Rebuilding Your Credit

[randaljon]

I have 4 original creditors that charged-off accounts back in 2008.

2 accounts are HBSC and I have no recollection of exactly what they were. The other 2 accounts had excessive fees and the balances were 2 to 3 times as high as the original credit balance.  I disputed through the CRA but they were verified. However I never received any details.

I am contemplating directly requesting verification from these 4 companies. 2 of the companies list the balance at 0.

Is there a chance through verification that these companies could then raise the balances? I believe that would hurt my score.

If an account is charged off should the blance be 0 by law?

Is it worth it to ask for verification?

Also, could this requesting verification lead these companies to activate new CAs?

[O6]

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randallcred wrote:

I have 4 original creditors that charged-off accounts back in 2008.

2 accounts are HBSC and I have no recollection of exactly what they were. The other 2 accounts had excessive fees and the balances were 2 to 3 times as high as the original credit balance.  I disputed through the CRA but they were verified. However I never received any details.

I am contemplating directly requesting verification from these 4 companies. 2 of the companies list the balance at 0.

Is there a chance through verification that these companies could then raise the balances? I believe that would hurt my score.

If an account is charged off should the blance be 0 by law?

Is it worth it to ask for verification?

Also, could this requesting verification lead these companies to activate new CAs?

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Unfortunately, original creditors are largely immune to provisions of the FDCPA that requires collection activities to cease pending reply to a timely made DV request.

Still, they probably would respond with details to help you better understand the account, though they might also start to reinitiate or ramp up collection activities -- possibly even suing.  I wouldn't contact them unless you are prepared to pay the amount(s) owed should they be able to show they are legally owed the amounts they have stated.

Once you add in late fees, penalty interest, overlimit fees and legal costs, it is not unexpected that a balance can grow to over 200% or more of the original balance.