Let's do this thing.

[Anonymous]

Alright, here goes nothing... I'll start this off by saying I thoroughly enjoy reading other peoples' rebuilding stories. Sometimes it's like reading a really good book -- I find it so satisfying watching other peoples' scores go up and debts go down -- so I thought it would be a good idea to start tackling my own. I've been avoiding my debts in the hopes they might just disappear but (spoiler alert!)... they do not. I haven't "needed" credit recently, and I hope to not need it anytime soon, but I do want to take care of this mess so when the time comes when i do need/want credit, i'll be able to get it. Ya know? I'm using this thread as a way to track my progress/lack thereof. I'll try my best to update if anything significant happens in my credit world. Enjoy.

Good:

NFCU secured card - opened 12/18, $0 balance/$200 limit

Cap 1 secured card - opened 10/2019, $0 balance/$200 limit

Victoria Secredt card - opened 7/2016, closed 6/2018, $0 balance/$250 limit

(12) total student loans at 4.66% interest or less - oldest opened 9/2013 - $30,000 balance, IDR plan right now ($80/month)

---> No missed payments on any of the above.

Not good (balance/limit):

Target/TD Bank: 965/700 - charged off 9/2017

BOA: 512/500 - charged off 9/2017

BOA: 549/500 - charged off 9/2017

Credit One: 0/300 - charged off 7/2017

Citi: 232/200 - charged off 9/2017

Discover: 200/200 - charged off 9/2017

Kohls: 600/300 - charged off 7/2017

Chase (repossession): balance is approx $9,000 - charged off 1/2018

Comcast (collection): $307 - date assigned 2/2019

AmeriCollect #1: $291 - date assigned 10/2018

AmeriCollect #2: $944 - date assigned 9/2018

AmeriCollect #3: $209 - date assigned 7/2017

LVNV: $627 - date assigned 7/2017

PRA: $595 - date assigned 9/2018

Scores as of 10/8/19 when i embarked on this little credit journey:

Ex 562

Tu 570

Eq 546

10/8 - Contacted Kohl's, set up plan to pay in full over 3 months, 1st payment submitted that day.

10/8 - Contacted Discover, paid charge off in full.

10/9 - Contacted Citi, they said the only way I can pay is if I mail them a check for the full amount... haven't done that yet.

10/9 - Applied for Cap 1 secured, approved (I had a Cap 1 card charge off in 2017, hence the PRA collection).

10/10 - Contacted PRA, offered settlement of $330 to be paid over 3 months, they came back at $390, I took it, 1st payment submitted.

10/11 - Contacted Comcast, asked if I pay them $200 right now, can they note my acct as PIF? The guy said yes, I submitted my payement, then at the tail end of the call he says "give us a call back when you are ready to pay off your remaining balance"......??

10/23 - Contacted BOA reagrding 2 charge offs, set up payment plan to pay them both off over 10 months.

10/24 - Called TD Bank to set up payment plan for Red Card c/o - I was told to contact a law firm (this law firm had attempted to sue me right after this account was charged off, but i responded, and the lawsuit was dropped but they still own the debt) - I called the law firm and asked about setting up some sort of payment plan - the law firm told me they had added on $300 in fees and my account was getting interest added onto it daily - GREAT - the lady said she had to ask me some questions in order to be able to set up a plan - ok, whatever. She asked me about my monthly debts and how much i make (I was pretty vague in all of my answers) - then she made a couple of rude side comments about how she didn't think I was being truthful in my responses - I told her it doesn't matter where I live or how much I make, it should only matter that I'm trying to pay you people. We did not come to any sort of agreement, so I emailed TD Bank and told them about my interaction with this law firm, and asked that they consider allowing me to pay them directly. They emailed back and said they'd be in touch.

So that's where I'm at right now.

To be continued....

[FireMedic1]

Its great your working to get this behind you. Its going to be a long road. But dont give up and keep hammering those negs to PIF or settled. It will be a few yrs to have a complete recovery. But it goes by fast.  Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the positive vibes!

After posting this yesterday, I contacted the Target Red Card people a second time (since I'm quite impatient and dont want to wait for an email response). I was transferred around a couple times and was ultimately told NO, i cannot pay TD Bank directly for this charge off. Quite a bummer since that law office i spoke to was so awful... I will deal with them at a later date.

Been spending the last hour or so searching the interwebs for mailing addresses for Discover, Comcast, LVNV, and AmeriCollect. Planning on sending GW letters to Discover and Comcast. Going to plead my case with LVNV and offer to PIF if they would kindly remove themselves from my report... Doubtful, but I gotta try!

And I'm planning on sending AmeriCollect a PFD and/or settlement offer sometime in the near future here - I've read mixed reviews on these guys (whether they delete or not) - but once again, I gotta try. I'm going back and forth with myself whether or not I should try to settle the AmeriCollect accounts then send GW letters - or if I should offer to PIF for deletion. Anyone have any thoughts on this one?

[ldkcivilservant]

Sounds like you're off to a very pre-active start! Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Teensy update, nothing too exciting...

I've spent the last several days gathering as many addresses that I can possibly can for Comcast, Discover, AmeriCollect, and TD Bank. I've written and re-written my letters a couple of times...I'm a bit of a perfectionist with these types of things. I recieved a letter from some law firm trying to collect on LVNV's behalf, and well... that scared me a little bit. I contacted LVNV and they said I can't pay them directly anymore, so I ended up setting up a payment plan with this law firm (this morning actually), simply to avoid getting sued. I'll bombard LVNV with GW letters once these people are totally paid off.

