Getting Started - Newbie Questions

[Anonymous]

First, I'm so glad I stumbled onto this site and what appears to be a most welcoming and helpful community. I have struggled with my credit most of my adult life and now as I have passed the 50 year mark, I've finally figured out that nothing is going to change if I don't take the steps to change it. I had resigned myself to just accept that I would never have good credit and I'd simply have to pay cash for everything. Ugh.

That said, I've begun my journey and all told, it's not as bad as I had originally thought. Not great, but nothing that can't be overcome. I've received my Experian report but for whatever reason, I couldn't get my TU or EQ reports online. They said I had to mail in a request. No sure why, but ok. While I'm waiting for those to arrive, I've got a couple of questions that only a newbie would ask. I tried searching, but found nothing.

1. When a PFD is attempted, am I assuming correctly that that also means a PIF? Or will a CA accept a PFD with a payment structure and then delete once final payment is made? A couple of my baddies are in the 4,000 range and there's just simply no way I'll be able to pay that in full all at once. 

2. For a couple of TL's, EX does not give a date as to when the baddie is scheduled to fall off. The status details says "this item was updated from our processing of your dispute in Sep 2008".  Since it doesn't tell me when it's going to fall off, how do I know? I understand that I add 7 years from the DoFD, but I don't know exactly when that was. For one of them, it appears that the CO occurred in Aug 2009 with ND being reported from Oct 2009 through Jun 2012 when it was closed. The first delinquency that eventually led to the CO was in Feb of 2008. Do I calculate 7 years from the CO date, the closed date or Feb 2008? The comments for this account says that it was purchased by another lender. The OC was a BofA CC (MBNA) and another TL is from Midland and lists the OC as FIA Card Services, which a google search turned up BofA, MBNA. I'm assuming this is the same account and though the balance is similar, it's a couple hundred higher than the BofA balance. Could this be the same? The Midland TL says it's due to fall off in Nov 2015.

Ok, so maybe #2 wasn't such a newbie question, but I'd appreciate any help anyone can give, especially on how to remove the BofA TL since the balance is 0. 

3. I have an account (medical bill) that only recently went to collection (Oct of last year). If I stretch my budget, I can PIF on one shot. I know this one is hurting a lot and I'd like to try to nip it in the bud before it gets any worse. Are CA's likely to accept a PFD when an account is relatively new?

Thanks for any help. As I said, I'm so glad I found this great community!!!

[rckstrscott]

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@Anonymous wrote:

First, I'm so glad I stumbled onto this site and what appears to be a most welcoming and helpful community. I have struggled with my credit most of my adult life and now as I have passed the 50 year mark, I've finally figured out that nothing is going to change if I don't take the steps to change it. I had resigned myself to just accept that I would never have good credit and I'd simply have to pay cash for everything. Ugh.

That said, I've begun my journey and all told, it's not as bad as I had originally thought. Not great, but nothing that can't be overcome. I've received my Experian report but for whatever reason, I couldn't get my TU or EQ reports online. They said I had to mail in a request. No sure why, but ok. While I'm waiting for those to arrive, I've got a couple of questions that only a newbie would ask. I tried searching, but found nothing.

1. When a PFD is attempted, am I assuming correctly that that also means a PIF? Or will a CA accept a PFD with a payment structure and then delete once final payment is made? A couple of my baddies are in the 4,000 range and there's just simply no way I'll be able to pay that in full all at once. 

This is YMMV -- I personally think PIF has a better shot of getting acceptance for a PFD, but there are many, many cases on this forum where CA's accepted partial payments or payment plans for PFD -- For me personally, I didn't even work PFDs on my large debts. I reached the lowest possible settlement, and then worked credit reporting removal AFTER I paid it. I had a heck of a lot more luck doing that than I did with PFD's

2. For a couple of TL's, EX does not give a date as to when the baddie is scheduled to fall off. The status details says "this item was updated from our processing of your dispute in Sep 2008".  Since it doesn't tell me when it's going to fall off, how do I know? I understand that I add 7 years from the DoFD, but I don't know exactly when that was. For one of them, it appears that the CO occurred in Aug 2009 with ND being reported from Oct 2009 through Jun 2012 when it was closed. The first delinquency that eventually led to the CO was in Feb of 2008. Do I calculate 7 years from the CO date, the closed date or Feb 2008? The comments for this account says that it was purchased by another lender. The OC was a BofA CC (MBNA) and another TL is from Midland and lists the OC as FIA Card Services, which a google search turned up BofA, MBNA. I'm assuming this is the same account and though the balance is similar, it's a couple hundred higher than the BofA balance. Could this be the same? The Midland TL says it's due to fall off in Nov 2015.

The DOFD is always when you went delinquent with the OC, you can't really trust the fall off dates anyway.  I believe you can contact the CRA by mail and get the actual DOFD listed on the report and calculate your own fall off date.

Ok, so maybe #2 wasn't such a newbie question, but I'd appreciate any help anyone can give, especially on how to remove the BofA TL since the balance is 0. 

3. I have an account (medical bill) that only recently went to collection (Oct of last year). If I stretch my budget, I can PIF on one shot. I know this one is hurting a lot and I'd like to try to nip it in the bud before it gets any worse. Are CA's likely to accept a PFD when an account is relatively new?

Sure, they may consider PFD at any point. They know the credit reporting is what you are hoping to get handled. You could do that. With medical, usually (not always) the debt is assigned, which means the OC still owns it. A tactic that has worked here before is to contact the OC and see if you can make payments to them, if they 'recall' the debt from the CA -- the CA doesn't legally have to pull the reporting (they just have to show 0) BUT they often will oblidge since the OC is actually their client, and they want to make their clients happy.

Thanks for any help. As I said, I'm so glad I found this great community!!!

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