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Is there any harm in sending the PFD letter?
I have been rebuilding my credit for the past 1.5 years, and have successfully raised my EQ score from 503 to 679. I have Cap1 and Best Buy cards each with limits below $1000. I have tried to get additional credit but can't get approved for any cards. My most recent late payment is about 2 years old, and since May 3008 I have had perfect payment history. The one current baddie on my report is a collection account with AFNI for $1328. I suspect that it is for a cell phone bill from 2002 or so.
My CR shows that the last activity was in 7/2003 which means that the TL should fall off of next summer. I want to be responsible and pay what I owe, yet I don't want to send a PFD letter to AFNI that may trigger an update to my account and lower my score.
Thanks,
Not1
I personally will wait till it falls off. They can still try and collect it from you till the end of times. But I'd wait till it falls off and then pay them on the side, when it's off your report, so you won't have to deal with PFD letters, etc. That way there would be no recent updating, no score dings, no stresses, and the like.
And you'll have a clean conscience. ![]()
@Anonymous wrote:Is there any harm in sending the PFD letter?
I have been rebuilding my credit for the past 1.5 years, and have successfully raised my EQ score from 503 to 679. I have Cap1 and Best Buy cards each with limits below $1000. I have tried to get additional credit but can't get approved for any cards. My most recent late payment is about 2 years old, and since May 3008 I have had perfect payment history. The one current baddie on my report is a collection account with AFNI for $1328. I suspect that it is for a cell phone bill from 2002 or so.
My CR shows that the last activity was in 7/2003 which means that the TL should fall off of next summer. I want to be responsible and pay what I owe, yet I don't want to send a PFD letter to AFNI that may trigger an update to my account and lower my score.
Thanks,
Not1
Hello and welcome.
Precise dates can be very important. The date of last activity doesn't mean anything unless, by coincidence it happens to be the same as the DOFD (Date of First Delinquency). The DOFD is the date you got behind in your payments and never caught back up. For charges offs and collections the DOFD detemines when these types of derogatories will no longer be factored into scoring.
Here is how and when derogs drop from you CR, and are thus no longer included in FICO scoring.
Monthly delinquencies under an OC account drop at 7 years from their individual date of delinquency. The date of first delinquency (DOFD) has nothing to do with these drop-off dates. They drop from their own individual dates. So look at each prior OC reported monthly derog date, and simply add 7 years.
If the OC subsequently reports their account as a charge off, that is a totally different and additional post to your CR. Their post as a charge-off will remain in your CR for 7.5 years from the DOFD on the OC account, which is the first 30-day delinquency you had on the account, and disregards any later 60/90+ delinquencies that followed. That cannot be reset.
If the OC then refers the account for collection, and a CA posts to your CR, the drop-off date of their collection reporting is the same as that of a CO. It is 7.5 years from the same DOFD on the OC account, and the CA cannot reset this date.
You need to determine your DOFD on this account. If you don't have your old records saved then I suggest you pull all three credit reports from annualcreditreport.com. You can pull them for free once a year. Experian and Transunion will show when this account should be gone and Equifax will show the actual DOFD.
If by chance the DOLA is the same as the DOFD (7/2003) then the 7.5 year time limit will expire about 1/2011. But you need to make sure about this date in order to make an informed decision.
From a BK years ago to:
8/09 TU-765 EQ- 783
9/09 EX pulled by lender 802
3/10 EQ- 800
You can do the same thing with hard work
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