Perhaps learning from one's mistakes is the most painful way.
If we learn from other people's mistakes, we get the same knowledge, without the agony!

So, what's word on what not do do?

Here's a couple of biggies:

-Never supply too much information. You may inadvertantly verify your negatives in a manner impossible to remove later.

-Don't close accounts for the sake of closing accounts. They may be helping you!

-Don't dispute positive information! Positives invariably get deleted.

-Don't deal with collectors or CRA's on the phone, unless you are extremely confident and have nerves of steel. Even so, a paper trail can be so important......

-When adding new credit, don't carry balances you can't quickly pay off (better yet- don't carry balances at all). Solving one problem while creating another still leaves you with a problem!


Don't tell anyone from NCO to "have a nice day"

Others?

- Don't sign anything sent to a CA. Signatures have a pesky way of jumping from one document to another.

- Pay attention to your state's SOL.

- Don't send a blanket C&D to a CA when the debt is still within that SOL. You then leave them no other choice but to sue you. A limited C&D is much more effective; leave them the option to write you. It will help build that papertrail, in addition.

- Don't assume that paying a collection will raise your score. Pay collections after you've negotiated for deletion of the CA tradeline.

Don't send your bankruptcy papers or any part thereof to a Credit Reporting Agency (CRA). :?

Don't add 100 word statements to your credit files.

Don't believe anyone if they tell you that negative information can't be deleted or changed. Any field or number can be manually changed by a representative at a CRA. 8)

PLEASE don't give the (collection agencies) your banking account information, or anything with your personal financial info on it.

I see too many people saying they 'sent the collection agency a check, or post-dated checks, and they were cashed, and/or later they withdrew funds from their account, etc.........

One poster at Creditnet said they did this and listed it on her report as a 'paid chargeoff'. yuck....

One woman sent the collection agency a copy of her bank statements to prove she didn't have the money to pay them!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :x. ewwwwww.....

And, don't forget to send everything CRRR (certified return receipt requested). Ya need proof you sent it.

I just had to get this out............... Thank you

Extremely good advice!
That applies to paying with personal checks, too. Use a money order.

-Radi8

If a CA does not have your home phone number, do not call them from your home phone, use a pay phone - they can capture the number you call from.

here's a little secret to thwart caller id.

dial *67 before you dial the number. that blocks your number and prevents *69
(yes, i admit it. i used to quite often when i was a teenager. shhhh) :wink:

When I was a teenager, they didn't have caller ID yet, LOL.

Here's a tip to build on the previous one: *67 Privacy Block won't shield consumers from CAs who use most commercial toll-free 800 numbers as well as many toll numbers, because those accounts use something called ANI ("Automatic Number Identification") rather than regular consumer Caller ID. So be careful -- *67 provides false security. Good rule of thumb: as breeze said, don't any collection agency from home if you don't want them to verify your number. Another rule of thumb: consider dealing with them only by letter.

By the way, here's a science experiment:
Step 1: Pick up the phone, dial *67, and listen for the second dial tone.
Step 2: Dial 1-800-555-1180 (don't worry, you're safe).
Step 3: The robot will rattle through a bunch of numbers. Listen to the last number he says ("the annie is..."). Voila they didn't have much trouble busting through your *67 Privacy Block!
Step 4: If you're a glutton for punishment, repeat the whole process with the number 800-964-0176, or 800-444-3333, or 800-314-4258 (menus press 1, and then 1 again).

Commercial 800 numbers from the major telecom companies often bundle ANI at no additional charge. Commercial toll numbers (i.e., not toll-free) can buy ANI for a fee. Regular consumer telephone accounts are ineligible for ANI and are restricted to the lamer consumer Caller ID product we all know and love so well.

Hope this prevents someone from getting nabbed!

Doc

oops,
ignore everything i just said.
just use that technique to bother your neighbors at 3:00 in the morning.

Atleast I now know who kept calling the house and waking us up. Shame on you.

Just used your trick with my cell phone. The number wasn't even close.
Wonder if it has to be a landline for it to work. . . .

Not sure how it applies to cell phones. I just tried that first number with my SprintPCS phone, and it worked except it put the numbers "62" in front of the rest: "the annie is 62901xxxxxxx" (I'm in the 901 area code). With landline phones that prefix will usually be "00," so my home phone generates "the annie is 00901xxxxxxx." The creditor would look at the last 10 digits. Perhaps your cell phone company uses some sort of strange gateway number for outgoing calls and you're hearing that -- dunno.

Doc

Strange...I just tried it, and I got Doc's number too!

There is a box available, only for commercial clients at the present time, that will insert any number/name you want into the caller ID data.

Think of the Possibilities. Next call I make to Experian is gonna show
"Federal Trade Comission" or "US Supreme Court" Hahaha.

