As most of you know, I am trying to dig myself out of the payday loan trap with the help of a debt consolidation company. I've contacted several attorney generals offices, justice departments, etc. Today, I received an e-mail back from the Ohio Division of Financial Institutions. I sent a few questions in at the end of December. I forgot I had sent the e-mail until today. It does state that their view on payday lenders is this: they must be licensed with the ohio division to do business with ohio consumers.

I have been paying my school loan as promised for over 4 years. I keep getting offers in the mail to consolidate for a lower interest rate. Is this advisable? Would doing something like this negatively impact my credit score?

I've been browsing this forum today, after spending the past four or five months working on cleaning up my credit report. Has anyone had any dealings with American debt management? In 2001, I consolidated two credit cards with them, with the agreement that in 3 years, both would be paid off. It wasn't even that much debt ($3000), but with my salary at the time, I felt it was necessary. Well, lo and behold, I check my credit report, and it's showing up as unpaid. I have written letters and filed a complaint with the BBB but have not heard anything yet.

I have just signed up with a debt settlement company through this website. It is through an attorney, and they seem great. I will probably be out of debt in June, and I am just wondering what I can do to start building new credit. How bad will debt settlement hurt my credit (which is already horrible), and how hard will it be for us to move and buy a new house?

I had a credit card on all three of my reports,that was paid off years ago.I disputed it with one of the bureaus,but have not contacted the other two.I checked the other two today and they had also taken it off.Do they let the others know of changes? :?:

I am getting numerous phone calls on my home and cell phone from a company. I am in the process of sending a debt validation letter and cease phone contact letter. I just received seven phone calls in a 90 minute period. Four phone calls were in a 15 minute period. Is this considered harrassment?

Online shopping is a real enticement. It has made life sooo easy. Moreover it helps people keep pace with today's fast life. Buying goods is just the matter of few clicks now. But lots of people get scammed every day. How to identify a legitimate online shopping company? It is a problem indeed. Now FTC has come up to help online shoppers. This generous move is definitely going to help people a lot. FTC is offering some tips that rings the buzzer against con artists- http://www.ftc.gov/ Now this endeavor surely deserves a round of applause.

I have an account on my report, midnight velvet. I have heard nothing from these people, until, I guess credit bureaus checked with them, now they're writing. THey were charged off several years ago. Now they're mailing me a 'fraud report' so they can investigate stolen identity. I'm not claiming stolen idenity. I just asked credit bureau to check into it because I don't remember them or the amount they say I owe. Also have not heard from any collection agency on it. So should I write them back and ask for validation or fill out the form so they conduct a investigation.

I have a joint visa credit card with wells fargo. It was 'charged off' early last year. now on my report, its showing paid?? I worked out payment arrangements with collection agency and have been making payments to them every month since April. My credit report shows that its paid, 0 balance. whats up with that? collection agency purchased the account maybe? or in house CA paid themselves off and charging me every month, therefore showing the account is paid for paper work purposes? ever heard of this? thanks, shirley

Hi. I got my transunion credit report today. I had wrote and disputed some things on my report. They didn't respond to any of my disputes, however, just sent me a report and included a sheet for disputes to mail back in or to reply to them on line. Wonder if this is what they're all going to do? Guess I'll have to redo my disputes now. In any event, I got a new report. Nothing has changed on it at all. Dell financial is still showing write off and no other collection agency is showing.