Goodwill Letter Success?

[ball_mich]

Has anyone had success with Goodwill Letters? Really. Anyone? I tried this about two years ago and did about three rounds of goodwill requests with all of my charge-offs, etc. I didn't have any success. Most of my letters were lumped in as a "dispute" and I got a response that the account was verified as accurate. Even though it wasn't a letter of dispute. And those that did respond to my goodwill request simply said they were required by law to provide accurate reporting.

Anyway, my wife had a credit card account with USAA which charged-off and we settled. But I've never disputed the reporting because we still use USAA for our car insurance, and the last thing I want to do is to jeopardize that.

So I was reconsidering sending them a Goodwill letter, but I don't want to waste my time (or postage) if it isn't ever going to work. So that's why I"m asking, as anyone really had this work for them? And if so, what is success? I'm assuming they won't delete the reporting, so how can they make the charge-off/settlment less damaging?

[gcooperville]

From my experience, goodwill letters actually working are a pretty rare experience. That being said, it never hurts to try. It only costs you time.

[killakali]

It worked for me on one collection account, but not so well on another, they ignore it since I never got a reply. Just try it and good luck!

[30daylate]

who were you sending the goodwill letter to? you send it to the company and not the credit bureaus. I had a 30 day late removed because it was 4 years old