This is my first post here, so hopefully you will bear with me on this one. First off, I have been lurking on these forums for a couple of weeks now and already have taken away A LOT of extremely useful information and tips. So thank you to everyone on here, this really has become an invaluable source of information and insight for me.
To give a little background, I am in my mid-late 20s and really have only been taking care of my credit for the past two years or so. I am in the process of paying down some high balances on two CCs, and know once I decrease these my util% will look much more favorable. My last PFICO from WAMU was 644. I am waiting until next month to pull my myFICO reports and get more accurate info - but I do have a credit report from all 3 CRA dated 9/2007.
I am posting today because I have some questions regarding a couple derogatory accounts that all happened while I was ignorant, in college, and really didn't know much about credit. I HAD 3 derogatory accounts on my credit reports:
1) Date opened was 5/2001 and was from a utility company - it has fallen off in the last couple of months. YAY
2) An account for a past due satellite company account that shows a date opened of 12/20/2004 and that I PIF in installments to the CA and the final payment was made in 2/2008. (I started paying it off when I saw it on my report) The date opened date of this account is accurate, so I expect it to fall off around the end of 2011. It is already almost 4 years old, and there is nothing I can do here but wait.
3) The third account is my reason for writing this. The account is a derogatory account from the same time period as account #2 from a utility(for home phone and internet), yet it was sent to a CA and the date opened as reported by the CA is showing 8/2006, a good 20 months AFTER my first late payment on the account with the original creditor. I did not know much about credit reports, etc, and did not realize this discrepancy when I negotiated with the CA to settle the account in the end of 2007 for about half of what was due (195 of a total 313). The payments were to be made in 3 installments. I thought I had made all 3 of them, although apparently the final one did not process apparently. So, my account is still showing a balance of $183 as of last month when I got my free Experian report through another website.
So here is my question. Do I send a PFD letter to the CA, and see how that goes or do I first dispute the date opened with the CRA as it should be 20 months earlier than what was reported?? Unfortunately, I do not believe I have any statements left from when this account first became delinquent to prove the first date of delinquency, but the account was associated with the same address as account #2 above, which I moved from around 11/2004 and is partially a reason for missing these payments. Even if I do not succeed with my PFD letter, what can I do to assure the date opened accurately reflects when this account started to be delinquent?
Any help would be MUCH appreciated, as I am not sure how to best go about this. If you need any clarification or additional details, I will do my best to provide them. As this is my first post, I hope I did not violate any posting rules. Thanks in advance everyone.
EDIT: Now that I think about it, account #2 that shows opened in 12/2004 was actually delinquent as of 12/2003, as should be account number 3. So should I dispute both of those dates with CRAs?
Message Edited by Grape on 09-26-2008 11:19 AM
Message Edited by Grape on 09-26-2008 03:37 PM
