topic Re: Should I bother? in Rebuilding Your Credit

Should I bother?

Swapmeet — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 15:22:26 GMT

In '08, I was in a major motorcycle accident. I executed a short sale of my home from my hospital bed. At the time the first and second mortgages were being serviced by litton loan servicing, which has been sold to ocwen. My question is this: is it worth it to write a GW to ocwen and ask them to remove the tradeline? Or should I just let it be? Or should I do something different? I am currently trying to get my credit situated so that, even though I am now on disability, I can qualify for a small mortgage. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Re: Should I bother?

sphinx313 — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 15:28:48 GMT

You'll never know what could happen if you don't GW them at all. If you feel it's just going to discourage you or upset you then you should probably not bother with it. If you walk into these knowing that realistically, your chances of getting a win out of this are small, you won't expect as much. There is no hurt in seeing what could potentially happen. Get a GW blitz going and hit a couple higher-ups at once. Maybe you'll catch someone in a good mood. Good luck!

Re: Should I bother?

Swapmeet — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 15:37:54 GMT

@sphinx313 wrote:
You'll never know what could happen if you don't GW them at all. If you feel it's just going to discourage you or upset you then you should probably not bother with it. If you walk into these knowing that realistically, your chances of getting a win out of this are small, you won't expect as much. There is no hurt in seeing what could potentially happen. Get a GW blitz going and hit a couple higher-ups at once. Maybe you'll catch someone in a good mood. Good luck!

Thanks for your reply Sphinx. I was just concerned that there is a chance that sending a GW would cause some sort of refreshment of that account, which is already four-and-a-half years old.

Re: Should I bother?

sphinx313 — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 15:48:38 GMT

That is where you'll need RobertEG or Shogun to respond. I honestly could not give you an answer on that one although I can get the general consensus on it. From my understanding: Partial payments and things like acknowledging the debt is yours can restart collection/reporting clocks, but I think the majority applies to SOL. Is there a balance on this debt that you never paid? If it's just a $0 balance listing on your credit report then SOL means nothing to you, so you should be able to blitz them as such with GW's without any necessary drawbacks, but again, I would wait for someone with a little more knowledge on the subject!

Re: Should I bother?

Swapmeet — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 15:52:31 GMT

It has a zero balance, but says paid in settlement for less than the amount owed.

Re: Should I bother?

llecs — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 17:14:34 GMT

The reporting time period is based off the DOFD. Nothing can legally change the DOFD, not even a GW. It'll still fall off at 7-7.5 yrs, or have the negative aspects removed at that point and report as a positive.

The only downsides to GWing could include:

1) the baddie updates the TL causing lates to appear when there were none before. This is rare, but sometimes they mis-report in your favor and a GW triggers a review with added lates.

2) The baddie reports on one or two CRAs when it wasn't reporting before.

3) The baddie disappears when you only asked for a late or status change. This may be good for some, but others can see a drop in score if the history helped more than the baddie hurt. ETA...this doesn't apply to you.

4) The baddie reports a dispute comment. Per FICO scoring, FICO will ignore the balance, CL, and payment history if that comment appears. In cases of CCs, if the util of that revolving acct helped, then a dispute comment can drop your scores.

Re: Should I bother?

sphinx313 — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 17:15:28 GMT

My guess, and remember that I am no authority on the subject whatsoever, is that the account is "settled" as far as they are concerned. The only clock you'd most likely be worried about is an SOL one, and there is no SOL anymore, it's settled. You may get hit with a 1099C if you haven't already for anything that was wiped away above $600.

I'd be more concerned that the acknowledgement of the debt and subsequent payments to said debt reset the 7 year clock. Again, these are things to definitely consider, but in your current situation, I don't think a GW will hurt you at all.

Re: Should I bother?

RobertEG — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 17:47:14 GMT

I see side issues being raised that, based on the info provided in the post, may or may not even be relevant.

Apparently, the accounts were settled for less than the full amount. That is one issue. The legal fact is that the debt was satisfied. Whether you paid in full or they accepted settlement for less, the debt balance is $0 and the debt is satisfied. The remaining credit reporting issue is their ability, if an account is settled for less than the full debt, to additionally place a separate comment to that effect in your file. That comment is negative, in that it informs others that, in the past, you did not fully pay the entire amount of debt incurred. I would ask to have that special comment deleted, thus making the account appear to one viewing your CR the same as if it were paid in full.

I see nothing specific in the post related to delinquencies on the OC account. If there were delinquencies, they are treated separately, depending upon their type.

DOFD would be totally irrelevant unless the OC reported a charge off, or the debt was placed for collection, and the debt collector reported to the CRA. Then, the exclusion date of either of those items would be based solely on DOFD plus 180 days plus 7 years. If the OC had reported prior monthly delinquencies on the account prior to satisfaction of the debt, they would each have a CR exclusion date of 7 years from their individual dates of occurence.

If you have no reported derogs, then CR exclusion is not even an issue. The only remaining issue would then be the removal of the derogatory special comment of paid for less, which is a questionable reporting if the debt was not in arrears at time of satisfaction.

Re: Should I bother?

Swapmeet — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 18:28:20 GMT

First, thank you all for your replies. There are delinquencies that are reported, many of them. 4x30, 3x60, 8x90, and 5x120, and the comment: legally paid in full for less than the full balance. On one CR, the comment is: SETTLEMENT ACCEPTED ON THIS ACCOUNT PAID ACCOUNT / ZERO BALANCE.

I have drafted a letter directed to a big wig, and another to whom it may concern that briefly explains the circumstances that lead to the SS, accepting of responsibility, and asking for goodwill in deleting the trade lines. My question is whether I should add the phrase "or remove the payment history and derogatory comment" after the phrase "I am simply writing you to ask for an act of goodwill in deleting these tradelines from the three credit reporting agencies".

I must admit that I am a tiny bit confused about the possibility of the writing of a GW possibly restarting the 7-7.5 year clock of this. Is this a possibility in my specific case?

Again, thank you for your time.

Re: Should I bother?

Shogun — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 19:44:21 GMT

Hello Swapmeet and welcome to the forums.

Judging by you have posted on this TL, it's a pretty serious derog that will affect your CR for the duration of it's reporting time. I do believe it would be in your best interest to try and GW it off, it's paid, it's settled and done. Now there's no reason you should leave it on there, let's see about getting this thing to disappear. Who is the TL with? Maybe making a thread with information concerning that would be beneficial, someone else on here might have some information for your particular creditor. Reading your story, you are the reason why there are GWs, sorry to hear about your wreck and hope all is better now. Good luck and let us know if we can help.

Re: Should I bother?

Swapmeet — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 20:45:38 GMT

It is with OCWEN still. I wrote that in my original post, but it might have been confusing since the OC sold their company to OCWEN. It was originally Litton Loan Servicing, which was bought by OCWEN after my short sale.

Re: Should I bother?

Mish0817 — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 08:41:09 GMT

can you pm me ocwen contact information ? Please....