Desperately needing advice on tackling bad debt!

[bmblbg]

Hi all,

I’m looking for some assistance in coming up with a plan for tackling my bad debt.

I have a car loan, 6 student loans, and 5 credit cards all current/pays as agreed, although since my son recently had surgery and I’ve had to charge, I’m sitting at 79% utilization! I’m not too worried about the utilization, though, as I’m tackling it at $1,000 a month in payments.

What I am worried about is getting rid of some of these negatives!! Due to a pretty ugly divorce that drug out from 2014-early 2016 and some shady dealings by my ex, I’ve got $9,324 in negatives right now and nowhere close to the money to PIF.

So here’s where I’m sitting:

Bank of America. $302/$1,000. Closed/Charge-Off. DFD 9/2015. Still reports late every month and still factors into utilization, so I’m thinking this will be my first pay-off. I know they’re notorious for no PFD, but PIF should at least stop their ongoing impact on my scores, right?

Fingerhut. $0. Closed. Sold. DFD 3/2014. I tried GWD but they refused. Said was sold, although I’ve never heard from anyone else about this.

Capital One. $0. Closed/PIF. 3 30-day lates, 2 60-day lates, 2 90-day lates. Last DFD was 8/2014. Refused GWD.

Santander. $2,045. Closed/Charge-Off. Repossession. DFD 11/2015.

Department of Education (x2) $0. Was 180-days late. Transferred/consolidated. Closed 3/2016.

Jefferson Capital. Collection for Verizon. $2,943. DFD 5/2015.

National Credit Adjusters. Collection for Rise payday loan. $1,981. DFD 7/2014.

Credit Management. Collection for Cox Cable. $279. DFD 9/2017. This one is a pain – this was not my account and they continue to validate. They’re saying this is for an internet modem that was never returned. I had Century Link internet and never did business with Cox, but this has been validated time and again so I’m at a loss on this one and wondering if I should just see if Cox will recall and pay them for the stupid thing – someone else gets a free modem at my expense. Ugh.

Collection Resources. Medical collection for some imaging services I had done. Another weird one. Insurance paid. I paid the copays. Never got any bills and when I’ve called the doctor’s office they can’t even find me in their system anymore, but CA continues to validate. The balance was $348. Now CA is asking for $618. Won’t PFD. Won’t settle. Won’t take less than the $618. DFD 8/2013.

Real Time Resolutions. Collection for Check N Go. $1156. No DFD listed on report, but fall-off date of 9/2020 is listed.

As of today, my FICO 8 scores are sitting at 600EX, 594EQ, 635TU. FICO Mortgage scores are at 535EX, 563EQ, 641TU. My goal is a mortgage in the next year or so since I live in one of those cities where the average monthly rent is quite a bit more expensive than the average monthly mortgage payment, but at the rate these things are sitting, I may have to change the goal timeline!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much, in advance, for the feedback!

[Anonymous]

I would tackle the newer debts first.  What is the SOL where you live?  Some of your older debts may be outside the SOL where you live for the companies to sue you for non-payment.  They likely wouldn't bother with the  smaller debts but a couple of the larger debts, they may look at litigation if still within the SOL.  If you are past SOL and it is going to fall off your report within a year or so, I would let it be.  You can always call these debt collection companies and try to negotiate a smaller settlement.  Give them an offer of what you are willing to pay.  If they think the settlement is too low, they will counter with a higher number.  Haggle with them to get the best settlement you can.  Some companies will even do a 'pay for delete' (PFD).  If you pay up, they may be willing to remove the negative from your credit report.  This often takes time too.  The companies often don't bite the first time PFD is offered.  It can take months for some companies to come around and a handful of companies (like CapitalOne) rarely ever respond positively to goodwill (as you have learned).  Cleaning up credit takes effort and time, but it can be done.

[Anonymous]

Also, I assume the Santander was an auto loan since you stated it was a re-possession.  Did the amount owed take into account what the vehicle was sold for at auction?  If you owed $2045 when the vehicle was repossessed, this amount should have been lowered by the amount they sold it for.  FE, if they sold the vehicle for $1000, then you would only own $1045 now.   

Have you disputed the medical collection with the CRAs?  Or have you been asking the CA to validate the debt?  Talk to your insurance company and see if they paid this debt?  If it was paid, then I would dispute the debt as already paid with the CRA.  

[FireMedic1]

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@bmblbg wrote:

Hi all,

I’m looking for some assistance in coming up with a plan for tackling my bad debt.

I have a car loan, 6 student loans, and 5 credit cards all current/pays as agreed, although since my son recently had surgery and I’ve had to charge, I’m sitting at 79% utilization! I’m not too worried about the utilization, though, as I’m tackling it at $1,000 a month in payments.

What I am worried about is getting rid of some of these negatives!! Due to a pretty ugly divorce that drug out from 2014-early 2016 and some shady dealings by my ex, I’ve got $9,324 in negatives right now and nowhere close to the money to PIF.

