How to start repairing credit with a judgement?
I've been reading a lot of conflicting info on how to fix this. The report in question contains a judgement for a small amount from 2002. This person was sent an extra day or two's worth of unemployment income and later was sent a collection letter. At the time the person wasn't able to pay and just forgot about it. The other issue is a medical bill that went to collections. It appears twice (exact same amt) on the report. At first I thought the best course of action would be to call the collections offices and simply pay the amounts due, but some sources online say this would reset the 7 year clock. Should these debts be disputed even though they are valid (except the double charge)?
Public Comments
- If the person can pay the small amount due back to the collection agency, I would do that with the stipulation that they will report the item 'paid' and report it to the credit bureaus. The most important thing, even though it's a negative, is to pay off the debt owed. Also, dispute the double billing of the medical bill to all 3 major credit bureaus. At least get that corrected. In addition, see if your friend's state allows medical bill debts to be part of a negative credit report. It's worth disputing as you can leave short comments, explanations, that can be part of your credit report. Plus, things might turn out favorably for your friend. You won't know unless you try. Lastly, you might want to check into some of the Yahoo Groups on credit issues. One such group is "debtsteps" and you can ask the same question here and get a number of other good answers there too.
- Sorry, but desertcities obviously hasn't read a single answer I posted on this topic....and I've answered it dozens of times. So once again I have to clean up terrible answers. 1) When you pay off a negative debt, all the creditor is required to do is show "paid" on your report....but this does NOT remove negative information. All info about charge-off's and collections is still there. Therefore, if you pay off the debt, you must demand that they delete the entry from your credit report. Otherwise, what is the point of paying a debt if it's not going to fix anything? Doesn't make sense! 2) Yes, you must dispute the duplicate information. You mentioned a judgment somewhere in your message.....if this is a report from a creditor plus a judgment report, you can't remove both. But if this is a creditor report, plus a collection agency report, one has to be deleted. The only person who can legally post to your credit report is the one who has the legal right to collect it. Therefore, send a validation letter to both creditors, and a dispute letter to the credit bureau. That should get one of them removed. 3) NEVER EVER send in a "comment" to your credit report. The law gives you the right to post a 100 explanation about any listing on your report, and they must supply this explanation to anyone who pulls your report. THIS IS A TRAP!!! Here is why. For starters, the only person who will see this explanation is a loan officer who actually pulls your report. And in the vast majority of cases, they don't read your explanation. If they do, all they see is an excuse....the fact that you didn't pay the bill is all they want to know. Explanations are NEVER used in calculating your credit scores. Now here is the worst part! When you submit an explanation, you have now validated your own debt, and confirmed that it is yours and belongs on your credit report. In the future, if you attempt to dispute it and have it removed, it will NOT come off. Why? Because YOU confirmed it! Your explanation has just guaranteed it will remain on your reports for the entire 7 year reporting period. Lesson: DO NOT waste your time sending in an explanation to the credit bureau. OK, so what exactly can you do to get these removed? If there is a judgment you are going to have a hard time. That is a public record and easy to verify. but you must be sure that it's reported correctly. If it has been satisfied, make sure it's reported that way. Follow the dispute procedure on the other items. That invo.ves sending letters to the creditor. See the link below for info on this.
- creditinfocenter com budhibbs com
- Just to add to Studly's answer: There is nothing that will reset the 7 yr reporting period. Paying a debt can reset the statute of limitations for how long a creditor can sue you. That's totally different from the 7yr. reporting period. Lots of people seem to get these two mixed up. If the judgment is paid, it should fall off sometime in 2009. So, it's probably not having much affect on your reports. Older debts have less impact on your credit score than newer ones. Paying older debts renew the activity and will make your score look worse than just not paying. Unless you get a 'pay for delete' agreement, I would do nothing. Or dispute the accounts and hope they don't get validated and then must be removed.
