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There's a debt on my credit report.
Lukin
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I just ran my credit report because in about 6 months I'm going to buy a new car, and I wanted to make sure there wasn't anything wacky on there... Well as it turns out, there is.
There's a debt there from my old apartment that was forwarded to collections. It's for $850 which while not insignificant, I could make pretty painlessly. The thing is, neither my old apartment nor this collections place has made any attempt to contact me in regards to payment. Maybe they have and failed. I don't know. But I'm kinda worried about it. And now my awesome 730 rating from a year ago is a crummy 680.
I lived with roommates in this apartment, and their cats really messed up the place. The debt's gotta be his... If he pays the debt, will it come off my credit report? We were on the lease together, so I assume the debt's in both our names.
Just fishing for suggestions on what I should do.
There's a debt there from my old apartment that was forwarded to collections. It's for $850 which while not insignificant, I could make pretty painlessly. The thing is, neither my old apartment nor this collections place has made any attempt to contact me in regards to payment. Maybe they have and failed. I don't know. But I'm kinda worried about it. And now my awesome 730 rating from a year ago is a crummy 680.
I lived with roommates in this apartment, and their cats really messed up the place. The debt's gotta be his... If he pays the debt, will it come off my credit report? We were on the lease together, so I assume the debt's in both our names.
Just fishing for suggestions on what I should do.
Lukin on
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No man should have that kind of power.(Twitter)
On older accounts they tend to just write them off, because of having to dig up the old records. Newer accounts might be tougher.
Whether or not they actually tried to contact you, or if "the debt's gotta be his" is of no consequence at this point. Its on YOUR credit report now, period. They might have put similar debt on your roommates credit records, but who knows.
No man should have that kind of power.(Twitter)
Its odd that the landlord chose to take it to a collections agency. Here in NY a landlord would usually take you to court and hit you for his laywers fees too, since you tend to get more results out of a judge's ruling. I wonder what percentage of the $850 the landlord is gonna have to pay the collection agency?
Another route you could take is negotiate with the landlord. Because really, if you or your roommate never pay this it affects your credit yes but the landlord never sees a dime. Lose/lose. If you pay the collection agency the landlord isn't seeing every penny of that money. Maybe cut a deal with him for say, half the debt. But if you do make sure you get something in writing, so later if this comes up on your credit again you can show a "paid in full" and fight it easily.
No man should have that kind of power.(Twitter)
If the landlord has engaged a collections agency, then it's entirely possible that he's sold the debt to them at a loss, and has washed his hands of the deal. There's no point in dealing with the landlord anymore at all. One thing to remember is that a collections agency is out to make money, regardless of your other bills, so when you finally talk to them, offer them half, and see how it goes from there. They DO have the power to negotiate.
Here' is some information for your perusal..
collection-faql
What-Are-They-and-How-Do-They-Work
Experian, Trans Union and Equifax are the three major credit reporting agencies. If you're just looking for your credit score (rather than a full report) the FICO score is what you want.
The official government site for checking your credit report for free is https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
Any other site claiming to do so is an imposter and will probably be a scam of some sort.
Note that you only get to see a copy of the info in your credit report for free. You don't actually get to see your credit score unless you pay.
Other companies checking will effect it. Getting a new credit card will also make your score drop a little (for about six months, I think.)
Once it's taken care of (sub-$500 debt) then the reports should show that it's closed. I have over 20 "open/never late" status accounts showing, with just 2 negative ones. Most are school loans.
I'm going to check my score @ freecreditreport.com later, but I was wondering what I should expect. The 2 debts are actually the same one, just one was closed and sold to collections (the 2nd reported debt).
Anyway, it will take some amount of time for the two companies to report your debt being settled. After that, you need to show some additional history of payments made on time and your credit score will climb again. People do like seeing you paying off collections, but they like to see you paying on time as agreed more. Checking more than annually isn't going to benefit you greatly. It takes too long to see any progress on anything unless you are looking for something very specific (such as those two debts being shown as paid).
Tangential question - does not having a credit card (and therefore not having any recent credit card activity) make your score drop, or does it keep your score steady? I ask because I had a credit card and a fantastic credit rating until I had my identity stolen a year or so ago, at which point I said fuck it and canceled the card. I haven't gotten a new one since I never really needed the old one; I was just trying to build credit with it.
For Australians watching, hoping someone can offer advice: I've got a debt on my credit file from 2004 which has been paid. I don't recall ever being told it would go to or had been sent to collection when I paid it. I think it was just a long overdue power bill from a sharehouse I'd moved out of.
It won't come off my report until september 2009. Is there any way to speed this up? I have been denied several credit cards that I applied for, not knowing that this debt was on my credit file. When I finally looked in to it, eep, now it looks like I've been applying for bucketloads of credit. I haven't applied for any cards in about 2 years.
Can this "blip" on my record be removed? And would it be the only thing causing credit card applications to be rejected?