I contacted Comcast again - remember I offered to pay $200 in exchange for "$0 balance" wording on my acct? The kind lady I spoke to said she could see a note on my acct that said "acct will be paid in full for $200, remaining balance is $106". We were both equally confused about this, so I'll be sending them a GW letter for this....

I decided to type up kind of a lengthy letter to send to TD Bank in the hopes that they'll let me pay them and not that law firm that was so rude to me on the phone last week... we'll see what they say. Also sending a GW letter to Discover explaining how the account got charged off, I hope to reestablish a relationship with them, etc.

Finally, I have 3 AmeriCollect accounts in collections... but AmeriCollect actually owns 6 of my old accounts, only 3 of them are reporting. I typed up a letter offering a settlement for all 6 accounts, and I (very respectfully) asked that they delete these 3 accounts once they recieve the payment.

I'm actually going to hold on to all of these letters for one more week (when I'm able to pull an updated CR) to see what (if anything) has been updated this past month... after that, I have a pretty large stack of letters I'm ready to send out.

Fingers crossed.

[OmarGB9]

Congrats on being proactive! Keep doing what you're doing and keep us posted. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Quick update...

Kohls balance updated to reflect the 1st $200 payment I made.

Tu +1
Ex +8
Eq +0

[Anonymous]

Hey there... No real updates, just checking in and have some questions.

Sent out several letters about 2 weeks ago - no responses to any as of yet.

I contacted Citi again the other day. I asked the rep for my old account number so I could write that on the memo line of the check I intended on mailing to them. "We're not allowed to give out that kind of information", was his response. Umm... what? I'm supposed to mail a check to Citi with no account number attached to it? I have a pretty common name, and my address has changed since I had that card, so I dont know how they would be able to look me up and apply the funds to my old account. Needless to say, I did not mail the check, and I'll be calling them again in a couple of days.

I'd like to get a letter out to Chase soon. This is my biggest CO and the only account listed above that I have not addressed yet. My CR is all sorts of wonky with this one: there is no info listed at all on TU -- EQ has a 30 days late in June of '16, Aug '16, Oct '16, Jan '17 and nothing is listed after that -- EX has the same 30 day lates then is "OK" from Feb '17-Dec '17 and says "CO" Jan '18 and nothing listed after that. To be honest, I stopped paying on this car sometime in mid-end of 2017. I was in a bad spot financially and the car was having issues - i didn't care about my credit and i just wanted the thing gone. I contacted Chase a couple of times and told them where the car was parked (i was driving a different car by this time) and requested they come get it - one of the reps at Chase had the nerve to say "we've had someone drive past that address and the car isn't there, you're obviously hiding it from us". After about 2 months of this nonsense, they finally came and took it. I don't remember getting a notice about the auction of the car, but i do remember getting a letter in mid-2018 about the deficiency being about $9,000 (I had owed about $13,000 at the time of repo). I haven't recieved anymore letters.

I'd rather contact Chase before they contact me. I dont want to pay it in full, but i want to pay SOMETHING so they wont appear one of these days and try to sue me for the whole deficiency. Should I call them or write a letter??? (I think I'd need to call them regardless to get my old account number, right?) My main objective with this one is to get the "CO" from Jan 2018 off my report. There are no 30, 60, 90 day lates leading up to that CO -- it goes straight from "OK" in Dec 17 to "CO" in Jan of 18. I'm worried if I reach out to them, someone might update the way they had been reporting... but this ONE charge off notation on only ONE of my reports has been driving me nuts.

Should I call and try to settle over the phone, then send GW letters about that one single "CO" mark on my CR? Should I send a letter with my personal info but no account number, offer a settlement, and ask that the wording of "CO" be adjusted in exchange for payment? Anyone have any thoughts on this one??

[Anonymous]

The past week has been fairly exciting in my credit world: I received a letter from the Target RedCard corporate office. The letter stated something to the effect of "we are no longer able to collect on this debt, please contact the law firm this debt was sold to, we are not allowed to change our report to the bureaus, etc etc" and it was signed in actual pen by one of the employees. I'm thinking I might have no choice but to pay this awful law firm then write to the Target HQ again (specifically this man who wrote to me) and beg and plead for a GW adjustment.

AmeriCollect wrote to me as well. I think I offered about a 60% settlement in my letter to them... They came back at 80%. They also included a form for me to fill out explaining why I believe they should delete themselves from my report. I think I'm going to jump on this one in the next week or 2, and send them back the form with a check to go towards their settlement offer.

Finally, after 3 days of playing phone tag with someone from Comcast's corporate office, i was finally able to speak with someone about the payment I had made back in Oct. The nice man I spoke to said that they are not allowed to deleted themseleves from peoples' credit reports, and he said that I still owed Comcast money. I asked him if their calls were recorded and if he could please listen to the conversation i had with someone back in Oct, where I was under the impression I was settling "in full". He did go back and listen to the conversation, then he called me back said he would consider my account paid with no balance due, and he would write a letter on my behalf to their credit department to have the wording on my credit report changed to "paid in full". That's good enough for me. If it would completely go away, that would be even better, but i'll take what i can get right now.

[OmarGB9]

Good job on the progress. Sorry they all seem to be stubborn about deleting though.