Credit Rebuilding Journey

[cyrusvalentino]

Hello Everyone,

Definitely did not think I would be returning this soon. Through 2017 & early to mid 2018 with all of your help I was able to recover my credit score from about the state it is now low 500's to nearly 660. I will eternally be grateful for all the help, and while I wish I could say I'm back in the 500's due to bad decisions. It just wouldn't be true. My wife suffered chronic congestive failure in 2018 giving birth to our daughter, and to this day we are fighting that hardship. Some creditors have worked with us while others have not. Now I must begin the long battle to recovery not only in my personal day-to-day life but with my credit as it is important to us getting a home in the future. We had hoped to-do that at the beginning of 2019 but that dream was destroyed.

Thank you all in advanced for any help you can provide or advice. Here is my current negatives. The action(s) I have already taken, and ones that I'm just at a loss for how to proceed or what you think the best course of action is.

--- ONGOING ----

TD Bank (Target) - Reported 30 days late in September of 2019. Does anyone have any experience with a goodwill request with them? I do all of my banking with TD and have an actual TD Credit Card that has never been late I got 6 months ago.

One Main Financial - Chargeoff reported (November 2019) & 150 days late (October 2019). I have reached out to their executive office to which they claim they will accept a payment arrangement despite it being turned over to legal. Talking with them and their legal has been a nightmare. They are overreaching in their request for documents and refuse to accept a payment arrangement without what I feel would be a significant invasion of privacy. Anyone ever dealt with them? This account was charged off for $9,000+ and has legal action already in process.

Transworld Systems - Collections Reported x 3 (May 2020). Spoke to this company and they refuse to-do a PFD. Despite this being reported before formal DV 30 days process was completed. Requested full DV on these reported account(s). Original creditor is unresponsive. Ultimately think this one is going to be a huge pain. The question is based on the information so far, should I just pay these debts? I think they are from a hospital visit in November 2019 when I was in Las Vegas and did not have insurance. Never received any bills or statements for service(s) rendered though.

Collection 1 - $1,888 | Collection 2 - $69 | Collection 3 - $83

----- RESOLVED (NO PFD) -----

Merrick Bank - Chargeoff reported (April 2020) & 150 days late (March 2020). I have reached out to the company they charge off to, and basically from what I was explained my balance will be updated as the payments are made until it reaches 0 and then reflect paid in full.

---- RESOLVED (PFD) -----

CAINE & WEINER - Collections Reported (May 2020). Reached out and settled in full PFD. Awaiting removal.

----- OTHER ------

I have several other late payments with Capital One, and others that I'm currently good willing but do not think they will need to be presented based on the long relationship with those companies and previous goodwill adjustments.

[FireMedic1]

All you can do is keep making araingements to get the past paid. So many come on here thinking everyone gets a PFD. it just doesnt happen that way.

[cyrusvalentino]

Thanks so much for the response FireMedic. I get that not all will do PFD, but do you think I should wait for DV to complete first and then pay?

Also what do you think about the OneMain account. Thats the one I'm more worried about than the others due to legal. Just not sure what to do.

[gdale6]

If you have sent the DV and its within the first 30 days of the collection then you have no choice but to wait for it to verify as a C&D communication on the collection is imposed by it until such time that they do verify

[Anonymous]

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@cyrusvalentino wrote:

One Main Financial - Chargeoff reported (November 2019) & 150 days late (October 2019). I have reached out to their executive office to which they claim they will accept a payment arrangement despite it being turned over to legal. Talking with them and their legal has been a nightmare. They are overreaching in their request for documents and refuse to accept a payment arrangement without what I feel would be a significant invasion of privacy. 

Are they wanting proof of your finances and your wife's illness? Do rememver the ball is in their court, so if you want to take advantage of the offer, you will likely have to play by their rules. Otherwise, if you choose not to, they may get a judgement for the full amount and the ability to garnish your paychecks. Which is worse to you? Only you can decide that.

Transworld Systems - Collections Reported x 3 (May 2020). Spoke to this company and they refuse to-do a PFD. Despite this being reported before formal DV 30 days process was completed. Requested full DV on these reported account(s). Original creditor is unresponsive. Ultimately think this one is going to be a huge pain. The question is based on the information so far, should I just pay these debts? I think they are from a hospital visit in November 2019 when I was in Las Vegas and did not have insurance. Never received any bills or statements for service(s) rendered though.

