Credit And Collections Career Guide and Counseling

Question: How do i increase my credit score while i have late payments, charge offs,and collections? I have charge offs, late payments. One involuntary repossesstion, medical, credit cards and credit collections on my credit report. I see no way out of debt.

Answer: Stop using credit. Pare down your life so you have only the things you can afford. Chip away at your debt at the same time. It may take 10 years but you will be free eventually. I even lived without a car for 2 years - no easy feat in Maine - and it saved a lot of money, plus I lost lots of weight.

Question: Where can I find an outline of proper steps in establishing a Credit & Collections Policy? I am starting a newly developed position with a company that has no Credit & Collections policies in place, I am being asked to start from the ground up to establish them. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed and would really appreciate any suggestions.

Answer: RMA. Basel (www.bis.org). www.fdic.gov try the OCC website. RMA is risk management associate. FDIC will have rules and regs, but also exam manuals, as will the OCC's website. Basel has good general banking ideas. If it's small credit, you can find collection guidelines for the credit card providers online. If it's mortgages, there are guidelines on Freddie Mac or Fannie mae's guidelines for seller servicers. You can also find the fair credit collection act online, use your browser. I think some of the larger banks have their policies online too.

Question: I want to know the industry best practices in commerical credit collections? Auto loans, mortgage, Credit card etc collections

Answer: For Commercial Collections - Being articulate, strong negotiation skills, detail oriented, ability to read reconciliation reports, knowledge of the Uniform Commercial Code, listening skills, a good understanding of business entities, and professionalism.. But the items you listed - Auto Loans, Mortgage, and Credit Card debt kinda threw me off. I would expect those to be more consumer credit than commercial.

Question: Should my wife fear tax collections and bad credit because of my tax debt when I was single? I aquired a tax debt while single and am in collections currently (An installment agreement). I got married 3 years ago to a woman who has been a full time grad student from the beginning and has not earned enough to have to file taxes in those 3 years. She has insisted that we file married but seperately because she is afraid of collection actions against her because of my tax debt but because of this we are losing the tax benefit of filing jointly thus gaining more credit each year toward my debt (I've been filing 0 dependents and having the max tax taken out of my paycheck to get the highest returns which the IRS applies to my debt). We may have an opportunity to submit an offer in compromise soon and put this behind us. Should she fear bad credit, a collection action against her, etc if we change our status this year and possibly amend the previous years we been married to exellerate the reduction of the debt before and until we apply for the OIC?

Answer: If you file a joint return she can attach a Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation to protect her share of any refund. You should attach the form to your paper return and mail it in. If she had no income, filing separate returns might not have been a good idea, actually. She has no refund to lose out on and you would have had a larger amount credited to your debt since joint returns attract less tax liability. You'd be able to use the various educational credits and deductions on a joint return as well, maximizing your refund and the amounts credited to your debt with the IRS. You may wish to discuss that with her. Tip: If you live in a community property state, do NOT submit the Form 8379 if she has no income. If you do, she'll get a check for half of the refund and that will slow down the clearance of the debt. She could give you the money to send back to the IRS but why bother with the delay and hassle? She cannot be held accountable for your debt that existed prior to your marriage. No collection actions can be taken against her for those debts. She does have plenty to be concerned with about your credit rating, though. Any joint credit will be impacted by your poor credit score and will drive up credit costs for some years to come.

Question: can anyone tell me how to get in touch with summerhill credit collections? can anyone tell me how to get in touch with summerhill credit collections?

Answer: Um...either wait for them to call... Or, look them up in the phonebook, or with google. If the latter, type-in the company name, then "+<your city's name>". If they're local to you, that should work...just remember, no quotes, and no space between the "+" and the first letter of the city name. Good Luck!

Question: What do I need to do to fix my credit with collections in my report? To make a long story short...i have pretty bad credit after having very good credit!!! There are things I plan on doing in the furture that requires good credit so i am trying to start fixing it! However, i have a couple of things that went to collections from maybe 4 years ago! What do I need to do to fix my credit score? I understand that one can dispute things, but I pretty much never paid things on time so everything that I know of should probably be correct!!! :( I have a car that is payed off since then, and am now paying off school with OUT missing payments! Will this help and how much will it help?

