What We've Learned!

[oneobserver]

I learned:

ALWAYS manage/supervise your finances when married, NEVER sign anything without a thorough review done by YOU or an attorney of YOUR selection

GET a prenup the next time and observe the first point, ALWAYS

lol, seriously though

[JeeperInAZ]

Never assume your spouse is taking care of his/her financial obligations.

After a divorce, it is easier to take care of some of the smaller joint collections yourself.

"Credit Repair" companies are worthless. $700 and 18 months for no change in my scores, vs 6 months and 90+ point increase by doing it myself.

If you choose to pay a collection, a phone call to the OC goes a long way in helping you negotiate a payment. Also during negotiation, pointing out that the debt really belonged to the spouse and the court ruled that each party is responsible for their own debts prior to dissolution (don't know if that would hold up if a CA sues, but the people on the phone tend to listen) also helps the negotiation process. I settled 3 small (less than $200) for the original amounts (no fees, interest, etc...) and got them removed from my report with that.

A key to negotiating with CA is to keep your cool. As hard as it might be and as much of a jerk as they may be, stay friendly. If they get nasty, talk to their supervisor.

If the person at the CA breaks any rules, immediately go for the supervisor. I got one to settle for 50% of the original amount because the collector threatened to sue. I asked for her boss, explained the situation and the violation, told him that I'd still be willing to settle for a fraction just to make this go away and be done with it vs reporting their violation and dragging it out. I also got a PFD out of that one.

Credit monitoring is a necessity. I found that my car loan had been incorrectly reported as late when it wasn't and several other errors. CRAs are not perfect and they do report erroneous info.

The process takes time. As others have said, don't expect overnight results.

Document everything! Try to do everything via mail (email, USPS, etc...), but if you can't then at least make a note of the conversation with the date, time, who you talked to and what was said. On the occasions that I had to do this via telephone I emailed the details to myself to help verify the date/time. I figured that since a few of those helped during my divorce then it certainly couldn't hurt here. When it comes down to your word vs theirs, having something like that could be the difference in who the court believes.

Don't panic and don't be intimidated.

Don't wait for tomorrow - make the time today to do it.

As bad as things may look, it will get better with even just a small effort. But if you don't try, things can get a lot worse.

[Hitman33]

Hi all,

Long story short, I had some bad luck & got in over my head.

I currently have 4 credit cards in collections. However, after reading one of stickies above, I noticed this statement

"NEVER talk to a CA on the phone.

NEVER deal with the CA, if you can avoid it. Always try to deal with the OC."

My account are all with CA. I have talked to them on the phone as I am trying to negotiate settlements.

Is this the wrong tactic? Should I still be trying to go settle with the original creditor?

[JeffMC]

Thanks Sultan

you have very good information here there is a lot of information that will help us like requesting the information for settlement to be in writing and more.

thanks

Jeff

[bestdebtcare]

The basic fact in repairing credit is not to skip monthly payment towards the creditors. It is always good to pay more than the minimum payment due in a month to any creditor and thus to overcome the debt much before the stipulated time.

[CreditTricks123321]

Credit repair can be difficult especially if the items you have on your reports haven't aged a couple of years.

[tony00]

I must say this is so informative and nice information. i was reading the whole and then decided to appreciate you for the work you have posted and would like you to keep it up.

[CreditMaker]

One of the key things that I have learned through my search for managing my money is understanding my credit report. Here is an article written by Stella Walker that may help you as well.