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     | Wednesday, April 25, 2001 - 07:51 pm  Hi all. I need some advice on what to do to improve my credit report and clean it up. When I started college as a freshman, I was bombarded with Credit cards and foolishly I applied for them all, maxed them all out, payed on them till my Sophmore year and dodged them after that, sending a $10/ $20 payment here and there that actually never helped i dont think. During college, I got a car that was financed, I guess luckily or unluckily whichever one you want to call it, I got in a wreck that totalled the car, and my insurance company paid the loan off so it appears on my credit report AS === Pays as agreed. I did graduate, and now make enough so that if I had monthly payments again, I could pay them easily. I do not have enough to pay them all off at one time though, at this time. I would also like to mention that I recently got financed for a car (1 month ago), with my fiance as my co-signer, but the car is on my name, the registration and all that, etc, I was suprised, but I did get financed. I just want to tell you guys the whole story so you can give me accurate advice. I am pretty ignorant in these matters. However, The problems are this: Discover Card - Charge Off - Account Sold Visa Card - Charge Off - Account - Sold Associates Mastercard - Charge Off - Account Sold Parisian Store Account - On the Credit Report it says the Collection Agency closed the account (?!) What do I do to get these off my credit report. Currently I can pay all my bills, including my student loans and will never miss a payment again, I am older and wiser I guess, and have a steady full time job which pays me well. Do Charge-Offs go away? Or are they are permanent record? If they are permanent, please advise on how to rid them. I read the posts about writing letters to the original creditors/etc? But if its such a hassle, and they dissapear after 5 years, I can wait, since I dont plan on buying a car or house for another 5 years anyway... If you have any suggestions/ideas please let me know. It would help me so much. Regards. AV
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| | Wednesday, April 25, 2001 - 08:02 pm Also I would like to add that I got an online credit report from Equifax and noted that the balances on all my cards had gone down? I don't understand why? My total debt was about $4000 (I know its not a lot but times were rough). I know for a fact that my Discover was $1900 and it showed up on the report as $963 or some such odd thing next to the charge-OFF notice. Thought I'd give u this info too. Thanks in advance for suggestions. One more thing...what the heck is a "SOL" ?!?! (I read this term a lot...what is it???)
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| | Thursday, April 26, 2001 - 03:50 am Derogatory information can stay on your credit report for up to 7 years. The SOL stands for the statute of limitations and has more to do with the possibility of the creditor suing you for a judgement than placing derogatory information on your credit report. I caution you against just paying them off believing that will improve your credit score by hundreds of points. Chances are good that you won't get the results you wanted from that technique. One solution would be simply to wait a few years until your credit report is once again clean. That will help your scores quite a bit, but you'll still be hampered for a few years beyond that because you will have a very short credit history. Another solution is to contact your creditors, one at a time, and begin to negotiate settlements for the outstanding debts. Assuming the SOL has passed they won't have the option of suing you and will have no means at their disposal to compel you to pay. Many times these debts can be settled for pennies on the dollar. An important condition of any settlement agreement would be to negotiate for deletion of the derogatory information off of your credit. There is no sense in paying a debt you aren't legally required to pay unless you get something in return. As a general rule you should start with the largest accounts first -- the ones that show the largest amount past due. Getting rid of a small $35.00 collection won't help you if there's a $1,500 collection right behind it.
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| | Thursday, April 26, 2001 - 04:14 am Is there any way I can find out when these will be removed from the report? Is it 5 or 7 years?
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| | Thursday, April 26, 2001 - 09:56 am Affinity, It's only five years if you're a New York state resident and the collection or judgment is paid otherwise it is seven years. Dani
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| | Thursday, April 26, 2001 - 10:07 am What if you dont pay it? I am not a NY resident. Does it just dissapear? I live in SC.
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| | Thursday, April 26, 2001 - 10:29 am My last activity shows as being in 1998, so in 2005, theoretically all my Charge-Offs will get off my report?? I dont plan to buy a house till then, and my credit report will still have my student loans and and my car on there which I have never been late on, and will not be late on them since I have a good job now. Please let me know since if it is not worth trying to find out who has my accounts, tracking them down, negotiating with the main company etc etc, I will just wait the years out, but I need to be sure if those charge offs will be gone... Thanks, Affinity.
