SomethingGoodIsNext Posted May 22, 2009 Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 After what seems like an eternity my credit scores are inching back into the range of the national average. The major thing keeping my score down at this point is an old Capital One credit card account. The account had an initial balance of around $300 when I ran into a financial disaster and now reports a balance of over $1,600 with fees and penalties; this keeps my utilization level at over 300%. While I don’t know the exact impact this has on my credit report I imagine my FICO scores will increase by at least 20 – 30 points once I can get my utilization under 10%. While the account was closed by Capital One in 2003 and I have made no payment since then, the account status is reported as open to the credit bureaus and it has not been sold to a collection agency.The account is due to fall off my credit reports next fall (September 2010) but I would like to do what I can to improve the situation before that. I called and spoke with a fairly aggressive and hardnosed rep at Capital One who said they would definitely not agree to remove the account for full payment. If I can’t get the account removed completely I would be happy to have the balance reported as $0 so long as it did not mean the account will stay on my credit reports past next September.My question is: Is there a way to pay the balance due without increasing the recent activity on the account and resetting the 7 year clock for it to stay on my credit report? Is there any specific language I should use when negotiating with Cap One? Any other suggestions to reduce or eliminate the impact this account is having on my credit scores?Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astiman Posted May 22, 2009 Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 Probably not.Crap One will screw with you, even after you have made any subsequent payments. You might try sending a letter to their CEO CMRRR to see if anything can be done.I feel your pain on this as I was in the same situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookie Posted May 24, 2009 Report Share Posted May 24, 2009 I would leave it alone, they will NOT take a settlement and will NOT do a PFD and they WILL reset the reporting SOL by adding a DOLA and they WILL report account SETTLED not paid after co Let it drop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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