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I am at a loss - OC reporting closed account, balance due, 117% debt utilization

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Anonymous
Not applicable

I am at a loss - OC reporting closed account, balance due, 117% debt utilization

Thank you in advance for any help, advice or guidance. I am trying to purchase my first home in about 60 days and I am rounding the first corner and I am beyond lost, confused and dazed at what they are doing to my credit. Here is where I am at. 

I have been reading the posts on here, and following what should be done, over the past 8 months. I have had, what I thought to be, some success. From the DV for Texas residents to knowing what to look for on my credit report. Thank you very much for all the great advice and my score jumped... then dropped.. then jumped.. then dropped (I think they are reporting negative right after the report of positive)

 

I am now noticing things are changing on my credit report but not in the way that it should have been or from what I read on here. 

I have compared all 3 of my reports and I sent DV letters to the CA that are reporting on my credit. I had a total of 7. 6 that I have contested and 1 that is valid and I am paying on. 

2 replied back with that generic form letter about how the debt is mine though they have nothing proving its my debt.

1 flat out sent my own letter back stating that they pretty much refused to validate my debt because the account number I provided to them was not included. 

1 just removed their business off my collections account 

2 have not replied.

All are past the SOL (4 years here in TX) 

My credit score changed which sent me an alert and I noticed that the 2 CA's that replied, have moved into another section of my collections and is now lumped with my "Paid and Closed" collections accounts. 

Umm lost and mind blown

Why are they moving into the "closed and paid" section of my credit report but I never paid them nor ever claimed the debt is mine and they are still showing as balance owed and a current report date. 

Then, I noticed that Target, who sold my account to a CA, and that CA is NOT reporting on my credit, Target is, is showing that my account was closed by them, charged off, $585 balance owed, $500 credit limit, and is reporting 117% credit utilization. 

I thought that when the OC sells the debt to a CA that they cannot report a balance owed? I have found the collection letter from the CA for Target, and I disputed the information and included the letter from the CA and all 3 CRA came back and told me that it was a valid and that it was reporting as closed. I have a ton (33) credit cards some in good standing and some that have been closed (good and bad reasons) over the years and not one of them are reporting the way that Target is. I must be missing something and its driving me bonkers.

This caused me to dig deeper and I noticed that accounts that I haven't disputed (because I know they are valid) are now reporting that I am disputing them, reinvestagation has been completed and meets FCRA guidelines. Ummm, I never disputed them but ok. Again lost and mind blown

 
Is there anyway that I can:
1. Get the other collections agencies to remove their bogus collections fully off my account?
2. How do I get Target to report accurate on my account? Here is what Target looks like on my report:
You're using 117% of your account's limit
OVERVIEW
Credit limit$500
Minimum monthly payment$0
Opened Jun 25, 2008 (11 yrs, 2 mos)
PAYMENT HISTORY
You've made 0% of payments on time
Last payment Sep 27, 2014
Payment status In Collections/Charge-off
Amount past due$585
Worst payment status No Info
ACCOUNT DETAILS
Account status Closed
Type Retail credit card
Responsibility Individual
Remarks Charged off as bad debt
Canceled by credit grantor
Times 30/60/90 days late 0/0/0
Closed Nov 22, 2015
In all honesty, the accounts that are reporting charged off and closed show no information of DOFD or the DOLA. Yet every month I am getting hit by collections and by OC. 
My Payment History is 90% (Says bad)
Credit Card Useage is 25% (Says good)
Derogatory Marks 4 (Says bad)
Credit age is 1 year 10 months (This is wrong but least of my problems) *says bad*
Total Accounts open and closed 33 (says good)
Hard inquiries 4 (says medimum)
My outstanding balance is 75,966.00 *70,000 of that is school debt, currently in college*
I have pre approved loans and pre selected/approved credit card offers (over 4 each) this is my very last resort 
If someone would be so kind as to help point me in the right direction I would forever be so greatful. Today shall be a somber one with reflection on where we all were and what happened to our fellow Americans. Reflect on how much we have all grown for the better and to be thankful of all that we each have. 
Stay Blessed and thank you once again,
Myself.
 
 
 
Message 1 of 16
15 REPLIES 15
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: I am at a loss - OC reporting closed account, balance due, 117% debt utilization

Why do you feel the collections are “bogus”? 

 

As for Target, it sounds like they still own your debt, but are just using a collection agency to assist with collecting on the debt. In that instance, since Target (really TD Bank) still owns the account they can report it as you’re seeing. 