So here’s where I’m sitting:

Bank of America. $302/$1,000. Closed/Charge-Off. DFD 9/2015. Still reports late every month and still factors into utilization, so I’m thinking this will be my first pay-off. I know they’re notorious for no PFD, but PIF should at least stop their ongoing impact on my scores, right? PIF ASAP so it quits updating and then it can fall off once the SOL expires. BoA wont do PFD.

Fingerhut. $0. Closed. Sold. DFD 3/2014. I tried GWD but they refused. Said was sold, although I’ve never heard from anyone else about this. Pull your annual credit reports and see who owns this debt. Or even look on CK. Somebodys got it.

Capital One. $0. Closed/PIF. 3 30-day lates, 2 60-day lates, 2 90-day lates. Last DFD was 8/2014. Refused GWD. Cap1 wont do GW's on late payments. Very very rare.

Santander. $2,045. Closed/Charge-Off. Repossession. DFD 11/2015.I tried to get a GW 1 30 day late removed. No go. They wont do it. Needs to be PIF in time.

Department of Education (x2) $0. Was 180-days late. Transferred/consolidated. Closed 3/2016. The late will run its course and affect your score the full 7 yrs. Sorry.

Jefferson Capital. Collection for Verizon. $2,943. DFD 5/2015. Any telecommunication company is hard to deal with especially Verizon/Jefferson. In time needs to be paid. Try to settle for less. That amount. Were any phones kept and not turned in?

National Credit Adjusters. Collection for Rise payday loan. $1,981. DFD 7/2014. You know the drill now.

Credit Management. Collection for Cox Cable. $279. DFD 9/2017. This one is a pain – this was not my account and they continue to validate. They’re saying this is for an internet modem that was never returned. I had Century Link internet and never did business with Cox, but this has been validated time and again so I’m at a loss on this one and wondering if I should just see if Cox will recall and pay them for the stupid thing – someone else gets a free modem at my expense. Ugh. Did you turn in the modem and keep the return reciept? Go to the local office and deal with them. Have the branch prove you had a modem since yousay you didnt.

Collection Resources. Medical collection for some imaging services I had done. Another weird one. Insurance paid. I paid the copays. Never got any bills and when I’ve called the doctor’s office they can’t even find me in their system anymore, but CA continues to validate. The balance was $348. Now CA is asking for $618. Won’t PFD. Won’t settle. Won’t take less than the $618. DFD 8/2013.

Google the HIPPA process. We cant discuss it here on the forum.

Real Time Resolutions. Collection for Check N Go. $1156. No DFD listed on report, but fall-off date of 9/2020 is listed. See if it falls off this month.

As of today, my FICO 8 scores are sitting at 600EX, 594EQ, 635TU. FICO Mortgage scores are at 535EX, 563EQ, 641TU. My goal is a mortgage in the next year or so since I live in one of those cities where the average monthly rent is quite a bit more expensive than the average monthly mortgage payment, but at the rate these things are sitting, I may have to change the goal timeline!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much, in advance, for the feedback!

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With what you have listed. The ones that will hurt the worst are the lates and then the CO's. Time will heal the lates. Although since your tackling your present CC debt. You could take some of that $1000 and apply it the the negs that are hurting you. Your cards have high util as you say. But thats not the real deal breaker,. The only thing is fix the bleeding first and rid yourself of the past. At the same time paying down your present CC debt. You got to fix whats broken first. Good Luck!

[bmblbg]

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@FireMedic1 wrote:

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@bmblbg wrote:

Hi all,

I’m looking for some assistance in coming up with a plan for tackling my bad debt.

I have a car loan, 6 student loans, and 5 credit cards all current/pays as agreed, although since my son recently had surgery and I’ve had to charge, I’m sitting at 79% utilization! I’m not too worried about the utilization, though, as I’m tackling it at $1,000 a month in payments.

What I am worried about is getting rid of some of these negatives!! Due to a pretty ugly divorce that drug out from 2014-early 2016 and some shady dealings by my ex, I’ve got $9,324 in negatives right now and nowhere close to the money to PIF.

So here’s where I’m sitting:

Bank of America. $302/$1,000. Closed/Charge-Off. DFD 9/2015. Still reports late every month and still factors into utilization, so I’m thinking this will be my first pay-off. I know they’re notorious for no PFD, but PIF should at least stop their ongoing impact on my scores, right? PIF ASAP so it quits updating and then it can fall off once the SOL expires. BoA wont do PFD.

Fingerhut. $0. Closed. Sold. DFD 3/2014. I tried GWD but they refused. Said was sold, although I’ve never heard from anyone else about this. Pull your annual credit reports and see who owns this debt. Or even look on CK. Somebodys got it.

I pulled all of this information from my annuals. Whomever this was sold to - they aren't reporting. Don't want to dig too deep and wake the sleeping bear!

Capital One. $0. Closed/PIF. 3 30-day lates, 2 60-day lates, 2 90-day lates. Last DFD was 8/2014. Refused GWD. Cap1 wont do GW's on late payments. Very very rare.

Santander. $2,045. Closed/Charge-Off. Repossession. DFD 11/2015.I tried to get a GW 1 30 day late removed. No go. They wont do it. Needs to be PIF in time.

