They might settle if it's past SOL and about to drop off on its own. If they know you're apping for a mortgage or even another lease, they may play hardball because they know having it on your report is a deal-killer for many lender and landlords. Worth trying for a settlement if you're willing and able, but not before it's past your state's SOL. Before that point, you might have to pay in full to avoid getting a judgement against you. If it did go to court, you could get some info during discovery from their records, including whether or not the apartment was quickly re-leased after you left. But without proof of your verbal agreement, you'd be taking a big risk. It's pretty standard policy that renters cannot leave and expect the landlord to use the security deposit as payment. It's written into those ridiculously long lease agreements that management companies use and nobody really reads.
There's no definite answer to that situation. Florida has a tolling provision, which means when you leave the state, the SOL clock is paused for as long as you were gone. So if you move back to Florida, the clock will start up again when you return. So all the time you've been gone doesn't count. For a permanent move, they could decide to sue you where you live. In that case, some states borrow the other state's SOL period, if it's shorter than the state you live in now. All these are possibilities, and there's no clear cut national law or even consistency in the courts. If they sue you, most likely they'll do it where you live. Be careful now, because you have a while to go before you are safe from a lawsuit.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone,
Forgive me if I don't get all the jargon right as I've just joined the site and have only been lurking for about a week. I'm hoping for some of collective wisdom as to how to get into a position to purchase a home quickest (I anticipate I can save about 10k a year toward a down payment so maybe 2 years toward no more than a 100k home, which is pretty nice in my neck of the woods, anyway). I wish there was just a "step 1, step 2, step 3..." list of how to fix years of stupidity, but then again I expect many on here do too...are there t-shirts for this club? Haha!!
So I have a student loan mess - 2 defaulted Sallie Mae/Navient private loans with current balances of 40k and 38k, both have been charged off with no activity since 6/2012. Given other experiences, how might this turn out? I've done some researching and given my income and how long it would take them to collect from me at my current salary I'm hoping to save up and settle these much like credit cards for maybe 10-20%....
I also have 2 public records, a state tax lein paid off in 11/2013 and a Capital One judgment paid off in 5/2013. Is there anything that can be done about these on my CR or do I just have to wait it out?
Aside from that, I have 3 very small (>$1000) baddies and 1 4k baddie I'm not quite sure what to do with. - Details, please.
I also have about 45k in federal student loans that are all in good standing. I've been working to get money under control for about 2 years now and haven't added anything and have actually paid down what I have and settled 2 other private student loans that still show on my CR. I have been busy this week getting some credit lines going so I can show some positive activity and have gotten a QS1 with a CL of $300, Fingerhut with a $500 CL (not Freshstart), and Discover It secured with a $200 CL that I plan to increase considerably. Don't do that. Use those funds for additional secured cards. Increasing a secure credit card line does nothing for your credit scores. Add a second Capital One card into the mix. I would suggest the Platinum card with no Annual Fee.
My question is basically how should I attack my scores and get things cleaned up? Currently: EQ 562, TU 583, EX 575
Thanks so much in advance!
Don't do that. You are much better off putting that money into a separate secured credit card.
Thanks for the reply! I actually had just received a pre-approval in the mail yesterday for the CapOne Platinum and after your suggestion, went online and got it - $500 SL. I'm curious about the Discover limit though - if I understand what I've been reading here correctly, everyone recommends an ideal of 3 CCs which would now be my 2 CapOnes and 1 Discover(secured) and Fingerhut would be a store card. What are the results of continuing to open more secured cards with smaller lines vs increasing the line on the one I already have? I was thinking that in a year when Discover may unsecure that card I'd like the limit to be as high as possible but what I've read is that it will be whatever your secured limit was.
For the record - I also got a Credit One pre-approval in yesterday's mail...seems lots of people are against them though? Good, bad, thoughts?...
As for the baddies:
$128 Comcast, dated 11/2012 (from myfico report - it had to have been 2009/10 when it was last paid)
$634 Storage Unit, dated 03/2010
$397 Buckle CC, now with Midland Funding, dated 08/2013
and $3870 from the apartment complex discussed above, end of lease/last payment 01/2011
Increasing limits does not directly effect scoring - a $500 account is scored exactly the same as a $5k account.
OTOH, you get dinged for havingmore negative accounts than positive accounts, so adding additional accounts CAN directly impact your scores positively, depending on your file.
Ok I'm following you. I do have a lot of student loans that are current and reporting good (working on some GW please delete lates from 2011-13 on some of them). I think I have 7 negative accounts and 13 positives, plus the 4 new TLs that I've opened in the past couple of weeks that haven't yet reported. I'm thinking perhaps I should just sit back and let the CCs report for a few months while I try to clean other things up? There sure are a ton of things to consider in regards to good credit....I'm getting there 
Thank you!