Once you "roam" with a cell phone, all bets are off for number recognition. Some carriers don't pass the data on through, others substitute some interconnecting number.


-Radi8

Telemarketers use this little toy so they can get through if you have blocked "unidentified callers" - wary as i am, I always let the machine pick up if I don't recognize the number.

The most important thing I've found in going through this process is NEVER GIVE UP!! These "do not do's" are important, but no matter what happens when your working on you credit issues, don't get discouraged. There is almost always a work around and an answer, KEEP PLUGGING AWAY!

Dont confuse SOL's...

Many people are confused between reporting sol's and legal sol's.

Most states have a reporting sol of 7-10 years (bk, etc). Some states are less.

All states have a legal SOL for suing for debts. The number of years varies by state.

Look up your state's sol's and be wary of the activity on each account before "waking the sleeping giant"...You could get trampled.

Nikki
...edited...I made a boo-boo

:roll: I am somehow reminded of the fellow who went mountain climbing, by himself, caught his arm under a boulder, and had to saw it off with a dull pocket knife.

Going it alone,without legal assistance. when you are in credit trouble is bad enough, but without the proper equipment (knowledge and skill) you can wind up losing an arm and a leg

Sorry for the confusion...there was a previous thread that discussed the legal sol...part of that thread was the last payment issue. I looked on your website and mistakedly didnt read the other state's laws...only your info for TX...which, I believe states that the date of last payment is what the legal sol starts from. Apparently I misread . :?:

Another mistake in credit repair...misquoting and misunderstanding information :oops:

One armed dude sitting next to foot-in-the-ass man.

The very best advice I've seen. The contest continues until you quit. They have to win every single round. You only have to win once (with each creditor, of course). They have lots of things to focus on besides ruining your life. In fact, they don't even have a plan for how they intend to keep ruining your life. YOU, however, have a plan, right? It's all about bettering your life and the lives of your family. You want it worse than anything. They are just hourly employees. And you only have to win one time, right? How can they possibly defeat you if you just keep coming at them from new and different angles?

62 or 00 is the service type identification.

00 for landline
62 for cell phone
xx for prison
yy for hospital

I don't know what the xx and yy are for real but I know they exist.

you get the picture...

I'm impressed Doc, were did you pick up so much telco knowledge?

oh, the actual service you are describing is called 'feature group D' although not many people know that.

If you really want to get around ANI then get yourself a couple (dozen) of those $5 phone cards at the local gas station (get different brands) and use those to call.

By the way, a company doesn't have to use a toll free number to get ANI or FGD trunks, in fact, most toll free numbers just route to a local # anyway unless the company has a DAL group (Dedicated Access Line/Long Distance Traffic only).

Does this apply to trying to get your credit report from Experian over the phone, too? I just tried it a few minutes ago. DARN!

Now I need to get a new number.

Venus,
I believe this applies to collection agencies (CA), not Credit reporting agencies.

"Don't believe anyone if they tell you that negative information can't be deleted or changed. Any field or number can be manually changed by a representative at a CRA. "

Does this apply to information that is true AND negative?

Absolutely!! There are many techniques here for deleting/changing true, negative information. Read on!!

I just hit the ! by accident. Sorry!

The phone companies have a cash cow going on. Late last summer, when setting up a new phone line, I remember the phone company wanting to know if we wanted to pay extra for "private name/number, unknown", etc. to show up on our caller id. I thought that this was odd. The phone company charges people to have an unlisted/private number and then turns around and charges others to view the unlisted/private number info. Talk about double dipping!

I thought I'd perform a morning confession and add a mistake to the collection here:

I had two different tradelines with Creditor X.

One was a revolving account from several years back notated as "Included In Bankruptcy".

The other was a spotless mortgage which was paid off recently.

Just guess which one I disputed 3 days ago as "not mine" and was initially thrilled to see had been deleted this morning.
:oops: :oops: :oops:

---------------------------------------------------------------------

ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK THE ACCOUNT NUMBER !!!

Go ahead and laugh, but remember !

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Ummm, or when you are drunk and want to prank old BF or GF's at 3am... :oops:

What about the obvious?

Not sending any money to a credit repair agency?

And most importantly when NCO/Marlin Financial calls tell them to go straight to &*#%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:twisted:

Good information here!

The above works when calling from a business but their number is a random depending on what line connects going outside the company.

Hi

I thought some people may find this useful. It may have already been posted before, I didn't look.

Buy a $5.00 phone card which requires you to call a 1-800 # to connect. The 1-800 will show on the CA number log, not your home #.

Make sure it works by "testing" on your Home to Cell phone first.

It has always worked for me fine.

