Record of Late Payments due to Credit Counseling

[goofysteph]

Hi and thanks in advance for any advice you all have to offer. I wish I had found these forums a little sooner, but here's my story:
My scores are 525, 554 and 603. I have pulled my detailed report because my husband and I are trying to qualify for a new mortgage. I found that in 2009 when I enrolled in a credit counseling program, a number of my credit cards were reporting my payments as late. 2 Bank of America CC's had 3 months of 30 days late reporting, even though payments were made each month. Then, a citibank CC showed 6 months worth of late payments, up to 120 days late, even though they were also receiving payments. I believe there is also a Macy's that had 2-3 months of 30 days late showing up. These have all been in good standing and reported currently since Jan. 2010. Lastly, I had a dispute with the cable company, and it went too far and got sent to collections.

So far, I have opted out. I have also filed disputes on all of the late payments with Experian and Equifax. TransUnion was giving me a hard time to do so on their website - do I need to initiate the dispute process with them as well? What do I put as my reason for dispute? "Payments never late?" I did all of my disputes via the online dispute process. I also paid off in full the cable collections bill, and didn't get a pay for delete. My bad - I thought that would help me and that that was what was hurting my score the most. I JUST paid this off - any way I can get them to agree to the pay for delete now? Probably not, given what I have read. I disputed the amount anyway on my credit report.
My lender suggested I get with a credit repair agency, but that just seems like a waste to me.
All of my other accounts are in good standing, and I have a lengthy credit history of good standing. Really, it all went downhill after enrolling in the credit counseling service and starting those late payments.

My questions:
1) should I get with a credit repair agency, or can I do this on my own?
2) what are my next steps? From what I understand, I wait to hear from the creditors re validation. If they are validated, then I either send them goodwill letters or debt validation requests? Who do I send them to? It's difficult finding actual addresses and names for anyone! And after that, what?
3) Any other tricks of the trade to help get my score up? I need the median score to get to a 660 in about 90 days. Doable??

[goofysteph]

Update: I "refreshed" my credit score on freecreditreport.com this morning, and what was a 603 yesterday was up to a 699 today!! I went to Experian, and noticed that my 2 accounts that were in collections were completely removed from my account!

Do they now have to report this to the other CRAs, or do I need to keep on top of them to get them to remove it?

I'm hopeful that should put me at a number we need to get this mortgage done!!

[goofysteph]

Update #2:
I can only track what has been done through Experian online. BUT, I got another series of late payments removed (the Macy's account) just by disputing online. There was 1 60 day late and 4 30 day lates that are no longer there. Woo hoo!

Now to just make sure they are also removed from EQ and TU.

On the negative side, the Citibank lates (2 60s, 2 90s and 3 120s) came back verified. I called Citibank and cried a river over the phone. They told me to send a dispute letter to their credit dispute bureau. Ever hear of this? I did it because, why not? I also sent out GW letters to about 5 addresses I could find for them. Crossing my fingers something there works. If I don't see anything in a week or two, then I am going to do a 623 letter.

Also, my mortgage had 2 late payments and came back verified. I also sent them a GW letter.

Lastly, my VS card came back with one 30 day late verified. They also got my GW letter.

I will update again when I get some more news...

[Lian]

My advice it to entirely forgo the dispute process through the CRAs, for numerous reasons. First, you must dispute separately with each CRA. Second, they sanitize your dispute using their e-Oscar process before sending your supporting documentation to the creditor. Third, they slow down the process. Fourth, they interject their opinion into a process that is really none of their business. It is between you and the creditor.

I would dispute directly with the creditor under the direct dispute provisions of FCRA 623(a)(8). One dispute covers all CRA reporting they have made. Clear documentation, if you have it, would be copies of monthly statements from the creditors showing timely payments for the months they assert you were late. Such documentation, if you send it through the CRA dispute process, will most likely be stripped away by their e-Oscar coding system, and never get to the creditor. A direct dispute assures that all information will get to the creditor.

The danger of first disputing through the CRA, and then filing a direct dispute, is that it provides the creditor the opportunity to dismiss your direct dispute as being "frivolous or irrelevant" as being merely duplicative of an earlier dispute. Personally, I would rarely, if ever, dispute through a CRA now that the direct dispute process is available.

[chane]

In order to challenge negative listings on your credit report through the 623 dispute method, you must first dispute the information through the CRA.

After you dispute with the CRA, you must wait for 30 days for the investigation to be complete. If the original creditor verifies that the negative listing is accurate, then you move forward with the next step which is to dispute directly with the original creditor itself.