Husband's credit report is awful... help!

Anonymous · ‎03-05-2008

Oh help me wise forum participants! I am a newbie and have been spending the better part of the past few days trying to sift through these forums and am about to tear my hair out. My husband and are already tightly budgeted and are trying to clean up in preparations for a mortgage (which in Maine right now is pretty much the same $$ as renting). Of course we have run into some problems...

We got a copy of my husband's basic CR to find terrible things... He had never checked it before now... He believed he didn't even have a credit score. Come to find out his score is a 533.

Best to be honest, right? He knows some collections are his fault and we will take care of them (e.g. medical bills), but some are (should be) past SOL:

Cap One CC: DOLA: 04/01 (no CO date available) $1370

Returned check to a local credit union: Date opened: 12/97 (no CO date available) and a report date of 11/01: $145

If they are found to be past the SOL (which is 6 years in ME), and (hopefully) soon the drop-off date, what is the legal responsibility of payment?

And the one baddy that seems completely off:

Debt Recovery Solun. (OC = Verizon): $1417 - no DOLA, but the date opened was 06/07.

Now I know that one can't possibly be his because it says it is "open account" for a land line for some guy named Eric who lives across town (the phone# is in the account # and I Googled it). We have never had a land line and we have not changed residence in about 3 years.

Is it better to try to deal directly with Verizon on this one? Or should I send a DV to the CA?

FYI: No notice letters or phone calls have been received from any of these CA, etc.

We also both noticed that there are variances on our names that are incorrect. I noticed on mine an address in a town I have never lived as well as an additional SSN. Can I send letters to the CRAs to correct these? Have you had any trouble with this?

Thank you all in advance for the advice you give and for putting up with my long-winded-ness

We want to clear all this up!

Anonymous · ‎03-05-2008

IMO you should deal with Verizon as far as the phone collection goes. It is their responsibility to report the correct accounts and obviously they didn't do that. That is probably the thing that is affecting it the most right now because it is so recent. Call them immediately and tell them the story.

As far as the rest of the baddies go, I think that you need to DV them. Especially since they are that old. OR, you can PFD and that way, you did the morally right thing as far as pay a legit debt. That is up to you.

Anonymous · ‎03-05-2008

@Anonymous wrote:
Oh help me wise forum participants! I am a newbie and have been spending the better part of the past few days trying to sift through these forums and am about to tear my hair out. My husband and are already tightly budgeted and are trying to clean up in preparations for a mortgage (which in Maine right now is pretty much the same $$ as renting). Of course we have run into some problems...
We got a copy of my husband's basic CR to find terrible things... He had never checked it before now... He believed he didn't even have a credit score. Come to find out his score is a 533.
Best to be honest, right? He knows some collections are his fault and we will take care of them (e.g. medical bills), but some are (should be) past SOL:
Cap One CC: DOLA: 04/01 (no CO date available) $1370
Returned check to a local credit union: Date opened: 12/97 (no CO date available) and a report date of 11/01: $145
If they are found to be past the SOL (which is 6 years in ME), and (hopefully) soon the drop-off date, what is the legal responsibility of payment?
And the one baddy that seems completely off:
Debt Recovery Solun. (OC = Verizon): $1417 - no DOLA, but the date opened was 06/07.
Now I know that one can't possibly be his because it says it is "open account" for a land line for some guy named Eric who lives across town (the phone# is in the account # and I Googled it). We have never had a land line and we have not changed residence in about 3 years.
Is it better to try to deal directly with Verizon on this one? Or should I send a DV to the CA?
FYI: No notice letters or phone calls have been received from any of these CA, etc.
We also both noticed that there are variances on our names that are incorrect. I noticed on mine an address in a town I have never lived as well as an additional SSN. Can I send letters to the CRAs to correct these? Have you had any trouble with this?
Thank you all in advance for the advice you give and for putting up with my long-winded-ness We want to clear all this up!

The Cap One should be off around 4/2008 The returned check should have been off in 2003

Message Edited by guiness56 on 03-05-2008 04:57 PM

Anonymous · ‎03-06-2008

So then he'll have to write to the CRAs to remove those 2 old items off his credit report?

Should they be separate letters or included with each other?

If together, should I put them in with the address/name corrections?

This seems so overwhelming...

Anonymous · ‎03-06-2008

I have read on here that if you are going to dispute with the CRA's on more than one issue, it is best to dispute all at once. If I were you, I would leave the Cap 1 account alone since it is supposed to fall off next month. And the one from the returned check...Does he still have an account at the bank that it is from? This is just me, but if you want to deal with it, just call the bank and offer the PFD. Otherwise, I would just leave it alone til it falls off in November. You are going to see the biggest jump with the Verizon account coming off. That is probably your biggest hit right now. Also, what are your scores? Because they will consider your scores as well if you are applying for a mortgage.

Anonymous · ‎03-06-2008

He does not have any bank accounts and hasn't for many years - I think this was the last one he had.

I think I agree with you that offering the PFD would be the best way to deal with the returned check as it has not been sent to an CA. Just to get rid of if for a relatively small amount of money. Plus I'd rather have him be in good standing with banks so he can get an account. Plus he knows it's his debt?

My score right now is a 690. As much as I've never had a single late payment in my 11 years of credit history, I do have a high debt:income that I've been working on. So I'm trying to bump mine up and get his up too... We need all the help we can get. I hate paying higher interest than we need to

Thank you again!

Anonymous · ‎03-06-2008

Well, it sounds to me that you might be in a pretty good postition as far as he goes with that bank debt. They aren't going to turn down money. If you are sweet with them and don't blow up (if your hubby calls) then maybe they will help you out. That would be great. I think it will be easier than you think to get your scores up. I just paid off $2000 in cc's and still have 16k to go but my scores went up 70 points. Those were FAKO but none the less! I think you will be surprised.

Anonymous · ‎03-06-2008

The fall off date goes by 1997 not 2001, that is only when it was reported to the CRA. It is my belief that this should have been removed in 2003, not Nov 2008.

Anonymous · ‎03-06-2008

I was assuming that the account itself was opened in 97.

Anonymous · ‎03-06-2008

That is what the original post implies, that is was opened in 1997. Therefore, should it not have been removed in 2003, not Nov 2008?