Posted by Douglas 3 years ago In:

credit

Credit Score

Have a question on credit that maybe you guys can answer. I had a double whammy a couple of years ago. I am an electrical contractor who had two jobs that were going great at the begining and then got stuck with non payment at the end. WHile working on another project that was paying and keeping me afloat, I alsomst lost my finger. I had one HOme Depot card that suffered and went into collections, 5500.00 and then the doctors and emergency care another 3000 also went to collection. Prior to I had a 740 middle score. Now I am at 600. I can now pay these debts but need to know the proper way to do it for the bifggest bang for my credit. Please advise.

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5 Answers

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noticeablejewels Answered:

Your credit score will suffer the most from the collection on the credit card whereas medical mishaps can worked out more readily. I would contact Home Depot and explain the situation and work out a payment arrangement that you can live with. Make sure you get any negotiations in writing before agreeing to anything with the creditors. The will not honor anything that is verbal as I have seen this time and time again. Also make sure they agree to reinstate your credit cared privileges once they have been paid off. In some cases, you can tell them that you have, say $3000, if they will put in writing that they will accept that amount for a full payoff and forgive some of the interest. Have them fax it to you in writing. You may have to present this letter to the credit reporting agencies once it is paid because no one ever really does what they agree to do unless you have the paperwork to back you. Do not lose this paperwork as you will definitely have to send copies at some point to make your story stand up to Transunion, Experian and Equifax. Once you have done this with the credit card company, you can negotiate with the medical creditor as well. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES GIVE THEM ANY MONEY THAT THEY AGREE TO TAKE WITHOUT HAVING THEIR COMMITTMENT IN WRITING! If these collections are over two years old, forget everything I just said becuase once you pay on an old collection, you now make it a new collection and your scores will drop. Go figure! I know, but that is just how it is! Happy negotiating!

Posted 3 years ago

Behind every great man stands a women", with absolutely noting to wear!

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RateNerd Answered:

You need to do a couple of things:

1) get a copy of your credit report from all three bureaus. There is not "one" credit score - you need to address all three.

2) Follow the appeals process to see if you can at a minimum have your statement of explanation included in the file on this account. You cannot have accurate information removed, but at least you can state your case.

3) check your other credit score factors to see if you can improve them to help offset the damage from the collection account. Here is an article that will outline what the score formula looks at: http://ratenerd.com/credit-score-secret-sauce-how-credit-bureaus-calculate-your-credit-score-1193

4) if all else fails, have an attorney or reputable credit repair company write letters on your behalf to see if they can get the information removed.

Good Luck!