herauntsis Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 I am trying a new tactic that has worked for me once with some CitiBank student loans, so I am trying it again. Last night I sent letters out to AmeriCredit, Cap One, Providian, J C Penney, Lane Bryant, and Household International.My experience with good will letters is that sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. I always start with the normal customer service address; depending on the company, I either get a letter back saying, "Oh we are so sorry, we will fix that right away," (Victoria's Secret, Ashley Stewart) or one that in essence politely invites me to go f**k myself (the companies on the list I sent letters to last night).What I did with Citi (who was of the "go f**k yourself" persuasion), was to poke around on their website until I found the "Investor Relations" page. Usually that page will list all the members of the Board of Directors and the President and CEO. You might have to google around for a bit to find the address of the corporate headquarters. Then you send your good will letter to the CEO or the President. People at that level usually don't want to mess with this kind of stuff, so they hand it to someone, and say, "Here, fix this."I cannot stress strongly enough not to begin the dispute process with this tactic. If CEOs (especially the ones at places like Cap One and Providian) suddenly start getting a bazillion good will letters every day, this won't work anymore. Save this for the ones on which you have already exhausted every other avenue of dispute and just can't get anywhere.I will keep you posted on whether it worked again and with whom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paw67 Posted April 5, 2004 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 Great idea! I will keep that in mind if I need it. Strange that you had trouble with Cap1. I was helping BIL & SIL with some issues on their reports and disputed their Cap1 accounts (2) as never late & they updated both accounts with the cras in less than 2 weeks to reflect paid/never late. It may have helped that the accounts were always on time until they decided that they needed to go to credit counseling and the credit counseling company let them go to 90 days past due before making any payments.Good luck!paw67 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willy2004 Posted April 5, 2004 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 YEP, I had success with Citi on a student loan as well. I contacted my alma mater as well on another one--worked like gold.Good point about over exhausting the GW letters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waxworks Posted April 5, 2004 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 I settled with CAP 1 in 02, with a residual balance. I was wondering that IF I sent in a GW letter, and an offer to pay the balance (less then 200), will they budge and change the status on all 3 to closed and paid as agreed?.........or shall I mention nothing about the balance, and just send my 4th GW letter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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