Cleaning up my credit from my ex-wife....

[Anonymous]

When I was married my wife used a medical credit service for some dental work for which we opened in my name because my credit was much better than hers.  She always made the payment on this account.  We have been divorced a little over a year now and when I checked my credit score it had dropped over 100 points because the account was so past due.  When I called her about it she said that she had gotten way behind on it.  Anyway, I got the account current and plan on paying it off completely in a month or two.  My question is, is there anyway to get the late payments off of my credit score?  Other than that one account my credit is excellent.  Is this something that the company could remove if I wrote them aletter explaining the situation or is it something that cannot be removed?  If so, how long will it have a serious impact on my credit score?  Thanks for any advice

[JoeBJay20]

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@Anonymous wrote:

When I was married my wife used a medical credit service for some dental work for which we opened in my name because my credit was much better than hers.  She always made the payment on this account.  We have been divorced a little over a year now and when I checked my credit score it had dropped over 100 points because the account was so past due.  When I called her about it she said that she had gotten way behind on it.  Anyway, I got the account current and plan on paying it off completely in a month or two.  My question is, is there anyway to get the late payments off of my credit score?  Other than that one account my credit is excellent.  Is this something that the company could remove if I wrote them aletter explaining the situation or is it something that cannot be removed?  If so, how long will it have a serious impact on my credit score?  Thanks for any advice

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Welcome to the forums!

What you are seeking is what we call a goodwill (GW) deletion, where through its own goodwill, you request that a company deletes late payments or the entire tradeline history.  There is no set way to do it, it does appear to help if you can get direct contact information for executives. If you give the name of the company, someone in the forums may have contact information you can use. The key is to be honest, explain your situation, and hope for the best.  You can view the GW Primer thread for more information on how to do this process.

[RobertEG]

Did the creditor close the card, do a charge-off, or refer the debt for collection, or is it still an open account?

If the account is still open, I would suspect the chances of deletion would be better.

If the debt is still not paid, you may be able to request a PFD deletion.  Once paid, recourse is only by way of a GW request.

[Anonymous]

The account showed closed by grantor.  When I called to inquire about it the lady said that it went to their 'in house' collections but did not show as a collection account on my credit report.  I paid about half of the outstanding balance (which was way more than what was past due) and plan to pay the remaining balance off next month.  If I had known that my ex wife had stopped making the payments I would have payed it earlier but at the time I wasn't monitoring my credit reports.  What exactly is PFD deletion?

[Anonymous]

BTW, the lender is GE Money Care Credit if that makes any difference

[GregB]

PFD mean Pay For Delete. You agree to pay them if they delete the negatives from your report. I hope you can work it out to get the items deleted

This is a perfect example of why it is so important during a divorce to determine what accounts have your name on them. I hope you don't find anymore.