I’ve seen some conflicting stuff and just want some clarification.

Two years ago I moved. I thought I paid my last internet bill, but apparently I didn’t. Long story, but I temporarily lost access to the email address my Internet provider was linked to. I missed 2 emails from them saying my bill was never paid and threatened to send it to collections.

They did.

Many months later I started getting texts from collections agencies that an AT&T bill was sent to them. I was oblivious to having not paid my AT&T bill and genuinely thought they were just scammers. I get lots of scam calls/texts.

Turns out they were not scammers.

I ended up paying the bill directly to AT&T. Through this whole process I was surprised to see it was never placed on my credit report and my score never dropped. Until I paid it. Only AFTER I paid the bill it went on my report and my credit score shot down 80 points.

I’ve been reading about appealing collections on your credit report after you pay the debt. Is there any validity to this? If this were the case, why wouldn’t everyone do it and we all have great credit?

Anyways, I’m just trying too see if I actually have any options to try or if I’m stuck with this sub 700 credit score for the next seven years.

Thanks!

I (28m) recently got denied for an apartment because I had an excessive number of charge off’s.

I pulled my Expedían report and I feel comfortable about my ability to pay off my collection and charge off balances. It’s just over 2K total.

I have a few questions so bare with me please!

It’s my understanding that I can call whoever has the individual debts and negotiate a pay off. Does that affect whether or not it falls off my credit? Do collections only fall off when paid in full?

I believe I read that charge offs don’t fall off but they look good to be paid off. Is that correct?

Is it true that even if I pay it off I have to negotiate it falling off my report?

Thank y’all so much in advance!

Hi! I have disputed 2 collections that were on my account (I believe it was past SOL anyways) and it has been removed from my account. However, Im debating if i should pay those collections or negotiate a settlement so I wont have to worry about it creeping up on me in the future. What do you guys advise?

Hello, in short I signed a joint car loan with my now ex girlfriend awhile back. She took off with the car and unfortunately has been destroying my perfect credit. As much as I don't want to I fear the only way I may be able to stop my credit from plummetting is paying off the loan...There is still 2+ years left on it, and she is late on paying just about every payment...I highly doubt she'll look into getting it refinanced as she probably hopes I'll cave in and pay for it

If I chose not to pay out the entire car, would it be incredibly hard to bounce back? I was really hoping to put this money towards another investment property for myself not pay the rest of a car off that I won't even use...

I'm looking to gaining credit. My score is non existent, I've searched credit building and it brings up a lot of different platforms to use ( self. Kickoff etc) What would be the best thing to improve credit? Builder loan , pre paid cards .. Idk where to begin.

I had the misfortune of editing a payment for my PayPal MasterCard (I usually do autopay) and realized the day after the payment was due/was "sent" that an old bank account was selected for the edited payment. I sent a payment through the day after the due date (when I realized my mistake) for the remaining balance on the card (that wasn't due), but it was too late. I noticed about a week later that I no longer had a credit balance with the card. I had had the card for about 2 years.

I have just recieved a letter from Synchrony Bank stating that my account was closed due to "The number of dishonored payments on this account". I've never missed any other payments and my credit history also shows no missed payments for this or any of my other accounts.

I was really bummed by this, especially since I did submit a separate payment the following day.

I have a seperate account with Synchrony that hasn't been closed yet, but based on other posts I have seen from others it sounds like there is a chance Synchrony will also decide to close my other account (no missed or late payments on that one).

Moving forward I'd like advice on what to do. Is it worth attempting to speak with Synchrony, with my account already closed? I worry this could promt them closing my other account and if that's a risk I'd rather just leave it be.

I've also noticed I'm still getting invited to apply for a PayPal line of credit--which I wonder if this is automated? Why would I still get this after they closed my account? I think applying would be a bad idea and I'm obviously not going to do this.

**BUT I would also like an idea of how long I should wait to apply for other credit cards (Synchrony included). I'm not really in need of credit at the moment, but am trying to slowly aquire more credit lines. I'm also close to paying off a loan and am sure that will cause my credit score to drop/I will have one less account (7 accounts when the loan is paid).

