Hi everyone, I'm new here but a long time lurker. Here's my dilemma. Back in 2006 I had a Capital One with a $4200 limit. The card was stolen, and whomever took it managed to ring up over $1500 in gas charges within an hour. The card was almost maxed out when stolen, but Capital One still allowed them to go nearly $1000 over the limit. I reported the stolen card, and Capital One put it under investigation, advised me the card was frozen and to not make payments until the investigation was over. Long story short, the investigation took a very long time because it turned out the thieves were part of a crime ring. :-/ They eventually deducted the $1500, but in the meantime I accrued nearly $1000 in over-the-limit and late fees. At this time, I was going through a hard financial time personally because I lost my job and separated from my husband. Stupidly, I let the card go to collections, and is now still a charge off on my report, with a balance somehow of $8700! It's due to drop off my report at the end of 2014. But, I'm making a big job move this fall and relocating to a new state, and I wanted to clean up my credit report prior to the move. Fresh start! This is the only negative item on my report, but my FICO score is<500! The only other credit I have is a secure card for $2000 that I just opened, and student loans that I just applied to consolidate. (Since all of this happened I went back to school and got my bachelors and will have my MBA in Auguest!) I've paid cash for everything over the last 6 years.
My question is this. I know the amount Capital One wrote off is wrong. I should not be liable for the over the limit, late fees, and interest on the stolen amount. Do I have any chance of disputing this and getting the whole thing deleted? Or, is there something else I can do to at least improve things for myself? Or, am I just out of luck and need to ride it out? I know I should have followed up on this at the time, and kept paying. It was just a bad time for me and I dropped the ball.
