I had 9 medical collections on my credit report when I started rebuilding in May. After reading about PFD, I attempted one with the CA that had one of the collections. They immediately agreed and upon payment, it was deleted within a week. It was a great feeling and a good start.
Six collections were with another CA. I couldn't PIF immediately, but I decided to contact them to see if they would be willing to PFD if I made 2 or 3 payments. All 6 collections were from the same provider and they had one collection listed for each invoice (only two dates of service). I had never received any correspondence from them, but I was able to track down the probable dates of service by reviewing my old EOBs (I save them all and have for years). When I called, I spoke with an extremely pleasant CSR. They had a bad address for me - I've never lived at the address they had. I set up payment arrangements to pay the balance in full over 3 months. He talked with his manager and they agreed to do a PFD for all of the collections since they had a bad address for me :-) He immediately sent me an email to verify the PFD agreement.
I have a judgment for two large medical bills that I am currently paying off and will have PIF in Oct. The plaintiff's atty has agreed to file a Stipulation to Vacate the Judgment once it is paid in full. The creditor pulled the bills from the CA prior to filing suit, so I disputed those collections since the CA did not have collection authority and they have been removed from my credit report and the OC, of course, is not reporting.
My other real baddie was a CO from Synchrony. I had fallen behind on payments - was paying but could not catch up quick enough and they charged it off in January 2015. In July, I sent an email (ask.synchrony@synchronyfinancial.com) and explained what happened to cause me to fall behind in payments and how the events were remedied and asked if they could remove the CO status since I had continued to make payments and was catching up. I received a call from a very friendly CSR in the executive customer relations dept. He said they were unable to change the CO, which I understood. He did talk with a manager just to confirm and called me back a couple of days later to reiterate that they couldn't do it. I sent another email a few days later to give kudos to the CSR because I really thought he provided superior customer service. A few weeks later I received a ltr from Synchrony saying they were making adjustments to my account because they had charged me some interest and fees that they shouldn't have. When I was reviewing my CR the following week, I saw that they removed the TL completely from all reports!! I did call them this week to see what my final balance was after adjustments because I am still making monthly payments. The woman I spoke with said they were still processing the adjustments, so I should stop making payments until I receive a letter with the corrected balance in approximately 30 days. She did not have any other info. I plan to continue to make payments, but I really hope that the TL stays gone. I am worried that they will put it back on once they have determined my final balance....I didn't see a big score jump with it removed (5-10 pts), but it would be great to have it gone forever.
The 6 collections and judgment will be paid by the end of Oct. That will resolve all of my "baddies." Once they are removed from my report, I am really hoping for a big score bump in November.
I really feel that I lucked out with reaching friendly reps with the collection agencies and a cooperative and nice plaintiff's atty. Of course, I was always really nice, even when told they couldn't do what I wanted - it isn't their fault I screwed up my credit. It can be scary to make those calls and send the letters, but you never know what will happen until you ask.
05/01/15: EQ 519 TU 541 EX 506
10/28/15: EQ 637 TU 646 EX 622
First Goal Score: 600
Second Goal Score: 640
