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Hi everyone! I apologize in advance for not being up to date with most of the acronym, I'm still trying to get the hang of it. I was dumb, 18 and thought I had it all figured out... Now I'm 25, in debt and the only thing I know is I want to get out of debt. It's taken me a long time to realize the importance of good standing credit. I've read a few stories on here and the amount of debt doesn't seem as overwhelming as others but in my eyes I feel like I'm drowning. On 1/24/2014 I went on to annualcreditreport.com to get my free credit reports and the only one I could access was TU, for some reason my computer couldn't pull up EX and EQ. Below I'll include what's on my TU and my notes/questions. Most of my debt is from 2007-2009 Which are: Chase Auto Finance -Date opened: 5/22/2008 -Remarks: UNPAID BALANCE CHARGED OFF -Estimated month and year item will be removed: 12/2016 I don't understand what "charged off" means. What happened was I couldn't make payments and ultimately the car was Repossessed. NORDSTROM FSB -Date opened: 11/10/2007 -pay Status: CHARGED OFF -Account Sale Info: Account would to MIDLAND FUND LLC -estimated month and year item will be removed: 08/2015 Since it's been sold to the CRA who do I go to to pay it off? Or because of the item being removed next year should I wait til it drops off? US BANK RMS CC -date opened: 5/01/2007 -remarks: charged off/ transferred to another lender to another office Estimated month and year item will be removed: 05/2015 Same question as Nordstrom account IQ DATA INTL INC -date opened: 4/21/2009 Remarks: placed in collections Estimated month and year item will be removed: 11/2015 This was from an apartment I was renting and ended the lease early. It's my highest amount so far originally was $5,504 now at $8,8011. I don't know if I should let this drop also or if I should work something out? I worry this particular debt would affect me in the long run if I wanted to buy a house. IQ DATA INTL INC -date opened: 03/24/2009 -remarks: placed for collections -estimated month and year item will be removed: 02/2016 This was from a cash advance place. Should I let this drop? Ok, if you're still reading this... Thank you! Here are my questions... Since these debts are estimated at dropping off by the end of next year should I even try to pay them off? Should I let them reach their SOL? My concern is that I'll get sued all at once, which is probably a possibility and I'll drown my self in more stress and more financial burdens... Also, I realize after reading on here, that I've made the mistake of paying the CRAs directly... Through the phone nothing in writing. I had 3 things of debt I was able to pay off right away and it's already been charged to my card.is there something I should do? Or is the damage done? I also had two other things of debt that I disputed with TU because one I had paid off a long time ago and the other the CRA I talked to told me it was an error (a debt that was sent to them and in error), I called the dispute office and they told me they'd investigate further... Should I be sending something in writing? Now I'm back to square one, I'm reading the newbie section of CB but I still don't understand what to do next... Please help! I know I've been irresponsible and naive and now I'm trying to get on the right track to being debt free. Thank you for your time and help!

I am in the process of divorce, and I have racked up a lot of debt. I am not sure how much information I should give, so I will start with some basic information. I have a mortgage, car loan, lending club consolidation loan and 11 credit cards. I want to try to keep from filing bankruptcy, but not sure if it is even possible. My plan is to close several if not all of the credit card accounts. I want to call each company and explain my situation and see if they will allow me to close the account, adjust the balance and/or APR My wife owes me her share of the marital debt and is giving me half of the money owed. I was going to look at the accounts with the highest APR and highest balance and apply that money on them to help lower monthly payment amounts. Anyway I was curious if I am headed down the right or wrong path. I appreciate any input.suggestions sk

