LVNV Changing Reported Date and filed a judgment - Help / Advice Appreciated!

[Anonymous]

I have an old debt for a sears CC that was purchased by LVNV.

The first documentation I have of this being reported is 12/10/2007. When I checked my credit this morning it has a reported date of 1/15/2009. Is this legal? How can I fight this?

I have made payment arrangements with them, I made these arrangements after I was served court papers saying that they were going to take me to court if I didn't pay them so I made monthly payment arrangements. This morning when I checked my credit there is now a public record in reference to this account. It is listed as a "judgment"  Below are the details as it appears on my report:

Legal Item

Type: Judgment

Status: Filed

Date Filed/Reported: 11/10/2008

How FIled: Individual

Closing Date: ---

Court: Circuit Court

Plantiff: LVNV Funding LLC

Account Amount: $1,395

My questions are, what is this judment all about, why is it showing up now when I made payment arrangements months ago?

Additionally, the "account type" is listed on  my report as "Factoring company account" - what does this mean?

Any all help would be GREATLT appreciated!

Message Edited by JP75 on 02-15-2009 10:50 AM

Message Edited by JP75 on 02-15-2009 11:27 AM

[Anonymous]

Were you served a summons to appear?  If so was it legal?  Did you appear in court?

When served you must always appear!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Were you served a summons to appear?  If so was it legal?  Did you appear in court?

When served you must always appear!

---

Yes - The document I was served is titles "Summons & Complaint".

Yes, It was/is legal

No I didn't appear, I immedialtly called the owner of the debt and set up payments. They told me that was all that was needed on my part and that I didn't need to appear and that they would not proceed with the judgment...

Looks like I am stuck between a dog and a fire hydrant on this one... huh????

[Anonymous]

Any advice on what the best next steps to take would be?

Would it be best for me to just call the owner of the debt (LVNV) tomorrow and just pay off the entire amount of the debt? Only reason I say this is that then I am hoping I wouldn't incur any court fee's?? is this thought accurate??

Do I have any recourse to fight this judgment and get it off my credit???

Approx how much will something like this effect my credit (point wise)? I currenly have a 702, 727, 769.

My mortgage broker ran my credit before this appeared and I was pre-approved, she told me that the lender she is working with will be using the report she ran and that it would be good for 120 days... do I have anything to worry about in regards to my mortgage loan? It just went to underwriting on Friday.

Any/all info, advice would be appreciated... I am stressing very hard about this!!! 

Message Edited by JP75 on 02-15-2009 06:31 PM

Message Edited by JP75 on 02-15-2009 08:09 PM

[Anonymous]

Anyone have any input on my questions?? I need to make a move on this tomorrow and just want to make sure I make the right one

[Anonymous]

First, it will hit your score

Second, the loan officer can not guarantee the lender will not re-run credit score at closing.  If the underwriter sees anything that spooks them they will re-run, or any other number of reasons.  They do not always do so, but they have the right and can do so without your notification.

As far as the judgement itself goes, LVNV did the same thing to me last year on an old sears account.  I am fighting it though because I was never served.  It is a crap shoot.  Scores could easlit go down 40-60 points on a recent judgement.    the problem is you can either roll the dice that they won't re-run credit or be upfront with them and get the judgement paid off and vacated if possible.  But, if you do not disclose it and they do run the credit later, they wil ikely deny or seriously jack up your rate on the loan due to the adverse credit. 

[MattH]

Additionally, the "account type" is listed on  my report as "Factoring company account" - what does this mean?

---

A Factoring Company is a company that buys GOOD DEBTS from an original creditor at a modest discount and then collects on them.  Many companies sell their receivables to factoring companies for cash-flow reasons: they get the funds right away and the factoring company assumes the risk if any of the debts don't get paid on time.  Because Factoring Companies buy good debts, they pay most of their face value.  In many cases the customer won't even know that a factoring company is involved, all they know is they send payment where the original creditor asks them to send payment.  Assuming the customer pays on time, there is no negative impact on their credit from the involvement of a factoring company.  Factoring companies are more common in business-to-business transactions than in consumer transactions, although some companies do sell their consumer receivables to factoring companies.

A Collection Agency is a company that buys BAD DEBTS from an original creditor at a substantial discount and then attempts to collect on them.  The customer will certainly know a collection agency is involved, and fact of selling the debt to a CA has a major negative impact on the debtor's credit.  Because CAs buy bad debts, they pay a fraction of the face value.

Some companies do both factoring and bad debt collections, but these are very different businesses.

The relevance to bad debts is that a factoring company is not subject to many of the laws that restrict what collection agencies can do, such as the FDCPA.  Sometimes a CA will call itself a factoring company in an attempt to evade the legal requirements applicable to a CA.  However, for a CA to misrepresent themselves as a factoring company is itself a violation of the FDCPA.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

First, it will hit your score

Second, the loan officer can not guarantee the lender will not re-run credit score at closing.  If the underwriter sees anything that spooks them they will re-run, or any other number of reasons.  They do not always do so, but they have the right and can do so without your notification.

As far as the judgement itself goes, LVNV did the same thing to me last year on an old sears account.  I am fighting it though because I was never served.  It is a crap shoot.  Scores could easlit go down 40-60 points on a recent judgement.    the problem is you can either roll the dice that they won't re-run credit or be upfront with them and get the judgement paid off and vacated if possible.  But, if you do not disclose it and they do run the credit later, they wil ikely deny or seriously jack up your rate on the loan due to the adverse credit. 

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I am hopeful the lender will not re-run my score, before this, it was solid. I had nothing that woould spook a lender (or so I would hope). If so I guess I am just screwed. I am going to call today and pay off the entire debt. That way, IF the lender DOES re-run my credit it will look more favorable. Again, this is just my hope - if I am wrong please advise.

You mentioned I could try to get the judgment "vacated" what excatly does that mean and how would I go about doing this?

Thanks so much!

[Anonymous]

You usually have 30 days to vacate a judgement. You must always appear before the court and should reply within the time allowed. You should list all affirmative defenses the most important being SOL or you may loose your right to use them forever. Unfortunately by paying on this loan if it was out of SOL you restarted the clock.

At this point the judgement is on your report so havnig it vacated is your best chance.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

You usually have 30 days to vacate a judgement. You must always appear before the court and should reply within the time allowed. You should list all affirmative defenses the most important being SOL or you may loose your right to use them forever. Unfortunately by paying on this loan if it was out of SOL you restarted the clock.

At this point the judgement is on your report so havnig it vacated is your best chance.

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30 dats from when? From when it was filed? If so, according to what shows on my credit report that has passed since it shows it was reported in November 2008.

How would I go about having this vacated? I already called the owner of the debt that I make monthly payments to and asked why this judgment was filed. They said that I am correct to say that I am current with my paymentys but they filed this judgment so that IF I default on my arrangments they can garnish my wages etc.

I also asked that if I pay the debt in full today will they vacate the judgment and they said their office does not do that, once it is filed they will not remove it.

Can I pay the debt off and then go to the court and ask them to vacate the judgment?

Thanks!