The down side is you are probably paying for a "free"call, but ask yourself Is this call realy "free"? :roll:

Note that this does not work if you are dialing an 800#, they'll still get your number.

Okay, regarding Pam's quote from above, what is an SOL and what are C&D's? I need to learn to speak the language before I can communicate very effectively, huh?

C & D= cease & Desist
SOL= Statute of Limitations


Here's something that may be a lil help:

http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=32

Being in the Fire/EMS field, I have experience with county dispatch, and this calling card issue is in fact a reality. When someone dials into 911 for an emergency using a calling card, and most cell phones, the numbers come accross as comming from Texas or Illinoise! County Coordinators are trying to figure out how to properly do their reports in these situations because you caould be calling from the pay phone from right outside dispatch

Calling cards are great for not leaving a trail back to your home phone number. The only problem is that you can't make a free call to a toll free number (800-) using a phone card. I think the way to do this is to set up a phone over the Internet account. Then the call might lead back to your IP address but not to your home phone number. To set up the service you might want to get a "throw away e-mail address first from a place like Hotmail ( http://www.hotmail.com ).

http://www.dialpad.com

http://www.net2phone.com

Being paranoid is just knowing to much!

Ohhhh...That explains it! Had a call TODAY that said, "FREE TRIP" in the caller ID. Knew it was a wily CA...they must think we're even stupider than they are!

BTW, am new and enjoying the posts. Learned a ton from another forum, so am spreading my wings to further educate myself.

Erik said:
"...the call might lead back to your IP address but not to your home phone number"

If someone can determine your IP address, exactly what information does that tell them? Name, address?

This thread highlights the importance of disguising your home number from collection agencies. Wouldn't it be equally important advice when calling CRA's, especially if you've painstakingly deleted your home address so you can dispute off baddies tied to your address, only to then place a call from your home number to a CRA to dispute said baddy, and the CRA sees your home number and ties it to the address you deleted? In fact, given this scenario, couldn't you inadvertantly verify a public record for them?

Of all the phone suggestions made previously, would everyone concur that using a cell phone is the easiest/safest/best method of communicating with CRA's/collection agencies?

Maybe. Unless it's the FBI doing the looking an IP address is probably not going to point back to a home address. And even if it did, how does anyone know that you live there. You could be using someone else's computer.

Cell phones are good to. Of course a lot of people with trashed credit can't get a cell phone without a big cash deposit.

Does anybody know what the going deposit amount is for a cell phone under an anonymous or fake name? In other words for a name that does not have a social security number?

Both cell phone and Internet service providers have the addresses of whoever signed up for the service. Now with a cell phone one could use a PO or physical mail drop box address rather that their physical home address. But now we are into the area of paranoia relating to hiding from private investigator and the FBI rather than just debt collectors.

My original point that I was trying to make is that a home land line phone number is automatically linked to the address it is at. It's just a mater of finding the right database. If you get a new phone and get the number unpublished than change the number you may be all right. Unless someone has a contact in the phone company.

I had a Bell South repair guy out at my place to put in a new line one day and we got to talking. He assured me that his portable tester unit could spit out the address of every number in the system. Listed or un-listed.

Get a prepaid cell. No info available what-so-ever! (And alot cheaper!!)

I like the pre-paid cell idea! If you call a toll free number from a cell phone, does it cost you minutes/money anyway, even though the number you're calling is toll free? I was put on hold 3 times with Equifax the other day, making the call about 15 minutes long, including hold time.

Yes. If you are connected to a cell tower, much less actually making a call, you are burning your minutes.

I like the pre paid cell phone idea as well.

Yeah for me!! Hope I helped.

Stumble on to this forum accidently hopefully it willed a blessing. I am a 30 year single Dad with awful credit. I want to be able to purchase a home and relaible vehicles. I have about $10,000 in debt. I need help with it. I am not sure how to go about doing so. Please any information will greatly be appreciated.

I may be a bit slow but,
What is a blanket C&D?
(i know it stands for cease and desist but what does that mean?)
How is it different from a limited C&D?
When are they helpful to send?

(C&D) not in the glossary. i dont think. .

What does SOL mean and where can I find this information? How is it useful?

I found the credit glossary as I read further down the line. Where will I find a states SOL information.

SOL refers the state Statute Of Limitations. This time period is the time that a debt holder has to bring suite for an unpaid debt. It is determined by state law and is not to be confused with the reporting period for accounts on credit reports. That time, which is often 7 years, is articulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) which is federal law.

http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/ency/article...9F7A06B61F9CEF5

http://community-2.webtv.net/Y-chat/WhyChatsCredit

http://www.cardreport.com/laws/statute-of-...imitations.html

Note that there are separate SOL's for judgments:
http://www.cardreport.com/laws/judgement-sol.html

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