Message 2 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: I am at a loss - OC reporting closed account, balance due, 117% debt utilization

Thank you for the reply-

The reason that I feel its bogus is because they have nothing other then some piece of paper stating that the debt is mine. There is nothing with a signature, nothing showing payments from me to the OC and there is no account number for me to reference so they are refusing to validate or even verify that its my debt. 

After reading, I understand that there is a wide range on what is considered "debt validation" or what they have to provide or if they even want to. Yet, reading on here and the Texas consumer site, (god I am so happy I moved to Texas) a signature or even payments to them from whatever type of account would make this debt valid. All they did was move it down to "paid closed" collections accounts and its not paid nor is it closed. I never gave this company a payment. If this is in fact an option for them to do, why would anyone send out DV letters? 

As far as TD Bank - You're stating that I need to find out if the debt was sold or if they outsourced for help collecting? I am guessing to call Target and find out? I mean what's the worse that could happen? They are already reporting negative on my account, can't get any worse. Smiley Happy 

Maybe I'm not understanding or I am just to exhausted to see what is probably staring me right in the face. 

p/s - Td Reporting " In Collections/Charged off" .. Who's collections are they refering to? 

 

Message 3 of 16
Remedios
Credit Mentor

Re: I am at a loss - OC reporting closed account, balance due, 117% debt utilization


@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you for the reply-

The reason that I feel its bogus is because they have nothing other then some piece of paper stating that the debt is mine. There is nothing with a signature, nothing showing payments from me to the OC and there is no account number for me to reference so they are refusing to validate or even verify that its my debt. 

After reading, I understand that there is a wide range on what is considered "debt validation" or what they have to provide or if they even want to. Yet, reading on here and the Texas consumer site, (god I am so happy I moved to Texas) a signature or even payments to them from whatever type of account would make this debt valid. All they did was move it down to "paid closed" collections accounts and its not paid nor is it closed. I never gave this company a payment. If this is in fact an option for them to do, why would anyone send out DV letters? 

As far as TD Bank - You're stating that I need to find out if the debt was sold or if they outsourced for help collecting? I am guessing to call Target and find out? I mean what's the worse that could happen? They are already reporting negative on my account, can't get any worse. Smiley Happy 

Maybe I'm not understanding or I am just to exhausted to see what is probably staring me right in the face. 

p/s - Td Reporting " In Collections/Charged off" .. Who's collections are they refering to? 

 


Hi and welcome to the forums @Anonymous 

 

TD bank is reporting correctly. 

 

You're misunderstanding the point of debt validation. What you received is sufficient in terms of DV. 

The debt is not bogus, because you know it's yours. If you're looking for a way to not pay it, you wait seven years from DOFD. 

If you need to find out DOFD, pull a copy of free annual credit report. It should be on there and it will tell you how long you have

If you've ever made a payment on this account, that's their proof. You cant claim it's not yours. 

Because the account is still with the OC, they will have all the necessary info needed to validate if you decide to dispute with CRA. 

Unfortunately, that dispute will not go in your favor. 

 

 

As far as " Td Reporting " In Collections/Charged off" that is your collection, but it's not forwarded to outside collection agency. They are still using in-house collection agency, hence no need for separate reporting. 

That may come one day, if they sell the debt and/or forward to outside CA. 

When that happens, your score will tank even further because you'll have a double whammy, CO and Collection Account. 

 

You have two choices, pay/settle this debt or wait it out

If you elect to wait it out, negative account like this, along with utilization will prevent your scores from recovering the entire time it's on your CR.

 

Settling/paying are by far better options for you, because if you need credit in the future, be it for auto, apartment rental, cell phone, credit cards, it may not happen, unless you can show that you satisfied your obligations. 

 

Good luck 

 

Message 4 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: I am at a loss - OC reporting closed account, balance due, 117% debt utilization

I saw your response to an earlier comment that has been deleted, and sort of as a follow up to that...

 

I’m not trying to be disrepectful here at all, but if you’re trying to play the “they haven’t validated sufficiently to my liking so the debt isn’t mine” card, it’s honestly a losing battle. If that’s the case, it might help to put into perspective that you aren’t the first person with a debt, you aren’t the CAs first person they are trying to collect from, and you aren’t the first person in Texas to be involved in a collection. Yes, there are rogue collection agencies out there, yes there is inaccurate info on credit reports, but both of these instances are more uncommon than common. 

 

To be blunt, you have a house at stake here.  There are a lot of people here that can help steer you in the right direction if you want to let them.  