I'm genuinely interested in getting the PayPal MasterCard again as I did frequently use it for 3% back on online purchases. And will ensure any payments are set before the duedate with the correct account. Should I wait a couple of years to apply again? It sounds like others have had Synchrony accounts closed and opened another sometime later.**

Thank you for the advice. Yes, I know this is dumb. I have much older credit lines/cards that this has never happened with. It was just a really unfortunate mistake. 😞

Asking advice: while building my credit, i used two consumer finance accounts to help establish, now these two accounts are on my report and in the past showed as negative effects, slowly on the Experian app they fell of on the what’s helping/hurting section. Ok no big deal it’s just part of the my stupidity for using them. So my score has been on the upswing for a while now and today it dropped ten points. Never had a late payment never go above 10% usage all accounts are either at 0 or around 3-4% and has been steady that way for the past year. When I logged into my Experian to check those two consumer finance accounts popped back up on the what’s helping\hurting page again, today being the first was also another milestone for me for another year of established credit, did that set a trigger? Is there any way to pay to delete these accounts? They were both for small amounts and have been paid off for over two years now, the hard inquiry from both of them isn’t even on my report anymore. I guess just bummed because I’ve been doing all the right things after establishing credit and these two accounts are coming back to haunt me

Hey so long story short a few years ago I had a shitty situation and ended up w a broken lease. Worked with a lawyer negotiated it down and settled with pro collect for pay to delete. Lawyer has recordings of this and the paid to delete letter (I received a copy as well). It was end of the month so instantly all 3 credit bureaus reported it “paid”. It’s a broken lease though so I’m still waiting on the actual removal. It’s been about 30 days and I know at 45 I’m supposed to reach back out to the lawyer and they will take care of it, but pro collect said it’ll take 30-90 days. The lawyers anrt too concerned about the issue (not that they are shrugging me off they just do this a lot) I have an out of state job opportunity so I’m hoping this speeds along so I can actually take it. I’m pretty anxious about this whole thing it’s been a process and grueling but I assume best course of action is just to wait. Today is the first and no updated activity other than my score boosted about 20 points bc I paid the collection. Didn’t know if anyone had any advice on the matter.

Thanks!

Mid-20’s, college student, in the process of rebuilding my credit (570 FICO 8)

I have 4 collections total. 2 in lesser amounts in which I intend to do a pay for delete this month.

1, an eviction totaling $2200. April this year would make 7 years. Equifax and Experian have already deleted this collection from my report, but TransUnion remains.

1, named TrueAccord Corporation. Original creditor is reporting as AT&T. I have no knowledge of an AT&T account. Called AT&T, they have nothing either. Even called TrueAccord, they can’t pull up anything with my information.

I have 4 installment loans (student loans) and no major credit cards.

In this situation, I would assume collections are the biggest issue. Should I open up a couple of secured cards? Thinking about nRewards with Navy Fed & possibly Discover.

I had a medical debt from September of 2023. Approximately $350-$400. I was not in a financial position to pay it, so admittedly, I put it off and ignored it for awhile.

Eventually a debt collector reached out. Mail, phone call, text message. I never answered the phone so I never actually spoke to anyone. I believe the last piece of communication was a text message they sent me in July of 2024. Nothing has been put on my credit report regarding this debt.

Being that it's been apprx. 15 months since the initial bill, 6-7 months since last contact from the debt collector, and no reporting to my credit report/score, is it reasonable to presume I'm in the clear? Or should I go ahead and address this and pay something?

Any guidance here is appreciated. Thank you.

I was a stay at home mom for years,but my child’s father left me last year. i moved back in with my parents and got a work from home job, but it didn’t last long as i got laid off. i missed so many payments over the last few months while i’ve looked for a new job. i planned on using my tax money to buy a cheap cash car so i could get a job, but my return is only $1,106… i’ve decided to use it to pay off one of my credit cards and pay down the others some. the only problem is i still need a job and i still need a car. at this point i think my best option is to finance a car, but given my recent missed payments, my score going down, and no job i don’t think any dealership would work with me. the only steady income i have right now is from college which is $780 a month. i realized i will have to get an in person job as finding another WFH job has not worked out. but i need a car to get to work… i’m so lost on what to do right now.

In the process of rebuilding credit having to go out and rent a house in a couple weeks here and they’ll be running credit and I was just trying to find out is that normally hard inquiries? And if so, how best to approach it so that it doesn’t penalize me so much or is it not like a mortgage company or a car that you can do you know 3/4/5 in a week or so span and it only counts as one search?

