puredoxyk

Hi All, So, I've sent two letters to get bad TLs off my CRs, and preparing to send a third. Haven't gotten my green cards back on the first batch yet...and what do you think happens? My freaking identity gets stolen. I actually work closely with lots of ID Theft professionals and I'm anal as heck about it, so I'm not *too* worried (caught and reversed the first fraudulent charge in under 3 hours!). However, I now see a new inquiry on my CR that doesn't belong there, and I know that means I now have to call Experian and get a fraud alert put on. Not only am I trying to clean up some baddies and raise my score, but I expect to be getting a mortgage in the next year or so. Will having a Fraud Alert cause problems with any of this? I know it'll mean no-instant-online-approvals, about which I don't care (I don't plan on applying for anything other than the mortgage) -- but will it cause other problems? Will I still be able to get copies of my credit report, and/or will it stop CAs or the CRAs from fixing the problems I'm writing to them about? Thanks very much! I'll probably have to put the Fraud Alert on today, so any information is extremely helpful. Have a good one, PD

Can I use one letter to each of the CRAs requesting verification of all my old, paid-off derogatory line-items? I've never disputed anything, and there are 4 or 5 (depending on the agency) items on my report that are old and long paid off. I'm unsure if I should dispute (verify? same thing?) them each individually, or all at once. Thanks! PD

Ah-HA! Found a mention here: http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?s...spute+paid+CRA# ...That claims that yes, you can send Certified Mail to a PO box. Thanks! -PD

Hi credit geniuses...Getting ready to send my first letter(s) and I notice that the only address the CA has given me is a PO Box. Can you send CMRRR to a po box? (Sorry if this is a dumb question; I trolled all over Google and the Post Office website, but couldn't find an answer...and I knew you would know!) Thanks very much, PD

Thank you! However, you don't think it's a waste of my time to deal with the collection agency? I could bet $100 right now they're not going to respond (they didn't once already) and I'll end up having to contact the CRA about them anyway. I am waiting to make an offer on a house, so I don't want to waste time! Thanks again, very much. PD

Sure, I didn't realize the request for validation would differ much depending on the type of item. I have one account that's being reported as having a zillion late payments, from Charter One Bank. This is complete BS. I had a line of credit with them that I had from the age of 16 and never missed a payment. I owed some on the account, but it wasn't maxed, and I was paying it, when, back in late 04 or early 05, they merged with another bank, and decided to stop offering the type of LoC I had. Without notifying me in any way, they started bouncing every check I wrote on the account, even though I should have had plenty of $$ to cover it. When I found out about it, I used a credit card to pay the full amount off and immediately requested that they close the account -- I was pretty peeved, and they never even apologized for costing me a bunch of money in bounced checks. Then, to make matters worse, they put me through almost a full year of fighting to get the account closed, during which they insisted that they'd closed the account for me every time I talked to them, but kept sending me statements that said I owed $24. It's that $24 that's on my credit report as being over 150 days late. Nice of them, eh? They eventually did close the account and get rid of the imaginary $24 debt, though I've never been able to get them to take it off my CR. The second item is a simple 60-days-late from my mortgage on a prior house. I had it for years without a problem, but then I got divorced, and in the process I couldn't collect money from my ex for the payment. It's a legitimate item, but I'm hoping for mercy on it. The third is from our friends at Asset Acceptance LLC (the collection agency) -- I see they have a great reputation here. They're claiming that I owe AT&T $144 that I've never heard of. I don't think I've even had an AT&T account of any type in ten years--? I asked them for more info when I got their notice, and all they did was send me another copy of the bill and slap it on my CR. Thanks! PD

Okay, this is kind of amusing...I just read through the entire Sample Letters topic (here: http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showforum=18), and I didn't find the letter that I'm looking for! Hence, in spite of locating the correct "newbie" information, I could still use the assistance of someone on this forum, if a kind person was so inclined. Specifically, I need a sample (not to rip off, just to get an idea) of the appropriate letter to send to a credit reporting agency, with whom I have not had previous contact, asking them to please review / validate several negative items on my credit report. These aren't instances of ID Theft or wrong information. One of them is valid, but old and I have a good explanation. The other two I believe are invalid (so I'm hoping the review process makes them go away). I've had no luck communicating with the collectors of any of these debts, which is why I'm interested in contacting the CRAs directly. Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide. I'll make sure to pass on some help of my own when I can! -PD

You know, I realize it's tempting to assume that everybody who asks a question you've heard before hasn't done any basic research, but for the sake of politeness it's often a good idea to resist that temptation, *especially* since I'm by far not the only one asking this question. Could it actually be that this information is stored in a nonobvious location? FYI, I read the entire Newbie Forum before I ever posted here. I went back to it twice looking for sample letters, but to be fair I skipped the "beginner section" that time, since I'm not a beginner in these matters (I work in the offices of a finance lawyer), and I expected that forum to be mostly definitions and whatnot (and lo, it is). However, there's a topic under "Beginners", not about sample letters, BUT explaining that many other people have ALSO had trouble finding sample letters, and eventually redirecting them to this topic under "Resources": http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showforum=18 Which, if you knew about it, would have taken you five seconds to reference. Or, if it was hard for you to find too (lord knows it took me following four different links, and that was with your hint to start with), maybe you could have been a bit less snippy with those of us who are new and were struggling to hunt it down. But thanks anyway, I did eventually find it.

