Weighing One's Option(Double Edged Sword)

[Anonymous]

This is primarily for people with baddies, not people with no credit or a thin credit file.

I have baddies on my credit report(Student Loans, that I will rehab very soon).

My question is "If one is rebuilding his/her credit, has numerous baddies reporting negatively each month, should he/she suffer a few hard pull inquiries,  and a hit to your averge-age-of0credit to obtain a few positve tradelines(secured credit cards, secured personal loans and/or a Self Lender  loan) that if managed properly will report numerous "On-Time" payments to the "ALL THREE" credit bureaus monthly, somewhat off-setting the negative consequences of those numerous baddies reporting monthly?

I ask, because, personally I'd rather take the hit obtain a few secured cards sit on them, while allowing them to age and better yet report monthly and eventually the points loss from the inquiries and short AAOA will be less impactful after three to six months, especially if I allow those cards to age for more than a year.

I've read alot of post, where people put so much emphasis on minimizing inquiries, but if you don't have a substantial amount of traelines, would it even matter? Especially for bad credit?

Let me know wht you think?

Keep in mind, that this is strictly in contet of repairing bad credit.

[FireMedic1]

Need to know all the baddies outside of the student loans and who are they with. You could get an OpenSky CC with no HP and everyone is approved just for starts. Once we see whats hampering you. We can give you a course to clear things up for better cards down the road.

[Anonymous]

I would venture that, depending on the nature of your derogs, the money you'd use for secured cards might be better used to pay off the derogs, especially if you can get PFDs. Yes you do need positive tradelines, but getting the derogs paid and hopefully deleted will make for larger gains as well as possibly better starting limits on unsecured, rather than secured, cards. As @FireMedic1 said, list your derogs with their details and a plan can come together.

[Anonymous]

Outside of the student loans is a $2K medical bill that "THEY" billed the wrong insurance company three years ago and a Xfinity(Comcast) cable bill that is fraudlant, because at the end of my contract, I refused to re-up with them, due to them not honoring the promotions I signed up for. 

I made certain that I paid whatever amoutn was due, during y last bill, canceled my service, that was June 2014, then in December of 2014, I get a letter from a collection agency stating I owe Xfinity just under $70, I ignored it, because i knew I didn't owe them, and this was their way of trying to get back at me for going with DirecTV.  How did they know I have DirecTV you ask? Because every for months after I canceled my service they constatntly sent me promotions and called me offering me promotions and that's when I told them I went with DirecTV, then in December of 2014, all of a sudden there's a $70 bill? Now, I canceled service in June 2014, and these crooks put it on my credit report in July 2018(four years later). Because my account is so old, the local office here could help me, because they stated that my account is archived and not showing a balance owed, but can't tell me why a collection agency is wanting $234? A collection agency that has told me that they "verified" the amount owed with Xfinity.

I ended up have to contact Xfinity corporate office where I spoke with an agent, who stated that my account has a zero balance due, but he will have to send an internal email to another office to contact me about pulling it back from that collection agency.

I got a call four days later from some wacko, who stated and I quote, "Our records show that you did cancel your account in June 2014, but there was a small balance due. Now, i paid all my bills with my Wells Fargo debit card, and account I slo closed in 2014, so i don't have records, but I know i paid with my debit card, because I don't carry cash.

Anyway, I asked this "secretive" agnt to send me copies of those bills, as well as explain to him that I paid my balance, plus any upcoming pro-rated charges the day I canceled my service and told him, if the account was closed in 2014, the mere fact that you guys are reporting this as nw account in July 2018, four years later is a vilation of the FCRA!

He played stupid and of course it's been three months and I've yet to recieve a copy of these phatom bills, that he promised to mail out to me A.S.A.P.

I 

[Anonymous]

I will have my student loans in rehab, as soon as I force them to correct the amount owed.

The other derogs are a fraudulent medical bill, and an Xfinity bill.

The medical bill isn't fraudulent, the issue is the medical billing company billed an insurance company I didn't have, nor told them I have and three years later they put it on my credit.

[designated_knitter]

Depending on your state, you are probably past the SOL.  

However, *IF* they are willing to do a PFD, your best bet is to just pay the 70 bucks, declare victory and move on.  Make sure you get it in writing.  If they don't agree to do a PFD, then start disputing it (get written documentation from Comcast/Xfinity that you have a zero balance).  Send everything CMRRR (Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested).

The medical bill -- if you owe it -- then try to make a deal with the health care provider to pay them directly.  They usually don't sell those and once you have paid it off, that goes away too.  Yeah, the health care provider may have made the mistake... but are you going to let THEIR mistake ruin YOUR credit?

In answer to your original question, I would also incur the hit of a couple of hard inquiries but ONLY for cards that you KNOW you will be approved for and quality cards like secured Discover and Citi so that you can also be building and aging those postive tradelines while you are clearing up your collections.  The "good" thing about having a crap FICO score is that things like Inqs really have minimal to know impact at this level... 

Just my humble opinion.  

[Anonymous]

The bill that Xfinity sent me in December 2014 for an account I paid up and closed in June 2014 was for $70, but the collection agency that placed it on my credit in June 2018 was for $234.00 not $70.

The fact of the matter is Xfinity is lying, there's no pro-rate charges for an account I knew to close on the last day of my plan, which means if I decided to re-up with them, my new plan starts one second after midnight.

