Advice For Rebuilding

[mgill]

Hi everyone! I would like to explain my situation and get some advice if I can. It's a mess to be sure. I'm 48yo BTW. (Sorry for the long-ish post)

For starters I'll list what's on my reports briefly if I may.

1) Transunion & Equifax (from CreditKarma) CK score is listed as 492 TU & 481 EQ. In a denial letter from Capital One my Experian score is listed as 533. (was approved for a secured card 3 months ago but was denied this week when I applied after the first application expired)

a- Verizon Wireless Aug 2014 - $497

b- Capital Accounts (dental bill) Feb 2013 - $1,645

c- Time Warner July 2016 - $609

Additionally EQ has an IRS Tax Lien listed in the amount of $5,502 from Sept 2008

 

That's everything I can see on CreditKarma. To understand a little more I have to explain the three debts.

The Verizon debt is from a cell phone from Best Buy. I went in to buy a phone and the lady told me it would be $120/mo. I said no and started to walk away and she called me back saying she could give it to me for $60/mo. She didn't have me sign anything and gave me the phone strangely. When I got my first bill it was $120/mo. I called and got a screenshot of the signature on the contract and realized she had scrawled a couple of loops and forged my signature on the higher price. I complained and tried to return the phone but no joy from Verizon.

The dental bill was for work done and was supposed to be billed to my health insurance. The insurance company denied the claim and i was stuck with the bill even though I told the dentist office to only do what was covered. I gave them a copy of my insurance book to check.

The Time Warner bill is mostly equipment I have to return.

But wait there's more...

I am also in default for student loans around $11,000. They have garnished my wages for the past two years at 60%. I am working on getting into a payment plan based on my income and my payments are listed at less than $10/mo. I am also trying to get the loans discharged because of the for-profit school I attended and their settlement with the DOE.

Because of the type of work that I do I have around 12-15 'employers' so the garnishment is only affecting two of them right now.

My yearly income has not been over $12,000 for the past 5 years. Before the garnishment.

 

Here's where I am IMHO. I would like to get rid of the three debts listed by either paying them off or using the PFD/DV tools I've read about in the forums here. The IRS debt will drop off with the SoL in Sept 2018 unless I can talk them into a settlement for less than owed considering they only have two years left to collect. I can also try to get the student loans settled for a lower amount based on the $0-$10 payments they will be getting from me.

I would also like to use the garnishment to negotiate with the three debts listed. They can't garnish me until the IRS/Student Loans get their money first. So I think that will help me (maybe?)

 

Is there any advice you guys can give me to get started with this mess? Anything you can tell me or point me to would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I have just opened my first credit account in years. It's only Fingerhut but it's a start. If I can get a secured CC it would be a great next step.

[Clydesmom]

3 hours ago, mgill said:

Is there any advice you guys can give me to get started with this mess? Anything you can tell me or point me to would be greatly appreciated.

First lets look at HOW you got into this mess so that you can avoid repeating the same mistakes.

3 hours ago, mgill said:

The Verizon debt is from a cell phone

NEVER buy something on credit without copies of ALL the paperwork at the time of purchase.  PERIOD.  

You might be able to get them to do a PFD but would not hold your breath.

3 hours ago, mgill said:

The dental bill was for work done and was supposed to be billed to my health insurance. The insurance company denied the claim and i was stuck with the bill even though I told the dentist office to only do what was covered. I gave them a copy of my insurance book to check.

UGH.  Health insurance NEVER pays for dental work unless you suffered the damage due to a trauma such as car accident, baseball to the fact that knocks teeth out etc.  It is ALWAYS your responsibility to know what is covered before you get care rendered.  While the dentist can file the claim as a courtesy to you they are not required to.  The other major problem is that there is NO way to know if something is covered with 100% certainty.  If you look at your plan book it clearly states pre-authorization is NOT a guarantee of coverage.  All the dentist can do is provide the care. They won't know any more than you do it isn't covered until the claim is denied.  Not to mention it could be malpractice for them to start care and then stop merely because insurance doesn't cover it if it would leave your teeth more vulnerable to not finish the work.

Of all your debts this one is the most likely to be eligible for pay for delete or disputing with the bureaus getting it off.  If the collection agency no longer has a business relationship with the dentist they cannot validate the debt.  If they do, they can validate and NO it is not a HIPAA violation for that trade line to be there.

3 hours ago, mgill said:

I am also in default for student loans around $11,000. They have garnished my wages for the past two years at 60%. I am working on getting into a payment plan based on my income and my payments are listed at less than $10/mo. I am also trying to get the loans discharged because of the for-profit school I attended and their settlement with the DOE.

I would start here.  I would aggressively be working with the DOE and any other agency I could to get this debt cancelled if the educational institute is one of several now banned from participating and has a settlement regarding their student loans.

3 hours ago, mgill said:

The Time Warner bill is mostly equipment I have to return.

It isn't rocket science:  RETURN THE EQUIPMENT.  Then see if TWC will settle for less and delete.

3 hours ago, mgill said:

They can't garnish me until the IRS/Student Loans get their money first.

They can't garnish you until they get a judgment and to do that they have to sue you first.  NONE of those creditors are likely to sue you so it isn't likely you have much leverage to use that to settle though it can't hurt to try.

3 hours ago, mgill said:

Here's where I am IMHO. I would like to get rid of the three debts listed by either paying them off or using the PFD/DV tools I've read about in the forums here.

DV works when you do it within the 30 days after they FIRST dun you with a collection letter.  It is too late for that now.  There are a few states that give consumers added protection to DV at any time but OH is not one of them.  In fact OH is your biggest problem.  You have a draconian long SOL for suit:  10 years on written contracts so that eats into your leverage some in negotiating not to mention OH is a VERY creditor friendly state.

PFD used to work for several years after the recession ended.  Now:  not so much.  Many creditors have taken a hard line stance against doing it.  All you can do is try but I wouldn't get your hopes up.

3 hours ago, mgill said:

My yearly income has not been over $12,000 for the past 5 years. Before the garnishment.

THIS is the biggest problem with getting more credit.  Your income is SO low that ANY credit you open is going to severely throw off your debt to income ratio.  I would be working aggressively at increasing your earnings so that when you do open a credit line it doesn't create an imbalance that puts you into a bad scoring model from a FICO perspective.