@llecs wrote:Welcome to the forums!
I'd suggest reading the following:
Common Abbreviations
Credit Scoring 101 - great for knowing what is in your credit score and to see how your score is impacted.
What Steps Do I Take - great for learning the repair process.
and Example letters - PFDs, GWs, DVs, etc.
IMO, you aren't in a bad place. $9kwhatever might seem scary, but it isn't too bad. I came on here with over $25k in bad debt with collections crawling all over me, but BK never entered my mind. I found through my experience (and through others here) that most of your creditors won't sue. Some will, and did in your example, but the only time you should consider BK is if you need to protect your job/business income from being garnished. And they can only garnish if sued already. And those that sue don't always garnish.
The first thing you'd want to do is find out the statute of limitations for your state and the SOL for each debt. For example in some states the SOL on loans is longer than the SOL on a CC (considered an open acct). Definitely read your state's laws or google SOL for your state. There are a lot of websites that list SOL, but much of their data is wrong since state laws can change all the time. Certainly debts from last year would be in SOL. It's unlikely your debts from 2007 are within SOL. So definitely track that out. Don't worry about debts outside of SOL for the time being. Focus on the ones inside SOL and take steps to save up the money to have the ability to pay them off in one payment.
GWs are for paid baddies. If you have any CAs reporting as paid, then definitely mail them GWs asking for a deletion. If you have any paid OC accounts like old charge-offs or accounts showing lates, then you cna send a GW for that. For any OC account, keep the age of the account in mind. If your oldest or among your oldest accounts, even if a negative, a GW could result in a deletion and under some situations that can drop your score. For the time being I do recommend leaving older paid OC accounts alone.
PFDs are for unpaid accounts. If you have 100% of the debt saved up, then definitely consider sending a PFD. You don't need to offer 100% in the PFD, and can always settle, but always have 100% saved up. You wouldn't want them to reject your settlement offer and sue for 100% instead. You'd want that cushion.
Finally, draw a line in the sand. Make sure you are financially in a position to where there will be no more baddies created in 2013 and beyond. You wouldn't want to use money that should have been for other bills to cover back bills. Otherwise it'll be a revolving door with added baddies each year, if you know what I mean. Get stable first, then repair.
Is anything happening with the two judgments per collecting on it? (e.g. garnishments?)
+1 Ilecs! I came on here with almost 90K in debt from me & DH (good TLs w/ perfect history AND bad collections/charge offs). We are now down to 60K (including a new car loan). With our anticipated settlement with 2 CAs, in 6 months, we should be down to 20K in debt -- ALL GOOD no collections or charges offs! Bankruptcy didnt cross my mind after i read thru these forums. U can clean it up!
Had 15 flagged accounts on my report - baddies. Now I am down to 4 baddies and NONE were "Age-offs".
Had 10 flagged accounts on DH's CR - baddies. Now he is down to 3 and NONE were "age-offs".
Its possible.
Do the NFCU secured card route and be religious with those GWs/ PFDs/ disputes afte rresearch, etc. U can do it!
Starting Score: 526 EXP 09/2012 600 FICO 10/2012 608 EX (lenderpull)11/2012