topic Re: Need advice please... in General Credit Topics

Need advice please...

KrisNoel — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:42:24 GMT

Thanks so much to everyone who contributes to this forum. I have been reading for a month or so, and I feel much more prepared to start tackling our credit problems. My husband and I are hoping to buy a house next year, but we face an uphill battle in improving his scores enough to do so. He has had a lot of problems with late payments in the past. I have taken over paying all of our bills, and we are up to date on everything now, but his scores have taken a bit hit. As of 10/2 when I pulled them, his scores were: EQ-543, EX-517, TU-518. Yikes!

I am all set to send 3 PFD letters and 2 GWs to hopefully get things on the upswing. But I have a couple questions about some other things on his report. Please bear with me, this will be long -

The biggest hit he is taking on his credit is from Citibank for student loans. He originally had 7 different loans with them (for different semesters, he paid as one loan). He lost his job in early 2004 and got very behind on his payments. Unfortunately, he is now showing 120 days late on all 7 of these accounts for that period. At that point, he consolidated into 2 loans, and got current. Fast forward to late 2006. We moved across country for my job, and he was out of work again. He faxed paperwork in for a forbearance, but never checked to see if they got it. It did not go through. So he was late again, and unfortunately, they filed for default. Before it went through, he contacted them, and they repurchased the loan. He has been paying on time since (sadly, only 2 months now). But it now shows as "claim filed with government for insured portion of balance on loan." The other problem is that since they repurchased the loan, it is on a new tl, so the old ones do not show current status. This is also the case with the 7 that were consolidated - they show the past negative payments, but the 3 years of good payments are not on those tls.

So this is a huge negative, and I'm not sure if we have any recourse now. I was wondering if I might have any luck in getting the old, consolidated accounts removed. I'm not sure if this would be a GW letter or something else? Do I have any hope of getting the claim removed since it never actually went through,and he is now paying on time?

The second question is about two collections notices he has received that are not showing up on his credit report (yet?). The first is for what we think is a repurchase of a very old (like '95) credit card. They are demanding payment of $1600. He does not think we should do anything since the original debt is over 7 years old. But I'm afraid since the letter is from this summer, that it could end up on the credit. The last thing he needs is another collections account on his report. Is this one that should be disputed? If they do validate the debt it could start showing up on the report right? Should we just ignore it?

The second is from last year, he owes $800, but they are offering a charge off of $400. It also is not yet showing up on his credit yet. We actually have the money now to pay off both of these old accounts, but I'm not sure if it is in our best interest. I was going to send a PFD letter to the $800 one, but then realized it isn't on his report. Is there any such thing as a pay to prevent any listing on CR? I just would hate to pay now, and then have this show up as a paid collection, and have lost the power of the PFD. But I also don't want an unpaid collection showing up. Does that make any sense?

Any suggestions?

Also, I'm curious if anyone knows the answer to this one. I am hopfully getting a raise early next year, and that will put my salary at a little higher than my husband's. Does anyone know if I am the primary person on t

Re: Need advice please...

KrisNoel — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:46:25 GMT

Oops! My 7 month old is on my lap and somehow figured out how to send before I was finished...

The last questions was, Does anyone know if I am the primary person on the mortgare, will they take my score into consideration more? Mine aren't great, but that is mainly due to utilization, so I think once we get my $14K in credit down, my scores will be close to 700.

We are making decent money now, so have about $2500 each month to pay on bad debt. We just want to make sure we are paying the things that will make the biggest impact.

TIA for your help!

Re: Need advice please...

KrisNoel — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 05:15:45 GMT

bump

Re: Need advice please...

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:06:18 GMT

Student Loans are the hardest stuff to get cleaned up-
As they are controlled by the Higher Education Act.
Get the 9 months of on-time payments to get the loans out of default- then there are some things that can be done.

One the first collection- they can not legally put it on his report-

2nd Collection- I would PIF with an agreement to either remove the TL or mark it ok/current. Going to want to do this though the OC if you can.

Paying down UTL- IS the best way to improve scores.

Re: Need advice please...

KrisNoel — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:36:38 GMT

So, even though Citibank repurchased the loan a couple of days after they sent the default letter it is still considered in default? It is still being handled by Citibank and not by the government default office (can't remember what that is called).

2nd Collection- I would PIF with an agreement to either remove the TL or mark it ok/current. Going to want to do this though the OC if you can.

This one is not yet reporting to the credit bureaus either. It would still be considered a Pay for Delete? The original creditor isn't on the reports either. Again, I have no problem paying the collection, but it seems odd to request them to remove it, when it isn't there at all. Would we just change the language to, "you agree to not report this collections to any of the three bureaus..."?

Thanks again for your help!

Re: Need advice please...

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:50:54 GMT

ok- The OC nor the CA is reporting
Ask that is never be reported and it will be "unverifiable "