My Credit Cleanup - Solid history but some older lates, advice welcome!

[700orbust]

I want to try to GW a lot of these old lates I have. Some are from co-signers I made, some are from a discrepancy on my student loan payment ($17 under I think?). With the knowledge of individual creditors, I'd like to get some feedback on the best way to tackle these:

BOA LOC - This was a loan I co-signed on. It was closed by BOA some time ago. They didn't contact me until it was 60 days late, and thats when I paid it up. So I got hosed in that deal.

Apr, 2008

Aug, 2003

Apr, 2007

Line of Credit

$2,000

$2,127

30 days: 2 times(May 2005, Dec 2004)

60 days: 1 time(Jun 2005)

AES - Edu loan - I had two loans, set a day apart. I usually made one payment for both. All the paperwork would come in a day apart, so it was easy to get disoriented. I think I underpaid my bulk payment by a small about, $17 or so. So I ended up with a small amount going over 30 days. Of course, it hits both accounts and tanked my score at the time, I was buying a car. These people are irritating -  they are the one lender I find enjoyment in making them wait for their payment! Thankfully one of my loans were sold to WF - I like them much better.

Dec, 2010

Aug, 2003

Dec, 2010

XXXXXXXXXXXXX0001

Student Loan

$11,861

30 days: 1 time(Feb 2007)

AES #2

Sep, 2010

Aug, 2004

Aug, 2010

Sep, 2010

XXXXXXXXXXXXX0002

Student Loan

$14,000

Installment Account

Primary Borrower on Account

Education / Employment

30 days: 1 time(Feb 2007)

VW Credit - I moved and documented my change of address - it took them a couple months to figure it out. Of course, I got the bad marks in the meantime. 

Apr, 2007

May, 2003

Apr, 2007

Apr, 2007

XXXXX7837

Auto Lease

$17,174

Installment Account

Individual Account

Finance / Personal

30 days: 3 times(May 2005, Dec 2004, Sep 2004)

Those are on my TU report. I have more which are only reporting to EQ:

Wells Fargo Student Loan - There are three of these accounts. They are a combined Stafford Loan payment. I moved back from college that summer and misplaced the bill. The following month I paid it up and have been on automatic payments ever since. Such a piddly payment amount, but I have 3 accounts reporting a late from it.

Dec, 2010

Oct, 2001

Dec, 2010

XXXXXXXXXXXX0003

$1,417

Installment

Individual

All Banks

30 days: 1 time(Jul 2006)

The last thing I have is a junk collection dating back to July 2004. Its set to fall off this year from all CRAs. However, I have a lot of credit goals and uses for this year, and I want to offer to PFD on this account to see if they will take it. Worse case, it will be gone in 6 months.

Federal Credit Corp - EQ reports as an open account 120+ past due, TU and EX as a collection. Shown below is EQ.

Dec, 2010

Jun, 2010

Jul, 2004

$237

Open Account

Individual

Factoring Companies

My EQ FICO is 667. It says my two highest factors hurting my score are "Serious Delinquency" and "Bad Payment History". Basically, everything I listed above. Good factors is the 4 years since a late - and 18 accounts in good standing.

My TU FICO is 655. My two highest factors hurting my score are "Collection" and "Recent Collection". TU shows it as placed in 6/10, and due for removal  6/11.

AAoA is 6-7 years (depending on CRA)

Oldest account is 10.5 years

Overall Util is around 48%

I want to have a story to share on the forums like others I read all the time. I feel like my history is solid, I have enough credit and types of credit to have strong scores, just have to get rid of some of these lates , most of which are 3x insulting because it was combined student loans. 

Your advice is appreciated! 

[Anonymous]

I had lates reporting on two accounts on 3 different dates for one incident.  Basically, my LB credit card has changed servicers and shows up on my reports as 3 different banks.  I was late once, and I had a different date on each CRA listed for it, as well as it being reported by 2 of the 3 banks.  I wrote goodwill letters to both banks, and I wrote a note to the CRAs specifically asking them to clear up the correct date / bank.  I don't know which of these strategies worked, but it was removed from all three CRAs...tradelines remain, all lates removed. 

I'd say this is a situation where I'd try it - GW to the OCs, plus a letter to the CRAs saying "Hey, this late is being reported on more than one account, but my records show it should only be on one, could you clear up this discrepancy?" could just clear up some of this.

[700orbust]

Here's my first GW letter for my WF student loans:

January 15, 2011

Wells Fargo EFS

PO Box 84712

Sioux Falls, SD 57118

Account No 12345-6789, Loan MN0001, MN0002, MN0003

Dear Sir or Madam,

Wells Fargo has been servicing my Stafford student loans for over 10 years, and I have a multitude of financial products with the company (Checking, Savings, Credit Card). I have had nothing but a pleasant experience banking with the company.

My wife and I have been working towards purchasing our first home, and it has come to our attention that the 3 Stafford loans serviced by Wells Fargo have reported a 30 day late for July 2006. This would have been around the time I moved back home from college. While I am not attempting to justify any reason to be late, I feel it is not representative of my credit worthiness and exceptional history with this loan for the past decade. I have been on an automatic payment schedule for many years now to ensure prompt payment of these loans.

I appreciate your time and consideration of this matter. With the current housing market conditions, it has been difficult to obtain quality mortgage products. I pray that you may consider a goodwill adjustment as it will prove beneficial in our journey towards our first home.

