Any luck removing negative items from credit rpt?

[qofcc]

My 21 year old daughter came to me and said that she was turned down to rent an apartment this week because of her credit. I was really shocked because we've had discussions about responsible bill paying and less than 2 years ago, she had over a 700 credit score, partly from being an authorized user on my card, plus she had a card with a small limit in her own name.

The past couple of years have been a little chaotic for her in more ways than just financial and she agrees that she was being irresponsible and now we're trying to clean up the mess. This has been a huge wake up call for her and a tough way to learn a lesson about staying organized and checking all of the mail.

She has 8 hospital bills for co-pays that went to collection. They were all paid off as soon as the collection agency sent the notices and the highest was $100 and the lowest was $5, but they are still showing as collection accounts, now paid. Apparently she didn't realize the first bills she received were bills and not just the insurance statements that they send and are thrown away. Most places take the co-pay at the office, but apparently there were a few that didn't.

Then there were 2 department store cards where she signed up for a card to get the 10% off, then forgot about it. Both amounts are less than $200 and she says she didn't remember ever receiving the cards or any bills. I think she wasn't paying close enough attention and may have threw them out as junk mail or there may have been a problem with the address on her application right from the start. Whatever happened, it was her fault, but both amounts are being shown as charged off.

So now she has 10 negative items on her credit, totaling less than $1k but that will stick with her for 7 years unless we can do something about it and they are preventing her from renting an apartment in a decent complex. She's also applying for jobs and this just looks bad.

I was thinking of having her call up the 2 department store ones and asking if she paid the balance, would they change the account to paid as agreed. What do they have to loose? They would be recovering money they had already written off.

For the medical ones, they are already paid, so the collection agency really has no motivation to do anything for her. I'm not sure how to approach those ones and I'm looking for ideas.

She has student loans that are not due to start payment until December of this year and she understands how important it is to pay those on time, so she will have good items on her report coming up that will start to offset the bad, but that's not helping right now.

Any ideas?

[Deleted]

eek... I have had items removed where i had a legitimate dispute, but i'm not seeing that here?

It might be best to draw a line and start over? Settle what's there as you suggested, and then start working on good credit. Are you willing to co-sign a small personal loan to get her on the board? Good standing on her school loans is a good place too... and then in 6 months, maybe a small card, even if its high % and/or prepaid, just to pay a little each month and then pay it off... so she can build up credit...

That way she can at least offer an explanation, show she's learned and changed. The fact that they are small amounts helps i think. After she has some small gains, she can be up front with someone... yes, i have some bad marks, but see i've turned a corner and you can trust me...

You may be able to 'co-sign' on a lease for her too... if you want to/ think she can stick to it...

[qofcc]

eek... I have had items removed where i had a legitimate dispute, but i'm not seeing that here?

Right - she's not disputing she owes the money.

Are you willing to co-sign a small personal loan to get her on the board?

She still has a credit card in her name and is an authorized user on my card. Yes, I'm willing to co-sign a small loan for her once she finds a job.

It's cleaning this up and spinning it right for the job and apartment hunting that's the problem right now.

You may be able to 'co-sign' on a lease for her too... if you want to/ think she can stick to it...

I offered, but this place (that manages several apartments) won't allow anyone with more than 3 negative items to rent even if there is a co-signer and a large deposit. They receive government funding and it's part of their rules. It might not be a problem with a private landlord.

[brdsl]

Good Luck....


I can't get wrong information removed from mine.

On mine, there is an address I have never lived at, six cards that aren't mine, etc.

Wanna hear what is really funny? One of the cards on the report, it was opened two years before I was born.

I have called numerous times, and the agencies say, well the credit issuers are still reporting this, call them to remedy it...we can't remove you from an active credit account. I pointed out to them my birthday, along with the card that was opened before my time...well, that must be a mistake. Good, can you remove it? Sorry, it is an active account.

Hope your experience is better than mine.....by the way, if they tell you they will email you any progress, or a link to check your credit report in 30 days, they won't.

[jeffreymo]

I haven't heard of any attempts to remove legitimate entries. Each company and bill collector has a subscription to the different credit reporting agencies and it is in the best interest of the collective group that all of the data be accurate.