Answer: Firstly go here and do your research prior to doing anything. www.creditinfocenter.com You can actually damage your credit by getting some things to fall off. Transunion will let you get a free report to dispute info. Equifax and Experian require $10 to purchase a report so you can then use the credit report for dispute. As far as those collections go, dispute, dispute, dispute. Most collection agencies actually have no real rights to be asking for money from you in the first place (read up on your rights). After a dispute the collection agencies have 30-45 days to respond to the credit bureau's and if they fail to do so, which some will, then the collection goes bye-bye. As far as the lates go just dispute them as never paid late. The worst they can do is confirm the late payments but some may get updated as what you state them to be "never paid late." Be wary of the collections though, after being deleted from your credit report some can actually come back and be re-reported. If you want to do it right you should look into one of those 3 in 1 credit monitoring deals so you will be notified every time anything is added or changed on all 3 of the credit bureau's. It's like $10 a month. Having those accounts showing positive pay history is key to good scores. At minimum you should have 3 open accounts (your car loan is paid off so it's considered closed with no lates hopefully), so you have your student loan, and hopefully some sort of credit card or other open account. My personal suggestion is to get a credit card with a low limit so you don't go crazy with it. Get one with a $500 or so limit and use it just for, say, gas or groceries and just pay it off every pay period. If you want to buy a house in the near future you have to have the open trade lines and a score of 620+ these days (Just so you know I can help with this as well). Research that site and get your scores up! Good luck P.S. Collections stay on the credit bureau's for 7 years max so for the ones that don't get deleted just be patient and dispute them after the 7 year period. Oh and don't listen to people trying to sell you to a credit repair agency!!!! Everything they do you can do for a minimal amount of money or entirely free!

Question: How do I prepare for an interview for Credit & Collections manager? I've worked in collections over 8 years and have managed a call center for over 9 years. The thing is I've worked in collections over 15 years ago. I still remember it all but how do I prepare myself. I am in school re-educating myself to get out of the sales field and this job is perfect for me but, I don't want to mess up the interview. Can some one tell me exactly what this job entails?

Answer: A credit and collection manager basically approve accounts and has to collect the accounts as well. I was a retail credit and collection manager for 10 years and sometimes it was easy, sometimes hard because you'll come across some accounts you approved that you realized you shouldn't have but that goes with the job.

Question: Is it legal for credit collections to continue being sold forever? I have collections and when they reached the 7 year mark they were sold and now they have reappeared with new dates such as 2007 and 2008. Can they legally restart the timing on your debt and continue to resell it forever? When does this stop? How do you stop it?

Answer: They can continue selling the debt but they CANNOT re-post it to your credit report. What they are doing is called reaging and it's illegal. You can easily sue them and win. To stop it, you need to hit them with the dispute/validation process known as the "1-2 punch." They will either not respond and the listing will get removed, or they will send the documentation that shows the correct dates. Here is a link that gives you a good start, feel free to contact me if you want more help. http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/… Also Biddix is incorrect. If you read the FCRA, it CLEARLY states that the 7 year reporting period begins at the date of first delinquency that leads to the charge off. The debt being bought and sold has absolutely no impact on how long it can be reported, yet sleazy debt collectors try to do it anyway. Thankfully we have the law on our side and can sue them for it.

Question: Is it possible to pass a credit background search for a job in the financial sector, if you have collections? I have bad credit and collections out against me but really want a job as a financial advisor, is it possible to get licensed?

Answer: Depends on the circumstances. If it's a $10 magazine subscription that you refused to pay and went to collections, probably wont affect you. If it's a repoed car , foreclosed house, and an outstanding $20k judgment against you then odds are you aren't getting the job even if you have a stellar academic and professional credentials under your belt.

Question: After a credit collections company stops calling you how do you find the companies you owe? Despite not paying them, the collections company has stopped calling me. I just inherited enough money to pay everyone off but how do I find them?

Answer: Pull your credit report to see. annualcreditreport.com is the real free site to check your credit file for free once a year. https://www.annualcreditreport.com/ NOT freecreditreport.com - ================= FYI: Paying back old charged-off credit card debt will not remove the negative notation from your credit reports. It will simply be updated to a "Paid Charge-Off," which, while slightly better, is still a seriously derogatory item. Per the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a charge-off, whether paid or not, can remain on a consumer's credit reports for up to seven years. For non credit card debts: You may be able to negotiate the complete removal of non credit card debts like defaulted cell, medical, utility bills etc. from your credit report with a Pay for Delete agreement. This is a written agreement where you get a signed agreement from the debt collector (PRIOR to making any payment) where they offer to remove the negative items from your credit files after an agreed-to amount is paid. They will NOT want to do this....all they want is your money and their commission and they could not care less about your credit rating....Still, you have something they want (money) and that puts you in a position to negotiate on this issue. Example letter: I am willing to resolve this issue if your firm sends me a written agreement that you will remove all negative notations from my credit report after the agreed-to amount is paid to you. Upon receipt of this letter I will mail you a USPS money order for this amount. --------------------------------------… - Start all settlement offers at 25% and go from there. Get all terms of any settlement deal you reach with debt collectors IN WRITING BEFORE you give them your money. This letter should state the settlement amount and that the account will be “paid in full� upon receipt of this amount from you. Keep the letter in a safe place. Never accept settlement deals over the phone that are not backed up in written terms. If you don’t, the debt collectors will deny that any settlement was ever made once they get your “settlement� money and will come back demanding more money from you.