Can I get a judgment removed from my credit report?
I had a Judgement entered on feb/2012 for a $400 medical bill. It increased to $800 once it was sold to a debt collector. The collector reached out to me to make payments but I could not due to lack of funds. Long story short. A judgement was served to my then boyfriend at the time (feb/2012) because he opened my door and confirmed I lived at that residence. Missed court date so the collector received a default judgement against me. Started making payments of $100 every month until I lost my job again. I haven't heard from them since. I made 2 or 3 payments total after the judgement was in place.
I want to fix this debt but I want the judgement to be removed from my credit report. Called the collector 2 months ago informing them I would make two split to pay balance in full within 1 month. They declined saying they would gladly accept the payment but will not remove the judgement they will only said judgement settled on my cr. The firm is a building not far from home maybe 20 min ago with an office of like 5 ppl. Not sure if i can go in face to face to make arrangement again with my same terms or speak to another agent and or person in charge. Not sure if its something i can do on my own to meet my terms or if i need to get my own attorney to do the negotiating for me. Really want to take care of this before it increase any higher than it already is or worse/wage garnishment. btw I live in M0.
How can I get a judgement removed off my account if I pay the balance in full? Is this something i can do on my own if told
—Jai
It sounds like your main goal is to resolve the debt and get the negative off of your credit report. Unfortunately, you are fighting a losing battle with this approach.
Getting a Court Judgment Removed From Your Credit Report
The life time credit cycle of a debt that goes unpaid looks like this:
- 30 days after you miss a payment to a creditor, like a credit card bill, you should see a thirty day late pay on your credit report if the item appeared there already and is updated regularly.
- 60 days after a missed payment you now would have 2 payments skipped and are considered 60 days late.
- As long as you continue to miss payments month by month you are being reported as an additional month late.
- Ultimately the creditor will charge off the debt and take an accounting hit. The charge off is often then reflected on your credit report.
The Life Cycle of Credit Damage
After missing payments on unsecured (and most other debts), your account may take on some additional qualities after charge off.
5. If a debt collector/debt buyer has the account and reports it as a collection on your credit report, with a balance due, the charge off from the original creditor remains, and the new negative will be reporting a balance due them, not the original creditor.
6. If you are sued for collection and judgment entered in the court, the judgment can turn up in the public record section of your credit profile.
Most of the negative credit impact from missing bill payments does not get to #6. One through 5 has a 7.5 year shelf life from the date you missed your first payment. There are some shenanigans that occur with credit reporting and debt collection accounts being reported with more recent dates, and even instances of multiple entries showing up for the same debt and more than one reporting a balance due, which is not right because you cannot owe the same debt to more than one place.
I am pointing out the above as a brief outline for later readers of this page. A little perspective of what happens to credit reports along the way when a bill remains unpaid is a good foundation for what I have to share about getting a judgment removed from credit reports.
Credit Reporting, Collectors, Debt Buyers, or Attorneys Collecting Debt
There is a hierarchy to who can do what when it comes to credit reporting. Debt collectors, debt buyers, and attorneys that collect debt cannot make your original creditor change what the bank is reporting to the credit bureaus. And even the original creditors have no real influence over the court records once the judgement is entered.
The judgment is a matter of public record. The integrity of that record is maintained by the court. You would need to get the judgment vacated, or the judgment creditor to somehow miraculously want to undo their suing you (doesn’t happen).
Unless you have a good argument for getting the judgment vacated, and are willing to spend the money on an attorney who knows what they are doing when it comes to accomplishing something like this, or dedicate a hell of a lot of personal time and energy to learning how to do it for yourself, the judgment will stay in the record with the court.
Judgment debt has a 7 year shelf life too, but the time only starts ticking from the date the judgment was entered.
Is this a big deal? Not for most people. Getting the judgment paid, even for less than the balance owed if that is agreed to, will result in a satisfaction of judgment being filed. You can use the court record to rapidly update your credit report yourself if you are dealing with the judgment in order to get a home loan approved, or refinance a current mortgage.
Be sure that any pay off agreement, whether in full, or for less than the judgment balance, includes filing the satisfaction with the court. There is no shortage of feet dragging when it comes to updating the court.
Paying Off or Settling a Judgment Debt Can Be Done on Your Own
It is always best to discuss legal matters with an attorney who practices in a specific area of law. In this case, one with credit reporting or debt collection experience. Hiring one to help resolve an 800.00 debt may not make sense unless you want to battle the judgment itself.
