OMW........ where to start.

[Anonymous]

I am taking on a motherload helping my husband clean up his credit profile. This is what I am up against: 21 pages of negative account history. I feel like it is more than I can take on, so any help and advice would be appreciated.

Maybe first, some advice on Where I even start? I don't know which original account and collection account are associated with each other and there seems to be a lot of duplicate entries. I assume I should start with debt verification letters? What should I ask for? Sample of verbiage would help..

[Creditaddict]

I usually start with disputing all the accounts on the 3 credit reports... Some accounts may be to old to collect, have incorrect balances, duplicates, etc.  Once they are all investigated you will hopefully be left with a much shorter list of what is still current debt that needs attention, then you could start with PFD letters or however you want to pursue it.

[Anonymous]

We have gotten that far with disputing but only through CRA's, not directly with any CA. He did have some fraud in his name some years ago in New York. (We are from Cali.) So, the list of baddies was even longer! Can I DV original creditors, or does that only apply to collection agencies? And should I just GW the original creditors since the accounts have been closed and sold?

Ive been staring at this credit report with a blank face all morning

[Creditaddict]

well if you have already disputed the accounts and they came back confirmed then I'm not quite as good at what letters to send and who to send them to, so hopefully someone with chime in with the right direction from here.  But I would think you would need to start with working with the CA first and settle or pay etc. then once the account has been resolved with CA, go back to original creditor with GW probably saying you have now paid it and you got your life back on track, etc etc and it would really help if they would remove the bad marks.

[MarineVietVet]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I am taking on a motherload helping my husband clean up his credit profile. This is what I am up against: 21 pages of negative account history. I feel like it is more than I can take on, so any help and advice would be appreciated.

Maybe first, some advice on Where I even start? I don't know which original account and collection account are associated with each other and there seems to be a lot of duplicate entries. I assume I should start with debt verification letters? What should I ask for? Sample of verbiage would help..

---

If you haven't done so already I would pull all three reports you can get for free from annualcreditreport.com. These reports will have much more complete information than is available from third party sites. I would go through each of them carefully and dispute only information you know to be inaccurate.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802
EQ - 7/06-663, 3/10-800, 10/10-813
TU - 8/10-772
You can do the same thing with hard work

[llecs]

---

@Creditaddict wrote:

I usually start with disputing all the accounts on the 3 credit reports... Some accounts may be to old to collect, have incorrect balances, duplicates, etc.  Once they are all investigated you will hopefully be left with a much shorter list of what is still current debt that needs attention, then you could start with PFD letters or however you want to pursue it.

---

Ditto to MVV....Disputing accurate information violates our Credit Repair Discussion Guidelines, Terms of Service, and User Guidelines that prohibit the promotion of certain types of credit repair. If it is too old to collect, they can still report.

Mod hat off for a sec..disputing is a bad idea. Speaking from personal experience of someone who got the same advice back when, disputing stuff can result in some bad things happening to your CR.

[RobertEG]

I totally agree with marinevet. and llecs 

First get your most complete credit reports.   annualcreditreport.com is not only free once a year but also the best.

Most commercial credit reports wll totally confuse you.

Here is where I would start.

First TOTALLY IGNORE all colletions or other drogs... Deal with them only after assessing your OC accounts. How to deal with collections and charge-offs depends in first knowing at least the date of firdt deliquency on the OC account.

Get out a piece of blank paper, and label out five colums.

 Col 1                            Col 2                                                      Col 3                                    Col. 4                                                   Col. 5

Orig crredi1 name     date of first reported 30-day late       date of any60-day late      dates of all  90+ lates      ever a OC or CA?  (only Y or N)

Orig crredi2 name     date of first reported 30-day late       date of any60-day late      dates of all 90+ lates      ever a OC or CA ? (only Y or N)

Orig crredi3 name     date of first reported 30-day late       date of any60-day late      dates of all 90+ lates      ever a OC or CA?  (only Y or N)

.    etc....

That, in my mind, is the data source for initial OC account payment history credit score evavuation. 

Then, know your state SOL: both date of commencement, and date of running.

That simple table tells you which account debt is outside of SOL and when each indiv delquency on each OC account will drop from your CR.

Col 2.3,and 4 entires drop at 7 years from their reported dates. Col 5 Yesses drop at 7 1/2 years usually, from the Col 1 date of frst delinquency,

With that debt of info, you know on one page the age, severity and drop off date of all revolving credit dreogs in your CR.

Then just come back here for specific advice on earlier removal.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. I will sort all this info out and I will be back with questions.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry.. stupid question here. Can someone explain to me what SOL is? Does that mean if an account is past SOL in my state (California), they can no longer attempt to collect it? Now that I'm thinking-- if I contact some of these CA's, should the account past SOL to avoid making things worse?

[llecs]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I'm sorry.. stupid question here. Can someone explain to me what SOL is? Does that mean if an account is past SOL in my state (California), they can no longer attempt to collect it? Now that I'm thinking-- if I contact some of these CA's, should the account past SOL to avoid making things worse?

---

SOL is "statute of limitation". Every state defines their SOL and covers everything from debts, to burglary, to parking tickets, to murder, and everything in between. With respect to debt, SOL is the time frame a creditor has to sue you for an unpaid debt and varies by debt type from debts like contracts, open accounts (CCs), bounced checks, and so on. There's a whole section within your state's statutes that is sometimes labeled "Uniform Commercial Code". Note that SOL can be reset by any number of things, though usually it takes a written admission or, to a lesser extent, a payment to reset SOL. YMMV based on your state.

If a debt is past SOL, an OC/CA can still collect on it. They can do that forever. I have one debt that is 10 years past SOL and still get my diligent collection letters semi-annually. OCs and CAs can sue past SOL too. However, if you showed up in court and demonstrated to the judge that it is past SOL, then it'll get dimissed.

IMO, SOL only matters if you cannot afford to PIF a debt. If you send letters, DVs, PFDs, etc to a baddie before SOL expires, and you can't PIF, then you can get sued and you have no way of preventing a judgment. However, if you could PIF, and you are inside SOL, then you won't have to worry about being sued because you can always pay the debt to avoid a judgment.