topic Re: So confused - I need help in Rebuilding Your Credit

So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 16:55:13 GMT

Hello, everybody!

It seems that the more I read, the more confusing it gets. I am trying to help my husband fix his credit score. We have yet to pull his yearly credit raports, so at the moment we are only looking at what CK offers.

Namely:

1. Century Link collection by AFNI, Inc (73 dollars), opened in October 2014, last reported in November 2014.

2. Charter Collection by SRI (293 dollars), opened on January 22, 2015, last reported in April 2015.

I don't know if it matters, but we got no papers about these charges. We only found out about them when we checked his CK yesterday. His FAKO scores are mid to late 500s.

I would like to take care of these two items, since the sum is small, they are new and the damage is substantial. How do I do it, though?

a) Call CL/Charter, pay the debt with them directly, then send a debt validation to the collection agencies, and hope they won't be able to validate it and take it off the raports?

b) Send a debt validation to the collection agencies, then follow up wth a PFD ( offering a smaller amount or the full one? sort of confused here), and a GW if they don't agree to the PDF?

c) Some other way of tackling them that I can't think of now?

We will pull his official raports next weekend, my guess is that he might have more, since his score is so low. Until we get to those, I could use some help with these.

Thank you

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 17:22:26 GMT

i work with Brighthouse and when an account is charged off there is a provision for it to be forgiven if it's over a year old and the customer didn't keep any equipment, called amnesty. Used generally only when the customer is restarting service. When it's paid the debt shows as satisfied on the report, but to my understanding, still shows up, it just gets updated as paid. I'd assume those companies are the same. as a company, Brighthouse is a notch above those in customer service however, i feel as if with us, BH could be good willed, the other's, not that you wouldn't have luck, as many people have, i just don't know what the chances are.

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 17:25:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

Hello, everybody!

It seems that the more I read, the more confusing it gets. I am trying to help my husband fix his credit score. We have yet to pull his yearly credit raports, so at the moment we are only looking at what CK offers.

Namely:

1. Century Link collection by AFNI, Inc (73 dollars), opened in October 2014, last reported in November 2014.

2. Charter Collection by SRI (293 dollars), opened on January 22, 2015, last reported in April 2015.

I don't know if it matters, but we got no papers about these charges. We only found out about them when we checked his CK yesterday. His FAKO scores are mid to late 500s.

I would like to take care of these two items, since the sum is small, they are new and the damage is substantial. How do I do it, though?

a) Call CL/Charter, pay the debt with them directly, then send a debt validation to the collection agencies, and hope they won't be able to validate it and take it off the raports?

b) Send a debt validation to the collection agencies, then follow up wth a PFD ( offering a smaller amount or the full one? sort of confused here), and a GW if they don't agree to the PDF?

c) Some other way of tackling them that I can't think of now?

We will pull his official raports next weekend, my guess is that he might have more, since his score is so low. Until we get to those, I could use some help with these.

Thank you

First off - do not rely on CK for scores. Their scores are often way off compared to actual FICO scores. I'd suggest doing the 7 day trial from Credit total, and getting his actual FICO 8 scores for only one dollar. Cancel within the 7 days if your not ready to pay for monthly scores/reports yet.

The collections are very new which really hurts score more.

As to addressing the collection, some CA's will remove the collections if you tell them you never received any bills from them. Offer to PIF for deletion if that does not work.

Does Hubby have any current credit cards?

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 17:41:06 GMT

Thank you for your answers. We actually moved a lot (4 times in 3 years), my guess is that all those are final bills. We didn't use the forward mail system, because we had no idea where we would move to before we got there, and because we figured out we had paid anything. My husband is irresponsable and I am just trying to figure out the US (new here).

Husband's score is around 540, at least this is what the place where we moved into this May told us (they did the whole application bit). He applied for an unsecured Capital one, was denied. I added him to all my thee credit cards as an autorized user last month (Capital One, Amex and Discovery), still waiting for those to register in the system. My score is new, but I think I'm doing all right, I'm in the low 700s. Just gardening for now. He is the main provider, I work here and there through temp agencies. We would like to get a house in 2016/2017, so we really have to work on his score. I can't seem to be able to find a long term job that would allow me to do the morgage on my own.

Also, I will have him apply to a secured card from Capital one next week.

I am trying to build new credit while taking care of bad one. He also has I think 800ish dollars in student debt, that one will will simply pay. We were hoping they will come off from the tax returns this year, but we ended up having to pay the IRS (ups).

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 17:41:23 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you for your answers. We actually moved a lot (4 times in 3 years), my guess is that all those are final bills. We didn't use the forward mail system, because we had no idea where we would move to before we got there, and because we figured out we had paid anything. Also, my husband is irresponsable and I am just trying to figure out the US (new here).

Husband's score is around 540, at least this is what the place where we moved into this May told us (they did the whole application bit). He applied for an unsecured Capital one, was denied. I added him to all my thee credit cards as an autorized user last month (Capital One, Amex and Discovery), still waiting for those to register in the system. My score is new, but I think I'm doing all right, I'm in the low 700s. Just gardening for now. Also, we want to apply to a secured card from Capital one next week. Do not do that if you have added him as an AU to those accounts. WAIT until those accounts show up on his reports, then app for a regular unsecured QS or QS1 account. Once he is approved for a card, apply for a second one.

I am trying to build new credit while taking care of bad one. He also has I think 800ish dollars in student debt, that one will will simply pay. We were hoping they will come off from the tax returns this year, but we ended up having to pay the IRS (ups).

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 17:51:50 GMT

@Norman - Do you think he would get a big enough boost from being added as an AU to allow him to access an unsecured card? My plan was to get him the secured one, do well on it, as well as on mine, then have him apply for the Platinum card (Capital One) sometimes in December-January.

