Rebuilding Your Credit

[frida]

I haven't seen what you are supposed to write on the check, so I don't know what to say.

But, should you send a personal check or a money order, since it says "certified funds"? I don't want them getting my bank acct info, but it seems like it would be good to have a canceled check proving you paid.

[PayYouNever]

You want an Restrictive Endorsement on the back of the check, something like this:

The cashing of this check certifies that [name of CA] agrees to remove all reporting of this account from the 3 major credit bureaus (TU, EX, EQ) and any other credit reporting agencies they report to.

[raisingmyscore]

Thanks so much! That sounds like very good advise. Kinda binds them to the agreement...Well still nothing on my PFD's today but I am still hoping....

[DillPickel]

I was wondering the same thing.......Sign or Not Sign the PFD letter?

Message Edited by DillPickel on 10-08-2007 12:29 PM

[haulingthescoreup]

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DillPickel wrote:
I was wondering the same thing.......Sign or Not Sign the PFD letter?

Message Edited by DillPickel on 10-08-2007 12:29 PM

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I'm hoping that this poster got the answer elsewhere, but the danger of signing anything that goes to a CA is that they can scan your signature, create some sort of false document, and apply your name to it. That is why you see the recommendation to type your name only on letters, etc. to CA's.

What a sad place this world is getting to be.

[stress83]

Very interesting...

Question for my situation...

I lost my job about a year ago.  I have 3 derog. accounts from this time frame.

Dell account: Closed by grantor last winter.  60 days past due twice (12/06 & 1/07).  Currently has a $1300 balance and payments have been up to date since.

Chase: Closed by grantor last winter.  30 days past due twice, and 60 days 4 times (collectively all lates 11/06 through 4/07).  Currenty has 975 balance and payments have been up to date since May.

Auto loan: 30 days past due 4 times (12/06 through 3/07).  I have been up to date since.

Since they are small balances, are they worth trying to settle with a PFD or should I just pay them off and write a GW?  I called them and tried to get them to reinstate the accounts, but they refused.  I don't want "closed by grantor" on my report, so should I just try and get the accounts deleted?

For the auto loan, should I just try a GW?

[Pickle]

I recently used the PFD letter for a $55 charge. I received a prompt reply from the CA stating that they follow the guidelines of credit reporting and will mark my account as paid in full, but will not delete the reported claim.

What is the next recommended step from here? The debt is from 3/2004 and I'm willing to pay it, but would like it taken off my credit report. Thanks.

[Any2ForU]

I received a response on the sample PFD letter I sent from this thread concerning a $70 charge from 2002. Most of the response letter is irrelevant, but the pertinent part after stating they are willing to accept the $70 as payment in full is as follows:

"Upon the receipt and processing of said payment we shall notify the credit bureaus with a request for removal of the derogatory item."

My question is whether this goes far enough, or whether I should call them and make them re-send a more specific response like I requested in the letter.

I also plan to include the following restrictive endorsement on my check:

"The cashing of this check certifies that [name of CA] agrees to remove all reporting of this account from the 3 major credit bureaus (TU, EX, EQ) and any other credit reporting agencies they report to."

I just don't want them to turn around and claim that they fulfilled their end just by "sending a request" to the CRAs regardless, of the result. 

Am I being too strict, or will my restrictive endorsement be enough to bind them to my terms, rather than their vague wording in their response?

Thanks in advance. It's my only blemish and I refused to pay it out of principal so I'd like to be done with this asap.

[combs76]

I was wondering how do I do the Restrictive endorsement thing? Do I just turn the check over and write "The cashing of this check certifies the......." Thanks for clarification in advance.

[meganm0420]

I am new to this forum and just starting out on getting my credit repaired. Here is my situation. I have already started paying one CA $100 a month and have been doing so for several months now. I had another credit card account get sold to a CA as well and that CA just contacted me to offer a settlement of 1/2 the debt for a payment of $900.00. Once they offered that I deceided to see if I could get the first CA to reduce the amount owed if I paid in full and they said they would reduce the amount owed from $2,324.80 to $1.627.36. Being new to all of this and never having bad credit before I thought this sounded like a good idea. Now that I am doing my research and reading this forum I want to try the PFD approach, but my question is can I do that since I have already been paying the first CA for several months now and I just paid the second CA $100.00 a few days ago. My second question is can I do this via the phone w/ the 2 people I am in contact w/ for each CA to pay these debts? I am afraid if I do the letter it will take too long and both will report me late for the month then possibly decline the pfd all together making my credit even worse than it already is? What would be the best way to proceed? I also did'nt realize that both of these collection acounts would sit on my credit report for 7 years as collection accounts as paid and now I'm reading about doing my homework on the ramifications of settling for less so I am going to go read up on that next. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Oh and I have a third credit card that is closed by the bank but not in collections that I have been making payments on, can I do a pfd for them or only CA's?