Credit repair help

[Anonymous]

Okay, so I finally got the guts to sit down and start repairing my credit and my wife's credit...and boy do I have a journey ahead of me.

First thing I am going to try to do is get as many late payments removed as possible.  I am current on all accounts, but fell behind for a few months at the end of the year due to my wife graduating school and losing my job.  A lot of the accounts are under both of our names, so if I send GWL's to all of these creditors, should I send 2 letters each? One for myself and one for my wife?  If I directly dispute late payments, do I need to dispute each one with each CRB and under each of our names?

I have roughly 33 late payments spread across 10 different accounts (CC's, Student loans, auto loan, mortgage)

Should I start with GWL's?

- I already reached out to Navient via their customer advocate and did not receive a favorable response, however my payments to them are auto-drafted and each late payment (6 in total) occurred the month after the auto-draft ended or was cancelled without my knowledge.

UPDATE 7/25: TU dispute worked, all lates removed, as well as $8k in student loan debt somehow?

- Auto loan late payments are because I was told (after the fact) that their mailing address as listed on their website has the incorrect zip code, so many of the payments I mailed in, were never cashed by the credit union.  This is our 3rd auto loan with this CU and the only one we've ever had late payments on.

- Mortgage, we have been on time for 10 years, and then had 3 late payments due to hardship.  GWL might be able to fix this?

- Synchrony Bank - 2 different accounts with 7 late payments between them.  Do I send 1 GWL for both accounts, or separate?

UPDATE 7/23: 4 late payments and associated late fees removed from Synchrony Rooms To Go via e-mail GWL

- Comenity Bank - Same as synchony, 2 diff accounts, 4 late between them, 1 is $0 balance now

- Credit One Bank - $0 balance - 2 late payments

- Capital One - 4 late payments, high utilization but only paying it down currently, no new charges

- AMEX - 1 late

Thanks for reading all of this, I am desperate to get this situation sorted out!  After I tackle late payments, we have 1 collections account that we have paid down, so I am thinking PFD once we pay a little bit more on it.

Goal is to have 0% utilization, zero late payments, and zero collections.  Journey starts now.

[ItsCASHual]

Welcome to a new day....a new path that so many here have walked before you. Everyone has their own story and sometimes just getting "real" about it and telling others is the first step. Practically any question you might have along the way, someone will be able to help with their own prior experience in the matter. You've come to the right place. One foot, one step in front of the other....moving forward. I wish you and your spouse success.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, that is the plan! My main question is, since I am an authorized user on most of these accounts, do I need to send GWL's to the creditors on just my wife's behalf, do I need to send them from both of us, etc...or since I'm an AU, will the creditor removing late payments from her reports also get them removed from my reports?

[Anonymous]

Before any of this, I submitted a dispute via CK about the late payments on our auto loan.  I don't know if this will get it removed, but it's a start.  We have a long relationship with our CU so I am thinking a GWL will go a long way with them (this is our 3rd auto and 4th loan w/ them)

[Anonymous]

Good thing I was checking my Navient account.

Logged in and they had me listed as 4 days past due when my payment is scheduled to be $0.  I called a CSR and he looked into it for me and found that the system was in error and that my account should be current with $0 due.

This type of stuff is why I do not trust Navient, and why I should have some sort of case to get other late payments removed by them.

[Anonymous]

Any advice?

[ItsCASHual]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you, that is the plan! My main question is, since I am an authorized user on most of these accounts, do I need to send GWL's to the creditors on just my wife's behalf, do I need to send them from both of us, etc...or since I'm an AU, will the creditor removing late payments from her reports also get them removed from my reports?

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As an AU my understanding is that you can charge on the account. I don't think you have any authority to call in to customer service (i.e. for CLI, lower APR or whatever) or anything (except to possibly cancel yourself off the account). If your wife were to mis-manage the account (over the limit, pay late, etc.) that would also then reflect negatively on your CR scoring as you are "tagged" as an AU on the card/account. So essentially you can "swipe" the card but that's pretty much it. And if said account is managed well by the main account holder, you then benefit positively in the CR scoring.

[RobertEG]

If you are only an authorized user, then you should simply get yourself removed from any reporting of the AU to your credit file.

That will remove the AU account without any need for a good-will deletion of derogs.

If you choose to remain as an AU and your wife obtains deletion of derogs from her file, then ultimately the correction should post to your report.  However, you are at the mercy of the furnisher as to whether their reporting to your file has also been corrected.

Unless you have substantial basis for wanting to retain the account in your scoring, the easiest solution is to simply have the AU removed.

Yes, you should each send your own disputes, good-will, etc., communications.

A consumer dispute, for example, must be made by the consumer, not another.

You cannot dispute the accuracy of information in an AU account that is not yours.  The principal on the account must dispute the accuracy.

[Anonymous]

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@RobertEG wrote:

If you are only an authorized user, then you should simply get yourself removed from any reporting of the AU to your credit file.

That will remove the AU account without any need for a good-will deletion of derogs.

If you choose to remain as an AU and your wife obtains deletion of derogs from her file, then ultimately the correction should post to your report.  However, you are at the mercy of the furnisher as to whether their reporting to your file has also been corrected.

Unless you have substantial basis for wanting to retain the account in your scoring, the easiest solution is to simply have the AU removed.

Yes, you should each send your own disputes, good-will, etc., communications.

A consumer dispute, for example, must be made by the consumer, not another.

You cannot dispute the accuracy of information in an AU account that is not yours.  The principal on the account must dispute the accuracy.

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Of course, the disputes of each account will be done via the primary card holder, I just wanted to know if the GWL's and/or disputes were successful, would the creditor have the negative marks removed from both the primary user and AU?

We both have dings on our account due to trying to finish school and losing a job at the worst possible time, so I would like to avoid being removed as an AU and just get the accounts cleaned up.  Every single one of our late payments, on every account, is from the same 2-3 month period, so I am hoping the explanation of why it happened and why it won't happen again will be enough to sway some of these long-time creditors (Chase/CU auto loan/Mortgage lendor/etc) where we had otherwise perfect payment records

[Anonymous]

Called Navient today and spoke to a CSR who gave me great instructions on how to word a dispute letter and all of the boxes I needed to check to successfully dispute the late payments on my Navient private student loan.  She empathized because she had the same issue and had to do the same thing at her own company!

Drafted a bunch of goodwill letters and the dispute letter for Navient, just have to print out my credit reports and circle the disputed items to attach to the Navient dispute before I send everything out.