Now, let's say this charge is vaild, (which it's not), the "Date of Deliquent" would have been in July of 2014 for an acct I closed in jne 2014, as 30 days would have been deliquent, however, Xfinity is reporting to the credit bureaus and collection agency as if I didn't close my acct until 2018.

They can't  do that, under any circumstances!

[designated_knitter]

Again, you have to decide how you want to spend your time and energy.  There is a saying that "sometimes it is better to be at peace than to be right".  

It is all how you want to spend your time.  You can rail at Xfinity and the CA and say whoa is me -- they are wrong!  But it doesn't sound like you can actually PROVE it.  You can try disputing and that will take time and energy.  

Likely the original "$70.00" debt was artificially inflated to get your attention.  If you call the CA -- since it has been SOOOO long and is beyond the SOL, make an offer to PFD if you pay the original 70 bucks.  Again, they may jump at that.  Great!  How much is your time worth?  I would rather spend 70 bucks and have it taken care of in relatively short order than spending time crafting my disputes, running to the Post Office to mail everything, waiting the 30 days for them to respond, collecting all the paperwork and submitting to CRA to try to prove my case in a dispute... but that is just me.

Again, if they DON'T agree to settle and PFD -- well, then suit up and fight the good fight.

With all due respect -- your initial posts here -- nothing is YOUR fault... And you are throwing around words like "Fraud" and talking about how it was the health care provider's fault for submitting the bill to the wrong insurance company.  (pro-tip:  If they screwed it up the first time, don't give them a chance to do it a second time -- YOU need to take responsibility in that situation and submit the bill to the RIGHT insurance company YOURSELF so it actually gets resolved before it goes to collections).  

We are all in this rebuilding forum because we have made mistakes.  Sometimes we have had mistakes made by others but we still have to deal with them.  It may not seem fair.  But life isn't fair. And mistakes aren't FRAUD.  And, unless you have a way to PROVE your argument, then you have to make the best of it.

So what is more important to you?  To be right or to have peace (in the form of settling this as expeditiously as possible and moving on with your life).  

Only you can answer that question.

Peace!

Good luck!

[designated_knitter]

I will add in the case of Xfinity -- you have one more option:  do nothing.  the DoFD is presumably July of 2014 -- that means you can wait until the beginning of 2021 and start working on having early exclusion from your credit reports.  

That may be the best option for you.  Again, you need to decide what is best for your situation.  If you want to apply for a mortgage, a lender isn't going to listen to your story and believe you.  They are going to assume the debt is valid and insist that you pay the debt before you will be eligible fo a mortgage.  

However, if you are not going to be needing a mortgage... what the heck!  Just let it sit there for the next couple of years and it will fall off. 

[Anonymous]

"Accept responsibility?" 

With all due respect, you are reaching!

If you read my previous posts completely, you would never had suggested I take responsibility  for anything!

That day I went to the ER, in November 2016, I gave the hospital my insurance card and my driver's license. This was the first and only time I have ever been hospitalized since i was a young boy and that was at another hospital!

My bill for my ER vist in November 2016 consisted of five entities, from Radiology, to the doctors and four out of five entities properly billed "MY" insurance company, not a company I didn't have.

Not only did this medical billing company bill the wrong insurnce company, but they "never" contacted claim they mailed letters back in 2016 to someone with the same name in a town forty miles away! As a matter of fact this rude manager at the medical billing compnay tried to tell me I lived in this city and tell me I idn't live where I had the last seven years.

Now, because they waited nearly three years to attempt to bill my actual insurnce, my insurance refuse to pay, because they were supposed to make a claim with in 90 days.

Plus, this medical billing company is violating the Florida No-Billing Law, which states medical billing companies or hospitals can't come after the patient for a balance, if the patient had valid insurance at the time of treatment, of which I did and still do!

I respect your opinion, but to suggest I take accounability for the failure of a medical billing company, who would have been paid, if they followed the proper procedures is wrong!

I would never pay anybody something I don't owe them, just to take the path of least resistence, that's not in my nature.

When I browse this site, I do so for intellectual and empirical experiences and advice.

As for as Xfinity, let's say the bill was $70 and not $234.00, because my account is my local Xfinity office is showing no balance due, as well as being archived, because I closed the account in June 2014, they couldn't accept my money, even if I tied to give it to them.

They (Xfinity) were able to see my old account number and I have only had two telephone numbers in the last sixteen years, when i went over to the kiosk, and typed in my account number and old account number, it too, stated a zero balance and tried to offer me to sign up for something called Xfinity Mobile.

Again, i appreciate your advice..at least up to the point where you suggest I cower to fraudulent charge in retrospect to Xfinity and a callous attempt to come after me for a medical bill that they screwed up on.

By the way, if you read my previous posts, you'd have sen that mu insurance company told the manager at this medicl billing company that I had insurance tht day back in Nov 2016 and still do and that they were violatng the law and must pull this collection back from the collection agency and remove this from my credit report.

This callous manager did so, only to send it to another collection agency, be forced to have it pulled and repeat, as she has been doing since January 2019.

Concerning my student loand, my G.I. Bill paid 80% of my tuition, plus because I maintain outstanding grades, I was able to take advantage of grants and to be told that I owe $43K for attending and graduating from Florida State University "AFTER" the U.S. Dept of Education paid 80% is asinine! It'd been different if I attended Harvard or Yale.

Think about it, if $43K is 20% of my tuition, then imagin how expensive FSU is compared to other state universities and colleges.

Just being logical.

Not trying to be rude, but just because you say "With all due respect,"  doesn't mean you can advise one without reading his posts completely.