Rebuilding Credit help please

[mackandblues]

Ok so trying to rebuild my credit and need some help please.  The past two years I was making less money than my bills so I had to let alot of things go to collections.  My employement situation has changed (more $$$!!!) and now I need to fix everything because eventually I would like an auto loan.  

Experian 578    Equifax 571  TU 606

Capital One $3890 balance $4000 limit - current - 30d late 3/19, 30 day late 4/20, 60 day late 5/20. opened 1/14 

Target CC - current balance $0 - limit $4000. late 30d 10/18 - 

citicards $283 balance, closed but currently paying - 30d late 12/14. opened 9/06, closed 12/14

Torrid CC $0 balance. closed 4/19. 120d late 7/15. opened 5/14

VS CC charge off $411. charged off 9/19. opened 12/17

Credit one CC charge off $722 3/19. last payment made 7/18.

Student loan - current - late 120d 10/13, 11/13, 12/13

Nordstrom CC charge off $675 5/19. last payment made 10/18

Milestone CC - charge off $470 10/18. last payment made 9/18

Collection Calvary Port $3,365 8/19 OC citi bank

Collection LVNV funding $722 7/19 Credit one bank

Collection Midland Credit management $343 9/19 OC Comenity Bank

Collection National Cred Sys $224 9/18 OC Hidden Lakes apt

Collection Port Recovery $2501 2/20 OC Synchrony bank

Collection Port Recovery $650 11/18 OC Synchrony bank

Collection Port Recovery $373 2/20 OC syncrony bank

Collection Radius Global Solutions $270 10/19 original creditor Lab Corp

Collection Credit systems $188 6/18 OC UNT health

Good Stuff
BUnch of student loans in good standing and currently deferred
Closed care credit in good standing
Closed walmart card in good standing
Closed auto loan in good standing
closed macys cc in good standing

My first move was going to be paying off the Capital One credit card and then after that I have no idea. 

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Midland and Portfolio do PFD (pay for delete) so you may want to reach out to settle those 4. I was able to work with both (I had 1 collection with each) for about 35% of the amount. It was pretty painless and they came off pretty fast (not as settled - they were straight up deleted). 

I'll let other's chime in on the chargeoffs and other collection accounts. 

[mackandblues]

@Anonymous 

Did you send certified letters to negotiate the PFD? Did you offer 35% and they accepted or was there negotiating? Thanks so much! 

[Anonymous]

I called both on the phone, although that was before I joined here, so I am not sure if it is recommended to do letters. Both companies actually say they do PFD on their sites, so I didn't feel like I needed the protection of a letter. With both, they initially said I needed to pay around 60% but I told them I could not afford that and they asked what I could pay. I said "about 35%" and they had to get "manager approval". It wasn't that complicated. 

[mackandblues]

I called PRA today and they would only settle for 80% on my 3 accounts.  They also said I had to give them my checking account number otherwise the settlement would not be valid and go back to the original amount if I didnt pay over the phone.   

[gdale6]

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@mackandblues wrote:

I called PRA today and they would only settle for 80% on my 3 accounts.  They also said I had to give them my checking account number otherwise the settlement would not be valid and go back to the original amount if I didnt pay over the phone.   

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Dont ever give a CA or JDB like PRA your bank account info. Pay these people by credit card or mail a certified check...

[mackandblues]

Capital one balance now $2890/$4000

@FireMedic1 any ideas on where to start? Thank you! 

[jons998877]

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@mackandblues wrote:

Capital one balance now $2890/$4000

@FireMedic1 any ideas on where to start? Thank you! 

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I guess a lot depends on how much extra income you have to throw at the old collections, then start with the smallest ones and negotiating PFD's... 

and don't worry about your score right now, its bad and its not going to change overnight, so my philosophy was crap is crap,  I started off right around 500 and didn't worry about my score at all until I hit 620...

[mackandblues]

@jons998877 

I do have a lot more income now to start fixing this just trying to figure out what gives me the most bang for my buck so to speak and where to start 

[Anonymous]

As mentioned, the quick wins are Portfolio and Midland since their policies are to delete after payment (no timeframe for Portfolio but Midland requires that the debt be two years old). There have been recent success stories with LVNV PFDs as well, and Calvary has also been known to do them.

After that, first priority is to keep any positive tradelines positive, pay them down as much as you can, and then start dealing with the others. If you can establish how much you can pay per month toward your chargeoffs and collections, it'll help formulate a plan. The upside is that none of them are very big and it's likely you can get them gone in the near future. Since they're all in the hundreds other than the one Citi collection, I'd set up a payment plan on that and just hit the others one by one. You can call and ask for settlement amounts on everything (highly advisable on the ones that offer PFD because there'll be no record of the collection once it's removed).