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Should you always try disputing a late payment reported before you try to send in a GW Letter?
For example, I have 3 late mortgage payments reported on my home.
Right as I was about to leave for 9 months of military training, I was working with a buyer and things were going well. But some issues came up a little bit after, and the sale and closing date got delayed.
While on military training I got behind in payments since I had no contact with anyone for the first couple of months. My realtor eventually got the house sold, but it was after those 3 missed payments occured. (Also, I called the bank before all this happened to let them know about the home was in the proccess of being sold with my buyer. I'm not saying this justify anything though)
So would trying to dispute the lateness be a waste of breath?
Should I try a goodwill letter instead explaining my circumstance to see if they'd consider making an adjustment?
I would definitely reach out to the account holder before going the dispute route. In my experience if you are trying to have a company make a goodwill adjustment in your favor, they don't like when you dispute accurate information. You could shoot yourself in the foot if you try disputing accurate information. Ask me how I know!
@cjane1 wrote:
You may want to talk to a manager and explain you were in military training at the time. Some companies make exceptions.
I think thats probably a good explanation and probably my best case.
Thank You!
@Anonymous wrote:I would definitely reach out to the account holder before going the dispute route. In my experience if you are trying to have a company make a goodwill adjustment in your favor, they don't like when you dispute accurate information. You could shoot yourself in the foot if you try disputing accurate information. Ask me how I know!
Man, I signed up with Lexington Law hoping they would provided some help and they didn't do crap!
I think they asked the companies to just verify the charges. Do you think I might of shot myself in the foot?
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I would definitely reach out to the account holder before going the dispute route. In my experience if you are trying to have a company make a goodwill adjustment in your favor, they don't like when you dispute accurate information. You could shoot yourself in the foot if you try disputing accurate information. Ask me how I know!
Man, I signed up with Lexington Law hoping they would provided some help and they didn't do crap!
I think they asked the companies to just verify the charges. Do you think I might of shot myself in the foot?
No I don't think so if all they did was ask the CA to verify the debt..
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I would definitely reach out to the account holder before going the dispute route. In my experience if you are trying to have a company make a goodwill adjustment in your favor, they don't like when you dispute accurate information. You could shoot yourself in the foot if you try disputing accurate information. Ask me how I know!
Man, I signed up with Lexington Law hoping they would provided some help and they didn't do crap!
I think they asked the companies to just verify the charges. Do you think I might of shot myself in the foot?
No I don't think so if all they did was ask the CA to verify the debt..
Yeah, hopefully not. They were definitely a waste of money at least in my case.
So if I'm sending out GW Letters to some of the companies that reported my late payments, is it best to start with one letter to there payment dispute department first? Or Immediately start off using round one of the Saturation Technique?
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I would definitely reach out to the account holder before going the dispute route. In my experience if you are trying to have a company make a goodwill adjustment in your favor, they don't like when you dispute accurate information. You could shoot yourself in the foot if you try disputing accurate information. Ask me how I know!
Man, I signed up with Lexington Law hoping they would provided some help and they didn't do crap!
I think they asked the companies to just verify the charges. Do you think I might of shot myself in the foot?
Lexington Law does not ask companies to verify they only dispute. They take a shotgun approach and dispute everything. The reason why your lates came back verified is because they are legitimate (as per your OP). Lexington
Law and places like that mostly work on older charges because the companies have archived the records and won’t bother responding. They don’t respond in the legal timeline so it gets dropped from your credit report. For a current account (like yours) the companies have immediate access to your file so disputes will almost always come back “verified”. Lex Law will not tell you that because they want your money. They did what you paid them to do they just didn’t tell you it had a low chance of success.
Your best bet is GWL because many companies forgive lates for military service. GWL are much much longer process than disputes but can yield better results in your situation.
Lexington Law does not ask companies to verify they only dispute. They take a shotgun approach and dispute everything. The reason why your lates came back verified is because they are legitimate (as per your OP). Lexington
Law and places like that mostly work on older charges because the companies have archived the records and won’t bother responding. They don’t respond in the legal timeline so it gets dropped from your credit report. For a current account (like yours) the companies have immediate access to your file so disputes will almost always come back “verified”. Lex Law will not tell you that because they want your money. They did what you paid them to do they just didn’t tell you it had a low chance of success.
Your best bet is GWL because many companies forgive lates for military service. GWL are much much longer process than disputes but can yield better results in your situation.
Thanks for the information on Lex Law, I'm glad I finally stopped paying them. Such a waste of time.
For the GWL proccess do you reccomend starting out by only sending 1 letter into the companys dispute department? And than if they reply back saying they won't change it, start doing the saturation technique?