With a smaller debt amount such as this one, you can get the payment in and avoid garnishment. Just be sure that any agreement to pay includes in clear terms that upon receipt of payment, or the full agreement being met, a judgment satisfaction will be filed with the court.
Improving Your Credit Report After Payment Setbacks and Judgments
I will have a series up at the beginning of the year that details credit report recovery and tips for increasing credit scores after bouncing back from a tough financial patch. In the mean time, if you can answer the following questions in a comment reply, I can give some more feedback:
What are your immediate financial and credit goals (buying a home, car, other)?
What other negatives appear on your credit report beside the original payment default related to the judgment debt, and the judgment itself?
What positive items are appearing on your credit report right now?
Need some personalized help?
If you would like confidential help you can…
- ask a quick question here
- request a general debt consultation here
- get a settlement estimate here
- use the CRN Platform to settle your debts or find dedicated Debt Coach here
Not sure where to start? Click on the big blue “Get Debt Help” button.
About Michael BoveeMichael started CRN in 2004 with a mission to provide people in need with detailed debt and credit help and education. Michael has participated as an expert panelist in federal consumer protection rule making, collaborated on state law changes governing debt consolidation, has worked as an expert witness in court matters related to the debt relief industry. He is available to speak with you about your financial struggle and helps people resolve their debt problems daily.
Good Afternoon,
I had a CC debt that I paid over 2 years to arrow financial. At the end of my payments, they were purchased by LVNV. LVNV filed a judgement against me for the original amount of the debt. I stated I had paid the settled amount, they did not reply except with demand for the original amount again. A summons was served to a person who did not reside in the house and due to the fact they were a caretaker, did not leave the summons where I could see it. The judgement showed up 2 years after and I am afraid to contact them as I know they can garnish wages. I have record of the payments made to Arrow financial, I do not have the original settlement paperwork as it was in 2008. Would an attorney be best to handle this or can I take care of it? I do not want to pay this debt twice.
What is the name of a nearby large city? I can help you locate an attorney you can talk with at no cost initially, in order to learn more about your options.
Hello hope u are able to help. In oct 2004 a judgement was taking out againt me for 2302.84. Well fast forward to today i got a civil summons from them again Its from Turnip Investments in charlotte NC. Before the judgemnt i was paying them $150 every month i want t say . Well i paid on it for over a year and almost went broke. After paying for a year i got a statement from them and owed more than what i started with. Now after interest is 1583.63 plus annother $200 in fews. What if anything can i do so hey dont garnish my check or freeze my bank account Thanks for the help
Judgment interest in North Carolina can be as much as 8%. If that amount of interest was accumulating since 2004, I can see where your payments to date have only knocked down the balance this much.
Can you pull together a lump sum amount to offer as a settlement for less?
Yes i may be able to Ho much should i offer? I just got the one from today guess it is called re judgement?
also forgot to write that i havent paid any of it since 2004
When negotiating in a situation like this, it is best to be prepared to settle for 60 to 80%. Is that something you can realistically round up?
So are u saying 60 to 80% of the total amount or the beginning amount? Also what will happen if I’m it able to pay it off can the freeze my bank account? Also I have read where in the state of nc they can’t garness my wages Thanks for all the help
Off of the total owed as of today.
You are generally safe from wage garnishment in North Carolina. Your bank account and other property are at risk, but there are some limited protections there too.
Ok thanks for all your help do u think it would be a good ideal if I can get it lowered to pay with a credit card? May be a dummy ?
You can pay some debt collectors the settlement amount via credit card. You will have to ask about that. Just be sure it makes sense for you.
Hi Michael,
I have a situation that is concerning me about a judgement against me that is rather unique involving 2 states. I will be 35 year’s old next month, and the judgement is originally from a credit card from when I was 18/19yo in Michigan. Just before the SOL was up, they served me with this judgement in 2/2006. In 2008 I moved my family to Florida to attend school; we ending up staying here permenantly because I got an awesome job where we are all happy. I had my wages garnished here in Florida in 4/2011; I mailed an objection to the court and drove to Michigan to dispute the garnishment on the basis of Florida statute 222.11. This states that all disposable earnings of head of family whose disposable earnings are less than $750.00 a week are exempt from garnishment, and if over that amout, you still must agree in writing. Well, I won the objection in my favor and was awarded all moniey to be returned, and for them to stop all garnishment activities. The 10 year SOL is around the corner (2/2016), and I am preparing for home purchase in a few more years. Would it be in my best interest to ignore the judgement in hopes I dont wake them, and they dont bother to renew for another 10 years. Or more logically pay the balance if they agree to dismiss/vacate the judgement before it sits for another 10 years if they decide to renew, as this is the only way they will ever see any money collected for this judgement.
