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You really only have 2 choices. Keep trying for PFD letters until maybe it falls into the right hands. Or just pay them off. Any collection paid is much better looking than owed. The medical bill you can google the HIPPA process. Though we are not allowed to discuss that on the forum.
@Anonymous wrote:
Last month I wrote and sent via verifiable mail five PFD letters to various credit agencies that amount to $2,661. I am responsible for this debt and I am just trying to make it right in a way that does not negatively affect my credit worse.
I am 27, currently in college, and trying to navigate my financial future. I have current student loans of $2,886 from $5,500 that I used to get my associates degree. I am taking on more student loans come May 2019 to complete my bachelor's, this should surmount to about $22,000 more for three years.
The accounts are from two instances of being let go from my company, one was restructured to avoid bankruptcy, unknown to the employees until one month prior to firings with little severance, the other is due to the company being bought out and not told we were being let go due to redundancy. It's not like I wanted to retreat and forgo the payments.
The accounts are as follows:
First layoff -
Charter communications - $352, opened 2016
T-Mobile - $911, opened 2016 but they have sold this account twice and now it shows date of deferment as 2018? I have no idea how that works.
I had more in collections during 2016 due to loss of work but most were medical that were deleted from the CB and paid.
Second layoff -
Sprint - $586, opened 2018
Medical bill rejected by insurance - $726
Second medical bill due to missed co-pay, my fault - $82
This one was small as I was better suited for the lay off. I closed most accounts and paid off debt. The sprint bill only got so high due to leased phone and one missed payment in late 2018. I used much of my savings and eventually wound up living in my car for a couple months prior to finding a permanent position this last month.
I am in need of a vehicle as I've moved from a location with excellent public transportation to one with over 1 hour waits. I've bought a used car off a lot for 5500 USD, cash, and with 124,000~ miles on it but it shat on me last year (Dec 2018) due to a bad transmission. This is the second used car I've bought under 10k (cash) that has died on me with regular servicing in the last two years. I need something either lightly used or a new economy car under 20k with a warrenty.
I pulled my credit from experian and I found out I have a 542, which is horrible but I just recently, last Friday, opened a discover it secured credit card with a $300 limit. It has yet to hit my report so I have no clue what that will do to my credit as this is my first ever credit card. I want to boost my credit score high enough to hit at most 13% on a new vehicle loan, currently, I was offered 22% on a Fiat.
I know it was long but I wanted to give a clear snapshot of my financial situation and I hope you can help me going forward to meet a 6 month goal for a new car purchase.
Thank you for your help.
Transmissions are garbage these days, I have a mechanic friend who spends more than 40% of his time replacing them in primarily GM produced cars. If you cannot get a PFD and its updating monthly just settle it so it can age back in time. If its not then you have a decision as to wait for it to age more to get a better pay off deal, also want to be mindful of SOL in any negotiations. Welcome to the board
Attack the last/youngest collection first and work backwards from there. Not talking morals here, but from your credit score point of view paying the older ones will produce minimal results. If you can't remove them all, focus on lengthing the time since your last derragatory.
@Anonymous wrote:
I have a sprint collection account that is 5 months old, should I ask the representative to pull the account back and pay the OC? If so how would I go about doing this with sprint? I've tried this in the past with T-Mobile before and the rep/managers all seem clueless.
I'll try emails too, how should I word it? Where should I try to negotiate the debt down to? Should I start at 25-30% on old debt? 30-40% on new?
Once you determine whether these are in SOL and the shortest is 3 years in some states that will pretty much set what you need to offer as settlement. Anything inside SOL is most likely going to take 50-75% to settle, once outside you can offer less. I will give you the links to the PFD thread here so you can get an idea of what to say
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/PFD-Q-amp-A-Examples-and-PFD-Success-Stories/td-p/2031275
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/PFD-Example-Letter/td-p/4519