First off, Hello to all. I've been lurking for about a week, gaining valuable information, but I still have things I want to learn.
My husband and I both got out of horrible marriages at the same time and then married one another. We often laugh at how similar our exes are, and how similar we are. Both of our exes were content to let us bring home the bacon, while they threw it (and our credit ratings) right out the backdoor.
Long story short, when we met, hubby's score was 500 and mine was 532. A match made in credit hell. lol. He had just filed BK, and I had just had one that dropped off my report shortly after I he and I got together.
I'll spare you the details of all the insanity we went through with me trying to get a car (I finally managed it, at 18% interest) and him trying to get a house with a 500 score. He managed that, too, with our loan officer telling him, "Whatever you do, do NOT call around for insurance quotes. They'll pull your score and you'll drop about 5 points. You're at 500 right now and if you drop even ONE point, I can't get you funded anywhere on the planet." lol. Funny now, but not so much back then.
Anyway, we both were very leary of each other credit-wise, having come out of marriages where the motto was, "Why pay it off? Our credit already sucks." He was more leary than I, truth be told, but after the first year of marriage, he began to realize that he could trust me with our finances. Now, he doesn't even ask questions; just knows that I'm on top of it.
So, three and a half years later, we're both in the high 600s. We still have a couple of things hanging on, though. He's still got his BK (not much we can do, I guess, until it's out by time) and a couple of medical collections that aren't his --- they are bills incurred by his ex during the pendency of their divorce which, by state statute makes them hers solely. Those are coming off, though. Between him calling the original hospital and talking to the CFO and me sending nasty how-would-you-like-me-to-sue-you-for-slander-of-credit? letters, we finally got confirmation that the CA has instructed the CRAs to drop them all from his report.
He still has one that he paid off---and it shows paid---but I want it GONE. Any ideas? We paid it off almost three years ago, but it still lingers.
I've got some funky medical bill from years and years ago. I don't even know what it is. I've disputed it through the CRAs, but they just verify it and stick it back on there. I still don't what it is, though. I don't want to just pay it to get rid of it, because it will still hang around, just like the one hubby paid. Thoughts?
Meanwhile, besides the fun I've had with hubby's exes' medical bills, for some reason, over the past couple of months, I got two very odd collection letters.
The first was from an insanely old JCPenney charge account that was included in the BK my ex and I filed in 1999. I called the collection agent and the dip got all huffy with me. I told him that this account was too old AND was discharged in BK. He asked for a letter, which I sent them. Never heard back. Nothing bad on my report. I assume that they decided they were crazy and dropped the whole thing since this was nearly 60 days ago.
A couple weeks later, I got yet ANOTHER insanely old bill, about some account I didn't recognize, dating back to 2000. I didn't even bother to call on that one. I wrote them a letter telling them that I had no knowledge but that my lack of knowledge of the account wasn't even relevant insofar as the statute of limitations had run out on the debt --- whatever it was ---- years ago. Got an "ooops.Sorry" letter from them in response.
Why in the heck would stuff like this suddenly start popping up? These things are insanely old. Any ideas what might have made something like that happen?
Also, I am getting ready to dispute some things on my husband's report. Here is my concern, though. The last time I filed disputes, his score actually DROPPED. I was told that this was because the disputes "stir things up" much like whipping a stick through a muddy, but settled puddle. The mud clouds up the water, but then it settles back. Plus, some of the things I disputed were accounts showing delinquent that were actually in his BK. They changed the status of the things to IIBK, BUT the "date reported" changed on the items. Does that start the clock all over again?
Anyway, I'm looking forward to learning and sharing here. I've actually done quite a bit of my own research and made some progress as a result. Plus, I've had some good results with smacking CAs around, which is quite enjoyable, I must confess. ;-)