Current fico is 594 average between the 3 reporting agencies. I have a few other small derogatory items under 300, like 3 of them. My student loans are around 30,000, and are in good standing on Income Based Repayment Plans. I have one secured credit card from my credit union, and a small $1000.00 personal loan in perfect standing; minus the high balance on the card (which I am paying down now with lump payment). I also have an unsecured credit card now to help rebuild credit; and just got approved for my car loan for $12,900 last month; but the interest is relatively high due to me being a risk.
What options would be best in your opinion on the judgement; for me to be in the best position for home loan approval at the lowest rate in the next few years. Thank you for the time reading this; I wanted to be very specific, so you may have a more educated opinion.I really value your input and hope to hear back from you.
Thank you for all of the pertinent details Patrick. It helps me, and other readers too.
It is trivially simple for the debt collector to renew the judgment. Given the credit improvements you are making, and your stated goals for the near future, I would settle the judgment debt in order to get that updated in the court record, and therefore your credit reports.
How much is the judgment for?
The judgement was at $2000 when I received notice of garnishment in 2007. It was from a credit card that had a limit of $500.00 orignally. I am leaning towards paying them in or around full balance if they will vacate/dismiss it; do you think that would be in their best interest? But if I pay off before they renew it, would it matter if they dismiss it or not, being that in just over a year it will be removed from my credit reportanyway because the 10 years will be up. Thank you.
It would be extremely unlikely to get them to agree to vacate the judgment. You can expect them to file a notice of satisfaction with the court. Once that is on record, data miners that feed court records to the credit reporting bureaus will pick it up and your reports will reflect the resolved status. You can expedite this process on your own if need be.
Paying in full or settling for less will carry the same benefits at this point. Because they have tried to get paid, and have not been able to take advantage of the extra ordinary collections afforded judgment creditors, you can likely negotiate a lower pay off. But mentioning your concerns about credit reporting, or talk of vacating/dismissing the years old judgment (that is not going to happen anyway), can lead to judgement creditors being much more stingy with the settlements they approve.
Thank you Michael. You always have such great advise on here. Best choice would be to settle with them in exchange to show judgement as “satisfied”. Would it still be removed from credit report in 2015, even though I just made a payment to them in full?
Yes, the paid judgment would still fall off of your credit report on schedule.
Thank you for all of your help; I am very appreciative.
Hi Michael,
I too have a judgment on my credit report from an EDD overpayment in California (Nov 2009). I now live in Washington.
My questions:
1. Will this fall off my credit report in 2016 without any further action from me? Or is there something different/special about this type of debt/judgment?
2. Can a judgment still hurt me down the line after it falls off my credit report?
I don’t have any immediate plans for a mortgage, and have no real need for other types of debt now (my credit score is in the mid-700s and I have access to plenty of revolving credit that I never maintain a balance on). I could easily pay off this judgment, but I’m trying to determine if it’s A. even necessary to do so and B. potentially harmful in any way.
Thank you,
Chris
How much is the judgment for?
The original amount was ~$400, and the judgement is for ~$2000. If it’s best/easiest to just pay it off, that’s fine by me, just want to make sure that’s the best option.
It’s there because of a weird situation where I took a job in another country for two years, and during that time a judgement was filed (without me ever knowing about the overpayment in the first place). I saw the judgement as soon as it appeared on my credit report, but EDD had no sympathy for my situation. I’ve always been a little miffed by the whole thing, but I’d pay it off today if that’s the best option.
Before you look at paying it off, talk to the attorney I am going to send you contact information for. Adam has had success getting older judgments vacated and set aside in California. He offers a no cost consult, so the price is right to see what he suggest may be possible. If he is able to reverse this it would be worth it. If your file has something about it that suggests you just pay it, he will tell you that. And if he does, I would pay it if I were you, and I could afford it.
Thank you! I’ll give him a call.
Hello,
I’m in Charlotte, NC , the collection agency is Escallate, LLC in North Canton, OH. Are the legally allowed to charge interest on medical debt? I researched, but from the legal jargon, I can’t tell.
Do you have the original agreement with the service provider? If so, is there any reference to fees and interest?
