topic Re: UPDATE! in Rebuilding Your Credit

Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Whitneyy — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 21:37:27 GMT

I have been on this website since December, although I had begun paying things off, I knew nothing about pay for deletes and assumed that once I paid for things that they would be deleted. I have since gotten things off through pay for deletes, and good-wills. I figure now is time to document my journey, even though it has slowed down. But I AM making progress. I'm not due to buy a house until 2016 but I would like clean reports sooner than then.

Here's my rundown, offer any help or contacts you have please! I am also open for suggestions on how to handle certain things.

TMobile - Receievables Performance Management - $120 - Paid in full, two payments of $60. Goodwilled, and deleted.

Brighthouse Cable - Credit Management - $333 - Paid in full, split payments. Goodwilled, and deleted.

Volusia County Library - Unique Management - $45 - Paid in full, sent in a check. Deleted.

Urgent Care - First Federal Collection Agency - $266 - Will PFD if paid in FULL at one time. When I have $266 to spare (namely after a couple of these debts are done) I will send them the full payment and finally close this out and be done with it. I have a feeling it will be my last debt. I might even do it earlier since they are reporting EVERY month as a collection. So, I check my reports this afternoon (equifax and experian) and I see that this collection is GONE. I almost choked because it's GONE. I was just getting ready to pay them in August so they would stop reporting for good. I'm going to keep my eye on this to see if it pops back up, but hopefully not.

Apartment - PDM - $1868 Making Payments of $84 every two weeks. Will delete in December/January.

SureDeposit - PDM - $254 Making Payments of $84 every other two weeks until finally paid off in August/September. Once this collection if paid off, the whole $84 will go toward the bigger debt, until Dec 26 my balance will be $1398 which they will settle for and delete. This one will delete in August.

Apartment - IQ Data - $2591.75 - Making Payments of $50 every two weeks, already deleted. This got deleted because I disputed it because my sister in law got an apartment in my name, didn't pay it. I tried to PFD them, but they said no and I should've did a fraud investigation rather than me sending in a pay for delete. It has been removed, but I am still paying them just so it doesn't pop back up. I actually want to stop paying them until January since they don't report anymore and put that extra $50 toward my debt with PDM since they do report. I'm thinking about it I just don't need a RE REPORT.

Macys - Charge Off - Attempted to pay. This one is due to fall off in November, so I just decided to let it go. Should I still pay it even though it hasn't updated since 2008? It's only $317. EDIT - They seriously updated this month after SIX years, WOW. Falling off in August, BYEBYE!

ATT - MRS BPO - Unsure what to do - $672 - I have heard from this company and they are willing to do a settlement but won't delete it if I do, so since that's not what I want, I haven't sent in a payment. I'm willing to pay the whole thing for it to be deleted. Any thoughts on this one? They have not updated since 2013. (Only reports to Experian)

Halifax Hospital - Doctors Bureau - $81. I will pay this when I am done paying First Federal and collections. They will delete upon payment. (Only reports to Equifax)

I have also successfully rehabbed my student loans back in October! Only equifax has updated, the other two have not. I have contacted Sallie Mae and they told me to mail in what's reporting so they could notify the bureaus to correct it. I'm sending the letter in today, so I'm waiting on that.

I currently have my car installment loan which is never late, my fingerhut freshstart program which I hope will upgrade when it's done, my new rehabbed loans reporting twice because it's two different loans, my capital one secured, and I'm an authorized user on my partner's capital one. I'm not looking for a set goal, I just want clean reports so come 2016 when my partner and I are ready to buy, I'm looking good.

Any advice on anything? What should I do next?

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Whitneyy — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 00:46:22 GMT

Oh yeah, I haven't pulled my scores since January, and I'm not going to pull them again until January! By then my car will be a year old and hopefully everything would have been updated to report correctly. I don't want to go crazy waiting for scores to climb.

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Whitneyy — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 20:10:26 GMT

I heard back from First Federal Credit & Collections finally, I guess because of the BBB dispute. Funny how now they respond, I was given a phone number and an email address to contact someone directly about my account. I just emailed her to see what we could do to square it off and I'm waiting on the response. I hope she can get it deleted after I pay for it.

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

growing123 — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 20:55:14 GMT

@Whitneyy wrote:

Macys - Charge Off - Attempted to pay. This one is due to fall off in November, so I just decided to let it go. Should I still pay it even though it hasn't updated since 2008? It's only $317. EDIT - They seriously updated this month after SIX years, WOW.

WTH! I can't stand Macys! I also have a CO (not with them) that's 6+ years old and I'm waiting for it to fall off before paying.