 

Message 5 of 16
K-in-Boston
Credit Mentor

Re: I am at a loss - OC reporting closed account, balance due, 117% debt utilization


@Anonymous wrote:

I am trying to purchase my first home in about 60 days

<snipped for length>

I have pre approved loans and pre selected/approved credit card offers (over 4 each)

I just wanted to chime in that it is usually not a good idea to open any new accounts in the immediate time prior to applying for a mortgage. 

 

As for the derogatory accounts, I'm a bit confused as to whether you are disputing them because:

  • they were paid in full or payments have always been on-time
  • You never opened these accounts, and they are either on your reports due to identity theft or an error by the credit reporting agencies such as a similar name
  • You are disputing accounts that you did actually open and were late or never paid

Finally, as for the credit age, from the data that you posted it appears you may be using Credit Karma or a similar site for your credit report(s); while the educational (non-FICO) score that those sites provide would be correct based on that scoring model, the display of certain information is often incorrect as the display itself will often only calculate currently open accounts.

Message 6 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: I am at a loss - OC reporting closed account, balance due, 117% debt utilization


@K-in-Boston wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

I am trying to purchase my first home in about 60 days

<snipped for length>

I have pre approved loans and pre selected/approved credit card offers (over 4 each)

I just wanted to chime in that it is usually not a good idea to open any new accounts in the immediate time prior to applying for a mortgage. 

 

As for the derogatory accounts, I'm a bit confused as to whether you are disputing them because:

  • they were paid in full or payments have always been on-time
  • You never opened these accounts, and they are either on your reports due to identity theft or an error by the credit reporting agencies such as a similar name
  • You are disputing accounts that you did actually open and were late or never paid

Finally, as for the credit age, from the data that you posted it appears you may be using Credit Karma or a similar site for your credit report(s); while the educational (non-FICO) score that those sites provide would be correct based on that scoring model, the display of certain information is often incorrect as the display itself will often only calculate currently open accounts.


I agree.  I am completely confused about whether these debts are yours or not.  If the debts are yours and you know they are yours, and they are reporting the correct amount owed and the  correct DoFD, then you need to stop doing debt validation on them.  If they are truly your debts, guess what?  You owe the money.  If you want them off your CR, then contact the collection company and try for PFD.  This may take a while as they don't often do PFD on the first try (some won't do it at all).  But expect this process to potentially take several months.  If they won't do a PFD, go ahead and pay the collection amount.  Mortgage companies look poorly upon unpaid charge offs and unpaid collections.  They can definitely affect your chances on getting a loan even if your actual credit score is okay.


If the reporting on the collections is incorrect...not your accounts (fraud), wrong amounts owed listed, accounts that were actually paid off, etc, then you should dispute it with the CRAs.  However, if they collections are yours and you know they are yours, disputing the accounts can actually be detrimental to your credit score.

Message 7 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Help with OC as owner of debt vs CA as owner of debt?

I apologize in advance if this has been posted else where, I am very new to the forums and my first post was not a very welcoming one so I am going to try again. 

Long story short, I have TD Bank/Target Credit Card reporting on my account as 117% of revolving credit uti and it's killing my chances of getting out of debt purgatory.

Now, I am not saying that I do not owe the debt and I know it can stay on my report for upwards of 7 years, I just want to make sure that whoever has the debt reports it correctly before I shoot off 3 letters to the CRA's asking them to do a deeper investigation. I disputed it one time already and the CRA came back and said it was accurate and it was in a closed status. It's not in a closed status because they report every month since 2014 and are going to continue to report on my credit. I was cleaning out a spare room in my apartment and I found an old box of bills. While sorting these items, I came across the following "collection letter" and from what I gather, this company is or was owner of the TD Bank/Target CC debt. I could be wrong, and I don't want to poke a sleeping giant unless I have to. Heck, they're killing my credit anyhow, what could be worse? Here is the following letter word for word that this company sent.

Statement date: 10-10-17

Creditor: TD Bank USA, NA/Target Credit Card

Our Reference# xxxxx

Creditor Account # xxxx 

Account Balance 586.07

Firstsource Advantage, LLC

Settlement Offer

Dear XXX

We are happy to offer you the opportunity to pay less than you owe to settle your account. If you pay $204.78 by 10-31-17, we will consider your account settled and collection efforts will stop on the remaining balance.

Upon receipt and clearance of your payment, we will notify the creditor listed above so they can update their records accordingly. Kindly note, that we have the right to treat any missed, late, or returned payments as a cancellation of the agreement. We are not obligated to renew this payment offer.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at 1*888*753*xxxx. We are required to inform you that this is a communication from a debt collector. This is an attempt to collect a debt and any information obtained will be used for that purpose. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you,

Firstsource Advantage LLC, A professional debt recovery agency.