Hi, I have a question and an issue I can’t figure out. I applied for a loan and was denied. After getting my credit report I found 2 judgments listed that I knew nothing about. They are from NCO and MIDLAND both filed a month apart in 2010 I believe is listed as date filed but they swear they file them in early 2009 but that is also a side issue. After raising questions about the legality of judgment i.e. service, court jurisdiction, age of debt because I honestly did not remember them(if they are mine) and asking for account information as well as process they went about in obtaining the judgment and copies of the judgment as well. I also contact the State Attorney General and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and raised my concerns as to the validity of the debt and means they have used in its collection (default judgment). The judgments and associated abstracts have disappeared from court records for MIDLAND and for NCO the judgment no longer shows but the abstract is still there.
The letters I recieved from NCO indicated that the case was closed for them and that they were no longer collecting the debt for the creditor. The filed the court records in the name of the original creditor and theirs but the credit report says they are sole owner. The letter seems to indicate that a debt buyer was actually the owner not the original creditor at the time of the suit. However, the listed the original creditor in court records as far as I know. The record disappeared from the county recorder records online before I could get a copy. Midland the same happened after raised the same issues and contacted the same agencies.
I call the county clerk trying to verify why the records no longer appeared online. The lady told me that no records exist as far as they know. I asked how can they disappear and she said they can’t unless the plantiff withdraws them otherwise they are “like a birth certificate, you can’t undo a birth and the records can’t just be removed.” I currently outside the U.S. temporarily and have been at lost how to proceed. The credit bureaus keep coming back that the “verified”. However, information such court address, non working court phone number and improper court name are on the credit investigation results. The results list the court address as one place and credit report list it as a different one.
I am at a lost because I can’t verify the judgment by obtain copies from the county clerk. The credit companies say verified but how can they if the county clerk say the no longer exist. I am handling all of this from outside of the country and at a lost how to get legal representation and not be in country. The state is California. I am worried I found a clause in California that indicate can challenge judgment within a certain time after first “discovered” or some wording to that effect. I can’t if I cant even get basic information on the judgments which according to the county clerk don’t exist anymore. Help!
I would contact the CFPB and file another complaint, but this time under the credit reporting heading. If that is something you have already done, I do know an attorney you could speak to about challenging judgments that are more than a year old in California. He has had success with getting older judgments vacated.
Have you already tried to address a credit reporting complaint with the CFPB?
Mike,
Back in 05′ I enrolled at ITT Tech, the signed me up for Sallie Mae student loans when I told them I had my GI Bill that I wanted to use. Long story short I ended up with like 5k+ in student loans. Before I used to see Sallie Mae on my credit report but just recently I applied for my first home they said I had a score of 635 and got me in a VA Loan, but I no longer see Sallie Mae on my credit report. Not do I get any letters from them. Can that still affect me from getting my first home? Even if that’s not in my credit report any longer!
I must add that this was while I was in the navy, I couldn’t continue going because my ship was in and out to sea. I never made any type of payments to Sallie Mae.
Because this page is about dealing with judgment collections, I should first ask if you were sued for this debt?
Mike,
No I was never sued for this. I actually do se Sallie Mae on my credit but it shows under my Credit portion and they show Paid XP/TU/EF and one says Transfered to another lender.
No, I do not think this will gum up your home loan approval at this point. Post an update with how everything progresses, but especially if any flags come up.
Hi Mike,
I’ve read a lot of the comments here so it answered some questions I had, but mostly I just would like some advice on how I can improve my credit score, or if it’s even possible. I’m 28 and ready to think about buying a house in the near future. Probably within the next couple years.
My credit score sucks to put it plainly. I have a 539 (this is from creditkarma, sorry). According to that site, I have improved my score about 18 points since June by clearing some things up. I have a court judgment that I’m currently being garnished for in the amount of $2400 from an eviction because of a break up in ’09, 5 medical accounts in collections from a motorcycle accident in 2010 and 8 student loan accounts in deferment. The thing is, I have no credit cards. I have tried to get one a couple months ago and was denied, even for Fingerhut(how embarrassing). I’m pretty sure a secured card is all I’m going to be able to do.
I think my score really plummeted because my student loans showed late payments for 7 months! It’s all figured out now but I don’t think they’re going to remove the late payments off my report. Haven’t asked though.
Anyhow, this was long-winded but what do you think I should do according to your experience and expertise? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Side note: I wish my parents would have told me how important credit is so I wouldn’t have been so dumb when I was younger!
Thanks!
To reach your goal of home ownership in a couple of years, you are going to want to get any collections accounts paid. Those bills, even if they cannot sue and get a judgment like the other one you have, will weigh down your ability to get a home loan approved. And there is little you will be approved for to rebuild credit right now too (as you are learning). If it were me, I would stop applying for credit of any kind right now, and focus on a plan to resolve the debts.
