Finally taking responsibility -- Question regarding credit repair

[ontheroadagian]

Backstory, current situation, and question regarding my approach:

 

I am 27 years old. When I was 21, I had a legal issue come up that caused me to lose my job. In the aftermath of this, I received a 20k judgement, had a brand new car repo'd (5 months after buying it), and my credit went to hell. I stopped paying on everything. Student loans, small 20 dollar store credits, etc. I ignored all of it. I started making pretty decent money as a web applications architect.. bought everything for cash (cars, motorcycles, boats). I sold them off. My terrible lifestyle finally came to a halt 12 months ago. I almost took my own life.. but thats another story.

 

Life is great now! I'm very happy. Time to fix this mess I put myself in.

 

I currently have 18-22 negative items on my report (depending on which you pull).. some are duplicates.. 9 of them are the same 2 student loans over and over again.

 

I have a 10k tax lien as I haven't filed taxes for 6 years. I still have the 20k judgement from when I was 21, which was "officially" entered into the system in 2011. I'm not sure why it took 3-4 years for it to make it there. I have another 1500 judgement. I have one 7k collection for a repo'd vehicle. Everything else are smaller little things here/there.

 

I hired a CPA last week, to the tune of 1000, to get my six years of tax returns handled. This will result in me entering into a monthly payment plan with the IRS. At least I'm going to avoid garnishment. I'm hoping I can have that lien removed.. but who knows. I have gone down the negatives on my credit reports, with the exception of student loans/judgements, and called every creditor. I have made lump sum payment arrangements starting 8/30/2013. I made small 20-30 dollar payments to each one to "get the ball rolling", but the remainders are occurring 8/30/2013 and 9/15/2013, respectively. This should take care of almost everything on my credit report, except IRS/Judgements/Student Loans/leftover repo gap.

 

I started at a new job 3 months ago on a 90 day contractor to hire. I was hired officially two weeks ago at an annual salary of 110,000. I'm taking my ~6000 (after 3k in taxes, ugh) monthly salary and putting everything not already owed to utilities/rent towards this debt. I estimate, except for the IRS, my 7k leftover gap for the repo'd vehicle, and my larger judgement, to have this all paid off within the next 6 weeks.

 

Is this a good approach? Some of these items are 6 years old. But they all seem to have "bounced" around between creditors.. and have been re-entered on my report as early as this year. The car was from 2007.

 

I signed up for Lexington Law a month ago and have been letting them send off "remove this stuff" letters. I'm hoping this helps. I do have a few duplicates on my record.

 

I know very little about these matters. I've always made great money, usually as a contractor, and spent until there was nothing left. I'm slowly learning how to budget.. I've taken full responsibility and am working towards paying these items off. I just don't know if I'm taking the best approach.

 

Sorry for rambling. I started reading through all the newbie/starter questions and I just want a straight answer. Should I be using various tactics here? Payment in exchange for deletion? NDA etc? I drive an old beater vehicle I bought at auction for 5k.. and it is nearing the end of its life. My FICO (Experian) is 526. Am I crazy to think I could be "purchase a new car" material within the next few months?

 

My girlfriend issued out an additional card on one of her 1k credit cards. For some reason this is reporting to my credit score as positive every month. I'm paying the bill for her as a result. So that is one good thing!

[stroked89coupe]

Woa.....

 

 

 

First. you need to loose Lexington law. We can help you with EVERYTHING you need. You can do the same thing they are doing and we can help. Second. Don't pay off ANYTHING just yet(With the exception of the tax lien). You may not be liable for the debts and we may be able to help you remove them all. They may be out of the SOL. Standby for help.

 

 

I'm going to request that you pull a copy of each CR DIRECTLY from the CRA via MAIL. US MAL. Not online. Sometimes that information you receive online will not be accurate.

Edited August 16, 2013 by stroked89coupe

[stevenwe]

Get rid of Lexington,,, and don't pay anything just yet

[cashnocredit]

First things first.

An unpaid tax lien is probably the single biggest negative one can have since the IRS has first dibs on any assets that come your way.

 

From personal experience, the tax lien is not a long term issue once the 6 years of not filing are corrected and you are on your way by hiring a CPA to do your returns,. Since your income was as a contractor the CPA (and probably the IRS later) will want to look at your banking records. In general liens are initially on just one year's income as calculated by the IRS. You may be liable for much more than what the lien is for and the IRS will not remove it until it is paid, all your income tax returns are filed, and any other amounts due are paid.

 

Oh, and don't forget student loans are one of the few like mortgages that can be tax deductible.

 

Lexington Law is a waste of money.

[mendelssohn]

The student loans will appear more than once, one time for the loan guaranteer, the loan servicer and possibly a collection agency as well. If you haven't already done so, you need to get them out of default status asap. It's really difficult to get those removed, so you want to try and rehab them before consolidation if you can to try and get the negatives removed. I had to consolidate without rehab, and now I am stuck with those negatives until Dec 2015.

 

It would be a good idea to create a thread in the student loan forum for specific advice on how to best deal with them. You should also make sure you get some positive accounts reporting. A good place to start is with 2-3 secured credit cards. Check out the link below.

 

http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=500689

[Vettecor]

The IRS has a fairly new program which will DELETE the lien from your credit reports when paid in full.

 

Don't pay a CA a single dime. It could make your CR's WORSE by paying a CA. You say your debts are being "bounced" around between creditors. Your debts are being "bounced" around by collection agencies (CA).

 

Also agree, get rid of Lexington, you don't need them.

 

Have you gotten copies of your CR from the 3 major CRA's ? If not, do that now.

 

Hang in there, things will get better.

 

 

Good luck.

[Guest Moon]

Get rid of Lexinton and I agree with getting a hard copies of your CR from the 3 major CRA's, I was told to do this

as if you want to dispute it by doing this you get 45 days instead of the usual 30 days.

 

I have received great advice from this forum and I am super glad I found it.

[direred]

Others have given some great tips. Just wanted to add my welcome.

[dvd]

Welcome and congrats for being able to move forward and to take care of these issues from the past. This is a great community and we have all gained alot of valuable information from this board.

 

I want to reiterate with what some of the posters have stated:

• Lexington Law: Waste of money. You have no control of their process. They may be able to get some things deleted but they tend to reappear and it becomes an endless cycle.
• IRS: They are not so bad to deal with and they are much better then most states. Once you get on a payment plan and have a direct debit they will most likely withdrawal the lien before its even paid off.
• Student Loans: You may be able to get on a rehab program. This means once you become current they will remove any past negatives.
• Judgement: Were you officially served; Are you able to settle; Have you spoken to a legal professional; Depending on the state you may be able to have this vacated.

You have already taken care of the IRS but what about State taxes? Also, start researching your student loans.

 

Regarding you other past debts, do not start the process until you know the following:

• Statue of limitations for open debts in your state.
• Validation letters
• PDF-Pay for Delete
• GW - Goodwill adjustments

Edited August 17, 2013 by dvd