How do I find out if they are the owner of the debt and that Target did in fact sell it?

Or, if this is Target actually trying to collect on the debt themselves?

Is FirstSource able to sell the "Debt" back to Target?

Under the option: Origianl Creditor - Blank

Company Sold: Blank

TL - Credit line closed-grantor's request-reported by subscriber.

Any help would be greatly appreciated and some patience and understanding would be so helpful right about now. 

I have followed everything that everyone has said too do on here and I am have success, slowly, and painstaking, but its success none the less.

Thank you for all your patience and understanding, 

A future homeowner, hopefully!

P/S

They really need to make "Know your Credit report and how it will damage your future 101" for every high school student and for everyone in college, hell it needs to be a life requirement because if I knew then what I knew now I would not have messed up like this.

Message 8 of 16
AllZero
Mega Contributor

Re: Help with OC as owner of debt vs CA as owner of debt?

Have you checked your credit report recently?

What does it currently show under collections?
Message 9 of 16
FireMedic1
Community Leader
Mega Contributor

Re: Help with OC as owner of debt vs CA as owner of debt?


@Anonymous wrote:

I apologize in advance if this has been posted else where, I am very new to the forums and my first post was not a very welcoming one so I am going to try again. 

Long story short, I have TD Bank/Target Credit Card reporting on my account as 117% of revolving credit uti and it's killing my chances of getting out of debt purgatory. The util is over maxed. So this is one thing thats affecting you.

Now, I am not saying that I do not owe the debt and I know it can stay on my report for upwards of 7 years, I just want to make sure that whoever has the debt reports it correctly before I shoot off 3 letters to the CRA's asking them to do a deeper investigation. I disputed it one time already and the CRA came back and said it was accurate and it was in a closed status. Each time you dispute it and comes back accurate, this can hurt your scores. If you do too many disputes. Then they can refuse to do any more didputes. It's not in a closed status because they report every month since 2014 and are going to continue to report on my credit. I was cleaning out a spare room in my apartment and I found an old box of bills. While sorting these items, I came across the following "collection letter" and from what I gather, this company is or was owner of the TD Bank/Target CC debt. I could be wrong, and I don't want to poke a sleeping giant unless I have to. Heck, they're killing my credit anyhow, what could be worse? Here is the following letter word for word that this company sent.

Statement date: 10-10-17

Creditor: TD Bank USA, NA/Target Credit Card

Our Reference# xxxxx

Creditor Account # xxxx 

Account Balance 586.07

Firstsource Advantage, LLC

Settlement Offer

Dear XXX

We are happy to offer you the opportunity to pay less than you owe to settle your account. If you pay $204.78 by 10-31-17, we will consider your account settled and collection efforts will stop on the remaining balance.

Upon receipt and clearance of your payment, we will notify the creditor listed above so they can update their records accordingly. Kindly note, that we have the right to treat any missed, late, or returned payments as a cancellation of the agreement. We are not obligated to renew this payment offer.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at 1*888*753*xxxx. We are required to inform you that this is a communication from a debt collector. This is an attempt to collect a debt and any information obtained will be used for that purpose. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you,

Firstsource Advantage LLC, A professional debt recovery agency.

How do I find out if they are the owner of the debt and that Target did in fact sell it? Pull your free annual credit reports if you havent in the past year. And then you'll see who owns it.

Or, if this is Target actually trying to collect on the debt themselves?

Is FirstSource able to sell the "Debt" back to Target?

Under the option: Origianl Creditor - Blank

Company Sold: Blank

TL - Credit line closed-grantor's request-reported by subscriber.

Any help would be greatly appreciated and some patience and understanding would be so helpful right about now. 

I have followed everything that everyone has said too do on here and I am have success, slowly, and painstaking, but its success none the less.

Thank you for all your patience and understanding, 

A future homeowner, hopefully!

P/S

They really need to make "Know your Credit report and how it will damage your future 101" for every high school student and for everyone in college, hell it needs to be a life requirement because if I knew then what I knew now I would not have messed up like this.


Or you can call Target and see who actually owns the debt. If they still have it. Then you can set up a payment plan and get this account paid off so it quits reporting monthly. An account that long ago is probably in charge off status. If its with whoever they say. Same applies. Work out a payment plan so it quits reporting and the fall off will happen from DoFD.


Message 10 of 16
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