Questions:
What are the totals on the medical debts? Are all of them showing on your credit reports, or are there some that are not on there? List all.
What is the amount still owed on the judgment? How much are they getting from the garnishment each pay check?
What room is there in your monthly budget to consistently use to improve your debt situation?
What is the total of all student loans?
Hello, I am about to pay off the remainder of a large credit card debt. How do I get the court judgement removed from my credit record once this debt has been repaid?
The court judgment will likely remain on your credit report for 7 years from date of entry. When was the judgment entered in the court?
You can make sure that the judgment is updated to show paid and satisfied in the court record. Once your final payment is made, give it a month or two to update. If you need to get this done faster you can take all of the documentation and dispute the credit reports to get them updated.
Hi Mike,
I have a judgment against me. It came at a very bad time in my life, two immediate family members died within a few months of each other, both unexpected, and to be honest, I just didn’t care. Now I’m trying to buy a house. Here’s what happened- Judgment received for Collection Agency A. Two years later debt sold to Collection Agency B. I settled with Agency B, paying an amount slightly less than what was due and about $200 less than the judgment amount of $1047. Agency A has no record. Judgment appears as unpaid. The judgment is due to come off my credit this winter. I’m due to close escrow in two weeks, and this is holding things up! Agency A responded with- we don’t have a copy of the judgment and it may take 6 months for the court to respond. Once they respond, we’ll forward the copy of the judgment. I can’t get it vacated, they followed procedure. How do I at least get it reflecting as paid?
Getting the judgment updated as paid is the most realistic expectation to have.
What are the names of the debt collection companies involved, and any attorney collection firm?
What are the dates involved (when judgment entered, when you paid what you negotiated)?
Was anything documented regarding the payment you made, and written agreement with the collector?
As of this September, I will have completely paid off a court judgment from Capitol One Bank. What do I need to do to have the law office (Fred Hanna and Associates in Georgia) send satisfaction of judgment letter to the court? Will they automatically send this letter or will I need to contact them? Thanks.
As a general practice, the Frederick Hanna firm will update the court record that the judgment is satisfied. It can take a few months for your credit reports to show the judgment is paid. Do you have any financing goals in the next few months?
I am looking at purchasing a new car due to mine being high mileage and getting horrible gas mileage. I have recently opened up a new credit card (abount 3 months ago) in an attempt to also help my credit score. My bank reported my credit score was a 644 but would not approve an auto loan – they stated the reasons as the judgement and my other debt being too high (it is a student loan though and I make my payments every month). I may just end up having a parent co-sign on the loan.
Hi Mike,
I have a question for you. In 2010 my husband got a judgment against him for a credit card gone wild. We both lost our good jobs during this time due to lay offs. (not at the same time) But we were really struggling. We got into a program and got all our bills taken care of and paid, except for one . He got a judgment against him with arrangements to pay $35000 in payments of $1000.00 a month. It got paid off a year ago! We even over paid and got a refund. Sadly we can not get the creditor to send a satisfaction of judgment letter to the court. All they did was send us a letter that says our credit card for $24000 has a zero balance. It shows nothing about the court amount.
When we called to request it because we were applying for a loan, the creditor said WE have to send them a copy of the judgment. (even if they sued us?) I guess they hired a lawyer that practiced in New Mexico because they are out of state. We made all payments to their lawyer. They said that lawyer no longer works for them, so now we cant get our credit fixed. No loan for us. I have looked on line and I have been told DO NOT SEND THEM A COPY. I dont know how else to fix this. Any ideas?
Where did you read not to send them a copy?
Was this a lawsuit from Zwicker and Associates? I had a file not that long ago where something very similar happened. Who was the plaintiff?
I would file a complaint with the state bar association against the attorney in state, and the attorneys out of state you are now communicating with, if they have violated any timely court notice norms. I would also file a debt collection complaint, with all the details, against the bank or debt collector plaintiff, and the collections law firm.
Post an update with how that progresses, and lets go from there.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for replying. No it was not Zwicker. Plaintiff was Citibank the law firm was Ferrall and Seldin out of Colorado but licensed in NM. I saw on a few blogs that said asking for a copy of the judgment is a common tactic that creditors use, and it said not to send it. I don’t know why but I was afraid to find out. When I called the negotiators they also told me not to send it. Not sure what can happen but glad I didn’t send it.
