Collections

If I settle all of my debts, which are about 11 different items, will my score go up or do I have to wait 7 years for it to be cleared? If the score will not go up by paying off those collections, how do I get it to go up?

Heck No….That’s the point. The credit reporting agencies are paid off by the banks to make money for THEM. They scare you into keeping your score high and scare you with bad credit horror stories if your score is low; they win both ways. Even if you clear it up you’ll still have the items on paper for 10 years so if you apply for a loan in the future you are at risk to a scam. If you have a 700 score with a repo from 8 years ago they will quickly point it out and slap you with a %14.99 rate.

I recently spoke with an USAF recruiter and one of the questions he asked was if I had any debts in collections. At that time I didn’t. This morning I got a call from a collector. I am currently unemployed and having a hard time making it as it is. My question is, if you have debts that have already gone to collections, can you be turned away from the military?

yes, too much debt can DQ you from the military. if it’s a pretty new debt in collections, you might want to get that taken care of asap. you’ll have to just try to apply and see what happens, but chances are, since the AF is a very popular choice for the many unemployed people out there, they’ll be a lot more picky. but just go talk to a recruiter again and see what happens.

If someone took out a loan on a car and wasn’t able to pay it and the debt is now under collection, can the debt be transferred to a different person who takes responsibility for it?

If I read your question correctly, I get the sense that someone else is willing to take on the car loan. Yes, it can be transferred as long as the original creditor agrees or the person assuming the debt would just pay it off completely.

I’ve been unemployed for awhile and not as good on my student loan payments. they sent it to collections, a little prematurely, i think but, i don’t want to deal with debt collectors and really only want to deal with the original student loan lender. Can their decision to send it to collections be reversed?

A lot of loan company’s send it to their internal collections department first. If this is the case just pay the overdue balance and it will revert out of their collections.

Otherwise, if they sold your debt to another company they own it. You will have to pay them until they decide to sell it to another company. Usually the collections company’s buy large bulk groupings of past due dept, and try for a while to collect. Then regroup who hasn’t payed and resell to other collections agency’s in bulk blocks. And the cycle continues until you pay.

I have about 10,000 dollars in debt and most of that has already been sent to collections or been charged off. Can I still sign up with a debt consolidation to help improve my credit even though the debts have already been sold to collection agencies and charged off? Thanks

If the debt has already been charged off and sent to collections, the damage is already done. Paying it off won’t help your score. It will remain on your credit report for the balance of the 7 year reporting period whether paid, settled, or unpaid. However, creditors look at your whole credit report, not just the score. Paid old debt always looks better.

Define "debt consolidation". The term seems to be used for several completely different things. If you are talking about talking out a big loan to pay off all the debts, you probably will have problems qualifying with all the charge off/collection accounts.

If you are talking about a debt management program where you pay a company to pay your debts monthly, make sure the company you use is a NFCC member: http://www.nfcc.org/. There are a lot of scam companies that take your money and never pay any of your debts. However, if you are already in collections for most of your debt, a NFCC credit counseling service probably won’t be able to help.

You could try saving up and negotiating settlement offers with the accounts in collections. Work on them one at a time starting with the newest. Lump sum offers get the best deals. Payment plans have to be short term. Get any settlement agreement in writing and don’t give the collector direct access to your bank account.

I haven’t paid any of my credit cards that went into collections. Will this stay on my credit report forever or be removed after a certain amount of years?

Per the Fair Credit Reporting Act (Federal law) derogatory accounts show on your credit reports for 7-years from the date of first delinquency which works out to 7-years and 180-days after that time they drop off weather paid or not.

The thing you have to worry about is being sued either by the original creditor or by collection companies they sell your accounts to after a few months. Will they? who know it depends on the amounts you owe weather it’s worth it to them.

But if they do and win they can attach your bank accounts, garnish your wages (if your State allows it) and file liens on any real property you may own like cars, boats, land and homes.

All of this will show on your credit for the next 7-years making it very hard to get approved for any other types of loans without making massive down payments, paying huge fees and State maximum interest rates.

Most creditors have an in house collections department that tries to recover the debt of the past due balance before it is sent to a third party collection agency. I have a payday loan and the status says collections, but the debt has not been handed over to a third party collection agency, so can I send them a debt validation letter to verify debt or does it only apply to third party collection agency?

The original creditor would probably have copies of all your paperwork and account details, so to send a letter disputing it would be pointless unless it really isn’t your account.

I cosigned for step daughter, she didn’t finish contract, I was paying $100 month to the mobil phone carrier. they have sold to a debt collection company. they want payment info over phone. I told them no just send me a bill and I’ll pay. They say no. It’s verizon. Do i have to pay?

they can’t legally make you pay over the phone. they have to at least give you the opportunity to see the bill in writing. how are you to know for certain who you are paying? and what would you have to defend yourself with if it turns out to be bogus? tell that to them. if they don’t accept that, you may consider speaking to a lawyer about it.

The debtor is under another ladies name but she is using my Social Security number so the debt is under my social. What are the best steps to solve this? I think she may be stealing my social security number, I am not sure.
I called the state and finally got through…they said either the sate or the court was off by 1 digit on my social security. Thank goodness that’s all it was!

Go to the cops and go to court… you have to PROVE that isnt you, or you are going to get your wages garnished…

Aint no THINK your SS# has been stolen… it HAS BEEN…

I’m wanting to pay two small bills to get them off my credit report, one is for $308, and the other is for $100. I just spoke with the creditor regarding the $308, and they said they would take a settlement of 80%, but would not give me anything in writing in regards to having anything removed from my credit report. I was under the impression you needed something in writing first, what should I do to make sure this gets settled properly?

Get it in writing that 80% will settle the debt in full.
Then mail them a money order.

They won’t remove it from your credit report.
But once you pay the debt, they have to report that the debt was settled.