Negative Accounts

Hi, while reviewing my girlfriends credit report I can see the following at the top from Equifax:
Potentially Negative Information
Late payments, collections and public records can have a negative impact on your credit standing. The more severe and recent they are, the more negative the potential impact might be.
Public Records 0
Negative Accounts 19
Collections 0

When I go to the bottom and view the Negative Accounts there are 2 sections, Open Accounts and Closed Accounts. The Open Accounts lists 1 account that is currently being paid off. In the Closed Accounts there are the other 18 accounts. Of those 18 there are 8 from what appear to be the collection agencies, and 10 from original creditors. When I compare the collection agencies and original creditors it seems most are duplicates except perhaps one of them. Also, those from the collection agencies all have listed "collection account" in the comments field. The rest mostly have "charged off account".

My questions related to this particular stuff are first, about the duplicates being from both the original creditor AND the collection agency, can both report this way? second, does the number of negative accounts matter past a certain point, like if the duplicates can be removed and the number drops from 19 to 12 or something around there does that help her score at all? third, the summary shows 0 for Collections as you can see above yet many of these negative closed accounts show comments that they are collection accounts, am I confusing these 2 things or how should it be interpreted? And last just for clarification, what does it mean to be a closed account versus an open account when it's under negative accounts?

Background in case it makes any difference:
She lives in TX
Most of these debts were back in fall 2004 and were results of a former friend racking up charges without consent
The credit report is from August of 2008, we haven't got a more recent one as this was our first attempt to look it up

Call the original creditors and try to settle the debts with them directly. It could have happened that the original creditors have sold your Gfs account to the collection agency.

Send debt validation letter to the collection agencies. If they can't validate the debt then dispute the same with the concerned credit bureau.

Yes. It is permissable for both the OC and CA to report the tradeline. If sold to a JDB w/in the 7.5 year federal reporting period, it is possible that you could have 3 TL's reported.


That would definately boost your score but still poor w/12 derogatories.


Still derogatory. Are they showing under Installments?


SOL in TX is 4 years from date of last payment. Federal reporting period is 7.5 years from date of first default. Check the links in my signature for TX Finance Code.

There are 2 entries under Installments but they are both closed, both are totally unrelated. Most stem from revolving accounts it appears and the CAs appear under other accounts.

If we contact the original creditors and settle with them, will the CAs be updated and removed or what happens then? I assume that if the account was sold then we must deal with the CA but if it wasn't sold and is just in a charged off status does that mean we can deal with the OC? We really want to clean up the report but don't want to manage to reset the SOL or have it appear she admits to owing the monies she doesn't.

The sample Pay For Delete letter I found online somewhere had a total amount listed as $25 for the delete. Can anyone give me a realistic idea if this actually works? I mean even in the cases where she doesn't feel like she should owe the money, paying $25 to clear it up and get it off her report is very enticing as you can imagine.

As I'm reviewing the report again, the one entry for Alltel which may not be hers, is it best to contact Alltel and try to find out or to send the DV to afni who reports it? Will AFNI be able to prove that they are chasing the right person, perhaps another person with the same name or a mis-typed SSN is actually responsible?

Hello, CD. If you try and make arrangements, on an account, that the SOL has NOT expired, then you will 're-age' the SOL date. If the SOL date is coming up, then, if I were you, I wouldn't touch it, for fear that you MAY 're-age' it. sending a DV letter doesn't have anything to do with the SOL date......A DV letter just means you want to verify the debt is yours/hers. You would not 're-age' send ing a letter. You would 're-age' the debt if you made arrangements to pay it. Is this 'explanation' clear for ya? I'm not an 'expert' in this field, however.......I'm just telling you this advice from my OWN personal experience. Hope it helps.

I don't think Alltel even serves TX. DV afni and when they sign for the green card, dispute the account as "Not Mine".

In order to reset SOL in TX, there must be a written acknowledgement of the debt and a written promise to pay.

Ok, can you explain the dispute part of the afni line? As I said we're pretty sure it's not hers at all, it actually appears that it could be from Washington DC if the account number that shows is in fact part of the phone number as I suspect. If we send a DV through Certified Return Receipt Requested then we get some kind of card when they receive it? Do we need to wait for any period of time before following up and who do we follow up with and with what? I know she's got some bad credit history here but we don't need more on there than should be. If it's not hers it should be deleted from her report I think.

On the SOL reset...there was one line from Midland that we cannot figure out what debt it is. It's a large debt that doesn't match up with the other large debts that appear as charge offs unless they've decided to take less or are adding multiple together? Do you know who Midland collects for normally? I believe about a year ago now, her mother actually may have made a few small payments to Midland but then stopped again because she said they got rude. Now on the report it shows the last paid date is 03/2008 so does that mean it's now going to be hers for 4 more years? can we still send a DV on this account to see what it's actually for? I don't know if there was ever any written acknowledgement or written promise to pay, it may have just been over the phone.

Send your DV CMRRR and track it online. When you have delivery confirmation, then dispute the tradeline with all reporting CRA's. You can do it online but I recommend mailing disputes (CM w/ e-mail confirmation). afni legally cannot verify the dispute without first providing validation to you. If they verify and do not provide validation then follow up with the CRA's and dispute "Data furnisher has not provided validation" and mail copies of your DV and green card.

Federal reporting is based on date of first default not last payment. DV Midland and reference Chap 392 of the TFC to remind them of the 30 day response time. Was this your wife's debt or her mother's?