Charge Offs: Starting from Scratch: Please help *

[righthererightnow]

I live paycheck to paycheck.
I do not have any payments, or anything in my life right now that I’m paying on.
I am not late on my utilites or anything else. I rent.

I have 3 accounts that are 'charged off':

Chase ( 2 cards ):

card A:
1st date of deliq.. Sept 2017

(Last report August 2018)
balance: charged off: $2,561

card B:
1st date of deliq.. Oct 2017
balance: charged off: $7,080

(last report July 2018)

Capital One... (1 card ):

1st date of deliq.. Sept 2017

(last report Sept 2018)
balance: charged off: $9,039

No inquires. No collections.

What can I do to fix this. What would you do?
I can’t afford to .. anything.
Do I have any credit repair options?

Is there anything I can do to repair this?

Any help at all is appreciated.

[MyDataMyChoice]

What is your reasons for wanting to imporove your credit?

Are you looking to take out a loan?   Mortgage?

If you are looking to pay the loans... and then rack up more... not sure thats the best option...and will lead to being in debt and late/charged off in the future.

Are you looking to clean up your report - and get SUB cards and promos?   bonus miles and rewards? 

What is your current score, and souce of the score?

[righthererightnow]

No loan, no mortgage, just wanting to repair my credit.

I dont want to stay in my current apt forever and credit scores in the city I live are very important.

Also to get a new phone plan, credit matters. I've been suriving with a low score,

but it's really limiting where I can go and what I can do and

I want to fix this mess. And then live differently, be better.

I'm not as interested in rewards as score.

Current score: 523EQ, 522EX, 548TU

The only negatives I have are those 3 charge offs, 2 Chase and 1 Capital One.

Not sure what to do, or what I can do.. to fix this.

[MyDataMyChoice]

If you are not looking to Pay off or settle the debt you can try objecting that they are yours and dispute with CRA but since they are... they probably wont go away... Surprised there inst a collection company like midland showing up ... that may come down the road.

What is your Statue of Limitations where you live?
Are you judgement proof? (source of income?)

You can wait it out... hope they don't sue and obtain a judgement before the statue of limitations runs out

You can settle or enter into a payment plan - but you said you cannot afford to.


You can File CH7 Bankrucpy


As far as cell phone plans... I use Cricket Wireless $50/mo unlimited everything had to buy the phone outright (saved up)


You can open a Secured Share Loan from a credit union, and maybe a Fingerhut account. That will give you some positive tradelines to start reporting... but you still will have those three tradelines sticking around for 7 years...

[righthererightnow]

I think SOL is 5 years here.

Rough plan, right now, is to try and contact Capital One, first, then Chase.
See if I can setup a payment plan, pay for delete.

I don't even know if that exists, but there is no way I can pay a lump sum,

I just don't have it to give, at all.

EDIT: After reading a bit more in this forum..

seems like Capital one and Chase might not be into the pay for delete,

especially since I'll need to make payments over time.

Not sure what my options are.

Tried to look up SOL, one site gave 5 years, the other 10 years. eeeek.

[dynamicvb]

If you can’t pay those then they will be there for a while. To build your scores you are going to have to get some positive trade lines reporting. Do a search for the rent reporting companies. I’m not sure if those help, but they may help you show some positive history. You also need to look into getting a secured credit card. Not sure with the current scores, but open sky may be an option. The secured shared loan technique is also a good option and will help you start saving some money to cover those unexpected expenses that always come up.

If you are living paycheck to paycheck, then you need to fix that either by living on less or getting a better paying job. Do a search for the 11rules to rebuilding credit. That is an excellent post not just for building credit but for effectively managing finances.

[Thaitea007]

IMHO, if your living paycheck to paycheck and have no active debt you are paying on. So you have all you need at least for survival.

Then you must first try to boost up your income, second job or better paying job if you want to take care of this negative debt because it will keep your scores crippled by updating each month.

You need to save some money up to settle theses charge-offs specially Cap 1 they are known for legally coming after you for their money, they sued me for $500 card. Not sure about Chase on that front.
But my brother just settled a Chase charge off at $3000 balance for $300 bucks.

Settling theses accounts is the best you will get, and if money is a issue settling for less than owed will be the best they will update theses account to.

They will most likely not remove them from your report even if you paid them in full.
After that you can look at secured cards to start your rebuild.

Good luck, use the search field here you will find a lot people in your same position now that have climbed their way back up it’s very possible just takes time and I mean years. Stay focus on it.

[righthererightnow]

Any recommendations for settling charge offs? Do I contact the billing dept of the individual credit card company and then start up a conversation on it? I tried to call the other day and was forwarded to a law firm (hug up immediately).

While I don't have that sort of money right now, I'm VERY interested in settling and putting this behind me. $300 etc is do-able with planning.

What does 'settling' do to my account, will it still be listed as bad debt? Does it just change my UTI?

[MyDataMyChoice]

YOu can try to settle by calling them up and offering to settle the account... Never take first offer. You should be able to settle with 40% of the balance... may even be able to do it over 6 months payments... If it is Sold to a debt collector you can even better terms... and maybe a Pay for Delete. Get everything in writing before payment.

You need to open three tradelines and a installment loan to rebuild your credit.

[RobertEG]

A creditor has four general options after taking a charge-off.

1.  Sell the debt to a third party, and thus recoup a bit more of their loss.

2.  Assign collection authority to a debt collector, thus continuing attempts to collect on the delinquent debt.

3.  Initiate civil action and attempt to obtain a civil judgment, which can then be used to attempt to attach your eliglible assets or garnish your eligible pay.

4.  Continue to attempt collection themselves, or cancel or ignore the debt.

If you are aware that a creditor has taken step 1, then you can no longer offer any payment to them.  You no longer owe any debt to them, and they will update their reporting to show $0 balance.  You can then expect any of steps 2-4 to follow via the new owner.

If the creditor has taken either steps 2 or 3, then new, adverse reporting may likely  be added to your credit report in the form of either a collection or a civil judgment.  Thus, priority should usually be directed at debts that are either still within SOL or are still owned by the original creditor.

If you cannot offer to pay the debt, then you have little to prevent the creditor or debt collector from pursuing their options.

You can offer a settlement for less, but they are difficult to obtain after a charge-off.  All you can do is try........