Success Story after Years of Frustration- 112 Point Jump after Disputing One Baddies and Inquires

[WinningEveryday]

I had some credit issues steming form a long bitter custody fight. All of my credit went bad then. including a repossion of a car where the engine literally blew up!  I know people here love data points so here they are.

I had 12 accounts go bad at once. Repo and 11 credit cards. I tried dispute them for years and nothing worked. So I started doing some research late last year. Most of the baddies dropped off- except one on Equifax  and 2 on Experion and TransUnion.  I was pissed. Like I said everything when bad at once. I got to wait another year after all of this time hell now! So it all should of come off at once. Being pissed motivated me to do something about it.

After I disputed online and failed- yeah I know - I was stupid there. I did some research and drafted a 609 letter. I addressed the one account on Exquifax and about 12 inquires. I bought a car and they ran my credit several times.

I sent the 609 letter to all 3 Equifax, Experian and Transunion.  Equifax got my dispute on the 22 of Dec. I sent everything certfied. On the 29 the investigation was done. I was bummed at first when I logged into Equifax apparently I dont have a new report  there yet - until I logged into my myfico  account and saw my Equifax was 757!!! A 112 point jump~!!!! So the removal of one 6 year old baddie and 12 inquires resulted in a 112 point jump!

So I am expecting similar results from the other two credit bureas but I got 3 collections accounts on Experian and Transunion - I called and asked for pay for delete the guy on the phone was very cagey and said the would not send out a deletion for payment letter. I hung up and did some more research. I did not included the collections in the 609 letter I thought they would go for the pay for delete but I got the valdation letter in process and I can use that next time if needed.

 So I sent them a valdation letter and waiting to see what  happens with that- they are medical collections so I think they are going to delete them or mess up and I can sue them- which I would do. I have a feeling that my pay for delete offer will be accepted this time ha ha ha ha ha

Additonal Info:

I have been rehabbing my credit for the last 2 years I got a bunch of low limit credit cards that I am going to have to keep because of age. They will just go into the sock drawer. Once I get my other 2 credit breaus up I got a list of things I am going to apply for but I got to wait for a minute or only apppy for things that pull exquifax only

I have 3 secured cards with United Bank and guess who they pulled when I got the card ? Yep Equifax!! and they need to do a hard pull to graudate the cards. I am about to get $15,000 back this month I am over the moon thrilled I will have 3 more unsecured cards. The product change when I can.

At the moment I am bucketed by Capital one - I have 3 cards with them and one auto loan. I have a feeling I am about to come out of the bucket. $3000 $2500, and $750 credit limit on all and I recently did a credit limit increase and have not heard back from them as of yet.

Business Credit

I owned a Business which is why I was able to do well with very bad credit because of my income. I got two secured Wells Fargo Business Credit Cards with $25K limits each. One I have over 15 months. I think it is going to take Wells Faro 18 months to unsecured the card or they may surprise me.

I don't know.

I did better with business credit I got two unsecured business credit cars with $25K in combined limits. I think 2022 is going to be great for business credit cards. I just need to get this last two Credit Bureaus straight and I will be good to go. I am purposely not apply for anything until I can etheri A - be sure they pull from Exquafx B Have a written plan of attack will call United Bank tomorrow and ask for graduation on the secured cards.

Lessons learned :

Never Dispute online 

a well crafted 609 letter is beyond powerful

I could of did this years ago

Doing it right matters

Will update once I get the other two back. Once again I am beyond thrilled!!!

[gjean78]

---

@WinningEveryday wrote:

I had some credit issues steming form a long bitter custody fight. All of my credit went bad then. including a repossion of a car where the engine literally blew up!  I know people here love data points so here they are.

I had 12 accounts go bad at once. Repo and 11 credit cards. I tried dispute them for years and nothing worked. So I started doing some research late last year. Most of the baddies dropped off- except one on Equifax  and 2 on Experion and TransUnion.  I was pissed. Like I said everything when bad at once. I got to wait another year after all of this time hell now! So it all should of come off at once. Being pissed motivated me to do something about it.

After I disputed online and failed- yeah I know - I was stupid there. I did some research and drafted a 609 letter. I addressed the one account on Exquifax and about 12 inquires. I bought a car and they ran my credit several times.

I sent the 609 letter to all 3 Equifax, Experian and Transunion.  Equifax got my dispute on the 22 of Dec. I sent everything certfied. On the 29 the investigation was done. I was bummed at first when I logged into Equifax apparently I dont have a new report  there yet - until I logged into my myfico  account and saw my Equifax was 757!!! A 112 point jump~!!!! So the removal of one 6 year old baddie and 12 inquires resulted in a 112 point jump!