First, I would like to thank everyone here for sharing your wealth of information. I just signed up a few days ago and have been lurking for about 2 weeks. A little about me. I walked away from everything approximately 6 years ago in order to leave an abusive relationship. I had a house, a car, a few credit cards and a few other outstanding bills. I knew my credit was going to be trashed, but I didn't much care. I have essentially been living without any credit since then. A few weeks ago, I decided to try and rebuild my credit and that is how I ended up here. I have been reading the newbie section and I will admit that I am overwhelmed. I have started by trying to delete my old addresses and by opting out. I am content to let most of my old debt fall off of my report. No one is trying to actively collect from me at the moment and I can easily wait as things will start dropping by this coming March (2015) and most should be off by July (2015). I do have a Midland collection that I am confused about how to proceed. It is scheduled to fall off in November of 2016. The original debtor was TMobile and the amount is $357. The statue of limitations for open ended accounts in my state is 3 years. But for written contracts is 10 years. I can't find clear information about how my TMobile account is classified. Any ideas about how to handle this? Should I ignore it and wait for it to fall off? Should I make an attempt to get it off of my report? I can't tell if this is still within the SOL or if I am safe from that now. I was hoping to have my credit cleaned up enough by mid 2015 to purchase a small starter home for me and my kids. The only report I have pulled so far is Experian. Credit Karma says I have a score of 580 and that is with the record of a foreclosed home, repossessed vehicle and several charged off credit cards and utilities. I hope that I am posting this in the right place and that you will offer some advise as what the best course of action might be.

John Oliver discusses student debt, which is awful, as well as for-profit colleges, who are awfully good at inflicting debt upon us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8pjd1QEA0c

I have a question on wording a settlement offer for a hospital on a medical debt. I have a settlement letter that will serve as an agreement for a regular cc debt, but I don't know if I should use the same letter or add extra wording to include HIPAA rights or so on. Backstory, which you will find on my other posts: Hospital original charge $3900, been paying for over 2 years now down to $3500, sent to collections. I have spoken with the manager of the billing department of the hospital and we reached a settlement lower than original amount and they have agreed to retract the account from collections once the payment has been made (that took time to convince because he wanted to just have the collection updated as paid "claiming" once it's sent it cannot be retracted, but everyone on this board knows it can). I will fax over the settlement letters for him to sign and I will not send the cashiers check until the letter is signed and returned to me. I have copied what the letter will state. I have not include important information such as name of hospital, blah, blah, blah. Please help me in the correct way to word this so I can get it sent to him as soon as possible. Thank you! Yes WhyChat, I have gone through all your steps and I'm on the step to "insert a" and make full payment, but I can't afford full payment but have saved up enough to settle. The Letter I Will Send: Dear Creditor, This letter is to confirm the settlement offer made between myself and your customer service representative ___________________ phone number _______________ made on ________, 20__. I really appreciate the fact that your company is willing to work with me on this matter; I wanted to make an honest attempt to settle this debt. The amount your customer service representative and I agreed to settle this debt in full is $___________. In addition, you will retract this debt from Collection Agency, any references on my credit reports (TransUnion, Experian or Equifax) relating to this debt as a collection or as late payment, paid collection or charge off regarding this account are removed from my credit file. If these terms are acceptable to your company, please sign the attached letter of agreement and return a copy to me. Upon receipt of this signed acknowledged agreement, I will express you a cashier’s check in the amount stated above. Yours truly, Your name Enclosed attachments. Agreement to settle a debt This contract shall serve to spell out the terms of a settlement offer between <insert your name>, hereafter referred to as CONSUMER and <insert credit card company’s name>, hereafter referred to as CREDITOR on acct number _______________________. Upon receipt of a certified check from the CONSUMER for $______________, the creditor agrees that this balanced owed on acct number _______________ is zero and that no further payment or fees are due from the CONSUMER at any time in the future. In addition, the creditor agrees to remove any references to late payment or charge off regarding this account from CONSUMER’s credit file, and will instruct any collection agency assigned by CREDITOR or its assignees to collect this alleged debt to do the same. This contract supersedes all other contract between the debtor and creditor. _______________________________________________ Date:___________ CONSUMER I attest that I am authorized to make decisions regarding the making and acceptance of settlement offers for outstanding credit card for the <insert credit card company’s name> company. Read, Approved and Accepted by:____________________ Date:__________ CREDITOR

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/us/politics/obama-plans-steps-to-ease-student-debt.html?_r=0 More information to come later today!!

So i just paid off all my credit cards and now I am fighting this insane urge to spend, does anyone else have this problem? Today I almost bought a 2k dollar imac that I didnt need and a 3k dollar camera. I am thinking of cutting the card up to keep me from using it.

