Seeking advice on improving credit + handling rental history!!

[medicgrrl]

I would definitely try for a PFD on the collections.  The worst that can happen is they say no.  Search the forums for your specific collection agency and see if you can find anything about other's success.  

As for raising your scores, I was in bankruptcy when I was approved for my last 2 apartments.  The biggest battle you have is trying to get that collection removed first.  I'm not sure if they'll even contact your previous landlord on those since they're kinda old.

[Anonymous]

Well, I have an update to report...and I'm still kind of at a loss here with this one, unfortunately.

During all the research of IC Systems, I kept coming across story after story of people dealing with them over the phone for PFD, and every person reported pretty much the same results: an easy phone call experience followed by prompt deletion. So on Sept 12 I finally worked up the nerve and called them up.

They agreed easily to my request— that I pay $254 debt in full, in exchange for them to “remove this account from my credit reports”—so I paid right there over the phone, took down all their info, received confirmation #, etc. Was really relieved and grateful, and assumed this one was now out of the woods!

A couple days back, I checked my credit reports and found…that the account is marked as being paid, but that it’s STILL THERE. ?!?!

Am I jumping the gun here and being paranoid?? Is this how it’s supposed to work, and they can/do request the deletion sometime *after* reporting as paid? Or…??

What the crap, IC Systems??

(Does this sound familiar to anyone? Something you've encountered before, by chance?)

[Anonymous]

(Oh, though in much better/more logical news: I did see my score jump by a nice 22 points the first month Capitol One reported payment on that new credit card)

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello really helpful people—

Right now, I am in the beginning stages of attempting to slog through my mess of a credit situation. :-/ I am actually (yes, seriously) a very frugal person, and had a great credit score/situation up until around late 2012. Due to some medical bills which I was unable to cover any other way, I was carrying balances on 2 credit cards—which I *hated*, and was actively working to pay down.

Then I unexpectedly lost my job, and when I couldn’t pay my bills at all, everything financially started to go into free fall. It was at this point that—totally drowning and overwhelmed, plus still dealing daily with the above medical (chronic pain) issues—I’m plenty ashamed to admit that I basically didn’t pay what I couldn’t pay, ignored bills piling up, eventually ignored creditors, etc etc. This whole situation eventually resulted in losing 2 apartment leases in 2 years.

Okay, so I am now finally trying to face and fix this mess… I have a very stable job now, and have been gratefully saving more than 50% of my income each month for over a year. So I have a little bit of a cushion to work with finally, but want to make absolutely sure that I am allocating this money in the smartest way possible.

My long term goal is, of course, to pay everything off. My much shorter term goal is to be able to (finally) lease an apartment!!! This is where I know things get tricky. I owe back rent to both of the apts mentioned above—though only one of those (the lesser amt) is showing up on my recently pulled credit reports. In addition (and please bear with me if this sounds ridiculously stupid), I’m realizing that I’m not even actually sure if either of these involved an official eviction. My credit report shows up clean for evictions, but as far as I understand, this may not necessarily mean anything.

I am very anxious to move as soon as I can—I do have the ongoing rent money now, plus the ability to pay extra deposit, etc if someone were potentially willing to negotiate alternative terms in light of my crappy credit/rental history. I know that this is still unlikely, so I'm definitely trying to clean up everything I am able, as quickly as I can (though yes, I'm unfortunately very aware that this is no “quick” process here).

After attempting lots of learning/digging for info on my own, I was so incredibly relieved to come across this forum. If anyone might have a few min to look over this and share some insight or advice, I would be EXTREMELY grateful.

Thank you in advance!!!!!

-----------

Credit card:
Capital One / Date opened: 08/03/2017 / Balance = $0  Credit Limit = $200

Closed:
*ACS/JP Morgan Chase student loan: Day 120 (04/2012) / Date closed: 11/30/2012 / Balance: $0 / High balance: $8,034 / Past due: $0 (Equifax), $1,260 (Experian)
*AES/BHEA student loan: Day 120 (09/2012) / Date closed: 12/21/2012 / Balance: $0 / High balance: $1,560
*AES/BHEA student loan: Day 90 (04/2012) / Date closed: 07/16/2012 / Balance: $0 / High balance: $683

Collections:
*American Student Assistance student loan: Date closed: 03/31/2013 / Balance: $11,277 / High balance: $7,343
*Fidelity Creditors (Apt lease): Placed for collection: 09/22/2014 / Balance: $950 / Original amount: $558
*IC System Collections (T-Mobile): Placed for collection: 11/16/2016 / Balance: $254
 
Chargeoffs:
*Bank of America cc: Max delinquency of 120 days (08/2013 &10/2013) / Date closed: 06/21/2013 / High balance of $3,583 (02/2015-07/2017) / Original chargeoff: $2,215
*Bank of America cc: Max delinquency of 120 days (11/2013 & 01/2014) / Date closed: 09/05/2013 / High balance of $1,698 (02/2015 to 07/2017) / Original chargeoff: $994
*Discover cc: Account paid in full (09/30/2015); was a chargeoff

Experian: 510
Equifax: 531
TransUnion: 499

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Evictions (even if they go through a court to get you out) do not appear on a credit report, only monetary judgments show up. However they may show up on a rental history report, which is a completely different animal, and not all property management companies rely on them.

Any property related items on your credit reports will need to be paid before a new lease is likely to be obtainable - BTDT.

Pull your free reports from annuallcreditreport.com to see the reported DoFD of each item. This is not shown on commercial online reports.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Well, I have an update to report...and I'm still kind of at a loss here with this one, unfortunately.

During all the research of IC Systems, I kept coming across story after story of people dealing with them over the phone for PFD, and every person reported pretty much the same results: an easy phone call experience followed by prompt deletion. So on Sept 12 I finally worked up the nerve and called them up.

They agreed easily to my request— that I pay $254 debt in full, in exchange for them to “remove this account from my credit reports”—so I paid right there over the phone, took down all their info, received confirmation #, etc. Was really relieved and grateful, and assumed this one was now out of the woods!

A couple days back, I checked my credit reports and found…that the account is marked as being paid, but that it’s STILL THERE. ?!?!

Am I jumping the gun here and being paranoid?? Is this how it’s supposed to work, and they can/do request the deletion sometime *after* reporting as paid? Or…??

What the crap, IC Systems??

(Does this sound familiar to anyone? Something you've encountered before, by chance?)

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This is actually very common when paying off collections accounts.  It often takes two reporting cycles for it to actually be deleted.  The first one they will say that it is paid and then it is deleted with the second.  How quickly this happens can vary based on how often they report.  If they report in the middle on the month, I would guess that they also report at the end of the month as well, otherwise you will have to wait until they report in the middle of October for it to be deleted.  Don't worry yet!  And congrats on taking that huge first step!  Didn't it feel great?