Collection 1 - $1,888 | Collection 2 - $69 | Collection 3 - $83

I have 2 accounts with TSI and agree they are absolutely unwilling to budge and do PFD - even for such small amounts, come on! Only suggestion (which I am also working on) is to contact the OC and see if they will withdraw the CAs in exchange for payment of the bills.

In my case, if they do not accept, I will just let them slip away, quietly into the night. I realize my CRs will not be clean enough before they are due to drop anyway, so I will just hold off if that is what happens. (Only have 4-20 months left on CRs, depending on CR and since they have 2 CAs reporting for TSI)

---- RESOLVED (PFD) -----

CAINE & WEINER - Collections Reported (May 2020). Reached out and settled in full PFD. Awaiting removal.

Congrats! Caine & Weiner are thankfully one of the easier ones to do PFD with!

---

 Don't beat yourself up too bad, just when O thought I was in the clear, both my mother and sister got cancer around thr same time, so my and my SO became the caretaker for my mother and her bills/medical expenses. I went through my 403b/all my retirements accounts, savings, sold 2 of 3 cars, got the 3rd repo'd, got kicked out of our house (but thankfully not with the "eviction" mark - the judge was more understanding than the landlord), both my mother and sister did not survive the cancer, quit my job because of harassment, and totally messed up my credit. It was awful. Thankfully me and my SO are only 1-2 years away from the 7 years reporting prison (out of all SOL, thankfully) and I am clearing up what I can along the way.

You can do this! It takes time and perseverance and you will be back to where you were or in an even better place.

Good luck!

[cyrusvalentino]

Thank you so much for the thoughful and helpful response, it truly is greatly appreciated. I know we all have our challenges, and it is reassuring to hear that others have overcome situations just as dire. It truly has been challenging as I'm sure yours was. A new born, trying to run a business, and care for my wife it has just been a lot. The disease she has only affects 1,000-1,300 women a year. But given it has a 33% mortality rate, I am just thankful she is still here. But enough of me crying on my soapbox. So have a few updates, and good news.

OneMain Financial - Explained to them if an agreement could not be reached I would be filing bankruptcy, and even if they did get a wage garnishment the federal government would have first dibs based on past due taxes. After some back and forth finally got them to approve a loan settlement minus legal fees based on a 36 month payment plan. Once the consent is signed legal action will cease.

IRS - Spoke to their team yesterday and was informed my offer in compromise was accepted, and they will be waiving all penalty fees, interest, and setting the account up under a payment plan which will prevent any further collection activity. This was one I just found out about, and got it resolved within 48 hours.

Transworld System - So far they have been extremely nasty. Spoke to someone in the OC's billing office they will be sending information over to potentially get financial aid that would or could cover the full amount of the bills at which point they would recall the debt. They want to pursue that first, and then whatever is left I can pay them and they will recall the debt!

[rckstrscott]

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@cyrusvalentino wrote:

TD Bank (Target) - Reported 30 days late in September of 2019. Does anyone have any experience with a goodwill request with them? I do all of my banking with TD and have an actual TD Credit Card that has never been late I got 6 months ago.

Transworld Systems - Collections Reported x 3 (May 2020). Spoke to this company and they refuse to-do a PFD. Despite this being reported before formal DV 30 days process was completed. Requested full DV on these reported account(s). Original creditor is unresponsive. Ultimately think this one is going to be a huge pain. The question is based on the information so far, should I just pay these debts? I think they are from a hospital visit in November 2019 when I was in Las Vegas and did not have insurance. Never received any bills or statements for service(s) rendered though.

Collection 1 - $1,888 | Collection 2 - $69 | Collection 3 - $83-

Merrick Bank - Chargeoff reported (April 2020) & 150 days late (March 2020). I have reached out to the company they charge off to, and basically from what I was explained my balance will be updated as the payments are made until it reaches 0 and then reflect paid in full.

I have several other late payments with Capital One, and others that I'm currently good willing but do not think they will need to be presented based on the long relationship with those companies and previous goodwill adjustments.

---

Welcome back @cyrusvalentino - Sorry for the circumstances that has brought you back. I have been clean with my credit for a while now, however, I also rebuilt, failed a bit, and then had to do it again. Just stick with it.

TD, I would just keep at the GW - your currently relationship with them could hopefully bring you luck.

