Lets try this. List your open accounts with Creditor/Credit Limit/Balance
Then the baddies with status. Creditor/Balance/Charge off, closed,ect and DoFD
Collections and who are they with and amount.
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@Anonymous wrote:
Open accounts:
revolving:
None are reporting
kikoff cl: 500 balance: 20
capital one: cl 300 balance: 0
installment loan:
self - I believe the loan amount is for 724, have paid 35 not counting fees
baddies:
Bank of America
charged off
balance - 550
dofd - May 2017
Discover
charged off
balance - 300
dofd - Dec 2017
Chase
charged off
balance - 3900
dofd - Oct 2017
Collections:
Portfolio Recover Associates
balance - 450
dofd - sometime in 2017
Midland funding
balance - 867
dofd - sometime in 2017
Ok, so you're in better shape than you might think here. PRA and Midland will both PFD. Call them, work out a settlement you can afford, and pay them. Those collections will be gone in about a month after you pay them. As for the COs, they'll remain on your reports even after they're paid, but the balances will stop affecting your utilization, and you can see some score increases as you pay them. Same thing applies. As you are financially able start calling them, and negotiate settlement agreements to have them considered 'settled in full' in exchange for your payment. Paid in full vs settled for less has absolutely no score effect. You just want the balances reporting $0. You'll most likely get better deals with cash in hand for lump sum payments, but payment plans will work too if you need to go that route. One note about Chase: They have the 'elephant never forgets' memory of the credit world. If you settle for less with them, they'll remember internally that you still 'owe' them money, and may never do credit business with you again unless you pay them in full. Just something to consider when you get around to working out a deal with Chase. When you get all your COs reporting a $0 balance, and the 2 collections deleted, you may be surprised where your scores sit. Then you can effectively rebuild from there.
On your reports. Does the Citi gas card and Cap1 have any balance showing? If its $0 balance they sold the accounts and got paid. Cap1 is very forgiving. Theres no set time when you'll graduate. Its a YMMV thing. Best part is Midland and PRA will be gone. If there is $0 balance on the CO's its no longer affecting your overall util %'s any longer. No more updating. The CO will go bye bye in time.
AMN
@Anonymous
I am gonna make a suggestion, and I really hope that you receive this message in the same manner as I am sending it: K.I.S.S. In other words, keep it simple, silly! You are really over-thinking this (and, for full disclosure, I am an overthinker as well....so, talent recognizes talent here!)
You have three charged off accounts and you have two accounts in collections.
THAT IS IT! Let's focus on the very simple sentence above.
Now, this is where I generally recommend that you look at your three credit reports via annualcreditreport.com.
It really seems like you have done that here. If not, then please do so.
The goal here is to see what the credit world sees so that we know that we are dealing with everything (but, keep in mind that a credit report is a snapshot of your financial life at a specific moment in time and that it might not have EVERYTHING....yet). Due to COVID-19, we are now allowed to look at our Credit Reports every seven days. So, I would encourage you to take another look....for at least another month - or so - just to make sure that things do not change (and if things should change...which I do not foresee in your case....then we are aware).
As has been suggested by others, I would first attack the two collections.
As you have identified the two CAs (and for which Original Creditor each is....) we have a good starting point (andI am making the assumption here that you have this information - both for Collections and for Charge Offs - from your Credit Reports). There are two things to ask ourselves here (generally speaking, when it comes to Collections Accounts):
1. who actually owns the debt?
2. assuming the Collections Agency, does it do a PfD (and, if yes, are there any "conditions" for said PfD)?
To the first question, there are two potential situations when a Collections Agency is involved:
1. The CA purchased the debt from the OC and, as such, is the legal owner of said debt.
2. The CA has been authorized by the OC to attempt to collect on OCs behalf but CA does *NOT* own said debt....the OC still does.
If you are confident that the CA owns said debts, then we can look at #2 - will the CA in question do a PfD?
Here is a link that will help address that question:
Collection Agencies that do Paid for Delete
I know from this forum that both CAs involved do indeed entertain a PfD. So, I would suggest contacting each and when you are ready make an agreement with each and as a part of the negotiation you make it clear that you will pay in return for the CA deleting the CA account from all three CRAs. SUPER IMPORTANT to make this clear from the start. Please do not 'tack that on to the conversation two weeks later'! Make it clear from the start. Most CAs will not e-mail you or put in writing that they will do a PfD. You just have to operate under good faith that you will hold up your end of the agreement and that they will hold up their end of the agreement.
So, once the two CAs are removed from your three Credit Reports, you can attack the three Charge Offs.
I would first tackle the Discover CO. Then I would tackle the BofA CO. Whether you pay each off in one lump sum or make payments what you will see is the Balance drop from $300 and $500, respectively down to $0. That is HUGE.
In general, once you pay a Charged-Off account and the "Balance" field is reported as $0, the OC is no longer allowed to modify the "Date Updated" field. Which is important. The fact that the "Date Updated" field has been updated each week / month is suppressing your score. Once the "Balance" field reports as $0 and the "Date Updated" field is stagnant, then the sting of the CO lessens over time. Sure, you dont have a lot of time left (roughly two years) but every little bit helps, right?
Once the Discover and BofA Charge Offs are history, then focus on the Chase card. Once this CO shows a "Balance" field with a $0 and the "Date Updated" field is no longer being updated weekly/monthly, then things will really look better for you.
Why?
The Collections accounts moved your credit profile into the Dirty Scorecard arena. The Collections are a "Public Record". In the Dirty Scorecard arena, there are two types of segmenters: Public Record and Delinquent.
Once those are gone, you have the Charge Offs.
A charge off (which is actually an accounting tool for the creditor....it is the delinquent payments that lead to the charge off that hurt your FICO) will also move your credit profile into the Dirty Scorecard arena. However, a Charge off is a "Delinquent". So, still Dirty Scorecard, just the other side.
While you have the Charge Off and they report a balance, that balance actually hurts your "Credit Utilization" (which accounts for 30% of your FICO Scores). Additionally, you have the late payments - which hit your "Payment History" (which accounts for 35% of your FICO Scores). Typically, a charge off for a credit card happens after six consequtive missed payments. And, a 60-day late (or more) counts as a Major Derogatory (which is what moves you into the Dirty Scorecard arena).
So, let's worry about the challenges that are adversely affecting your FICO right now. Namely, the collections and the charge offs. Let's not worry about AAoA and AoYRA and Credit Mix (read: having an installment loan along with the perfect number of revolver accounts) the like at this moment in time. Do we EVENTUALLY need/want to do that? Heck yes! I would suggest, though, that now is not the time for that kinda thing.
Make sense?
Starting Score: Exp 627