I am so upset, this is making me so depressed - This might get long
My2Beauties wrote: OK so this is a rather long story. Everyone here knows that in college I did some things to my credit that I'm not so proud of. None of them were intentional obviously I had wonderful credit at one point, heck I bought my own car at 19 years old with one of the lowest APR's around. All my bills were paid on time every single month and I was doing really good for myself. Just living on my own and certain expenses I needed for school such as books, supplies, fees, and I needed a computer too, were all put on credit cards that I had. I also had somewhat of a bad shopping habit BUT in my defense I had a great PT job, made really good money and they worked around my school schedule. So, basically the whole reason my credit got out of control and it all became a mess was because my so called wonderful job, well we came in one day with boxes next to our desks and were told to basically get out. We got 2 months worth of severance and we were on our way. 2 months wasn't bad but when you're working PT and in school and making the money I was making, I knew I was doomed. I looked everywhere for a job that would work around my schedule, give me the hours I needed and the pay. I found a job whose pay matched but they only allowed Part-timers to work 20 hours a week instead of 30, they had set shifts and I could not come in early to make up extra hours. The lady in HR really liked me however and said she was going to try her hardest to see if in a few weeks she could find another place for me where I could get more hours. She promised me she would have something coming open. Well it never happened..... I was only working 20 hours a week, 10 less hours a week than I was working at this other place, I had morning and afternoon classes until 1:00 and could not find anywhere to hire me working those types of hours with the pay I wanted. Needless to say, other bills got way more important, gas, electricity, water, etc...so credit cards fell to the wayside. By the time interest went up (because if you default even one month it shoots up to like 23.99% APR) and I had racked up several months of late fees the minimum payment on all of them was not so minimum It was an absolute and total mess. Right as all of this was happening I had also broke up with my boyfriend of 6 years who was helping me on bills - so add that to the ever-growing debt I had and of course, per my request, he moved out, but that meant now the total entire amount of rent was on me and no bills were split in half anymore I wanted him out though, so it didn't really matter. I had to break my lease and move back in with my mom, all of my credit cards at this point were more than 3-4 months past due. When I moved in with my mom I was able to catch up on some things, but the credit card companies were getting pretty fierce at that point.
Within that same month I ended up meeting Brian and we hit it off At that time both of us really didn't have much and we helped each other out any way we could. So fast-forward through the years, every time we got a tax check, everytime I got a residual check from school, everytime I came into any money I paid something off, mostly the little stuff but it was going away slowly but surely. Finally once I got my job here and we got on our feet, we did nothing but pay stuff off both of our credit reports (he had tons of medical bills from where Desiree was little, he was 17 with no insurance and they were some pretty high bills, she had several febrile (sp?) seizures as a child). OK so here is the issue at hand now: With interest being tacked on and credit card accounts going to collections you can imagine the original bill that might have been say $3000 was now up to over $6000. We finished paying everything off the end of last year. Approximately 2 years ago I even went to my credit union with Brian as my co-signer and asked for a signature loan for $4500 to settle with a credit card on my report. It was a Citibank Card. The balance on the account was over $6000 and the company who had bought the debt, RMA (Risk Management Associates) agreed to settle for $4500. So that is a 3 year loan, it's almost paid off by now at this point. Well last year, I tried to see if the credit union would re-finance that loan to consolidate some other things we had been paying on and they came back and said what's this company on your credit report. It was a company by the name of Unifund, I had never heard of them. Basically, it was the same debt that I had paid off through RMA, same credit card acct # and everything, they said they had bought the debt from RMA. This had been on my credit report for a while and I had not gotten a letter, a phone call, anything from this company at all, I had no clue they were on my credit report. So, I contact them and they say basically unless you have the original letter from RMA stating you paid them off there is nothing we can do. Needless to say, of course, I couldn't find the letter from RMA. My bank however stated they would write a letter on my behalf with an excerpt from my credit report stating this was the account they had paid off. They said no. So I tried contacting this RMA company for a copy of the letter. Well guess what...of course that company was bought out by a company called NCO Group. I was literally given 15 different phone numbers for NCO group as they had offices all over the US I finally got a hold of a girl at one of the NCO offices that handled old Citibank accounts who had advised me that yes they handled Citibank accounts and yes they bought RMA out but they did not merge RMA's old records with their current ones, any accounts that were paid off through RMA were not in their database That is bad business first of all, anytime we do mergers or acquisitions we are required to house all of that other company's previous information regarding their employees. She even gave me the # to their corporate office to see if I could find anything out. The lady there told me the exact same thing and said the only thing I can do is contact the Credit Bureaus and dispute the information. This was in May of this year at this point. So I did just that, I wrote this long very detailed letter along with a copy of the letter from my bank with a copy of the cashed check (front and back) stating I had paid this debt. It took the credit bureaus months to do their investigation and I only heard back from one of them via mail, they sent me a new credit