Sincerely yours,

[700orbust]

And another for AES, modified from the first. I don't have the same nice things to say about this company, so its not as kiss up, but still sincere. Good enough to mail?

January 15, 2011

American Education Services

1200 N 7TH Street

Harrisburg, PA 17102

Account No 1234556789

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing this letter to share an experience with AES, and the resulting request to have the tradeline revised.

My wife and I have been working towards purchasing our first home, and it has come to our attention that the two student loans serviced by AES have reported a 30 day late for February 2007. At this time, my two loans were dated one day apart, so I received two copies of nearly identical paperwork multiple times a month. I believe I made an error of around $17 when paying the loans and thus carried a small balance into the next month. While I am not attempting to justify any reason to be 30 days late, I hope that you can understand my confusion and frustration from the event. A simple misunderstanding has had twice the impact on my credit scores due to the way the loans are packaged for repayment. These two loans currently carry the strongest derogatory marks impeding our abilities to qualify for a quality mortgage product.

I appreciate your time and consideration of this matter. With the current housing market conditions, it has been difficult to obtain quality mortgage products. I pray that you may consider a goodwill adjustment as it will prove beneficial in our journey towards our first home.

Sincerely yours,

[RobertEG]

In review of the info you have provided, I view the ranking of severity of derogs as follows:

1. The CA reported by the debt collector, Fed Credit Corp. is your most serous derog.

     In addition to that CA itself, what were the dates and times of all delinquencies on the OC account that led up to the collection?

     The date the CA reported is meaningless.  What is the DOFD on the OC account?

2.  The 60-day late on the BOA LOC.

      This reamains until after 6/2012

3.  You have at least ten 30-day lates.

     These alone, pasrticularly as they get older, lose most of their impact.

      But, together, they represent multiple derogs, which is probably keeping you in a "dirty" scoring bucket.

In my opinion, adddressing one or two of these derogs probably wont lead to significant credit score improvement.

With well over a dozen drogs in your CR, multple CR falloffs or earlier GW/PFD deletions would appear necessary for significant score improvement.

I think your proposed GW letters are right on point!

[700orbust]

The Collection will fall off between April and June of this year (depending on CR). I am doing a DV and then I'll offer to PFD, otherwise, I'll wait it out.

[700orbust]

Account Reference: NTELOS CO-DXXXXXX 

According to recent pulled credit reports, your company is claiming a debt is owed to you. I have no record of debt belonging to NTELOS, and would gladly compensate my legal counsel to prove this point.

In the spirit of compromise, I am willing to pay this account in full with a written agreement to immediate deletion of the account from any and all credit reporting agencies. In doing so, no acknowledgement of liability for this debt is stated.

If you agree to these terms, certified funds for the amount of Three Hundred Twenty Six dollars ($326.00) will be send to Federal Credit Corp in exchange for deletion of all references regarding this account, and full satisfaction of this debt. Because certified funds will be used, deletion must take effect immediately upon receipt.

Federal Credit Corp agrees to delete ALL information regarding this account from the credit reporting agencies within TEN (10) calendar days following receipt of payment specified above. Federal Credit Corp will not discuss the terms of settlement with no exception. If contacted by a third party, Federal Credit Corp will not acknowledge that any settlement offer was made, accepted, or executed. 

If you agree to these terms, please prepare a letter on company letterhead explicitly agreeing to the same terms as above, and have it signed by an authorized representative of Federal Credit Corp. It will be implied that this letter shall constitute a legally binding contract. 

Your response must be postmarked no later than FIFTEEN (15) days from receipt of this letter. If you do not respond, I will consult with my legal counsel, and we shall begin with the FULL validation of this alleged debt, as provided under § 809 of FDCPA.

[700orbust]

That is my proposed PFD letter. I don't feel like taking time for DV, etc, I'd rather just get to the point. I'll pay you to drop it.

I legitimately closed this account almost 7 years ago, and left no balance standing. Whether the CSR made an error, or someone decided to bill after I called to cancel the phone, I don't know, and honestly do not care. 

A couple years ago another collection agency attempted to collect this, I disputed, and it was submitted TWICE. I raised hell with the CRA and CA, and all evidence was removed. 

Obviously, Federal Credit Corp thought to take this one over after PARK DASAN gave up. Well, I'm ready to obtain a couple more prime credit lines, so its time to clean this up.

I thought about mentioning that I can just wait a few months and the collections will expire, and I"ll have no reason to offer PFD, but I thought I'd save that for a denial response. This is their last chance to have any real leverage against me...

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why you're paying it - if you really don't owe the money, why reward a junk debt collector with hundreds of dollars? 

If it's a convenience thing, why would you pay the full balance?

I know DVing seems like a waste, but it was the *easiest* way I got some stuff to go away.  Also, I got more DV responses than PFD responses. 

Personally, I would DV or I would let it die a natural death.  I tried PFD before DV as well, but I really only got results from DVing. 

[700orbust]

I'm offering to pay it because its presence is nagging me, and its worth $325 to make it go away. Its my word vs. theirs at this point, and it will fall off all three reports b/t april and july of this year. I have a lot of business and personal opportunity coming up over the next 3 months, and the sooner I can have my credit in tip top shape, the better. I am spending about $8500 over the next 3 weeks to pay all of my revolving balances down to 9% util. 

I'm intrigued that you got more responses by DV rather than PFD. That stopped me from walking out the door with this letter.

So I really stand a better chance with DV?