Improving My Credit Score. Help!

[TSK]

Hello! This is a great and helpful site and I am glad I found it!!

I have paid off quite a bit of debt, and I am looking to purchase my 2nd house in about a year.

5 accounts showing 1 late payment, and 2 of the 5 show more. I have one collection account, but I paid it off in full right away.

I would like to remove the collection and late payments from my report by any means available. What should I do?

Today, I sent dispute letter to TransUnion and Equifax, before I found this site.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

[Trish]

I would say to start off by disputing the collection acct. If it's paid, they may not care to verify it with the CRAs.
Also take a look at how the collection acct is reporting. If there are ANY inaccuracies at all, you can send the CA a letter asking for validation of the debt (even if it's been paid)....and state that it is being reported incorrectly.

For the lates, you may want to try a goodwill letter which is basically writing the company and letting them know why you were late, beg for forgiveness and that it will never happen again.

Some people have actually had luck with gw letters......it's worth a try.
You can also try disputing as never late.

HTH

[TSK]

I will send the CA a letter. I live in Texas, and the collections shows to be paid n Feb 2008. If they do not respond, do I have power to force them to remove the info from the CRA?

[Trish]

Originally Posted by TSK

I will send the CA a letter. I live in Texas, and the collections shows to be paid n Feb 2008. If they do not respond, do I have power to force them to remove the info from the CRA?

No, they do have the right to report it for 7 years.......AS LONG AS they are reporting it correctly.
If they do not respond, you would just have to keep trying. You could also just try calling them up and bugging them on a regular basis until they agree to delete it. I have actually done this myself and had success...

[TonyPyke]

TSK,

I'm new to this forum as well and I'm glad I found just the same as you!

I've been doing credit repair for a while now and I've dealt with just this same situation over and over again, especially with homebuyers and ones who are in the market for a new car.

Trish is on the right track, start with disputing your collection account with the CRAs. If it doesn't get removed through the CRAs, then you will need to deal with the creditor directly (which can be time consuming). You can either ask them to remove the credit account entirely from your credit reports or ask them to report the credit account as paid as agreed, closed by consumer.

As Trish said..bugging them like a splinter in your finger that you can't remove can work too - I've done that many times as well!