Wondering if anyone has been in a situation where Calvary Portfolio SVCS has shown up on a credit report and when contacting them to settle a debt they refer you to a special phone number for Central Portfolio Control? I just received my credit report and CPC is not on there. I am planning on sending out DV letters again but I am concerned that if I settled with CPC then Calvary will not agree that the debt was settled and I will have to renegotiate with them(Calvary). I am also worried its a stall tactic to reopen the SOL and serve me. Its not a large debt <5,000 but I need it taken care of. Please anyone have experience with this?

There are quite a few things on my credit report. I don't know where to start. I have a credit score of 510. I'm 25 years old and didn't have the income or knowledge for maintaining great credit. I now have the income ( I think) to fix my credit. I just don't know the 1st step. Someone please help. I'm sure I need to provide additional information. Thanks

I'll be on Chris Molinari's show "Molinari Newswire" http://www.blogtalkradio.com/buildingfortunes/2014/06/11/molinari-news-wire We're going to be talking some of the latest developments in fighting debt.

Hi,i'm here to ask you guys for counseling about my debt.I have a debt approximately 30-ish thousands. And i'm looking for a way to decrease it as low as possible.I want to pay it off,I do,but it's just too hard to do with this economy. I don't want to go bankruptcy because i know i can pay it off,just not all of it.Is there any way i can do that? I have a friend that did it,it went from 30 thousands to 15 thousands.But he moved and i lost his number so. Please help!

Please advise.... Today (5/22/2014) I received a letter from NYS Dept. of Taxation and Finance claiming I owe them $1000.03 (Tax amount assessed $793.00 + Interest amount assessed $207.03) Payment due day date: 06/09/14. The letter claims I owed the NYS Tax dept. because of Forgive Fed. Debt $7,600.00 CITIBANK SOUTH DAKOTA NA. They claim I was sent notification from IRS on 04/09/2012 of the above charges to my 2010 federal income tax return. I remember back in 2009 I settled a debt with Rubin and Rothman LLC for $10,000 on a $20.000 debt that was before I knew about Creditboards. I kick myself everyday that I paid them so much on a debt they paid pennies on the dollars for. I know dealing with the IRS is like dealing with KGB, and maybe I am shooting in the dark for a resolution, but I never was notified about this debt. My question is will I be able to dispute the interest that was assessed on the money?? I never received a letter. Why wait two years again to send me another notification strong arming me to pay within two weeks. Any insight will be greatly appreciated -RealMckoy

Crazy story of the day: woman's federal and state tax refunds seized by the feds because *someone* in her family got a social security overpayment in 1977 and she *may* have benefited from it. Not kidding. They had a name for this in feudal times: attainder. And it's been specifically outlawed in the U.S. Constitution, which apparently does not apply at the Social Security Administration. http://reason.com/blog/2014/04/11/uncle-sam-revives-feudal-practice-to-col#fold

I am using calculators online. On my rent/mortgage I have a roommate so do I put in what the full amount of the rent is or do I put in the portion that I pay? How do banks look at DTI when the person has a roommate but lease doesn't really say one person pays half and the other person pays half it just lists the full amount of the rent? If I put in half of the rent (which is the portion I pay) It has my DTI at 17% but if I put the full amount of rent it bumps my DTI up to 31% so just wondering how banks and other financial organizations look at this? Thanks

Hi so I have FAKOS in the high 500s and I want to know what the best move would be for me right now to repair my damaged credit. I have about 5 inquires on each Transunion, equifax and Experian this year. I am not applying for anymore credit. Hoping to bump Equifax and Transunion. My good accounts are a secured loan for $400 on Equifax, a secured loan for $1000 on all three and student loans, about 7 that are deferred on all of them. I have like 2 closed good accounts that were installment loans. The last good thing is that im getting an installment loan through the credit union unsecured $1000 and ill pay it back in 6 months. Hopefully this will help me. Are installment loans, or secured loans a waste of time. Should I get a secured credit card with a high limit? or would a low limit work just as fine? BAD: 1:furniture account charged off, for $350 2:$300 first premier bank charged off. about $300 Will fall off 2017 I believe. 3: credit one bank in collections $1100 that keeps rising up form old credit card. Now turned over to through midland funding will fall off 2018. 4: webank fingerhut account that midland owns for $300. Keeps rising up though. 5: 3 small accounts in collections, all less than 100 seventh avenue each, grandpointe 6: a zzounds account, like $250thats in collections 7: sprint account that is about 332 that's in collections and was turned over to a collection agency. 8. on Experian an old library bill $42 that's in collections. (I plan on paying this off) will fall off in 2018 I plan on trying to get a paid for delete for the 3 small accounts under $100 or either a paid in full so that they will report as good. Is this a good idea and also the important thing I want to know is should I pay off midland? I heard they are the worse Is it worth it. I tried to do a settlement but the letter said under the signature that paying will not guarantee the account being deleted from the agencies. This didn't sit well with me so I never sent the money. Should I just wait until it falls off? I also wanted to get a secured card for maybe like $200 and only spend $10 a month on it and pay that off for a quick boost in my score. I know that would help. Any advice would help as I just want to get back on the right track. Thanks