Department of Education (x2) $0. Was 180-days late. Transferred/consolidated. Closed 3/2016. The late will run its course and affect your score the full 7 yrs. Sorry.

Jefferson Capital. Collection for Verizon. $2,943. DFD 5/2015. Any telecommunication company is hard to deal with especially Verizon/Jefferson. In time needs to be paid. Try to settle for less. That amount. Were any phones kept and not turned in? There was a phone kept and not returned, as well as lots and lots of purchased songs and data overages and broken contract fee. This was my ex-husband's phone but since it was in both our names, I was assigned this one in the divorce.

National Credit Adjusters. Collection for Rise payday loan. $1,981. DFD 7/2014. You know the drill now.

Credit Management. Collection for Cox Cable. $279. DFD 9/2017. This one is a pain – this was not my account and they continue to validate. They’re saying this is for an internet modem that was never returned. I had Century Link internet and never did business with Cox, but this has been validated time and again so I’m at a loss on this one and wondering if I should just see if Cox will recall and pay them for the stupid thing – someone else gets a free modem at my expense. Ugh. Did you turn in the modem and keep the return reciept? Go to the local office and deal with them. Have the branch prove you had a modem since yousay you didnt. No I didn't turn anything in. As I mentioned, I have never had an account with Cox so there was nothing for me to turn in.

Collection Resources. Medical collection for some imaging services I had done. Another weird one. Insurance paid. I paid the copays. Never got any bills and when I’ve called the doctor’s office they can’t even find me in their system anymore, but CA continues to validate. The balance was $348. Now CA is asking for $618. Won’t PFD. Won’t settle. Won’t take less than the $618. DFD 8/2013.

Google the HIPPA process. We cant discuss it here on the forum.

Real Time Resolutions. Collection for Check N Go. $1156. No DFD listed on report, but fall-off date of 9/2020 is listed. See if it falls off this month. It won't fall off this month, fall-off date is 9/2020.

As of today, my FICO 8 scores are sitting at 600EX, 594EQ, 635TU. FICO Mortgage scores are at 535EX, 563EQ, 641TU. My goal is a mortgage in the next year or so since I live in one of those cities where the average monthly rent is quite a bit more expensive than the average monthly mortgage payment, but at the rate these things are sitting, I may have to change the goal timeline!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much, in advance, for the feedback!

---

With what you have listed. The ones that will hurt the worst are the lates and then the CO's. Time will heal the lates. Although since your tackling your present CC debt. You could take some of that $1000 and apply it the the negs that are hurting you. Your cards have high util as you say. But thats not the real deal breaker,. The only thing is fix the bleeding first and rid yourself of the past. At the same time paying down your present CC debt. You got to fix whats broken first. Good Luck!

Thanks for all the feedback!

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[bmblbg]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Also, I assume the Santander was an auto loan since you stated it was a re-possession.  Did the amount owed take into account what the vehicle was sold for at auction?  If you owed $2045 when the vehicle was repossessed, this amount should have been lowered by the amount they sold it for.  FE, if they sold the vehicle for $1000, then you would only own $1045 now.   That's a good question - I don't know, but will look into it! I believe that we only owed 2-3k when it was repo'd!

Have you disputed the medical collection with the CRAs?  Or have you been asking the CA to validate the debt?  Talk to your insurance company and see if they paid this debt?  If it was paid, then I would dispute the debt as already paid with the CRA.  I did dispute withthe CRAs and just get the standard "meets FCRA requirements" I did DV and they never responded, but I was told that I waited too long to send DV and since it was not timely they do not have to respond. The only thing the insurance company did was send me something showing what they paid, but without the CA showing me what I am specifically being billed for, I wasn't able to show that this has already been paid.

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[Svthhvn]

I have had this issue with medical as well. Have your insurance company send you a copy of the EOB from the date of service/company they are collecting for. Your EOB should show patient responsibility amount/copay. Provide proof of those items to both CRA and CA. I was able to clear multiple medicals this way. The Cox Cable issue, I would go to their local office and have them give you a written statement saying they have no record of you ever being a customer with them and send a copy of that along with a letter to collection agency to remove unless they can provide proof you owe that debt. Just my 2cents. GL!

[Anonymous]

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@Svthhvn wrote:
I have had this issue with medical as well. Have your insurance company send you a copy of the EOB from the date of service/company they are collecting for. Your EOB should show patient responsibility amount/copay. Provide proof of those items to both CRA and CA. I was able to clear multiple medicals this way. The Cox Cable issue, I would go to their local office and have them give you a written statement saying they have no record of you ever being a customer with them and send a copy of that along with a letter to collection agency to remove unless they can provide proof you owe that debt. Just my 2cents. GL!

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I agree here on both accounts.  Get the insurance company to provide proof of payment and submit these as your proof that the debt was paid.  If you have the proof that it was paid so it should be removed from your CR.

And definitely look into the car repossession.  Be sure that they are charging you the correct amount on the collection.  If you can show that car was sold at auction and that the collection company has the incorrect amount owed, they would have to remove the collection from your report.  Collection agencies have to show correct information.  If the information is incorrect, it is grounds to have the collection removed.