How do you handle the frustration?

[jons998877]

Thanks... One was from Portfolio, it looks like they wait 30 days before deleting, which should be this week coming up. From them I have no letter because on their website they say they delete all paid lines..

The other is Tek- Collect, which I have a letter from... will email her on Monday

[jons998877]

So I emailed Tek-Collect on Monday and got no response from my contact person... What are my options if I have a PFD letter and they fail to delete the item? Or am I jumping the gun since while its been deleted on TU, the line on Equifax shows it still with a balance..

I also have a second round of GW letters for LVNV that I will mail out over the next 4-5 days, maybe get lucky there..

[Anonymous]

I'm in the same boat as you. I have 1 collection (will not accept PFD) and a 30/60 days late payment(sent 2 rounds of GW, no luck so far) all from 2017 and my scores are 602/597/595.  But I did have 4 CC That were reporting 100% that I've paid down to 75% uti, so hopefully my score will jump a little bit. I'm going to get a loan from my CU and pay the collection (medical paying half with settlement agreement just to be done with it) and pay CC down to 45% uti. Then it's Garden Time. Best of luck

[Anonymous]

If you have the PFD letter and the CRA's are dragging their feet. Send them a copy of the letter. They all update differently but that might speed it up. On the GW letters it's like everyone says. Just keep sending them and pray it reaches the right person who can help you. I've been in the rebuild process for only a month and I swear I've aged 10 years lol.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

It could take 2 - 3 cycles to update. If tek-collect didn't request to have them removed, you can sue them. If the CRAs are lagging, you can reach out to them with the proof.

[jons998877]

I guess I just lack patience, as I am now to the point of gardening and sending in some occasional GW letters to my 3 negative accounts.. 4 active CC accounts are now 11, 7, 2 and 1 mos old, and really the first positive trade lines in about 7 years.. I havent had a CC in 7 years. last loan was an auto loan that was charged off in 2016 ( I paid it in 2017-2018)..

[jons998877]

Just got an alert that EX went from 582 to 604, now all 3 are in the 600's.... baby steps

[coreysw12]

I wouldn't stress out so much about the 3 negatives. Sure, we'd all love to have a spotless credit report, but realistically those 3 negatives aren't going to kill you. Like you just said, your scores are already in the 600's. Pretty soon you'll be back into "prime" credit territory, even with those negs on there.

I have 8 baddies on my reports, and they are also not due for deletion until 2023. Sure, my scores would probably be better if they were gone, but really my scores are still getting higher and higher every month even with them on there, and I'm starting to qualify for some pretty good stuff. You'll be there too in just a few months.

So my advice is to focus mostly on building positives - if you focus too much on getting rid of the negs, you'll just get frustrated and depressed every time they say they won't delete them. Keep sending letters once in a while (you might as well), but don't place too much hope in their success. If it was easy to get rid of all negs, nobody would have negs.

You could still have a score in the 700's in a few months even if you can't lose those negs, as long as you've concentrated on building solid positive history. As those negs get older, they matter less and less.

Congrats on the 600's by the way! As someone who was in the 400's myself last year, I remember how good it felt for my scores to hit that magic number. It was only 3 months ago! And I'm already getting really close to the next magic number, 700... even without getting a single one of my baddies removed. Remember, it's only going to keep going up as you continue to build your good credit

I find that a fun way to pass the time is to check out all the rewards credit cards I'll eventually qualify for, and start laying out detailed plans for the vacations I'll use all those points for. It's been keeping me pretty well occupied while I'm sitting in the garden.

[jons998877]

Thanks for taking the time to write a lengthy response, that all makes so much sense.. just yesterday my QS1 bumped my CL from $500 to $3500 so that felt good..

[coreysw12]

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@jons998877 wrote:

Thanks for taking the time to write a lengthy response, that all makes so much sense.. just yesterday my QS1 bumped my CL from $500 to $3500 so that felt good..

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That's awesome, and that's a HUGE bump in your CL! It's rare to even get a 100% CLI from CapitalOne, and you got 700%! They must really like you. And it further proves that creditors eventually stop caring about those old baddies. In some cases, creditors don't even care if the baddies are old accounts from their own bank! Cap1 just gave me a $3k card, and 2 of my baddies are old Cap1 cards that I only settled this last January. Chase just gave me 2 new cards totalling $14k, and 1 of my baddies is an old Chase card that I also only just settled in January.

People make a bigger deal about old baddies on this forum than I think is really justified. Truth is, creditors don't really care very much about your past as long as your present and future looks good.