Our Second round of Credit Repair Questions and Answers. I can't believe the week flew by so fast. 

I paid a couple collections off back in September. I just tried to buy a car and the collections are still listed. How do I make them fix this?

Answer: Did you get a copy of the report by chance? There are two things you need to look for. 1) Do they show paid, or do they show as open collections? 2) The bad news. They are not required to remove the collections and I suspect you think they are.

They are only required to show it as paid/zero balance.

How do you write a proper pay for deletion letter. I have a balance with American Express I want to offer to pay for it if they delete it.

Answer: I’m not sure I understand your question. As you described it, it sounds as though you have a current, open account with Amex and you now want to “settle” if they delete it?  If that’s the case, it’s not going to happen.

As a rule of thumb, pay for deletions are near impossible with original creditors e.g. Bank of America, Wells Fargo etc.

They have too much red tape and hoops to jump through to arrange that. On the other hand… if it’s at a collection agency, then you stand a much better chance. Typically collectors just want the money and are more willing to negotiate.

Where did your forums go?

Answer: Another tough decision. I love the fact that forums give you guys a place to interact, but it also causes a problem. As information gets passed from person to person it usually ends up being wrong at some point.

There are a lot of forums where the owner or creator of the board may be very knowledgeable and have great intent, but after time the members learn just enough to be dangerous and start giving inaccurate advice. That was happening to our forum and I just didn’t want somebody leaving with bad information.

Do you really think certified mail is worth it?

Answer: Actually I really do. One thing the credit bureaus & Collections agencies have against them is time. It’s very
difficult for them to properly verify information in the allotted time frame given by law.

If you’ve ever disputed anything on your own, you may notice they take an additional 10 to 15 days to respond. That’s because 30 days isn’t a lot of time. However, an additional 10 to 15 days is just what they need and they know most people won’t question the extra time.

Certified mail takes that away. In my opinion - do everything certified.

I disputed a debt as never late and it came back verified. What do I do next?

Answer: And there is one of the problems with these dispute letters that I’m always complaining about. For sake of argument, let’s ignore statutes, dollar amounts etc and focus on dispute letters only.

If you’re going to use one, there has to be a strategy. Saying “I was never late” is a dead end street and here’s why.

All they have to do is look in their system and if your name is there and it says late - consider it verified.  From that point forward, all disputes will come back “previously verified” and you’re stuck.

A better strategy is starting with something like;

”I was not late in October of 2006 as you’re stating."

If it comes back verified you still have options like…

“I was never late in the month you are stating”

A small difference, yet very effective. Now you’ve given them something very particular they have to actually investigate. Just saying never late is not a good strategy.

This is why I hate any credit repair company, who depends completely on templates and don’t do consultations. They lead you down a dead end street.