Hmm, I've been surfing this site for a week now, and haven't found that. Can you tell me where to look?

Greetings all! I'm getting good advice over in the Mortgage forum about preparing to buy a house -- you guys are awesome. The first step I need to take is to send letters to the CRAs on three items that should be removed from my report. I want them to review / verify the information on all three items; since two are incorrect, I'm hoping that will just get rid of those. But I know that the letters have to be *just right*, and I can't seem to find info on what they should say. Any information that anybody can point me to that describes exactly what these letters should say would be FANTASTIC. Thanks in advance! -PD

Hi Brian, Sorry I disappeared for a little bit; I'd thought that maybe one of the lawyers was going to take this over for me, but that fell through, so I'm back to my own devices. Thankfully, my credit cards--I have two--are way below 40%; one is empty with a $1,500 limit, and the other has about $900 on a $3,000 limit. That's down from about $3,000 in total debt a few years ago; I've really been working on it. However, I never missed payments on a credit card, so thankfully those items on my report are clear. I want to have purchased a house within the year, to give my daughter a buffer between when she has to switch homes and schools. (She will stay in pre-kintergarden next year at her current school, and have to move to a "real" school in fall of 2008.) Myself and my husband and daughter will be sharing the home with my mother, who currently lives by herself in an apartment (and would rather have a grandkid around to spoil, heh). Mom has been a nurse for 30 years and makes a good salary, but got into credit-card trouble several years ago, and getting out of it was very messy, so I know her report will be ugly. My husband is a musician/stay-at-home-dad and has no credit whatsoever. I have the best credit, but I make less than half of what my mother makes. This will be tricky. After reading some more, I agree that I need to send letters about all of the items. If you know of any resources to help me draft the letter just right (I know about sending it certified, RRR), I could really use them. I can tell that I need to get moving on this quickly. For my mom, I might call a credit-repair service...I know many of those are scams, but again, I'm lucky enough to actually *know* the owners of one in my area, that I know are on the up-and-up. For me though, that seemed like a little much. So, letters first. Will skim the groups some more today and see if I can find further advice, and THANK YOU so much for your welcome and reply! Sincerely, PD

Hey all! I've been reading these forums most of the morning, and wow, IMPRESSIVE. I used to have perfect credit. Then I got divorced and lost my job, simultaneously. The house was in my name and a few payments were missed while I worked to force my ex to keep up his half (until eventually we sold the house, at no profit). Charter One Bank screwed me really badly with an error on their part while they were merging a few years ago, and it got on my credit report somehow and it's still there (totally not my fault). Now some collection agency has put an item on my CR too, for an amount I don't ever recall owing (I did write and ask them to give me more information, and they just sent me another bill. The next month, the item appeared on my CR.) I have student loans that I'm not paying on now (because I'm a part-time student), and under $1000 of credit-card debt (with annoyingly high interest, but I can't seem to qualify for any new cards that might have promo balance-transfer rates or anything). I've been lax about doing anything about my credit, and my score is down around 600 now. Only now, after a few years of living with relatives, I'm finally looking to buy a house again, so I want to fix it asap. I have lots of help on the financial end, and I should be able to get *someone* to finance us (myself and my mother want to buy a house together with my husband and daughter...mom's credit report is trashed too; I don't know how badly, but it's yet another reason to get mine in shape). I work with and am friends with some lawyers too, so if I need letters written or anything, that's easy. (Problem is, they don't have the time to actually take my "case" for free -- financial lawyers are BUSY nowadays.) I signed up with PrePaid Legal's Identity Theft Shield some months back; besides ID Theft insurance, they provide credit report monitoring and notify me by email within 24 hours of any activity on my report, which is nice and a good first step. But now I need to figure out how to remove these items from my credit report and get my score back up. Also, if there are any other things I should be doing to prepare for Home Ownership Round Two, I'd love to know them. It's a MAJORLY buyer's market here, and I'd like to take advantage of it as best as I can. I plan to be actually purchasing a house sometime in the next year, but exactly when sort of depends on when I find that perfect place. Thanks in advance for your advice, and not-in-advance for all the great information that's already here! -PD