Hi all,
I'm new to the forum so thanks in advance for any and all help you might offer!
I'm in a bit of a predicament, I have a sense of what to do but not sure how to go about it or if I even should. Basically, I ended up in a situation where I was not able to pay off any of my bills or credit card debt for almost 2-3 years. I lost my job at the time and was unemployed for the better part of a year and a half or so. Consequently, my credit card payment came to a halt and my accounts started getting closed one by one - probably one of the scariest moments of my life so far, especially since it happend during and after college.
26, broke and jobless, I somehow found a part-time gig last year which turned into a full-blown career and I offically started working full-time in October of 2016. All the money I made durin the part-time job, I used to pay off all my credit card debt and essentially started my full-time career debt free! As good as that may sound, one my closed Citi credit cards, the Citi Diamond Preferred, was sent to collections. I ended up paying a lumpsum amount and settling the debt for less than the original but I was so scared at the time, I didn't really consider my credit score or that fact that I could've potentially made some sort of deal to have the account reported on my Credit Report in a way that would mitigate the damage.
After recently using the "CreditWise" app from CapitalOne, I saw that the account that was sent to collections and settled is being reported as:
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Status:
Date Reported: Aug 19, 2016
Payment Status: Collection/Chargeoff
Account Status: Paid
Account Details: --
Payment Details:
Date of Last Payment: May 10, 2016
Monthly Payment: $0
Payment Frequency: Not Reported
Worst Pay Status: Unknown
Remarks:
Payment after charge off/collection. Settled - less than full balance.
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The "COLLECTION/CHARGEOFF" status has really been killing my scores and any hope of potential plans that revolve around credit in the future! I researched and found that I could write a "goodwill letter" to the credit card company and request that the status be changed but then I also read some bad stories, specifically with Citi when dealing with "goodwill letters."
I'm in the process of trying to get my life back together and I really don't know what to do with this particular situation - do you think I have a fighting chance against Citi with getting the status changed on my credit reports? Any advice or insight would be awesome!
Thanks agaiin!
-s