Hi all,

I received a collection letter from Hunter Warfield regarding a debt collection from an apartment I moved out of in September.

I disputed the debt because the apartment has yet to tell me why they have charged me the moving out fees.

The dispute was made online and I have a screenshot of the page, however, I haven't received any confirmation emails regarding my submitting a dispute and I received an email this morning regarding another collection attempt.

To my knowledge, a debt collector has to send me information regarding the debt and a confirmation upon receiving a dispute and they must cease all collection efforts once a dispute has been made.

Obviously, please correct me if I'm wrong. If I happen to be correct, what should my next steps be to protect myself?

I appreciate the help

I’m not going to write a novel here, just going to give a breakdown.

Midland contacted me in 2023 about a Fingerhut account. I sent a letter of Verification trying to get a statement of charges and a signed contract. They sent an account summary with the balance. I wrote again asking for the same documents. They wrote back stating, “this is your account, we are not sure what you are wanting.”

I let it be and in October 2024 I got a letter from Kohn Law - their law partner - for the same amount. I wrote again asking the same basic verification information and never heard back. I was served papers in December. FDCPA violation number 1 for failure to validate/verify before before proceeding to collect/sue.

I began to have fun with it. I filed a CFPB complaint to which Kohn responded saying they never received said validation/verification even though I have the USPS return receipt stating they in fact did. FDCPA violation 2. They tried to verify in the same complaint response, but the link to docs they sent was broken. FDCPA violation 3.

Luckily my college pal is a consumer lawyer and wrote a response to the suit and a counter claim for 3 violations.

I waited until the very last minute to file it with the court along with all evidence. Funny enough they were trying to file for default judgment at the same time.

The lawyer from Kohn try to dupe me into settling in person, but I asked for him to send it in writing for me to think about it…. lol violation 4 for deception.

I went ahead with the court date - they produced some BS credit terms doc with no signature, an account summary with no itemized charges, and a chain of account sale with nothing bearing my name or account number.

We were in front of the judge for a total of 6 minutes before I won my counter claim to the tune of 5,000, court costs and lawyer fees. Feels good to use the law against these scumbags.

A little over a year ago my car was totaled and I had insurance and GAP. After insurance, I owed about $3,400 so I called GAP for them to cover the remainder of the loan. They said they will make the payment and that I am not required to pay the rest of the loan. It took GAP several months to make the payment which resulted in a 180 day missed payment on my credit that I eventually noticed when trying to rent a house but was being denied due to bad credit history. I tried calling GAP, the auto loan company, and filed the dispute with Experian but it hasn't worked so far. I purchased credit saint... I know. I've had it for a month and nothing yet but it's better than nothing I guess. Please let me know what I can do to remove this from my credit.

It sends me to Annual Credit Report dot Com. Is this normal?

Is this the best way to see my Trans \union score?

Second...

Why I want it is to understand my FICO ultimately. Right now Transunion says I'm using 50% of my credit but Equifax says 40%

Also Equifax online says I have late payments WHICH I DO NOT and I even called them and they said I don't so I'm thinking this may be a mistake at Transunion.

So stuff is all fxxd up and I'm hoping to iron it out.

Long question short, is getting my Transunion credit report the best first step?

Edit: add trying to increase fico score

I apologize if this was already addressed. I searched and I couldn’t really find anything to my specific question. I am trying to pay off credit card debt and things that have gone to collections, but there are some accounts that were already paid off 3 years ago and my Experian report is stating that they will be on record until December 2028. Are those accounts still going to affect raising my credit score even if I pay off all of the current accounts in collection?

UPDATE: I just canceled my Credit Karma account. I can monitor my credit with Experian and get other info from my banks. I’m tired of opening the app daily and weekly looking for every little up or down tick in my score. I don’t need CK. Deleted apps and done.