I'm not even sure of where to start with this. It's very shameful, and I never thought I'd get to this point. The fact of the matter is, is that I'm beyond lost on what to do here. I moved to Arkansas a couple years ago, and when I did, my credit score was around 650- not great, but not really bad, either. I was proud that I didn't have bad credit. Now, it's below 500. I'm 18k in debt- from verizon wireless, at&t u-verse, student loans, a local property management group (still owe money on a lease), paypal credit line, capital one credit card, and a Dell credit line, and my auto loan (I've actually done pretty good on that one), and completely in over my head. I have no idea on what I should do. Should I contact a debt consolidation company? Or claim bankruptcy? How do I know what is the best choice? Is there any kind of easy fix? I guess the worse part about all of this is, I don't have the money to pay them all what they want me to pay every month- we live in low-income housing, and i'm barely keeping up with my car payment. I'm so overwhelmed and lost. My fiance' and I dream of owning our own house one day, and getting our financial affairs in order, but I don't even know how to go about it. Someone, please help!

I Recently came across a topic showing you the best way to go about dealing with debt collectors. These bottom feeders use every dirty trick in the book to ruin our lives it's about time we gain the upper hand. click on the link

Hello folks, This is our (my wife and I) first post. I was curious as to what I should pay first. My wife and I started our major overhaul of our finances today. We have approx $5500 (bonus from work) to pay off some debt. Coincidentally, we have a loan through NFCU for just about this amount ($5900 to be exact). However, we also have another $20k in credit card debt. Our monthly payment on the NFCU loan is $270 month. Should we apply the $5500 + cash in our bank account to pay off the loan and save $270 a month, or should we apply $5500 toward credit card debt? Thanks in advance for your help/advice.

Hello .. i have a question about a notice we received stating .. Notice of Sale of Ownership of Mortgage Loan. It came from a lender that apparently our current lender sold our loan to. We have been having difficulty paying our mortgage since 2012 and into 2013 due to a job loss in dec of 2011 as the new job we acquired in april of 2012 pays less then the one we had before. Mortgage being almost 1900.00 a month not including property taxes and insurance. We of course are in arrears with them some due to their not accepting our payments when we were able to pay and of course all their added fees for this and that. When they sold our loan to the new lender the arrears did not transfer along with the loan to the new lender. Is this proceedure .. i thought they would just forgive the arrears after selling our loan to another company. Our payments will not change with the new lender and that is something we were trying to work out with them .. to lower our interest rate so we could have a more affordable payment but they wouldn't do it. Another thing they've done as i just discovered this today is we had a sideline of credit with them along with our loan that we could not pay on due to job loss that they charged off last year and sent to a credit agency. We started paying the credit agency last year in april and are still paying it to this day. When i logged in today to check on the loan transfer they stated that our loan was no longer with them but transferred to the new lender. What caught my eye is there were 2 loans listed ... one being our home mortgage and the other was the loan they charged off last year and what we are paying now to the credit agency. How could this happen? I'll say i've been very upset today as i couldn't call anyone due to the weekend but come monday all parties involved will be getting calls. We are not going to pay twice for the same loan. Your thoughts and suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you ..

