Starting over....at 36

[ironsight]

OK, so it's probably a story that you guys have heard 100's of times but here goes.....

Had a good score until around 2005 when I lost my job, started missing payments, had a car repossesed and house went into active foreclosure.

I have since secured a very well paying job, and paid my mortgage back to current ($13,000+).  However, by credit is SHOT.  FICO of 470.

7 - Collection accounts

$26 medical bill 10/2011 - unpaid

$120 Medical 1/2012 - unpaid

$798 Medical 8/2007 - paid

$70 Medical 12/2009 - Paid

$1480 Medical 6/2008 - Paid

$872 Sprint 9/2007 - Paid

$45 Medical 2/2007 - Paid

2 Public Records

$20,344 - 1/2012 This is the balance of the repo after auction.  It is with an attorney - Unpaid

$1993 - 12/2008  This was a medical bill - Paid

Accounts

$2283 - 1996! for a Best Buy card that is listed as "Bad debt/Collection"

$795 7/2010 for an HSBC card that is listed as "Bad debt/Collection"

I have student loans, but have an agreement worked out with them so that after my Oct. payment this year, they will remove all negative reporting from my CR.

My question is, how can I get these collections that have been paid removed and what do I do about the public records?  Can the one that is paid be removed by asking the CA to send a letter to the court requesting it be vacated?

What do I do about the "Bad Debt/Collection" accounts?  I can pay the $795, in lump sum, but don't have a clue what to do about the $2283

Basically, what can I do to try and rebuild my credit, and what will have the most impact?

Thanks for all of the great info here, you guys are great!

[rootpooty]

Hello and welcome to the forums. ill help you as much as i can and im sure others will help you some more. do you have any credit cards open right now? if not i would start with 3 secured cards. if you have a well paying job, you should have no problem starting with 3 secured cards. doesnt take much, i did this a year ago with about 1,000 dollars and seen great improvement with it. for suggestions on which ones to look at take a look in the credit card section. I see out of the 7 collections you have you paid 5 and the remainder of the 2 are rather small balances. you can pay them then send a good will letter to the collection agency asking them to kindly remove the tradeline from your reports.  I had 7 medical collections on my reports last year and once i paid them it was rather simple getting them deleted via good will from my reports. Samething with the sprint bill. As for the medical bill that is a public record is that in a collection account too or just in the public record?

How do you still owe 20k after the vehicle was auctioned off? were you completely uspside down on the vehicle? I cant help you on this part you would be better off asking for help in the auto section there are some forum gurus that hang out in that part as well.

Are the 2 accounts hsbc and best buy listed as charged off?

[yillb]

Your in the same boat as me, except my score is a bit better, but i have far more collections / charge-offs.

My biggest was also a repo, however, after doing some research, i found out that VERY few companies actually keep those cars. they are auctioned off, and by law they have to apply the auction amount to your balance. So give them a call, find out what they did with the repo, if it was auctioned, see about getting the balance updated

[ironsight]

Thanks for the reply!

I'll look into the secured cards.  Also, how do I get the CA information on the collections?  The site that I got the listing (obviosly here on myfico) only lists a series of numbers and letters to identify the CA.  I will need to get that so that I can send GW letters.  The medical bill that is public record is not listed in Collections as well, just PR.  It was paid back in 2008.  I know who that CA is, but it's my understanding that the only way to get it removed is to have it vacated through the courts.  Is this true?

The 20K on the vehicle is CRAZY, I know.  It was a fairly expensive vehicle (I could afford it at the time) and I hadn't been paying on it long when I lost my job.  they sold it at auction, and it still had 17K left after they applied what they got.  so....they turned it over to an atty and the atty office added the additional $$ for fees I am assuming.

The HSBC and Best Buy cards are listed as charged off...suggestions??

Thank you very much for offering your help!!!!!

[Middleswarth]

Get your reports at AnnualCreditReport once a year for free.  The reports come directly from the CRA and have much more detail.

[RobertEG]

Personally, I would put first focus on the unpaids.  They look bad in a manual review, and also have the potential to become much worse.

What is the SOL on each?  Possibility of legal action?

The two COs can easily result in sale of or referral to a debt collector, resulting in an additional collection.  If sold, you lose the ability to try to get the CO deleted by way of a PFD.

And, of course, request GW deletion of the paids.

[2NE1]

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@ironsight wrote:

Thanks for the reply!

The HSBC and Best Buy cards are listed as charged off...suggestions??

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Are you sure the HSBC card isn't showing as CapOne? Best Buy is under CapOne now too. I've been fighting with a HSBC now CapOne CC for seven months! You should try to offer PFD in full if you can cause otherwise they will refuse removing the CO trade line good luck!