Original Post: Guys, According to Credit Karma, I had 35 point drop on TransUnion Vantage and 30 point drop on Equifax Vantage. I also see a 35 point drop in Capital One Credit Wise TransUnion Vantage. My Experian FICO 8 scores are as follows: Experian 653, Equifax 661, and TransUnion 676. What is going on? The only change shows my Amex Blue decreased from $816 to $790 on a $1,000 credit limit. There’s no other changes. I’m so mad right now. My untilization has been decreasing every month on all 5 credit cards. Nothing else happened!! Can I complain to these companies to demand an explanation and fix for such an egregious drop in score?

Hi all,

So just curious what that looks like (don't just want to run around applying everywhere and hurting my score more without understanding it better). My score is around 600, and my utilization is around 90-100% which means my "real" score minus utilization would be around 750~. My question is, given that low score what's the likelihood of getting a consolidation loan? I'm guessing if I got a consolidation loan, paid down my cards, that even with the drag of an installment loan on my file, the utilization drop would almost instantly push me back to 700+. So do the consolidation companies take that into account or?

I am seeking other website sources to do an deeper search looking for possible late payment errors.

Hello I make about 54k a year and I just paid off around 16k in debt. Yes 16k I saved over the last year and started doing disputes to get old information of my credit report. I went from 480 to 610 middle mortgage score. I have two items left on my credit report that I am setting up payments for due to the disputes not working for them. I am trying to get at least 620-640 before I apply for a home loan. The other things I paid have been removed off my report one increased my credit by 20 points when it was removed. I am needing help on getting to the 620-640 mortgage score.

I have three credit cards Discover $200 limit under $2 on the statement Lowe’s $6,000 limit owe $600 reports $35 on the statements Sam’s club $10,000 with a $0 (authorize user)

I do not want to open any cards cause I am trying to buy this year hopefully in 4-6 months I have 15k saved right now so a down payment if I must do FHA 3.5% Also I have a car loan but I only have 9 payments left of $250.00 a month

I am looking for honest help and tips.

Hey all! Just wanted to ask if anyone could help me with my current situation. I have been an authorized user in my parents credit cards since I was around 14 and have spent a big amount of money on them during the past couple of years. I just recently turned 18 and opened a credit karma account and saw that there is no score available for me yet. I've been waiting for almost a month and nothing has showed up. My parents always paid the credit cards fully every single month and we both expected for me to have a good credit as a head start. What can I do now?

Will a credit card company lower an APR if your credit score has gone up significantly since you first got the card? If so, will they be able to do it without a resulting hard pull?

I couldn’t find any similar situations through search on here and I’m lost as what to do now or who else to talk to.

So long story short, I had a repo way back 2018 through Chase Auto. I am in the process of repairing my credit and I’m on the right track, but I have this account that remains as open status on Equifax due to a remaining balance. I called Chase to see if I could get a letter to remove it from my credit since I’m 1 month away from 7yrs ( I did get this removed from Trans Union yesterday as it did say closed as of July 2018), but Chase said no because of the balance…This is only being reported on Equifax now and nothing on Experian.

Can they legally keep this open indefinitely until the balance is paid and do I have any other course of action other than disputing with Equifax, which I am in the process of doing? Possibly will this automatically fall off regardless by next month despite what Chase has it listed as?

Hi there, I’m in college and had to go get a checkup back in June of 2024. Since I have blue cross blue shield they refused to cover my bill of $312 and have since sold the debt to collections. I have pretty much no money since I’m in college and I have been getting a call every day for the last 6 months at exactly 10:45 each morning about the debt and how I’m going to pay it. I have told them to wait twice and have told them to put me on a do not call list twice and nothing has changed. What should I do?

i keep getting this notification on experian (the app) that

“Equifax and TransUnion has no record of your credit history or different personal details for you on file. Until this issue is resolved, you won't be able to see your report.”

how does this happen and how can i fix it? i haven’t had an accurate reporting since april 2024

I disputed an account directly with TransUnion, it was deleted today. How soon will my credit score with TransUnion update?

Thanks for your insight!

So I had a charged off card with capital one that’s already been paid since last year and I wanna know the odds of getting a car loan with them?

So I am in the process of repaying Chase my charged off card and I know that’s gonna look better on me than not paying them back at all. I know I’m gonna have a while until it falls off my credit report but if I open up new credit cards and show proof of on-time payments for the next few years on my car loan and credit cards until the charge off completely falls off my report do you think I’ll have a good chance of getting back in with them? I know some people have had to go through reconsideration a couple times to get in!