Newbie, and trying to tie up things

[BRIANVD04]

So to make a long story short, while in college I racked up some debt (roughly $6K), and couldn't afford at the time to pay them off. I am sure that is typical of college students now.

Now that I am established and have a steady income coming in, I have been trying to take care of some collections. I have made many of the rookie mistakes that you guys have been talking about, such as not negotiating with the CA's and just paying them off. Some I have paid the full amount of what was owed, just because I was under the impression that if you settled with a CA, it would hurt your credit score. So I have paid 2 of them in full. One called today and offered a settlement, and I just wanted to get rid of it. So I am sure to much of your suprise it was for 7 cents on the dollar. After reading some on here, wow!!! What a coincedence. So now that I have most of these taken care of, my next step is to repair what I have done. I know that it is not going to happen overnight, cause I didn't get into this situation overnight. I just purchased a new vehicle (had to for work), and I am planning on keeping it on my credit for at least 2 years to build up some credit. I just don't know what my next steps should be. I have pulled a credit report, and most of it is jibberish to me, but I am going to call the credit company and have them go through it with me.

What are some things that I can put into action now to help my situation?

I don't have any credit cards, due to the fact that they all were closed due to inactivity or becuase of write-offs. I have thought about getting a secured credit card, just something to get me started.

Let me know what you think or have experienced similiar to this situation.

Thanks so much!

Brian

[momof5]

Brian,

Welcome to the board!

We need more details to help. Age of collection accounts. How are things reporting today? Who is OC and who is CA? What state are you in? When was your last payment? Have you pulled myfico to get a starting FICO score?

Paid collections are no better than unpaid collections. In fact, if they are old, paying them off will hurt your score. (A funky FICO formula sees this as "recent" and dings you 40 - 60 points for your trouble.) When you pay a CA you lose your negotiating advantage. You should be trying for deletion. When/IF they come back and say it is illegal to delete, you quote the FCRA and remind them that it is illegal to report inaccurate information...nothing in the FCRA or the FDCPA requires them to report only to be accurate IF they report....blah, blah.

Yes, you need to start rebuilding and often a good start is a secured card. You also need to see if you can get some of the credit rebuilder cards. CAP ONE (although everyone hates them) is a good starter card. With CAP ONE, you have to be good because when you are bad, they are mean. A day late, you get hit with your late fee (and potentially over the limit fee) and they raise you to default interest rate. But, the good news there is after 6 mo of on time payments, they lower it back down to original interest rate. (I had that happen.) Bad thing on CAP ONE starter cards....they don't like to increase your credit limit. I had $300 forever. I told them I was thinking of canceling because I now had $1500 - $5000 limit cards and they were worthless.....they gave me a $200 CLI (gee thanks:roll: ). Sock drawer...because you don't want to lose age! My Chevron went from their credit rebuilder ($300 CL) to their regular card ($1000 CL). Hooters is giving $200 CLIs every 6 months....I am up to $1500. When I was at 650 EQ, I got a Target Visa of $500....then one day I get a FICO alert...my score went up...checked it out and Target gave me a CLI to $5000!

It will take time, but you can do it.

So give us some details and we will see what we can do to help. Copy into a post some of what troubles you on your report...mark out any acct numbers.

Did you opt out?

OH! I just checked out your location! Welcome Aggie! You will find a LOT of Texans here!

[BRIANVD04]

Momof5 (and everybody else)

I don't have everything infront of me due to being on location for work, but I can give you rough estimates on things until I get home (about 4 days).

The age of the accounts is roughly 3 years. It has been a while since they were closed.

The accounts with significant balances were with:

1) Chase for about $3200 (have to get back to you on CA)

2) Best Buy for about $1300 (Rephen is the CA)

I just got accepted to get a Premier Card, so I have something to show I can make payments on. I will try the Hooters and Cheveron soon. I am planning on going to the bank when I am home and getting a secured loan and doing back the payment plan of: 1/2 before first payment is due, 1/2 before second payment is due, then split the rest up into 4 monthly payments. Plan on doing that twice, then going to another bank and doing it again.

What do you mean by "opt out"?

I figured that I learned a lesson by the past CA calling me and taking me for more than what should have happened... hey, here's something, that CA is taking the first check out on the 16th. Should I call them and tell them I'm going to cancel the check if they don't re-negociate? They already have my acct info, so that's why I am skeptical on doing that. I am also going to make sure that on the report they put "paid", and nothing else. Not Paid- collections, or anything like that.

I tried to pull my credit report from freecreditreport.com, but there was something weird going on. It said that I was not authorized to get my report for some reason. I am going to try again here soon. Is there a site to get a free FICO score, so I know what pitiful score I am starting with???

Any other questions that you may have to help, let me know!

[Fizzle1979]

Welcome my fellow Texan. You can read here about opting out.

https://www.optoutprescreen.com/?rf=t

[BRIANVD04]

So this might be a stupid question, but what are the benefits of opting out?

Why would it "behoove" me to do this?

Just never heard about it,and the FAQ section didn't really explain too much.

[Amerikaner83]

when you opt out, much of the "prescreened" and pre-approved offers of credit that flood your mailbox stop. It's really great! it helps a lot - especially with ID theft being so rampant.

[BRIANVD04]

OK-

I'm kinda hacked off... I guess I just don't know what to do...

Here is one of the letters from ARS for my Chase Bank Charge off...

I got the letter today when I got home from working out of town, but what I am hacked about is this lady called me earlier this week saying that they would settle for 70% (read above for new readers.... I got taken advantage of...)

So the first payment already went through, now what are my options, cause the settlement they gave me was for two payments of $1070.26. If you look carefully I could make a one time payment of like 1300, or two for like 700.

What are my options here? I am going to try and contact Chase Bank again, and see if there is any room to wiggle. Will ARS honor the letter they sent out since the expiration date for the "tax season" payment is 5-13?

Please let me hear your suggestions...

HELP!!! HOW DO I ATTACH THE PIC OF THE LETTER????

THERE IS NO ATTACHMENT BUTTON!!!

[newbie7069]

Had to say "Hi" when I saw your location. I lived in B/CS for about 13 yrs.

Anyway, to your question........

Do you have any idea whether Chase actually sold this debt to the CA or whether they still actually own it? One problem I see is that you have already accepted a settlement, and they have already begun taking the payments for it ruling out alot of your options. More than likely you are going to wind up with a Paid Collection account TL. Plus if Chase still owns the account, they will list it as "Paid for Less the Owed" etc.

Since you've already started the process, it's kinda late in the game to DV or try to work out how they are report the TL, but you never know you can certainly try. It also sounds like you gave the CA your banking information, which is always a no-no. You might seriously consider opening another bank account, and only leaving the remaining settlement money in the other so that they can't come in and take more than what you agreed to.

One of the problems that you are having with obtaining your credit report, may be incorrect personal information reporting.