Newbie here. Needing help w/ things. Been lurking and I don't think I've found this scenario yet. I haven't touched my Credit report in years. I figured my credit was in the toilet but my goal has been to fix it up and I've started this week. I've been playing catch up and think I need to work on creating various validation letters to send out to CA's. I've grouped my debt into 3 blocks: CC's and Lifestyle, Vehicle Loans and Medical Accounts. I've only been at this for two days but I am proud at how organized I've gotten. Even did a spreadsheet for myself. I must admit, I am a little disappointed after checking my real FICO score (not the FAKO). Ever since I started disputing online this week, my score has DROPPED 30 POINTS. Not very encouraging but I am trying to stick with this and not give up. I was so frustrated after seeing my score drop, I called up all my CA's to figure what information they had. What a noob mistake. I forgot that calling the CA's are a no no but I gave out no personal information so I didn't feel so bad. I even learned that one of the reps was upset to see most of my medical debt was invalid because of SOL. Calling was not ok because I know they recorded my calls, and I just hope I didn't hurt my chances of submitting a quality DV for them to remove my negative TL. A few things to keep in mind: 1. I've never declared bankruptcy. 2. I believe the SOL are in effect because it's been more than 7 years for most of this debt. 3. I have one student loan that has been transferred over time that I currently pay on time (no longer in deferment) and is the only positive item showing on my credit. I have some closed positive accounts that help my CR but not worried about those for now. 4. No longer living in the state where most of the debt occurred. (I do believe the CA's are using my new address.) Here is my grouped debt: CC's/Lifestyle = all items have been charged off from OC and have unpaid balances collecting fees with CA CC 1 (clothing) > Asset Acceptance LLC, Opened in Spring 2004, Expected to be unlisted on Experian next month, Equifax Spring 2014 CC 2 (electronics) > Asset Acceptance LLC, Opened in ??, Expected to be unlisted on Experian Summer 2014, Equifax Fall 2014 CC 3 (n/a) > Calvary Portfolio Services, Expected to be unlisted on Experian Summer 2014 CC 4 (clothing) > LVNV Funding->Resurgent->Allied Interstate, Opened in Spring 2007 CC 5 (home) > LVNV Funding ->Resurgent->Capital Mgmt Services, Opened in Spring 2007, Expected to be unlisted summer 2014 from all bureaus CC 6 (electronics) > Midland Funding, Expected to be unlisted on Experian Summer 2014, Equifax Winter 2014 CC 7 (n/a) > Midland Funding, Opened in Winter 2004, Expected to be unlisted on Experian Summer 2014, Equifax Winter 2014 Rental Bill (ex damaged walls but I need to pay for it) > National Credit Systems, Opened in Winter 2011 Utility Bill (ex refused to pay his share but it was in my name) > name of CA withheld, Winter 2008 n/a = actual credit card not tied to a particular store or use. Used everywhere. Vehicle Loan Credit Union > name of CA withheld> opened up in Spring 2004, high balance reported but car was given back to dealer in 2008. Never listed as a repossession. Expected to be unlisted summer 2015 on all bureaus and become positive, unpaid account. Medical Accounts 8 ER bills all sent to various collections, opened up in 2007 but all expected to be removed from CR beginning next month into the spring 2014. I HAVE ONE CAP1 CREDIT CARD NOT IN COLLECTIONS WITH A HIGH BALANCE. Opened up in Summer 2000, expected to be unlisted in Winter 2014 from all bureaus. They said they won't sue and that I just need to pay. Any idea why this may have not been sent out to collections? They want to settle for half. I hung up the phone. High balance. I guess my question is this: If the CRA's are going to remove the item off their bureau is there even a point to writing DV's to the CA's seeing all this time has passed. Since I made the mistake and called them today, will they try to say the SOL is not in effect and attempt to collect all over again? And for the two accounts that were passed to multiple CA's do I only do a DV for the CA willing to settle the debt or them all including the parent CA? I need help in determining if the following DV is good enough to send out to the majority of my CC's and Lifestyle/Vehicle Loan debt. I plan to use the HIPAA DV sample for the Medical Account debt but being a perfectionist, I want to make this right. SAMPLE DV Letter My Name.... My Address on file Date of Letter By Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested Name of Debt Collector Address of Debt Collector Re: Account # ?? To Whom It May Concern: The letter is written in response to the letter/call I received from your office dated. I respectfully ask, pursuant to my rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, that your office provide me with suitable validation of the debt. I would like to emphasize that this letter is not refusal to pay, but simply a request for proof of legitimacy of my obligation. This said, the proof of the obligation should be complete and should include copies of the following documents: 1. The agreement with the original creditor that authorized you to collect this on behalf of this debt. 2. The agreement reflecting my signature that confirms my acceptance of the obligation. 3. The complete payment history of this account. Until your office fully complies with my validation request, I expect there will be no further action on your part to collect this debt. Additionally, if your office fails to reply to this letter within 30 days of receipt this account is expected to be deleted from my credit file and no further efforts to collect this debt can be made. Sincerely, name print only

