

Hi and welcome.

Some information to remember - Just paying off a CA will not improve your score.  If you pay an OC CO that may help because the amount will be reduced from the overall debt you have.

CA accounts are not included in your AAoA.

How old are these accounts?  Are they beyond the SOL for your state?  Since you are out of country your SOL, if not expired, may be tolled.  It all depends on the state you live in.

Since TMobile and a CA are reporting, you need to find out if the OC owns the account or just assigned it to the CA.  If they own it and you just pay them all they legally have to due is notify the CA that you paid.  You can offer a PFD to the OC and ask them to recall the collection.  If the CA owns the account, you would have to work with them on getting it paid and deleted, then GW the OC.  The CA and the OC are responsible for only their TL.

It is legal for the OC and a CA to report the same debt.

Getting a couple of CC would most definitely help your score.  In the beginning it may drop due to new TL posting but will start going back up and get better.

With CC remember to use one card and keep the other at a 0 balance.  The one you use keep at or below 9% reporting utilization for the best FICO scoring.

[Anonymous]

Well, looking through my reports some of the CO are from around 2006. The truck, (repossession), was from 2008 and it now shows CO as well. There are some other things that are showing last report/activity as recent as last year.

Also, I see a few things that show as currently in collections and I would assume that I should try to knock those out right away. The biggest, (aside from the repo), is a medical bill for around $1600 from when my youngest daughter was born in 2008.

[Booner72]

Hola, Sirgringo!

You can also google "HIPAA MEDICAL COLLECTIONS" and find out the Hipaa method.  Can't be discussed here.  But lots of success for people.  These would be for the medical collections.

How much do you owe on the repo?  Can you pay that?  If so, first DV, then PFD>\.

[Anonymous]

I think the balance is about $13k. We are in a position we were could pay it if they would agree to some form or payments. It could be done within a year for sure if not sooner.