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@migrunner wrote:Hi Everyone,
I have been checking in with this forum over the past several months and have found the information here very helpful. Following this information (and info from other sites), I was able to raise my Credit Score from the mid-500s (yes, mid-500s) to the lower 700s in just over 3 months! That's right, almost a 200 point INCREASE in 3 months or so...so as a "pay it forward" for all the help I received, here's how I did it:
November 26, 2013 - Over the Thanksgiving Holidays. I paid for my credit report from all three credit bureaus and noticed that I had 2 collection accounts. My credit has always been pretty bad, so I basically haven't been using credit for years and years. But I read a blog article that said that if you send out a dispute to the credit bureaus over the hoidays, there was a good chance that they woudn't be able to get all of the information back that they needed to in order to validate the debts.
Early January, 2014 - I heard back from the credit bureaus (all three) and they all said that he debts were valid (address check only).
January 15, 2014 - I sent a Verification of Debt letter to both of the collection agencies. Examples of this letter can be found on this site as well as several others. In my letter (which I customized), I told them that they were required to provide me with the following information:
WHY YOU THINK I OWE THIS DEBT (including account information and contact information from original creditor and proof of the alleged debt, including original contract or agreement from original creditor.
THE AMOUNT AND AGE OF HTE DEBT (including a copy of the last billing statement, amount of debt when you obtained it and the date you acquired the debt, any additional charges, interest, or other fees and if so, how they were calculated.
DETAILS ABOUT YOUR AUTHORITY TO COLLECT THE DEBT (including proof that you are licensed to operate in my state and specific verifications of how you are reporting the debt (age, open status, what kind of account etc).
January 20, 2014 - Received a letter from CREDIT MANAGEMENT, one of the collection agencies, that they were "discontinuing their collection efforts" and would be deleting the account with all three credit bureaus.
LAte January 2014 - I received a collection letter from Midland Credit Management (the other collection agency) , but no direct response regarding my demand for verification. I ignored the collection letter and waited for a response.
February 21, 2014 - Midland Credit Management sent me a letter stating that I did not provide them with enough information to investigate my dispute. THe letter requested that I provide them with account information, payment information etc etc. I would NEVER do this as part of the dispute/verification process. To put it simply, I had not, and would not, even acknowledge that the debt was mine. Federal law DOES NOT put the burden of proof on ME to prove that I DO NOT OWE THE DEBT. Providing them with any information whatsoever would give them the information they need to VERIFY the debt. DON'T DO IT!
February 24, 2014 - I sent them another letter in which I pointed out that they had failed to verify the debt and therefore they MUST delete the account from my credit reports of face further legal action. In this letter, I referenced my previous letter and the date they received it.
Februry 24, 2014 - At the same time, I sent a letter to all three credit bureaus, including delivery confirmation and a copy of the letter I sent on January 15, to Midland. In my letter, I reiterated that Midland had failed to verify the debt. I also requested that they provide me with their "METHOD OF VERIFICATION" that they used in their initial investigation (the late-November letter). This letter was based on one that I found on this site.
March 7, 2014 - Received a letter from Midland Credit Management stating that they have instructed the 3 major credit bureaus to delete the account from their records!!!
WOOOOHOOOOO! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
In the meantime, in order to build my credit (since I hadn't been using any credit for years, I literall had ZERO accounts except for the two collections), I opened a secured VISA card from FIRST PREMIER BANK for $200 and I opened another with FIRST PREMIER BANK for $1000. FIRST PREMIER also allows you to open a second account, which is reported as a separate, completely different account, so I opened a second account with them for $1000. So by the end of hte month, I will have $2200 worth of open credit and since I don't need to use these cards at all (I use them once for a small grocery store purchase and then pay them off within a week) I usually leave them at home, so I will have very low credit utilization. I plan to continue to open a new secured card every month or so (when I can afford to) and to use them very seldom to build my credit history. In six months, I hope to have $3000-$7000 worth of open credit accounts with near $0 balances. We'll see how much higher my credit score can go!
So that's my success story. Stay with it and use this forum and others for valuable information and strategies.
MARK
Congrats and WTG!