olemanwinter

At some point, SURELY, the burden is on them to show that I owe the debt, not on me to prove a negative (that I don't owe it). Quick, you reading this, prove you don't owe me money. Maybe I have to take them to court to put the burden of proof on them.

Then why do they even bother to ask you why you are disputing (balance wrong, not me, business account, etc. etc.) If the dispute process is as you describe (ie. Are you sure this is the guy? Ehhh, yep.) I would never have bothered to dispute it to begin with.

I don't have a bill stating zero balance. I'm sure I did. But I don't keep every bill forever. That's kind of the point about why I'm upset. I suddenly get a bill 1yr after I closed my account from a totally different company that bought the first. I called T-Mobile and they have no record of me whatsoever. I thought that perhaps I could just get MCM to recognize the mistake and take it off over the phone. I know this board spends a lot of time dealing with how to fix peoples legitimate bad credit (and that's great!) but I never owed this, it's bullsh#t, and I WILL NEVER PAY IT NO MATTER WHAT. I would spend $500 on court costs before I pay them $174. Freaking cell phone companies can all go to hell.

Another piece of info. The CA is Midland Funding (MCM?) No telephone number listed...and only a PARTIAL ACCOUNT NUMBER on the credit report. Can I even send a DV letter with a partial account number? This place seems super shady.

Reading your post made my blood pressure boil. I had a suncom account that was closed in good standing months before T-moble even bought them. Now MCM (on behalf of T-mobile) is after me for some bogus $174 debt. I called T-mobile and they have no record of me. Astoundingly when I disputed it with Experian it was confirmed in two days. So, now I guess I sent them a DV letter. I hope I have the same luck you did.

I never expected this problem to get this far. I had an account with Suncom Mobile in 2008. I moved to an area without Suncom service. The company acknowledged this and ended my contract early without fee. I received a refund of my deposit and my account was closed in good standing. 9-12 months later, T-Mobile bought Suncom. I suddenly received a bill for about $100 or so from T-mobile. I have never been a T-mobile customer and ended my contract with Suncom in good standing a year before T-moble bought them. This is on my credit and I'm pissed off. I hope T-Mobile get's hit by a meteor. I disputed this account with Experian. Astoundingly, only 48 hours later they had "confirmed the account was mine" (WTF? HOW?). Experion doesn't even have a phone number for this collection agency, just an address. My mind is about to explode. I could just pay this, but what's to stop the next bogus debt from being $1,000 or $10,000? It seems there is no standard for who can put a debt on someone's report and what they have to prove. What can I do now?

Never expected this thread to become a flame fest. Oh well. I will think twice about posting anything personal here again. I'll just take what info I can as a lurker. I can assure you our decision was well thought out and we know buying a new car off the showroom floor (AT ANY PRICE OR RATE) is a losing proposition. However, for a variety of reasons I won't share with the trolls we felt it was the best thing to do right now. Paying on this loan as agreed and quickly refinancing should help ease the burden both on this loan and improve our overall credit.

From my brief experience there are really two factors. 1) Risk 2) Loan to Value Ratio - Loan to value is simple. It's easier to get a loan (and a better interest rate) when you are asking for a $15,000 loan on a $20,000 vehicle as apposed to a 20k for 20k. This is your only way to mitigate their risk. - Their risk. Is a mix of a whole ton of different things. How much you make, Your other debts (even off your credit......I think you have to list your rent for example if you don't own), how long you've lived in one place, and of course your credit history. Even in dire cases (Like mine was) there seems to be some flexibility in what they offer you so I suggest the following strategy: The only factor you can control is your loan to value ratio. Therefore this is your bargaining chip. Do not offer your full available amount up front. In my opinion the "back and forth" might go something like this: 1) Offering 1500 down. Their answer is "NO, can you do $2000?" 2) You say "at what interest rate?" They say, "24%" 3) Plug in your payment amount into a calculator X the months and figure out your total cost of the vehicle. Freak out like you are surprised and say something like, "I'm going to pay $45,000 in the end for this $25,000 car......I can go as high as $2500 down but YOU HAVE TO give me a better interest rate". They might say okay...or they might say they need $3,000 down payment. 4) Hopefully you planned to pay $3,000 down anyway, but now you shaved a few points off your loan rate. A few notes: I was able to do something like that in the final finance managers office as paperwork was about to be signed. If you are going to attempt some price negotiation do that before. If I'm way off base and talking crazy please feel free to correct me. I might be giving bad information, as I've only bought a car with financing once in my life (this month), but the previous example is what I experienced.