So I am expecting similar results from the other two credit bureas but I got 3 collections accounts on Experian and Transunion - I called and asked for pay for delete the guy on the phone was very cagey and said the would not send out a deletion for payment letter. I hung up and did some more research. I did not included the collections in the 609 letter I thought they would go for the pay for delete but I got the valdation letter in process and I can use that next time if needed.

 So I sent them a valdation letter and waiting to see what  happens with that- they are medical collections so I think they are going to delete them or mess up and I can sue them- which I would do. I have a feeling that my pay for delete offer will be accepted this time ha ha ha ha ha

Additonal Info:

I have been rehabbing my credit for the last 2 years I got a bunch of low limit credit cards that I am going to have to keep because of age. They will just go into the sock drawer. Once I get my other 2 credit breaus up I got a list of things I am going to apply for but I got to wait for a minute or only apppy for things that pull exquifax only

I have 3 secured cards with United Bank and guess who they pulled when I got the card ? Yep Equifax!! and they need to do a hard pull to graudate the cards. I am about to get $15,000 back this month I am over the moon thrilled I will have 3 more unsecured cards. The product change when I can.

At the moment I am bucketed by Capital one - I have 3 cards with them and one auto loan. I have a feeling I am about to come out of the bucket. $3000 $2500, and $750 credit limit on all and I recently did a credit limit increase and have not heard back from them as of yet.

Business Credit

I owned a Business which is why I was able to do well with very bad credit because of my income. I got two secured Wells Fargo Business Credit Cards with $25K limits each. One I have over 15 months. I think it is going to take Wells Faro 18 months to unsecured the card or they may surprise me.

I don't know.

I did better with business credit I got two unsecured business credit cars with $25K in combined limits. I think 2022 is going to be great for business credit cards. I just need to get this last two Credit Bureaus straight and I will be good to go. I am purposely not apply for anything until I can etheri A - be sure they pull from Exquafx B Have a written plan of attack will call United Bank tomorrow and ask for graduation on the secured cards.

Lessons learned :

Never Dispute online 

a well crafted 609 letter is beyond powerful

I could of did this years ago

Doing it right matters

Will update once I get the other two back. Once again I am beyond thrilled!!!

---

Good job on fixing your credit, credit is such a powerful financial tool it's worth fighting for. I had a lot of success with 609 and  collection letter on my credit repair journey. My TransUnion report is clean, I have one baddie on Experian and 2 on Equifax. Around May time frame, all my reports should be baddies free.

[WinningEveryday]

Thank you it has been a long 7 years!!!!

[WinningEveryday]

Thank you it has been a long 7 years!!!!

[jrwa81]

Awesome job.  Sometimes, being pissed off and extremely frustrated with your credit situation is all the motivation that you need to actually start doing something about it.  I was in the exact same boat for years.  After my husband went through some pretty major health issues in the 2010s and having to be out of work on short-term disability for several months, which caused us to experience hardship and fall behind on financial obligations, my scores plummeted into the mid to high 500s, where they stayed for several years.  Collections just kept popping up.  I gave up.  I just assumed I was going to be stuck with horrible credit and there wasn't much I could do about it.  WRONG!  In late 2020, I finally got to the point where I was sick to death of it all.  I was sick of having to pay an astronomical interest rate on an auto loan and requiring a massive down payment.  I was sick of crappy, low limit credit cards.  I was sick of constant denials.  I was sick of our house, which was an impulse purchase in early 2008 during the financial/housing crisis, but we couldn't sell it because we needed to clean up our credit to be able to buy a new house.   So, for the past year, I have been fighting off collections left and right and had MASSIVE success.  I was MAD.  I was DETERMINED.  I sat at my computer in the wee hours of the morning learning about credit.  I watched YouTube videos on credit.  I wrote letters.  I made legal threats.  I became OBSESSED with my credit.  I learned a TON of things about credit that I can't believe I never knew.  I got EVERY SINGLE COLLECTION DELETED. 

Not every collection was easy to get deleted.  Some of them I had to repeatedly dispute, send 609 letters, file CFPB and BBB complaints, make legal threats, etc.  However, it all paid off.  I eventually managed to get them all deleted (my final collection was deleted 2-3 weeks ago) and I didn't have to pay a single dime into any of them.  Mind, you my collections were all relatively small, but there were several of them that were really hurting my scores.   I now have ZERO collections and my scores have gone up roughly 125 points in the past year alone and we are now seriously looking at purchasing a new home come spring or early summer of this year.  What I have learned is that getting furiously mad is sometimes the kick in the pants that you need in order to have the motivation to start taking action and changing your life.  Credit is a powerful tool.

So, go us!