Credit repair friend baled...now i am on my own.....

[Flypilot]

Chane,
I know it looks like a long story...I'll try to keep this short... please read..

My wife and I have good jobs and HAD 800 credit scores. We bought a house on 1.25 acres in Scottsdale, AZ in 2005 before the peak. Before we knew it we had $150,000 equity. We decided to rebuild the 2100 sq. ft. house and turn it into 5000 sq. ft. custom in 2007. We gutted the house and broke ground on the rebuild in May of 2007 and finished the home in Jan 2008. The home was now a new custom with $250,000 equity. Come Febuary, we couldn't get out of the 9.875% const. loan and had aquired $80,000 in credit card debt on the home for the remodel The CC's were to be paid off with the perm financing/chashout).

We now had a home that was spiraling downward in value with no permanant financing, a $8,500 const loan pmt, and $80K in CC debt. The home was valued at $1.1 MIL and was now appraising at $500,000 in July, just 6 months later. We were now $300K UPSIDE DOWN from what we owed.

We listed the home as a short sale and were successful two weeks ago. The home sold and as far as we know, the deficiency balance WILL NOT show up on my wifes credit reoprt as a charge off simply because the construction loan was never reported as a trade line. Her credit reflected no mortgage for a little over a year.

MY CREDIT REPAIR FRIEND.... Told me to let the four accounts totaling $80K go into default/charge off and he would have them removed later using validation/fruad letters. I stopped making payments last March on the CC accounts when the creditors told me they would not negotiate my rates down from 32% even though we had no deroggs at that point (well, they did say they would AFTER we were 120+ days late - whats the point then?). Our CC payments totaled over $3,000 a month. In the mean time while waiting for my accounts to charge off I had sent/refferred my friend 12 new clients to basically say thanks for offering to help my wife and I for free. I later told him I would feel better if we paid him something for his time and work. He said fine and charged me full price. Although surprised I didn't at least get a 50% off discount for sending him over $5,000 in work, I didn't argue. He then decided to QUIT the credit repair business but said don't worry, I will still take care of yours. You will be my last client. He asked for half down which I paid $400.

Chane, you better sit down for this one...... 6 days later after taking the cash, he sent me an email saying he was cancelling me as a client because I didn't sign the new contract in a timely manner and that he was keeping the $400.00 for work already done on the credit. No work had been done other than putting a fraud alert on our files. I called him and of course he did not answer. I left him a message saying send me back the $400 and we will remain friends. If you don't, do not call my wife or I again. I have not seen the $$$.

I am now on my own with some of the knowledge that he shared with me. I thought I should start by deleting the previous addresses tied to those accounts from the CRA's. Can you tell me the most effective way and do you have a letter I can use? I will follow up with the 1/2 punch and so on later.

Thank you for reading my story and offering any advice/knowledge you have.

Flypilot

[Trish]

Wow

I would want to hunt down your "friend" and beat his a$$!!

As far as what you should do.....
Just try to keep moving forward. What's done is done and now you need to try to fix your mistakes.

Starting off with the addys/personal info is always the first step.
Then start reading the FDCPA, FCBA and your state's laws. Educating yourself about the laws is a HUGE part in this.

If you can, let us know what exactly is being reported on your CRs (be sure to leave personal info out).
Maybe then, we can see if it's being reported correctly and how to tackle them.

Oh.......and stick around here, keep reading........and keep asking questions.
We are all here to help each other.

[jjgross]

Why don't you send him a court summons for breech of contract in small claims? I would report him to the BBB, FTC, AG of Arizona. Sooner or later he'll resurface. Be ready - put a lien on his house.

[Flypilot]

Originally Posted by Trish

Wow

I would want to hunt down your "friend" and beat his a$$!!

As far as what you should do.....
Just try to keep moving forward. What's done is done and now you need to try to fix your mistakes.

Starting off with the addys/personal info is always the first step.
Then start reading the FDCPA, FCBA and your state's laws. Educating yourself about the laws is a HUGE part in this.

If you can, let us know what exactly is being reported on your CRs (be sure to leave personal info out).
Maybe then, we can see if it's being reported correctly and how to tackle them.

Oh.......and stick around here, keep reading........and keep asking questions.
We are all here to help each other.

My wife and I look at it this way. He can explain to his wife and son why we will not call them or return calls, invite their son to our daughters birthday party (unfotunate for the kids), be invited out to dinner, and why they will not be called about the annual super bowl party etc.... Let him explain to his wife and son how he threw away a family friendship for $400.00.


Trish, I want to thank you, Chane, and everyone else on the boards who have been in this situation in advance for sharing your knowledge. This ex-friend credit repair did fill me in on alot of his tactics. I just have to execute them correctly and in the right order.

Flypilot

[Trish]

OMG.......when I read this, it made me think of this thread.
Scary, but consumers really need to be careful.