Congrats on the success so far! :smileyhappy

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

growing123 — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 20:56:53 GMT

Should have been an actual smiley face! lol

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Whitneyy — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 21:02:27 GMT

@growing123 wrote:
@Whitneyy wrote:

Macys - Charge Off - Attempted to pay. This one is due to fall off in November, so I just decided to let it go. Should I still pay it even though it hasn't updated since 2008? It's only $317. EDIT - They seriously updated this month after SIX years, WOW.

WTH! I can't stand Macys! I also have a CO (not with them) that's 6+ years old and I'm waiting for it to fall off before paying.

Congrats on the success so far! :smileyhappy

I can't stand them either! Like seriously updating after all these years? I'll pay when it falls off as well.

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Whitneyy — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 01:37:46 GMT

I don't pull my actual scores, because I don't want to go crazy score watching, but I have gotten alerts from credit sesame (yes, I know its a FAKO) that in March I went up 22 points and in April I went up 28.

Still waiting to hear back from First Federal & Collections, I emailed and faxed my PFD. Sheesh, do they want money or not?

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Whitneyy — Tue, 13 May 2014 23:15:28 GMT

Still no word from First Federal and Collections. I don't know what else to do, I already went the BBB route where they acted like they wanted to resolve, but they don't answer the phone OR emails. So hmm..

Nothing else has changed. I have one more payment on my fingerhut account and my first purchase is paid off, so hopefully I'm upgraded to a revolving account.

My balance with PDM for my sure deposit is surely going down, I can't wait until August when it's completely paid off so the whole 85$ can go toward the bigger debt with them. The CSR I deal with is so friendly and funny and told me since they see I make my payment bi weekly that once my balance gets down lower they'll go ahead and settle and delete my account, I can't wait for that!

I haven't heard back from Sallie Mae as far as them finishing adjusting my lates but I got impatient and called and was told I would get something by mail letting me know the outcome of everything, so I cross my fingers on that.

My capital one account from 2007 will age off this year, so will that CO from Macys, I can't wait!

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Whitneyy — Mon, 19 May 2014 20:15:22 GMT

So I decide to check my credit reports today just to make sure nothing new popped up to ruin my life (lol) and I notice a new collection from CCS of $75 from Florida,Power and Light. Come to find out I never recieved anything because they didn't have my apartment number on it! The guy who I spoke to was very nice and I told him I wanted to pay it ASAP and only if it was to be deleted from the credit bureaus, he doubled checked and they said that it would be deleted upon payment. I got excited and told him I loved him, lol.

But it was an easy deletion over the phone. He said that I will get a letter in the mail stating that they will be deleting it and that I paid in full.

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Whitneyy — Mon, 19 May 2014 20:16:04 GMT

Also, I STILL haven't heard anything from First Federal and Collections. Only thing they respond to is BBB.

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Whitneyy — Mon, 19 May 2014 20:28:05 GMT

I also found out Macy's is still updating but now to show "okay". Seriously Macy's? Fall off already. Then I'll pay you almost nothing.

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Anonymous — Wed, 21 May 2014 14:41:15 GMT

LOL on telling the guy who deleted you loved him, I know that feeling!!

Also, I've had real good experiences with PDM, I had to deal with them when my apartment that I moved out of charged me an exhorbitant fee, then was kind enough NOT to tell me they were sending it to collections even though I was paying them 200$ per month DIRECTLY..just WOW. Anyway, that was a few years back, but long story short...they did this TWICE when I moved into another unit and left that unit. PDM was so great to work with. I paid them 50$ every 2 weeks. Once I found out it was on my credit (when I actually started repairing), I called them and even though I was no where near complete on my payments, they removed the TLs from all bureaus.

As for student loans still reporting on EX and TU, for some reason mine never reported to TU, but I've read mixed reviews on disputing these online, but it worked wonderfully for me. Once I knew my loan was rehabilitated and picked up by a new lender (Great Lakes) I waited about 2 wks and disputed online with EQ because they were the only ones left reporting them. They were gone in one day.

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Whitneyy — Mon, 26 May 2014 16:49:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
LOL on telling the guy who deleted you loved him, I know that feeling!!

Also, I've had real good experiences with PDM, I had to deal with them when my apartment that I moved out of charged me an exhorbitant fee, then was kind enough NOT to tell me they were sending it to collections even though I was paying them 200$ per month DIRECTLY..just WOW. Anyway, that was a few years back, but long story short...they did this TWICE when I moved into another unit and left that unit. PDM was so great to work with. I paid them 50$ every 2 weeks. Once I found out it was on my credit (when I actually started repairing), I called them and even though I was no where near complete on my payments, they removed the TLs from all bureaus.

As for student loans still reporting on EX and TU, for some reason mine never reported to TU, but I've read mixed reviews on disputing these online, but it worked wonderfully for me. Once I knew my loan was rehabilitated and picked up by a new lender (Great Lakes) I waited about 2 wks and disputed online with EQ because they were the only ones left reporting them. They were gone in one day.

