PFD or Pay and Re-Open?

[unlockmycreditchains]

myFICO family - your advice is needed!

I have 6 revolving accounts which have been charged off - I discovered a family member opened them in my name.  Upon discovering this, my options were to consider these as identity theft and file a police report or to pay the accounts.  Because my mother was adamant against the first option, she has offered to pay these accounts to keep said family member out of trouble and help my credit in the process.  I have spoken with the company these accounts belong to - which is Seventh Avenue.  The charged off accounts are for their related companies: Ginny's, Monroe and Main, Midnight Velvet, Swiss Colony, Country Door, and 7th Ave.

My question is this, should I go the PFD route or ask that the accounts be re-opened after the balances have been settled?  My CR only has a current auto loan, a current credit card ($37 bal, $375 CL), a closed credit card account from 2007 (paid and closed), and a closed PIF auto loan from 2006.  I am afraid that my score is going to plummet once these accounts are deleted.  Will going from 10 account to 4 be detrimental - is there a benefit to seeing if they would be open to reporting these accounts as open and in good standing?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!  Thank you!

[RobertEG]

Hmmmmm. I am not about to step into the dog-dung of family matters, but .....

Maybe Mom does not realize that even payment of these COs wont remove their score impact, and they  will continue to have major derogatory affect on your credit score until after 7 1/2 years from the DOFD on the OC account that led up to the CO.  If you dont file an identity theft report, you will effectively relinquish any claim that the debt is not valid, thus eliminating dispute of the debt.  And what if they bring legal action?  What could you say in court about validity?  Are all the debts still within you state statute of limitations for debt collection? 

You would be asking for a whole lot in the type of PFD letter that you would be offering.  You wouild be asking them to delete only the prior derogs, not to delete the account, and additionally return it to active status.  That is a form of GW request before payment.  How would you explain failure to pay?  So you probably could not beef up a PFD request by offering circumstances. 

Meanwhile, a PFD offer is just a conditional offer to pay that they can just disregard, or place into collection, adding a new derog to your CR, or even go directly to legal action.  PFD has potential benefits, but also potential risks.

If the accounts are charged off, they are alreeady closed under the cloud of major delinquency.To get them to reopen would, in my opinion, lead to a lot of questions that you cant answer.

I almost always listen to Momma.  But not always.

[MarineVietVet]

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@unlockmycreditchains wrote:

myFICO family - your advice is needed!

I have 6 revolving accounts which have been charged off - I discovered a family member opened them in my name.  Upon discovering this, my options were to consider these as identity theft and file a police report or to pay the accounts.  Because my mother was adamant against the first option, she has offered to pay these accounts to keep said family member out of trouble and help my credit in the process.  I have spoken with the company these accounts belong to - which is Seventh Avenue.  The charged off accounts are for their related companies: Ginny's, Monroe and Main, Midnight Velvet, Swiss Colony, Country Door, and 7th Ave.

My question is this, should I go the PFD route or ask that the accounts be re-opened after the balances have been settled?  My CR only has a current auto loan, a current credit card ($37 bal, $375 CL), a closed credit card account from 2007 (paid and closed), and a closed PIF auto loan from 2006.  I am afraid that my score is going to plummet once these accounts are deleted.  Will going from 10 account to 4 be detrimental - is there a benefit to seeing if they would be open to reporting these accounts as open and in good standing?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!  Thank you!

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There's nothing to consider. This was and continues to be identity theft. It doesn't matter if it's family or not. A thief is a thief and needs to be penalized for it.

I know first hand how family troubles can cause terrible pain but doing the right thing is never wrong. I don't know how old you are but you need to tell mom to mind her own business. As Robert said paying for this theft will not help your credit.

I realize my words sound very harsh and I don't mean them to. I'm trying to give you my opinion in a supportive way but sometimes in life our integrity comes before everything else including family.

Despite my gentle scolding I hope this all turns out well for you.

[haulingthescoreup]

fwiw, in attempting to protect the identity thief, your mom is enabling this person to keep on going and quite possibly get in serious criminal trouble.

There's a lot to be said for tough love. Kids (I'm assuming this is a sibling or equivalent) never grow up if their parents keep trying to deflect natural consequences of their actions.

[katecrime]

those places don't report to the bureaus until things have gone bad.  it's completely useless to try to have them re-opened.  it's nothing but over priced junk anyway.  plus like everyone else said paid COs remain on your report

it's your life and your credit.  do what's best for you and explain it gently to mom afterward

good luck

[hopingsoon]

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@unlockmycreditchains wrote:

myFICO family - your advice is needed!

I have 6 revolving accounts which have been charged off - I discovered a family member opened them in my name.  Upon discovering this, my options were to consider these as identity theft and file a police report or to pay the accounts.  Because my mother was adamant against the first option, she has offered to pay these accounts to keep said family member out of trouble and help my credit in the process.  I have spoken with the company these accounts belong to - which is Seventh Avenue.  The charged off accounts are for their related companies: Ginny's, Monroe and Main, Midnight Velvet, Swiss Colony, Country Door, and 7th Ave.

My question is this, should I go the PFD route or ask that the accounts be re-opened after the balances have been settled?  My CR only has a current auto loan, a current credit card ($37 bal, $375 CL), a closed credit card account from 2007 (paid and closed), and a closed PIF auto loan from 2006.  I am afraid that my score is going to plummet once these accounts are deleted.  Will going from 10 account to 4 be detrimental - is there a benefit to seeing if they would be open to reporting these accounts as open and in good standing?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!  Thank you!

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I know this is an old post but I'm hoping you are still around...

I was just wondering the same thing about Seventh Avenue. I only have myself to blame though, no identity theft. Anyway, I was looking at my CR and realized that my Seventh Ave account is the oldest. I read somewhere that average age of accounts is part of the formula so I was just wondering to myself if Seventh Ave would be willing to let me pay to bring my account back in good standing. I don't have much on my credit and this account is twice as old as anything else on there.

So, were you able to do this?

[unlockmycreditchains]

After much thought, I decided to go with the advice given by other members and I reported the identity theft. Seventh Avenue deleted the account from my file, as were the others that I did not open. The entire process took about 2 years. Maybe you can try to ask for a PFD from them. They may just go for it since the account is older. I wish I could be of more help.