If Transworld is all medical, and from 2019, it is likely still with the original creditor and probably won't be that much of a pain actually. I would get more information. If those are truly medical, you will probably have success removing these. Try to work with the OC and ask them to pull back the CA account. I am curious though to this comment "The OC has been unresponsive" but then you followed that with "I think these are for medical" -  Shouldn't the OC indicate exactly what it is? If it is medical, and the OC won't work with you, pay it down through Transworld and then there are steps you can take to remove post pay off.

Merrick, continue to pay it down and then once it is you can attack with a GW approach. Same with Cap1 as far as GW.

Best of luck to you and your family! My wife gave birth to our daughter was 30 weeks, and we had quite an experience too. So I understand how hard it is to keep up with the finances. We did 3 months in the NICU. 

-scott

[cyrusvalentino]

@rckstrscott - Thanks so much for the words of encouragement.

I do have an update and a bit of a question as well. So based on documents I just got from the hospital. It appears the bills were sent to an old address. I have no idea how they got it but after a lengthy discussions the hospital referenced Charity Care. They believe based on my personal income levels that I will qualify for Charity Care of 100% and finally gave a number to reach out to the Physician who is the company who has passed it off to collections the hospital did but with a different company who has not reached out to me.

The hospital stated if awarded Charity care they will recall the collections as the balance was satisfied with OC.

The physicians group stated if awarded Charity care they will not recall collections even if the balance is satisfied with them at 100%. My question for this is how if the OC is paid 100% by a program to which I have to qualify for and would have had I received the bills can they not recall the debt if payments aren't made to the CA by the federal program. Essentially the lady I spoke to said they would just notify the CA that it was paid in full or based on the amount received from the federal program, but that they could not recall it? How does that make any sense? If the OC is paid by a federal program how can they then not recall or leave the CA in place? Any help on this will be appreciated just trying to make sense of this madness.

As a side note the Charity Care can take 30-60 days to be approved so got time to figure this out but so confused.

[rckstrscott]

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@cyrusvalentino wrote:

@rckstrscott - Thanks so much for the words of encouragement.

I do have an update and a bit of a question as well. So based on documents I just got from the hospital. It appears the bills were sent to an old address. I have no idea how they got it but after a lengthy discussions the hospital referenced Charity Care. They believe based on my personal income levels that I will qualify for Charity Care of 100% and finally gave a number to reach out to the Physician who is the company who has passed it off to collections the hospital did but with a different company who has not reached out to me.

The hospital stated if awarded Charity care they will recall the collections as the balance was satisfied with OC.

The physicians group stated if awarded Charity care they will not recall collections even if the balance is satisfied with them at 100%. My question for this is how if the OC is paid 100% by a program to which I have to qualify for and would have had I received the bills can they not recall the debt if payments aren't made to the CA by the federal program. Essentially the lady I spoke to said they would just notify the CA that it was paid in full or based on the amount received from the federal program, but that they could not recall it? How does that make any sense? If the OC is paid by a federal program how can they then not recall or leave the CA in place? Any help on this will be appreciated just trying to make sense of this madness.

As a side note the Charity Care can take 30-60 days to be approved so got time to figure this out but so confused.

---

Technically, there is nothing in the FCRA that requires the collection company to remove the tradeline so long as they place it as a 0 dollar balance if the OC takes the payment. Once it went to collection, they have the authority to report and they did. Short of terminating their authority to collect on this it can legally report. Simply paying it off with OC doesn't terminate their authority to report. 

Many times, the OC won't want to disrupt their relationship with the CA simply to satisfy you. Doesn't mean they won't but it sounds like in this case the OC will not "recall" the debt. It is why some of us (not all) recommend dealing with the CA instead of the OC for these. That is simply tactic.

Now if it is paid, there are other ways to work on the removal. GW letter obvioulsy. There is a process called the HIPAA process that cannot be discussed on this forum, but I had success with that in my journey.

This thread, with RobertEG's explanation (he is one of the most savy with the actual LAW part) should be helpful:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/Getting-OC-to-recall-a-collection/m-p/568164...

Hope that helps!

-scott

[FireMedic1]

1. Call the OC and see if insurance can be billed, (or-rebilled), collections ultimately paid by insurance get removed per new rules that came from CRAs settlement with 22 state AGs. If not then
2. see if you qualify for Charity Care, if not then
3. ask that they recall the collection in exchange for full payment
4. Send the reporting CA a PFD offer
5. Google the HIPAA Process and contact its creator for help, this process cannot be discussed in any forum of myFico.

Seems you done great so far. But theres another steps to get it all removed. Good Luck!