hello all, i recently started trying tom fix my credit after filing for bankruptcy in 2007, then dropping that case due to not filling out paperwork in time.. then filing again in 2009 and once again getting it dropped because I had not complied with with the court correctly, basically i had one really pissed of creditor who fought me the whole way and caused me to get it dropped. I was a homebuilding contractor back then, so I had a lot of trade lines. I tried to forget about it for a long time but here I am again trying to get the credit rocking again. Anyways I have a to of charge offs I would love to get off, but the real reason I am posting is that I haven't had any bad credit post in about three years, lol due to the fact that I was involved in a car accident that had left me a paraplegic. I started rebuilding my credit by putting some of my savings in the form of secured credit cards. applied bank 3000, and capitol one 2000,and they recently bumped me up 300 dollars!e but 9/12 i had a cell phone bill from at&t post up by enhanced recovery company for 1200 dollars. I am moving in march-april and need to get a new place. do I a) pay the bill or b)try to dispute it and work that whole angle. Also I have called them and updated my address with them and also talked to them about settling the debt for half as much 650.00. Question Can I get it removed if I do end up paying them? And is it easier to get it emoted if i pay all or settle and pay half? I would love any advice. thanks!!!

Hi, I am a reporter working on an article on settling debts. For my article, I need to talk with a consumer who settled their own debts. If this describes you and you'd be wiling to tell me how you did it, please feel free to send me a message. Thanks so much! Allie Johnson

I just received a call from Financial Asset Management systems saying that I was involved in a hit and run a year and a half ago and I now owe State Farm $2,600. I need help in figuring out if this is a scam or not. Here are some facts: *According to them, I opened my door and dinged an emergency vehicle, then drove away. I have no recollection of this incident whatsoever, and unless someone in my family took my car without my knowledge, I'm 99.99% sure this did not happen. *The vehicle owner filed a claim with their insurance (State Farm) and State Farm took care of the damages. Again, I was never notified until almost a year and a half later. If they had my vehicle description, wouldn't I have been notified by the police? *Now State Farm is "allegedly" using the debt collector to settle the debt from me in the tune of $2,600. *I have the option to make monthly payments OR if I make a lump sum payment, I get a % discounted and I only need to pay $1,800. (this part seems fishy) *They gave me a police report number, and I gave it to my cousin (who is a cop) but I haven't heard back on that yet. The name of the company is Financial Asset Management systems inc. I see a lot of complaints on ripoff report, but it still seems like a legitimate debt collecting firm. Can someone please offer some advice? I really don't want this to be on my credit report if I don't pay, but I shouldn't have to pay for something I didn't do. What are my rights for something like this?

I am VERY new to this whole process but I am going to attempt to clean up my credit. Back in 2007, I was in a car accident (only 18 yrs old) and working pt time, NO insurance and the er/medical bills started rolling in. I couldn't pay them at the time and most have went Into collections. My husband and I are going to try and purchase a home in the next year. I have paid a few of the bills the the hospital and they are still showing on my report by the CA. I am getting ready to pay off the last 4 accounts on CR but would like to know how to go about doing it?

So back in 2010 I had went to the ER twice and had a $100 copay for each time. Well the bills got away from me and recently I've been trying to square off any and all old debts and get my credit back. So I called the OC (Hospital) and asked if I had any old bills still owed and they told me yes I had 2 which matched up to the 2 on my credit report only on my credit report they were reported by collection agencies. My question is if I pay the hospital (OC) the debts is there a way to force (force is a strong word, strongly recommend) the CAs to remove from my credit report? Right now they still show as unpaid and since they are no longer the Collection Agencies account they cant update them to show collections paid in full, so doesnt that mean the only way for them to accurately report is to delete? I know being medical bills sometimes gives you a loophole and am wondering what I should do. Thanks in advance, Steven