Here is an update since my first message. I contacted the credit negotiators that helped me with all the others, I figured I paid them to handle Citi in the first place. They contacted Ferrall and Seldin for me and told them that Citi would not issue the satisfaction letter. They said that they would start looking into the matter ASAP. I guess they were not aware, because Citi no longer was using their law firm. So this is going to be awhile.
I don’t know if I will get the Satisfaction of Judgment letter but I wont stop until I do. We have really worked hard to fix our credit. And paid through the nose for it. If I don’t get it, I will do all you suggested. I guess I’ll give the thirty days, then it’s on.
I just know they are going to come up with something so I cant get my letter. They have been so ridiculous all along. But I am a weirdo, I keep records like no one you know. I have so much documentation. If it goes back to court I hope it helps.
Thank you for all your suggestions. I hope I don’t have to use them, but I will do all I have to. This all started in 2008 and I have finished paying my dues. I just want this resolved already.
Have a wonderful day.
Thanks for the follow up reply Eve.The documentation will come in handy if you later need it.
I would give Ferrall and Seldin the 30 days if you are up to it. After that, I would file my complaints with the CFPB and the New Mexico bar association.
You did not say who the settlement company was you worked with that called Ferrall and Seldin, but if you do not get results, you can call Ferrall and Seldin yourself. You are not at risk of anything here if they were already paid. They are the ones that dropped the ball.
HI MIKE,
Just to update you. We contacted the AG in our home town that sent a complaint to the CFPB, we got our satisfaction of judgment letter. Lol, but they sent a cover letter that said they settled at 50% with us. As far as all my bank records show they are nuts! They claim that we paid 17500 starting in 2012. But the court ordered payments stated in 2010! I dont know what games they are playing but I can sure use a refund of the over payment. Do you think I need a lawyer? This is getting crazy! I’m afraid they will try to send us a 1099 for the write off.
Were your payments toward the judgment going through the debt settlement company first, who then paid the attorney for Citi? Were you making the payments yourself, and directly to the attorney or a court office?
Hi Mike
Sorry it took so long to respond.
All payments were made to the Law office directly from us. We sent checks for all payments but the last few months we had them draft it from our bank account.
Another thing that is driving me insane, I requested a copy of our credit reports. Citi has been check our credit and sending us credit card offers constantly. (You know how it tells you who is checking your credit scores? I hope that makes sense..) Doesn’t that lower your score a little?
How do I block them from doing that?
Thanks again,
Eve
If your agreement was to pay the amount you sent, and they screwed up how they worded it with the recent court filing, you may be able to fix it. You would likely want to pay an attorney of your own to try to get it changed to reflect you paid the judgment in full. But why? A satisfied judgment is what you need to realize your finance goals, and you have that now.
Those Citibank inquiries on your credit reports are not hurting your credit score. Those are soft credit pulls that are promotional in nature. If a creditor were to pull your report after you applied for financing, they would not see those promotional inquiries.
You can opt out of promotional screening if you like, or even get a credit report freeze (a bit overkill unless you need to for security purposes).
Thank Mike,
I’m just afraid that they send me a 1099 for the write off. And if no one can see the promo pulls then I’m fine with that. I guess I’m just so frustrated with them, I keep thinking they are messing with me. But I guess you are right.
Thank you for putting my mind at ease. You have been a great help through this.
Eve
You have a record of all of your payments for the judgment. Just keep them in a safe place. If this were to some how pop up (I kinda doubt it will), you have the records to show the IRS that you did not benefit from any forgiven debt.
Hi Mike,
I have a question. Late last year I received all three of my credit reports. On one was a civil case, a medical bill, that went to court. I never knew about it but I knew it was valid from who initiated it. I ignore it and didn’t think much of it because I assumed I’d pay it off with my taxes. Low and behold, a few weeks later I get a certified letter from my county court stating that the case has come and gone and I owe nothing! $0! I was wondering that since the case ended in my favor does that mean they are required to delete it from my credit report?
Thanks in advance.
It could mean just that. What is it that is shown in the court record? Is it shown as vacated, something else?
Hi Michael,
I have had a judgment on my credit report since February of 2008. It stems from a Providian credit card debt from 2002 that was sold to velocity investments who hired an attorney to collect. I was properly served and ignored it because I was unemployed at the time with almost no income so I figured it didn’t matter. Now I would like to buy a house and I am unable to do so because of it. My wife doesn’t work and has bad credit so that is not an option. The Judgment is for approximately $5500 and the original debt was about $2200.
