Need advice on Rebuild

[drewricomakeubu]

I went to prison and recently got out. Not a bad person, just did something stupid. Anyway, while I was incarcerated most of my credit cards were charged off or went into collections. 

My derogs as follows (Experian):

Discover CO: $5534; DOFD 08/2016; Falls Off 07/23

Discover CO: $1484; DOFD 08/2016; Falls Off 07/23

Cap One CO: $1394; DOFD 10/2016; Falls Off 07/23

Citi Collection: $1427; DOFD 09/2016; Falls OFF 06/23

I have a Chase Freedom ($4000) thats paid as agreed and has $4 balance. Chase Credit Tracker says score is 620. Not sure about other bureaus.

My question is what would be the best route to go on rebuilding? I'm thinking about negotiating with the collection agency to try and get the lowest amount to settle. May possibly try to settle with Discover and Cap One or may just let the charge offs ride until they fall off. Also may try to get a secured loan and pay to 8 or 9% with the loan money and just let that ride until I have to pay it off.

I was told also to maybe file bankruptcy but I figured the charge offs are already 3 years old they would fall off way sooner than a BK would. Any advice would be helpful. 

Thank You

[silver_idle]

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@drewricomakeubu wrote:

I went to prison and recently got out. Not a bad person, just did something stupid. Anyway, while I was incarcerated most of my credit cards were charged off or went into collections. 

My derogs as follows (Experian):

Discover CO: $5534; DOFD 08/2016; Falls Off 07/23

Discover CO: $1484; DOFD 08/2016; Falls Off 07/23

Cap One CO: $1394; DOFD 10/2016; Falls Off 07/23

Citi Collection: $1427; DOFD 09/2016; Falls OFF 06/23

I have a Chase Freedom ($4000) thats paid as agreed and has $4 balance. Chase Credit Tracker says score is 620. Not sure about other bureaus.

My question is what would be the best route to go on rebuilding? I'm thinking about negotiating with the collection agency to try and get the lowest amount to settle. May possibly try to settle with Discover and Cap One or may just let the charge offs ride until they fall off. Also may try to get a secured loan and pay to 8 or 9% with the loan money and just let that ride until I have to pay it off.

I was told also to maybe file bankruptcy but I figured the charge offs are already 3 years old they would fall off way sooner than a BK would. Any advice would be helpful. 

Thank You

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Welcome to the forum. I will say bankruptcy shouldnt be a option in this case. The debt can be easily dealt with without them being IIB. You can also ignore the credit score on chase if its not FICO. You may want to use myfico to look at your fico scores or experian with the $1 trial (make sure to cancel before the trial ends unless you want to continue with the plan). You do want to look at your other credit reports to get an idea of whats being reported.

What you should do is go on and try to settle with them, though with Discover, if they do accept a settlement, you might have a hard time getting back with them for awhile (dont quote me on that though, just based on research I've seen around the forum). Good luck!

[drewricomakeubu]

I honestly have no reason to apply for any new credit at this point and probably won’t have any reason to apply for Discover. Most likely will keep everything with Chase and local bank. I just want to be able to get what I need.

[AllZero]

What are the names of the collection agencies? Some are known to do PFD Pay For Delete.

If you have the ability to pay the debt, look into the PFD. If not, you can wait for it to be removed in 7 years from DOFD.

[drewricomakeubu]

Portfolio Recovery Services, LLC. That’s the only collection I got

[AllZero]

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@drewricomakeubu wrote:
Portfolio Recovery Services, LLC. That’s the only collection I got

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Do you mean Portfolio Recovery Associates? https://www.portfoliorecovery.com

PRA does PFD. It states it on their website.

[drewricomakeubu]

It is associates. Sorry. Two names on one letter. I don’t really know if I want to pay 1400 right now due to the fact that I don’t have steady income right now. I might be able to after March but I may just wait til it falls off and try and settle for less. Hopefully much less.

[AllZero]

At least you have that option when you're ready to decide what course of action to take.

If you're not applying for any credit, loans or services, just let it age for now.

Keep tabs of your credit reports as mentioned up thread with $1 experian.com or creditchecktotal.com

There are free services too if you all ready aren't using them. e.g. creditkarma.com, wallethub.com

[drewricomakeubu]

I think I’m going to negotiate and let it age. I’ll sign up here and see if I can’t see anything better. The info I got was from annualcreditreport. They only showed me 2 for some reason.

[AllZero]

It's recommended to have 3 open revolving accounts and 1 open installment loan to optimize scoring potential.

Keep in mind those collections and charge offs will keep your scores suppressed until removed.