report, showing that Unifund Corporation had fallen off my credit report. I was so ecstatic. This was about a month and half ago that I finally heard from them. (They say 45 days, 45 days my pattotie ). So I thought all was fine. A couple days before we moved into our new house I get another letter from a company called First Resolution Management Corporation. Guess what...they've bought the debt from Unifund! How can they keep on doing this to me??? How?? So I went immediately to the bank and tried to refinance my car (we'd closed on our house, who by the way accepted the letter from my bank and my dispute letter so easily with no problem, thank goodness on this debt) before this First Resolution showed up on my report. Fat chance, they were already on there. I figured I could finally refinance my car because my interest rate is so high on it now that we got the house deal closed I could have my credit pulled, I mean there was no way they had enough time to get on there...Wrong!!! They were already on there. So the lady at the bank did everything she could do, she took the letter and showed the credit department the excerpt from that old credit report saying look this is what we paid off but they said no because they paid $4500 and the balance showed over $6000 - well no duh because we settled with the other company 2 years ago. They said they never got a settlement letter from the company - yeah doesn't surprise me So they won't do my loan. They faxed over another letter to this new company and this new company asked them to fax over my whole credit report and not just write a letter and include an excerpt of that account because they can't prove that's my credit report...well my bank can't make a direct copy of my credit report and show it to a third party, that's illegal and they aren't licensed to do it or something so the girl at this new company is saying the same thing to me, well if they can't do that (Get a copy of my credit report as it was at that point in time when I paid off that debt) or I can't find that original letter from RMA then it's valid and they will collect! I could cry my eyes out! Why me?? I have done nothing for the past 2-3 years except pay this stuff off, I have done what I was supposed to do, I didn't go file bankruptcy on any of these companies, I didn't even do debt consolidation, I settled with them every freaking chance I got. Why is this happening to me?? Now I'm stuck paying freaking 15% interest on my car and no one will do anything for me. The girl at First Resolution said she is submitting what she has to her dispute department but she can 99% guarantee they will need more information
Thanks for listening if you got through this. I don't know what to do!
luvmykids replied: I'm so sorry, I had the same exact problem with RMA and NCO I finally hired one of those credit repair companies, they dispute the heck out of it and as disorganized as those mergers are they finally have to take it off because eventually they fail to reply to the dispute within 30 days. It took about a year just to get that done, and it's not even a permanent solution, if they go through their books they can report it again I wouldn't have bothered except that I had already paid it and even though I had a copy of the settlement letter they said the account number didn't match my social
TheOaf66 replied: wow, quite a story I must say. I really don't know how to approach that. I was a loan officer for years and I can't say I ever had a credit situation get more screwy, I can't believe your bank won't do anything for you since they know the whole story. Well, I hope you get it worked out. Have you tried contacting the individual credit bereaus? I would find a credit conselor and ask them once. Sorry I can't help more.
My2Beauties replied: If you don't mind my asking, how much did that cost you? The credit repair company?
luvmykids replied: I think it was a set fee of $19.95/mo...You can just do a search for credit repair and a billion will come up, I'll try to remember the name of the one I used. It was a pain but the only thing I could think of at that point
CantWait replied:
Adrienne522 replied: I am so sorry. Believe me, I am one person who understands how you feel. I had the same thing happen to me. I paid off a $4500 credit card bill because I had a judgement against me. I paid off the bill 7 years ago, it is still on my credit report as a judgement. Silly me, I do not have the paperwork because I have moved 4 times since then.
jcc64 replied: Wow, that's a mouthful, LeaAnn! I'm sorry that you became a victim of predatory lenders and creditors. We all make mistakes when we're young and lacking resources- and that's exactly what these kinds of companies count on. I would fight it with everything you've got. What's right is right. They count on people running out of the energy necessary to right the ship. Stick to your guns, LeaAnn.
kit_kats_mom replied: It has to be taken off of your credit if they can not prove you owe it. I found out that little gem of info when I worked in collections and was researching very old charged off debts. You dispute it again and since the first place didn't have the paper trail, the second place probably won't either. It has to come off and it will. Sorry they are putting you though the wringer though.
TANNER'S MOM replied: Girl I am sorry, I have been there. It's really easy to get on ..but a darn miracle to get off. I am thinking of u.. I hope it gets resolved soon!
gr33n3y3z replied: wow I dont even know what to say about that I hope you stick to your guns and fight it all the way through
My2Beauties replied: Thanks guys. I've decided to do another dispute - yet again- to the 3 credit bureaus and if worse comes to worse DH said call a lawyer and just see what they say. I am also going to look into those places that Monica suggested. This just irks me to no end guys, thanks for all of your advice.
Boys r us replied: Holy crap, that sucks LeaAnn! i don't really have any advice except..DON'T GIVE UP!!! Somehow, someway..you can and will get it all resolved!
kimberley replied: what a PITA! sorry that happened to you. i agree with everyone else, fight em.
C&K*s Mommie replied: Talk about a serious PITA!
Kaitlin'smom replied: man what a royal PITA. I am sorry hun, dont give up and keep records of EVERYTHING you do and find out. I woudl think your bank woudl work with you on the refinace if you had dealt with this before and it was paid and its showing again.
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