Well I still haven't heard from Sallie Mae and my other tradelines still have not been updated which is weird because they have from Equifax, I'm going to call them Monday and see what's going on. I'm also thinking of asking PDM can they delete the tradelines NOW so I can apply for an apartment and they still have payments regardless. That's what I'm doing with IQ Data, they don't even report anymore but I still pay them faithfully.

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Anonymous — Tue, 27 May 2014 18:27:33 GMT

Woo hoo... Glad to see you have a journal you are rocking it girl! Keep up the good work!

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Whitneyy — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 23:54:10 GMT

UPDATE - JUNE 4 2014

Called Sallie Mae AGAIN since I still have not heard from them and the CSR I got was very helpful. She told me that she is submitting another request for them to expedite this because they have already updated Equifax so why not the other two, so hopefully within 5-7 business days I will hear from them.

The collection I paid over the phone has came off, as promised.

My two new capital one cards have reported, and caused my score to drop, but I'm hopeful about that so not so much worried.

My fingerhut freshstart program last payment will be submitted on Friday. I am anxious to see what happens with this.

My PDM balance is still of course going down, I switched the payments to pay one every other week. That way $85 is going toward each one, once a month. Might take longer to pay off, but it's getting done. Once the larger debt gets in the 1500, I'm going to ask them to settle it out and delete like I was told they would do. The one for $750 has to be paid in full, and I think I owe $461 or so.

Never heard from First, Federal, and Collections. I will be sending yet ANOTHER letter to them.

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

growing123 — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 15:48:09 GMT

@Whitneyy wrote:
UPDATE - JUNE 4 2014

Called Sallie Mae AGAIN since I still have not heard from them and the CSR I got was very helpful. She told me that she is submitting another request for them to expedite this because they have already updated Equifax so why not the other two, so hopefully within 5-7 business days I will hear from them.

The collection I paid over the phone has came off, as promised.

My two new capital one cards have reported, and caused my score to drop, but I'm hopeful about that so not so much worried.

My fingerhut freshstart program last payment will be submitted on Friday. I am anxious to see what happens with this.

My PDM balance is still of course going down, I switched the payments to pay one every other week. That way $85 is going toward each one, once a month. Might take longer to pay off, but it's getting done. Once the larger debt gets in the 1500, I'm going to ask them to settle it out and delete like I was told they would do. The one for $750 has to be paid in full, and I think I owe $461 or so.

Never heard from First, Federal, and Collections. I will be sending yet ANOTHER letter to them.

You're deligent to say the least!

Congrats on the collection being deleted as promised! Keep on keeping on!!

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Kenny — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 03:37:29 GMT

I agree with growing123. So diligent! Keep up the great work. I know it's hard, but every step you make now will make sure that you don't do this to yourself again. And when it's all off, you'll have such the greatest feeling because you totally earned it.

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Whitneyy — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 19:49:44 GMT

@KennyRS wrote:
I agree with growing123. So diligent! Keep up the great work. I know it's hard, but every step you make now will make sure that you don't do this to yourself again. And when it's all off, you'll have such the greatest feeling because you totally earned it.

Thanks to the both of you, I'm no on time limit.. just wanting this over and done with the correct way.

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Whitneyy — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 19:54:44 GMT

So I finally got a response letter from Sallie Mae saying that they would take the default status off my accounts but not update the lates. I was not happy with that answer so I CALLED them and they told me that that letter was just to let me know that they had took me out of default and not that they really weren't going to update my lates. She said it could take another 30 days or so to reflect, and I'm hoping this happens because I have 120+ lates on those two tradelines and I would really appreciate if they updated it how they did on Equifax.

Also, First Federal and Collections FINALLY called me THIS morning while I was sleeping. I listened a little bit (I was tired, lol) and she basically told me that if I paid the S266 up front that they would delete. I'm going to call them back when I have almost $300 in cash to spare and get that handled. I think the only reason they responded is because I emailed the president of the company and stated that I had already contacted the BBB and I still wasn't getting answers from them. Did that yesterday, got a call today.

I updated my inital post to show the balances of collections going down, I'm getting excited!

I also started paying IQ Data International only $40 biweekly because they don't even show up on my credit reports anymore so I'm pretty much paying them so they don't ever come back. My balance is like $2,800 or something like that, I'm in no rush. When it's done, it's done. I'm thinking when I'm done with ALL my collections to send them a lump sum of $1000 and be done with it.

Re: Whitney's Journal (Finally)

Whitneyy — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 19:58:58 GMT

Oh yeah! I forgot to add, I finished my last payment with my Fingerhut Fresh Start program on the 9th. My payment has cleared and everything. So now I'm going to twiddle my thumbs and wait to see what happens! I'm excited to see myself upgrade to a revolving account.