I am currently judgment proof and probably will be for some time because I currently receive public assistance. They tried to levy my bank accounts and when that failed they tried to garnish my wages shortly thereafter which also failed. Every 6 months they send me a form and I certify that I am still receiving public assistance. They know that they may never collect anything at all from me unless I voluntarily give it up, which I am prepared to do but not at the full amount.
I currently rent and have no other assets that they can collect and probably never will since one of my vehicles is in my wife’s name and I lease the other one. I am not worried about the effect that it has on my credit score as that is not an issue any more. I just need it to go away to get a home loan.
I recently received my property tax refund for $1500 and I am willing to give it to them to settle this debt. What I need advice on is how I should proceed. For the initial contact I can either call them and lay out my terms and ask them to draft something that I will sign or I can send them a formal letter. Which one of these is best? If they counter I can probably do $2000 at the very most. I have been searching the net for a sample letter that I could use for this negotiation to save time and money but no luck yet. Do you have a sample letter that I could modify or know of where I might find one? I want to try to avoid any additional legal fees if at all possible.
I have read that some creditors will send you a 1099-c for the amount that was not paid and I want to avoid this if at all possible so I plan to add this as a condition. I have also read that some creditors will try to get the balance from you at a later time which I obviously don’t want so I also feel that I need this as a condition as well.
What kind of leverage do you think I have with them for a reduced amount? Do you think I need an attorney to do the negotiating for me and get the legal jargon correct? If you were in my shoes how would you proceed? If there is any way for me to do it myself I will. The only thing I am afraid of if I do it myself is that they might try to trick me some way with legal jargon that I don’t understand and have paid them the money and have it still remain on file with the court? Any advice or info would be greatly appreciated! Sorry this is so long! I live in the Duluth, MN area.
Thanks!
Brian
I think your concerns about the legal jargon are a bit overblown, but that is understandable given the collections process you were taken through. When you negotiate debts at this stage of collection, and with the goal that the court record is updated to show the judgment is satisfied (updating any credit reporting that the judgment is resolved), and pursue your home loan goals, there is not much trickery that can be found.
You can call and negotiate the lowest pay off possible. If 2k is not accepted, you can wait until they are willing to accept the offer, making a new effort to reach out and negotiate every couple of months, or continue to save up and increase your offer incrementally. Realistically… you may want to be ready with an amount equal to 50 or 60 percent.
Once you get the deal negotiated on the phone, then get them to send you the agreement in writing. And that document, while certainly containing some legalese, should be straight forward enough, and easy to understand. If there is any room in the agreement for them to later try to collect more from you, it would not be a settlement.I just do not see that kind of thing happening these days. If for any reason the agreement is not very clear on the point that you are satisfying the judgment, get some feedback from an experienced attorney in your area.
You are going to be hard pressed to get a creditor to agree to not follow the guidance the IRS gives on such things as forgiven debt. This is not a pre judgment negotiation, so leverage you are thinking you have, you don’t.
Thanks for the advice! I will wait till I have $2000 before I call them. If they don’t accept I will try again every few months like you suggested. Maybe I will get lucky and they will accept! If and when they do accept my offer, I will ask an attorney to look it over if everything is not absolutely clear to me.
I thought that I had some leverage because the only way they will ever see any money from me at all is if I voluntarily give it to them. They know this too, so I figured that they would be happy to get something, rather than nothing at all. They have been trying to collect this since 2004 when they bought the debt from Providian, and I have a gut feeling that they would be happy to be done with it. This is why I thought I had some leverage.
Could you please explain to me why you think that I don’t have any leverage here?
Thanks!
You have a goal to resolve the judgment and buy a home. They have a judgment that will prevent that.
Hi Michael,
I hope you’re doing well. A former manager sued me for $1000, a default judgment was recorded and I paid it. That was 2 years ago. I called my former manager and told him I was having a difficulties obtaining credit because of that judgment. He actually wants to help me and have it removed from my reports. However, when he went to court, all he could obtain was a certified copy of the judgment. What form(s) does he need to fill out to have it removed from my credit report? It’s the last derogatory mark on my credit reports. I hope to see a big jump in my FICO score.
Thanks!
Thanh – The judgment on your credit reports is due to the public record of the judgment in the court. He would have to petition the court to undo the judgment.
Recently sued by Capital One, I did not file an answer, but did call and agreed to payments. They sent me a Settlement Agreement and Agreed Judgment to execute. I have made 2 payments, but have not yet signed and returned the documents. In the agreement, it states Plaintiff shall file with the Court a “Release of the Agreed Judgment” upon completion of the payment terms. Is there any reason not to sign these documents? What exactly does the Release mean regarding my credit report?