Also - should we both get a small secured (or unsecured if they approve us for it) loan (500-1000) from a credit union to help diversify?

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 18:21:43 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous - Do you think he would get a big enough boost from being added as an AU to allow him to access an unsecured card? My plan was to get him the secured one, do well on it, as well as on mine, then have him apply for the Platinum card (Capital One) sometimes in December-January.

Also - should we both get a small secured (or unsecured if they approve us for it) loan (500-1000) from a credit union to help diversify?

@Anonymous way to know that unti lits shows up on his reports. App for unsecured and see if he gets approved. Better to bypass the secured card step if you can do so. If he has no installment loans at all - no Auto or Student loans, then yes, it can help to get a secured loan from a CU. No more than $500, and try to get the longest terms possible. SDFCU will do $500 for 36 months @3.99 percent share secured.

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 19:55:15 GMT

I understand. I'll try to do both secured and unsecured, to get him more credit lines.

Any idea on what I should be about those collections? Should I dispute them for not sending the papers to us, even though there was no way for us to trace us (I think). Should I call Century Link/Charter to confrm the amounts, so that I know for sure how much we owe?

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 21:45:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I understand. I'll try to do both secured and unsecured, to get him more credit lines.

Any idea on what I should be about those collections? Should I dispute them for not sending the papers to us, even though there was no way for us to trace us (I think). Should I call Century Link/Charter to confrm the amounts, so that I know for sure how much we owe?

Call the OC and let them know that there were several moves involved in a short time period and that caused a lot of lost mail. Ask if they will pull it back from collections. If they insist on you working with the collector, ask the collector about removing the collection because of the extenuating circumstances.

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 23:39:53 GMT

I will try that.

I assume OC is original creditor.

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 01:05:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I will try that.

I assume OC is original creditor.

Correct.

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 21:27:19 GMT

All right, just got off the phone with Century Link. They could not find my husband's account, based on his name and address. I think my next step should be to send the collection agency a debt verification letter? How can I use in my favor the fact that they sent us no notification of this collection?

Re: So confused - I need help

RobertEG — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 21:50:11 GMT

I would like to take care of these two items, since the sum is small, they are new and the damage is substantial. How do I do it, though?

a) Call CL/Charter, pay the debt with them directly, then send a debt validation to the collection agencies, and hope they won't be able to validate it and take it off the raports?

No. If you pay the OC, then the debt is satisfied, and the debt collector must close their collection, and update the reported balance under collection to $0.

They do not have to delete their collection.

If you send a DV letter, they have no requirement to ever respond. A timely DV only invokes a cease collection bar on the debt collector. It does not set any period for or requirement to respond. Since payment has been made, their collection is already terminated, and thus a cease collection bar would be meaningless. They will simply ignore it.

b) Send a debt validation to the collection agencies, then follow up wth a PFD ( offering a smaller amount or the full one? sort of confused here), and a GW if they don't agree to the PDF?

If you send a timey DV to the debt collector, that will place them under a cease collection bar, precluding them from any PFD or settlement negotiations with you. With no period in which they must respond, you are in limbo until they choose to respond, and thus cannot plan on when PFD or settlement negotiations can begin.

You either send a DV and wait for verification, or you forgo the DV.

c) Some other way of tackling them that I can't think of now?

Decide wihether or not you wish to pay the debt and forgo debt validation. If you wish to pay, then send a PFD and hope they agree to deletion of the collections.

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 22:03:12 GMT

Thank you, Robert. We are not getting any type of collection phones or letter, actually, we have heard nothing from them. We only know of this debt from CK. I am willing to pay for it, since we would like to get a house in the next couple of years and I assume a paid collection is slightly better than an unpaid one.

With CenturyLink claiming they have no record of his account (I gave them the name and the address where he had service), I would be tempted to do a DV. I wouldn't like to update the collectors on our address though.

So If I send them a Debt Validation letter, I cannot send a POF later on, even if they didn't repond to the DV?

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 22:34:26 GMT

Bumping myself up shamelessly.

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 00:01:06 GMT

Credit Karma update:

His two collection that were dropped off and being added to my cards resulted in a big boost. Went from mid 500s to almost 700. Makes me wonder how much his real score changed.

Will be sending the first debt validation letter next week. Give them a month to reply and, if not, send them a PIF letter.

I am waiting for the America express to pop up on both of our accounts (don't know why it is taking so long), then I will try to get a Capital one Platinum again. He applied and was rejected a couple of weeks ago, so I am going to wait for at least 30 days to try again. If they reject him again, we wil go for the secured card.

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 12:01:52 GMT

Updating my thread.

This morning I decided to apply again to Capital One Platinum, and succes! 300$ unsecured. I am happy. It isn't much, but it's a start. He's got 0 anual fee, wt heck, they only gave me 0 on my first year, then 19 starting the second year. I am not sure if this card can graduate to Quicksilver, but I will give them a call and ask as I am approaching the end of the year.

He's got one card of his own and is authorized on three of mine.

Time to get rid of some baddies and garden a bit, then diversify.

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Aug 2015 17:38:37 GMT

Get his real scores at cct for a dollar. Worth it.

Re: So confused - I need help

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 23:41:05 GMT

Will get real scores soon.

Meanwhile, I have tried to pay a collection, but could not find the account on their site according to the data they gave me. I emailed them about it and they took that as a DV request. That was a month ago, still waiting.

The second collection fell off on its own. It was 5 years away from the 7 years mark, so I don't know what happened. I fear it might return when we apply for a house mortgage, but I can't do much about it now.

Something strange happened. According to CC, he lost 10 points on Experian because two accounts started reporting. They are closed, go back to 2004 and show no payment due and no missed payment date. Then why would the score drop? At the same time, his CC started reporting and one collection fell off, so everything was positive.