You could try some of the negotiation tactics you mentioned, but I don't know that they will budge because this will compromise the data of your daughter's credit report. Usually there are many, many attempts made to collect a debt before it's turned to collections and charged off.

I learned many valuable lessons when I was in my early 20's. I just didn't pay attention to things - just like your daughter. I had a student loan payment that was $50/month - and since I hated writing a check every month I'd send them a payment once a qtr after they'd make numerous collections calls. I had a cable bill in my name that I just completely ignored when I changed addresses. I spent every penny I had and maxed out a couple of low limit credit cards. In the end, I had to rely on my parents to co-sign on my first 3 apt rentals after school, and they had to co-sign on my 1st three auto loans.

Once those items expired from my credit report, my score soared to the mid 700's.

[TD2K]

You can try, can't hurt. I've heard of some people who got negative information deleted in return for them paying an old debt on the old YM boards, hard to say if it's true.

You'll have more pull if these debts are past the statute of limitations or aren't large enough that the collection agency isn't going to bother going through the courts to sue for them. Make sure you get from them a letter stating in return for you paying these old debts they will either delete the entry (hard with a collection agency to argue it should be 'pays as agreed' )

For the ones she has paid, if these are older you could just try disputing them also, the collection agency might not bother verifying them.

[973beachbum]

Apr 1, 2011 10:55:48 GMT -5 brdsl said:

Good Luck....


I can't get wrong information removed from mine.

On mine, there is an address I have never lived at, six cards that aren't mine, etc.

Wanna hear what is really funny? One of the cards on the report, it was opened two years before I was born.

I have called numerous times, and the agencies say, well the credit issuers are still reporting this, call them to remedy it...we can't remove you from an active credit account. I pointed out to them my birthday, along with the card that was opened before my time...well, that must be a mistake. Good, can you remove it? Sorry, it is an active account.

Hope your experience is better than mine.....by the way, if they tell you they will email you any progress, or a link to check your credit report in 30 days, they won't.

We have filed a complaint against false information in our credit reports. I'm not saying it was easy or quick but we did do it and they did, eventually , remove it.

To get this done you need to start by having current credit reports. Go through them with a fine tooth comb.

Remember that each of the three credit reporting agencies are completely separate and have different rules and forms for this. You need to contact them each separately and get the proper forms and what documentation is required by them to fill a complaint to get the information removed.

Our problem was with Trans Union. We would fill out the form and they would check and tell us that based on the info provided they found the information to not be accurate so they would have it removed. It would be great for a month.

Then the next month it would reappear. So we would file our paperwork again complaining that incorrect info that was already decided was reposted and TU would remove it again. Then the month after that it reappeared again,. Later, Rinse and Repeat.

I think to finally get the wrong stuff permanently removed took almost a year of constant vigilance and persistent challenging by us. You really have to decide that you will not let them win and you will write as many letters as it takes till they finally fix it.

I don't know of anything that can help if what is says it bad but true. The only thing I know of that will heal that is time. Just my 2 cents.

[DVM gone riding]

I don't think the kind of job that your daughter at 21 is most likely going to be applying for is going to bother to check her credit. as a landlord I don't blame them at all I wouldn't rent to your daughter either, esp since on top of bad credit she doesn't have a job!!

You can "despite" claims on your credit report-they are supposed to either remove them or confirm them in 30 days. I have heard of people getting legitimate bad things removed.

[qofcc]

I don't think the kind of job that your daughter at 21 is most likely going to be applying for is going to bother to check her credit. as a landlord I don't blame them at all I wouldn't rent to your daughter either, esp since on top of bad credit she doesn't have a job!!

She's applying for medical office and patient care jobs through temp agencies. All of them have said they do background checks but I don't know what exactly they're checking. One agency sent her a letter and said that she was ineligible for hire, but they won't return her calls to tell her why so we were wondering if this might have something to do with it. She doesn't have any criminal record, just a few traffic tickets.

She was a full-time student until last month, that's why she wasn't working, but she's actively searching. She has a section 8 voucher and needs to find a place to accept it by May 1st. The apartment she was applying for was income based housing.