How do I go about fixing my horrible situation ?

[Isaiah2990]

Hello everyone, I'm trying to get myself out of this financial slump!..I currently have 3 items on my credit report that are negative:

Midland Credit Management -$835

Payliance - $61

LCA Services - $70

I also have 3 charge offs and I'm just catching up on my car payments..I have no one to blame for this situation but MYSELF..and I really want to get a hold of my finances.. My scores are significantly low..How do I go about raising my score, and rebuilding my credit ?

Equifax - 497

Transunion - 516

Experian - 517

[LIGHTNIN]

 and Welcome to the forums,

First off, Where did you get your scores?   Most lenders use FICO scores. Non-FICO scores are what we call FAKO's.

Real FICO scores can be considerably higher or lower then FAKO's.  

My FICO score were about 100pts higher then my FAKO's. YMMV.

Consumers can not get a EX FICO, only banks, mortgage lenders and  a couple of CU's(members only).

Only very few places to buy EQ and TU FICO scores, one of them being here at myFICO.

Suggest reading .... The Son Of Credit Scoring 101.  and What Steps Do I Take?Do I DV?PFD?

Do you have current CR's?   If so, did you pull them from annualcreditreport.com ?

What State do you live in?

Do you know the DoFD on each of the debts with the CA's?   if so , please list them.

DoFD can be found on EQ CR's, EX and TU only show the dates of removals.

OK that will get you started

[Isaiah2990]

I got all 3 of my credit reports from annual credit report last week. I live in GA, I am not familiar with the SOL..The Dofd's are

Payliance - 03/2011
LCA - 12/2011
Midland Credit Management - 4/2012 ..this one is strange because this debt carried over from a chargeoff back in 11/2010 and I never spoke to MCM.

[js0319]

MCM probably bought the debt after the CO, and that's why it's showing up just now on your CR. The SOL on this debt will still fall under the DoFD for the OC account from 2010. I would see about requesting a PFD for the smaller debts, and seeing what you can do with MCM. The last thing you would want is a judgement placed against you for something that cold have been settled with some communication. The SOL in Georgia is 6 years on CC's.

[Anonymous]

Ok you have already uncovered one incidence of shenanigans.  I think it would be wise to DV each of the derogatory listings on your report. At the very least you deserve a full accounting of the amounts so that you can verify they are correct. 

If you want to PFD them, I would recommend writing the OC and not dealing with collections agencies unless you have to. 

Collections are a scourage and the source of almost all the false information that appears on credit reports, we should not be paying them.  The more people who refuse to deal with them and only deal with the OCs, the more OCs will start attempting to collect within their department.   These days OCs are just turning things over to collections right away when often simply writing people a letter to try and work out a solution woud be more effective -- AND -- result in the OC getting more money on the debt.

My policy is to never deal with CAs, except to send them demanding letters.  They have no legal rights in these matters, unless they bought the debt, and if there was no agreement with the OC that allowed the debt to be sold, then they bought an asset they cannot collect on.  You're only obligated to the OC under the terms you agreed to with them.

[LIGHTNIN]

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@Isaiah2990 wrote:
I got all 3 of my credit reports from annual credit report last week. I live in GA, I am not familiar with the SOL..The Dofd's are

Payliance - 03/2011
LCA - 12/2011
Midland Credit Management - 4/2012 ..this one is strange because this debt carried over from a chargeoff back in 11/2010 and I never spoke to MCM.

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The SOL for GA is 6 years, that's the time limit a creditor has to sue and win.

Assuming theDoFD's are correct, 2 of them went into default last year, these are killing your credit score.

I would suggest using PFD Letters. How it works is, you send a CA a PFD letter, the CA sends you an agreement saying they will agree to delete, if you agree to pay. It's a win win situation.Some CA's will agree using PFD's and some wont.

For more info about this please read What Steps Do I Take?Do I DV?PFD?

[ando35]

If the debt is not paid, you tell the people you owe that you'll pay half or whatever if they wil stop reporting. You must get that in writing or they can screw you. If it is paid you can write them and ask kindly to delete it based on goodwill.

[Isaiah2990]

Would it be ok to send the same PFD letter to different CA's ?

[PapasWifey]

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@Isaiah2990 wrote:

Would it be ok to send the same PFD letter to different CA's ?

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it has always been my experience (and from researching heavily on the forums) that the PFD should typically sent to whomever is reporting (or owns) the debt. 

[Isaiah2990]

The owners are Papa John's, a dermatology clinic, and Credit One..I don't think Papa John's will do a PDF.