Newb... lots of credit issues (CO, Collections, etc)

[Anonymous]

So tomorrow I am going to try and get a car loan with a cosigner (my dad) and it has me interested in cleaning up my credit (which sucks). I have a 550 on equifax, which is what my bank uses.

I have no idea what to do besides pay down my credit cards....

I have a sears account which has been closed for a while

Status as of [?] Jun, 2006 Date opened [?] Mar, 1999 Date of last activity [?] Apr, 2006 Date closed [?] Not Reported Account number [?] Not Reported Loan type [?] Not Reported Credit limit [?] $350 Largest past balance [?] Not Reported Terms [?] Not Reported Account Type [?] Revolving Account holder [?] Individual Scheduled payment amount [?] $43

I paid 200$ of this a while ago directly to them, and I guess I still owe.

I have this capital one account, which lists little information

Status as of [?] Sep, 2008 Date opened [?] Apr, 2002 Date of last activity [?] May, 2004 Date closed [?] Not Reported Account number [?] Not Reported Loan type [?] Not Reported Largest past balance [?] $654 Terms [?] Not Reported Account Type [?] Revolving Account holder [?] Individual Scheduled payment amount [?] $0

And a Navy Federal Credit Union Account, which I voluntarily had my car repossessed and they left me with 18k in debt (after paying 400 a month for 3 years on a 18,500 principal loan)

Status as of [?] Feb, 2006 Date opened [?] Jun, 2004 Date of last activity [?] Jul, 2005 Date closed [?] Not Reported Account number [?] XXXXXXXXXX0707 Loan type [?] Not Reported Largest past balance [?] $18,738 Terms [?] Not Reported Account Type [?] Installment Account holder [?] Individual Scheduled payment amount [?] $317

This account is apparently now part of a collection agency as well.. called Cavalry Portfolio Services. I have not responded to any of their correspondence.

My questions are 

(1) should I call capital one and offer to pay some or all of the debt to lower my utilization?

(2) same with sears, should I pay them or what?

(3) what the heck do I do about NFCU? There is no way I have 19k$ to pay them, I am a college student with little income.

Thanks

Steve

[Maryn]

Okay, if you have a good income, first off see if you can get the car dealer to run your loan by HSBC.  I had a much, much lower score than yours and they financed me without a co-signer...if you are interested in that.

As to the Sears and Cap One, you need to really make sure you handle this before they farm it out to collections, and they will.  Also, take the time to learn about your rights...if I had had this site before I started my clean up, it would have been faster and the results would have been better.

Good Luck!

[Maryn]

Sorry about the HSBC suggestion, I missed the college part...

[Anonymous]

OK, so what do I do about capital one and sears? Do I write them a letter asking to settle the account for less. The original balance on the capital one was around 300$ and they kept charging me tons of fees so basically I told them to F off years ago, now its $1275!!!! I don't have 1275 to give them. I could reasonably afford a one time payment of half that, however. And sears is just 200$ or so, I could pay that.

I guess I just don't know how to go about it. Do I write letters to both saying take it off my credit if I pay them? Does capital one work with people at all, since they unreasonably inflated my debt to them?

thanks again

steve

[Maryn]

Honestly, I will be better at telling you what didn't work, but here goes:

I settled with Cap One and they came back for more.  At that time, I didn't know enough to know what to do, so I paid and it listed as a collection.  So, my advice, is to try your best to get them to pay for deletion.  You might even be able to get them to agree to payments...There is a specific way to do it, so read up on it in the forums before you start.

Same thing for Sears.

Best of luck!!!

[Anonymous]

Have you pulled your free annual reports? They will provide more information.

You need to know DOFD or scheduled removal date, date of last payment, and the SOL in your state before doing anything.

It is really hard to advise on what to do without this information.