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| | Thursday, April 26, 2001 - 10:31 am After seven years from the date of last activity the collections will be removed. How long ago were these chargeoffs made? You mentioned missing payments in college and have since graduated so it seems to be at least a couple of years. Am I correct? Are the collection agents hounding you for payment or do you just want the bad marks removed? Dani
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| | Thursday, April 26, 2001 - 10:50 am I just graduated in 2000, but the last payments I made were in 1998. No collection agents are hounding me, NO CALLS at ALL. I just want the bad marks removed, so eventually in life I dont have to rely on my brother or fiance when I want small things like a cell phone, etc. Company - Last Activity Visa - 3/2000 ( I think I mailed them a check just to do it) Associates Mastercard - 4/2000 (them too. I shouldnt have though, so that pushes it to 2007 I think) Discover - Last Activity - 8/1998 Parisian Store - Last Activity 2/1999 The rest is Pays as Agreed for my student loans, and my new car. So thats the stuff...no hounding from credit companies, I just want to know when these bad things...will be off the report...
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| | Thursday, April 26, 2001 - 10:58 am The date of delinquency is the date you should be concerned with. As I pointed out to Jason before, the date of delinquency needs to be clearly stated on the report so that it does get deleted 7 years from that date, as it should be, and the scoring software uses the proper date. This is very important. You did not reset the clock legally by paying but the way the CRA reports it may in effect reset the clock. Do you see the distinction? Get the delinquency dates on there right away.
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| | Thursday, April 26, 2001 - 11:23 am ok I have the Equifax online report and I went to the Deliquent Accounts Section: This is what I got, I dont understand it though...maybe you can help me understand it Associates National Bank - Status: 120+ days past due Balance : $0 (?!?!) Desc: Account Sold/Transferred Citibank Visa Status: Charge-Off Balance : $9xx Desc: Charged-Off Discover Card Status : Charge-Off Balance : $19xx Desc : Charged - off NbGl-Parisian Statis : charge-off Balance : $0 (?!?!) Desc : account clsoed by credit grantor ----------------------------------------- I cant find any deliquency dates, maybe I have to order the actual paper report??? I dont need to apply for any credit for a long time atleast 6-7 yrs, I just want these bad marks to go away eventually. So what do u think? Tx,
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| | Thursday, April 26, 2001 - 12:16 pm Not necessary to order a copy through the mail. Just get the printer friendly version of your report. Sit down and circle the status and write next to it "Include Date or Remove!". This advice came directly from Christine Baker, the woman who put this site together and still runs it. You can see her remarks on this topic by clicking on the Scanned Disputed Report link on the lefthand side of the homepage for this site. Or click on this link http://www.bayhouse.com/bkcreditdispute.shtml to see it. You see where she wrote include date or delete on some of the lines of the report? This is what you need to do.
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| | Thursday, April 26, 2001 - 12:30 pm Thanks, Patricia.
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| | Thursday, April 26, 2001 - 01:31 pm So, I do this by actually printing this out and sending it to Equifax, after I have marked the stuff? Or do I do it online, like they say you can do? Are those reliable? Sorry for all the questions, I am a complete novice at this.
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| | Thursday, April 26, 2001 - 01:38 pm Don't do it online. Send in the printed out report with a letter explaining that the date of delinquency is missing. Don't give them any more information. Circle the report and notate as Christine did, and attach a business letter with your address, SSN and signature. That's all. Send it Return Receipt requested from the post office (you know the green cards). They have 30 days to respond.
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| | Thursday, April 26, 2001 - 05:16 pm OK, so I just print out the report and circle the places where the dates of delinquency are missing, gotcha....What should I mention in the letter? Just that I noted all these dates were missing? I hear there are three major credit reporting agencies, do I have to send them to all three?? So if they can't find the dates...do they remove the references to those bad things? What if they dont respond?
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| | Friday, April 27, 2001 - 10:24 am Yes, to all three. Legally if they can not find the date they must remove because the data is not verifiable. Ideally this is what will happen. Sometimes the CRAs will screw around and if they don't add the date or remove in 30 days, post again and we'll take you through the next steps.
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| | Friday, April 27, 2001 - 02:12 pm Ok I will do this, and wait on a response from them. Thanks for all your help...I will surely be back to ask you more questions. I would like to thank all of you for helping with my problems, and Christine for running this site! I will send the reports to them right away, requesting a return receipt. Thx, affinity
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| | Friday, April 27, 2001 - 02:20 pm Even if you don't have any question, we always appreciate the update with your results, so that we see how things work.
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| | Friday, April 27, 2001 - 03:13 pm Sure thing. Thanks again
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