Is rebounding possible for me?

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I recently heard of this forum from a friend who was getting advice and wanted some advice of my own. Long story short, towards the end of one year my employer just up and shut down without saying anything. I find out later they were filing bankruptcy. On top of this their paycheck to me bounced and that meant I wouldn't even get my next check. This put me in the hole of 3,000 dollars or more. I had a part time job that was able to sustain my families life until I got a job in construction. It wasn't much better as it rained alot which meant no work and no money when it rains. This lasted for about 6-7 months and I finally found a solid job, but not even 3 months in I was injured. It's been about 2 weeks and I'm still in Physical Therapy and should recover in a week or so. Needless to say this again dented income. That is the back story to my problems. The real problem...

When I first started experiencing difficulties, I was still able to pay bills for a bit and suddenly stopped earlier this year. It was just too much and trying to support my family. Now all my accounts are in collections, charged-off, sold. It's been about 7 or 8 months. While things were getting better I managed to deal with 1 creditor, my smallest balance with bank of america 467. The rest are as follows...

Charged off/collections
Credit One Recently Charged Off (1080)
Synchrony/Amazon Sold to Midland on September (940)
Merrickbank Recently Closed(780)
Bank of America (467, Now 400 after 15 dollar month payment agreement)

Current:
Student Loan Federal (10,000), Min Payment 190 (Currently in Deferment til August 2017)
Private Student Loan (9,000), Min Payment 128
Capital One: Balance-300 of 600, Min Payment 25
Capital One: Balance 450 of 600, Min Payment 25
Car Loan: (11,000),Min Payment 385

My credit right now is around 550 right now.

I plan on settling the charge off accounts and collections around February when I sell my old car (friend is buying it for 4000 dollars during tax season). I was wondering is it likely one will try to sue me before then? As I have stuff that is current.

More info, my income will be around 58-65,000 (Dependent on Ot, which we have alot of) a year after my probationary period is over in December. This is not including my part time of 35,000 a year.
I live in Tx, Sol is 4 years most accounts last paid Feb of this year.

After I settle the accounts in collections, will my credit be able to rebound enough in the next year to 3?

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi,
I recently heard of this forum from a friend who was getting advice and wanted some advice of my own. Long story short, towards the end of one year my employer just up and shut down without saying anything. I find out later they were filing bankruptcy. On top of this their paycheck to me bounced and that meant I wouldn't even get my next check. This put me in the hole of 3,000 dollars or more. I had a part time job that was able to sustain my families life until I got a job in construction. It wasn't much better as it rained alot which meant no work and no money when it rains. This lasted for about 6-7 months and I finally found a solid job, but not even 3 months in I was injured. It's been about 2 weeks and I'm still in Physical Therapy and should recover in a week or so. Needless to say this again dented income. That is the back story to my problems. The real problem...

When I first started experiencing difficulties, I was still able to pay bills for a bit and suddenly stopped earlier this year. It was just too much and trying to support my family. Now all my accounts are in collections, charged-off, sold. It's been about 7 or 8 months. While things were getting better I managed to deal with 1 creditor, my smallest balance with bank of america 467. The rest are as follows...

Charged off/collections
Credit One Recently Charged Off (1080)
Synchrony/Amazon Sold to Midland on September (940)
Merrickbank Recently Closed(780)
Bank of America (467, Now 400 after 15 dollar month payment agreement)

Current:
Student Loan Federal (10,000), Min Payment 190 (Currently in Deferment til August 2017)
Private Student Loan (9,000), Min Payment 128
Capital One: Balance-300 of 600, Min Payment 25
Capital One: Balance 450 of 600, Min Payment 25
Car Loan: (11,000),Min Payment 385

My credit right now is around 550 right now.

I plan on settling the charge off accounts and collections around February when I sell my old car (friend is buying it for 4000 dollars during tax season). I was wondering is it likely one will try to sue me before then? As I have stuff that is current.

More info, my income will be around 58-65,000 (Dependent on Ot, which we have alot of) a year after my probationary period is over in December. This is not including my part time of 35,000 a year.
I live in Tx, Sol is 4 years most accounts last paid Feb of this year.

After I settle the accounts in collections, will my credit be able to rebound enough in the next year to 3?

---

Although there are a lot of factors involved, generally, creditors will wait for a couple of years before bringing suit. If you are currently in a position to start making small payments ($50-$100 each) on the four collection accounts, you could start doing that, and let them know you have a lump sum coming to you in February that will allow you pay the balances. You could also just wait until February when you have money in hand, then contact them and try to settle for as little as possible.

As always, try to negotiate PFD's if you can.

Once you have cleared these your credit will begin to recover, and it's generally about two years before you get into spitting distance of 700, if you keep at it. The more you can get deleted the better.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. I wish I could afford to make monthly payments until settlement, but things are real tight right now due to my injury. Workers comp will only pay 25% of the days I missed. I've been researching companies like midland and credit one to see what they generally settle for, but it seems I will have to pay upwards of 50% as they are still within sol. As much as I want to pay in full, it seems more beneficial to settle for as less as possible and save whatever I have left towards saving (in case bad stuff happens again) and bringing down utilization as the collections is already damaging my credit. Is this a bad mentality to have about this? I just turned 30 and feel disheartened by such a bad credit pitfall. Hope I can recover and just begin rebuilding by early next year.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the reply. I wish I could afford to make monthly payments until settlement, but things are real tight right now due to my injury. Workers comp will only pay 25% of the days I missed. I've been researching companies like midland and credit one to see what they generally settle for, but it seems I will have to pay upwards of 50% as they are still within sol. As much as I want to pay in full, it seems more beneficial to settle for as less as possible and save whatever I have left towards saving (in case bad stuff happens again) and bringing down utilization as the collections is already damaging my credit. Is this a bad mentality to have about this? I just turned 30 and feel disheartened by such a bad credit pitfall. Hope I can recover and just begin rebuilding by early next year.

---

Not in my opinion. Its perfectly acceptable to settle for whatever is the best deal you can get, and move on. These junk debt buyers know perfectly well, the risks they take when they purchase defaulted accounts, and IMHO one has no moral obligation to pay such accounts in full.

[rmduhon]

Speaking g as a resident of Texas whose hubby works construction, use all the OT you can get for paying down the current cards and car loan before using it for fun. And depending on what part of Texas and the form of construction you do OT can be all the time. Last year we had no credit and now we are doing fairly decent with scores in the upper 600s. You'll get there

[Anonymous]

Great work. I'm so close. One is and the other two are 9 pts and 19 pts. Soon I hope.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, I just hope I can move on from this after its settled and be I'm a better position same time next year.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the advice, I no longer work in the construction field. I am now a Diesel mechanic for a large trucking company.

[surferchris]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you for the advice, I no longer work in the construction field. I am now a Diesel mechanic for a large trucking company.

---

Congrats on the new job!

[Anonymous]

Me speaking from experience with Midland Funding and Credit One. Neither one will likely sue you without giving you warning.

From my own experience Credit One will hold the account for about 6-8 months then they are likely to sell the account to Midland or the parent company LVNV. Midland Funding will end up sending you a letter letting you know that the account has been referred to their legal department. Then from that point all you can do is watch and wait for the court papers, amd gain knowledge on how to battle JDBs in court (I am personally 6:6 in winning against filed lawsuits against me, I have even defeated an OC in court).

Also you can always use the knowledge of this board and others to help guide you on your way to rebuilding credit. Trust me I went from 20k in charged off accounts to now 5k in positive current accounts, as well as scores from low 500's to now mid 600's. So it is possible to turn things around. Just remember credit is not a race. It takes time.