In case anyone is interested, I thought I would update what happened and add a little to the collective knowledge. We decided to go to another dealership as average shoppers before we met with my wife's connection. First stop was a Kia dealership to look at their new flagship Optima. (a very nice luxury car at Kia prices.) At this dealership they first denied us any approval for the Optima and "showed us a car we could get" (Forte=junk) with $2000 down and 24% interest. We balked and also offered a bit more down payment if we could move the conversation back to the Optima. They said they could get us into the base model Optima, but we insisted on the mid-level trim with the turbo motor. In the end the deal was as follows: Kia Optima @ about $27,000 24% interest. $4000 down payment. That process took about 3hrs. We told them we would think about it. The next day we went to the Mazda dealership where we had a connection. My wife's connection was much less help than she anticipated. I think he was so used to "helping" people that he expected us to sign just about anything that gave us a car. He was actually a "broker" who worked with many dealerships. Shortly after starting the negotiations we moved above him to a finance manager and never saw him again. I assume he got a cut of our eventual sale but I don't know for sure. The Mazda 3 we wanted was a very high level trim package with a sticker price of about $21,000. Their first offer to us was as follows: Mazda 3 @ about $21,000 PLUS $500 GAP INSURANCE, PLUS $2000 EXTENDED WARRANTY. 24% interest. $2500 down payment. Going to Kia first proved to be a great idea because I called Kia from the Mazda dealership and asked them if they could match the $2500 down payment and keep their previously offered payment price the same. In essence this meant them cutting $1500 from the price of the vehicle. They balked and told me their offer was final. But negotiating with mazda, them hearing the call, and my haggling, worked GREAT! In the end I got them to do the following: drop the interest rate to 21% sell the extended warranty at $1000 (1k savings) sell the gap coverage at $250 (250 savings) - $500 from sticker price. A few accessories purchased but INSTALLED FOR FREE. I felt proud of the deal we got considering how poor our credit was. And the reduction of principle, more so than the interest rate drop, will be great when we refinance. My wife loves her new car and I hope this info helps someone.

Thanks very much. I will look for that information. It would seem then that the 7 years start date could actually be even earlier than the date of last activity. I say this because my young wife, before we were wed, opened a credit card-promptly maxed it-and never paid a single payment. I would assume then just from that knowledge that the account is more likely to fall off 7 years from 08/05 the opened date (or maybe a month or so later) instead of the last activity date in 12/05. Another question: Is there a way to be more sure than "Approximately 7 years" from the date? Once I have the original date confirmed, I want to dispute the account for being too old as soon as it goes past 7 years.....is that right? Thanks very much.

I'm really sorry, seriously, as I thought I was providing absolutely complete information. I have received my reports through the US Mail in the past and I never remember seeing any additional information other than that which I provided. The information provided above was gathered through an Equifax report provided by myfico.com today. I'm not sure what additional information I can expect from the paper copy. Can you please expand on that? What specifically will the paper copy contain in addition to a "last activity date" and "acct opened date"? Thanks very much.

The best three letters I've ever read

This is probably not the most helpful first post I could offer, but; AT&T are scumbags. I wouldn't trust ANYTHING they say....and even if something is in writing I still wouldn't trust them to honor it until they are somehow forced to do so.

The original charge off from 2005 was sold to a collection agency in 2008. Details on both accounts are provided below. I want to know, if possible, when each account will fall off. Original Account: Bank of America Opened 08/05 Last Activity 12/05 Collection Account: AAa Opened 06/08 Last Activity 12/05 Thanks very much.

My wife has had the fortune to meet the finance manager of a whole string of dealerships. For a year he has been telling her, "Don't worry about it. No matter what your credit is I can take care of you". We recently decided to take him up on his offer and he reiterated that it was "no problem", BUT I just signed up for myfico.com and her score is only 474. We have $2000 to put down on the vehicle. Maybe more if it made the difference. I really don't want to waste his time or ours, and add inquires to our credit, if it is hopeless. Has anyone here gotten a new car loan in the last couple of years with a score like that? Or heard of anyone getting one? Thanks.