Starting credit repair

[surfone7]

Hello I am starting to try and repair the damage I have done to my credit. I filed BK in 04  and had rebuilt a little since then but ran into problems in 08 due to being unemployed for 18 months, I still am but live on my military retirement. Things are VERY tight until I find a job and only have a limited amount of money available after essentials. I have cut off down every possible bill that I have including  eliminating the internet ( am at my sisters using hers). I have a few charge offs that appear on my report and have read through most of the info posted on the forums and have done the DV's and have been trying to set up settlement payment plans for the bigger balances with PIF after settlement completed. Is there anything else I should be doing?

I have only one that will be past the SOL come April and I haven't touched that one yet but am going to offer to PIF for a PFD as soon as April rolls around. It will fall off my report in 2012.

I also received a Dunning letter on March 14th, dated March 9th from Chase Receivables on a charge off in January 2010, the OC is showing on the CR but not the CA. My questions is this, as soon as I received the Dunning Letter the phone calls started from them and they have been calling every day for the past few days numerous times, are they allowed to do this? before I even have a chance to answer the Dunning Letter?

Thanks in advance

[guiness56]

Thank you for your service.

I would definitely tackle this new CO first.  The newer they are the bigger the impact on your score.

When a CA is allowed to call has a lot to do with what your state says about it.  For instance, a CA cannot call more than 3 times a week in WA.  They can call between 730am and 900pm.  Check your states statutes.

A CO that is still owned by the OC will damage your score more.  Not only because of the CO but because the balance is included in your utiization.

Are most of these still within your states SOL?

[surfone7]

Yes they are all within the SOL. I live in Georgia and am still unclear on the SOL in regards to CC. I read where GA is 4 years for open accounts and 6 years for written then read elsewhere that GA now considers cc debt as 6 years because of some ruling that happened in a case in 08.

The others are charge offs are for a cable company that I can pay, OC not showing just the CA and a few credit cards.

I know my utilization is hurting here, the two credit cards, one with Cap One and one with HSBC are still with them and showing a balance.I called them to try and work it out with them but they referred me to the CA. The CA handling the Cap One offered me a settlement, but I countered it and have not heard back from them yet. I cannot agree at this time to something I cannot afford to pay and just end up defaulting on them also, so am not sure where to proceed from here.

[guiness56]

CC debt, no matter what state you live in is considered open ended, not written.

EDITED:  I stand corrected.  CC debt in GA is considered a written contact.  That is the first I have ever seen that happen.

For the ones that you can pay, send the CA a DV letter.  If they validate, send a PFD.

[MBOhio2]

guiness56 - Respectfully, this is not true. In Ohio, CC debt is considered written, not open ended, as affirmed by many Ohio courts. As a result, the 15 year SOL applies (not the 6 year for open ended debt). I suspect there are other states where CC is also considered written.

(As a caveat, if you Google the SOL for CC debt in Ohio, many sites will tell you it's 6 years, but this is NOT true. Be very careful of legal info you find on the internet)

[guiness56]

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@MBOhio2 wrote:

guiness56 - Respectfully, this is not true. In Ohio, CC debt is considered written, not open ended, as affirmed by many Ohio courts. As a result, the 15 year SOL applies (not the 6 year for open ended debt). I suspect there are other states where CC is also considered written.

(As a caveat, if you Google the SOL for CC debt in Ohio, many sites will tell you it's 6 years, but this is NOT true. Be very careful of legal info you find on the internet)

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As you see, I had already edited my response.   I had not read far enough.

Referring to Ohio SOL on CC debt, according to the state AG, there is no cut and dry answer for what it is.  It depends on how the agreement is written, among other things.

Most states adopt the open ended SOL.  There may be other states that use something else.  Other than today, I have never seen it.

[MBOhio2]

While the Ohio AG's office says that it's not cut and dry, in practice, Ohio judges always apply the written SOL. I'm a lawyer (not a credit lawyer though) and unfortunately, had to defend my husband in an Ohio court against a 14 year old CC charge-off. (It was so old that I was actually 11 years old when he defaulted on the CC since he's a few years older, haha!) Anyway, I reviewed Ohio case law and judges always apply the 15 year SOL. We won the case, but on other grounds because the judge in my case made it clear the 15 year SOL applied.