It sounds like it may mean that as long as you make the agreed upon payments on time, all the time, you would not end up with a judgment on record. But if you do miss payments, or otherwise fail to honor the agreement, they file the record of judgment and the court will rubber stamp it, as you waive your rights to defend the suit.
You should run the situation by your own attorney in your state to be sure all of your questions are answered.
At this point, having made a couple payments pursuant to the agreement, I would sign and send if it were me.
I found this helpful but seek advice. My crefit score is 614 from one 650 from another and I belive the last was a 660. I have 3 credit cards that are in good standing payed off/low balances but not very old. On my credit report is a Judgment that was filed in 2008. It was paid in full to the lawyer the day I got notified of it but still shows not paid. Also an Att cellphone bill from 2008 is showing up now as a new debt listed as 2011. I want to have these taken care of and removed or updated but dont want my sxoee to drop aa I am in the process of buying a house. I have paid off several auto loans but thanks to my xhusband there is a repo that also shows up on my credit report nothing I can do about it now mortagae comapny said not to worry because it was repoed well afyer the divorce was final. What can I do about the other to items. I have paper work from 2008 showing the ATT bill was delinquent back then and the charge off paper fromt he courts. Any advice would be great need to get my score up.
Ask your loan officer/broker if they offer any rapid rescore as part of their loan service. If so, they can help you pull the documents showing the judgment is satisfied and get that to the credit reporting companies that show the judgment unpaid, so that this item on your credit can be fixed.
If they do not offer anything like rapid rescore than you need to dispute these items, or work with someone like Lexington Law to help you.
If you do this yourself, do it in writing, and use certified mail return receipt. Keep a copy of everything you send and the green card you get back for your records. You may need them later if the credit reports are not updated appropriately. Include a court clerk conforming copy of the case record showing the judgment is paid.
Who is reporting the ATT bill as a collection? Do you have an ATT account? Do you remember leaving a balance owed back then, or are you certain there was no balance owed? How much is showing as owed on your credit?
I have a judgement that i have been paying on and never signed the agreement that was sent from the law office. I am trying to buy a house. I have paid at least $600 on the judgment so far and believe i have about 1000 left to pay. Will have to pay the remaining balance? Or can i call and negotiate if i pay a pump sum?
It is not very common to negotiate a lower payoff on a judgment balance when you are current with payments on a prior agreement.
Are you working on a loan with a broker now? Have they mentioned anything about the judgment, or other debts on your credit reports?
Hi Michael, I stumbled on this site looking for assistance.
I was the defendant in a personal injury case. I rear-ended someone, they claimed I caused pain and suffering, they racked up a bunch of chiropractor bills and then sued. She won medical bills which was $3800.
My insurance company represented me and paid the judgment. This was in November of 2013. However, it is still showing as unpaid on my credit report. I spoke to both attorneys (plaintiffs’ and my own) and my attorney drafted a Release of Lien/Judgment which the other attorney signed. My attorney filed that with the district court clerks’ office.
What do I need to do to (hopefully) remove this from my credit report, or at the very least make sure it is reported as paid in full?
If the court record shows a satisfied judgment today, this will likely take care of itself. The company that mines data from your courts records only do so periodically. When they do, they sell the information to the credit reporting agencies (the court does not send or update information with the credit bureaus).
You can also dispute the credit report entry appearing now as inaccurate by providing copies of all updated court information. Be sure any dispute letter you send is sent certified mail return receipt requested. And keep a copy of everything you send to the credit bureaus in a safe place. If they do not correct your credit reports, you may need a copy of all correspondence later.
If I do initiate a dispute, will that have any adverse impact if, for example, the company that mines the data updates the status of the judgment before the dispute is reviewed/resolved?
Furthermore, do I have any legal recourse against either attorney in this situation for failing to file the release of lien in a timely fashion? It has been almost 8 months.
I cannot think of an adverse outcome from you sending a legitimate dispute about inaccurate judgment information on your credit reports, if the furnisher of that info updates the credit bureaus too. If something like that were to occur, post an update and let’s go from there.
There are general guidelines to follow in order to release a judgment lien, or that will cause the court to update it’s records to show that a judgment has been paid or satisfied. It sounds like that happened already.
What do the last two or three entries in the court record reflect?
Hello Michael!
Great info that is giving me a good idea on how this all works, because believe you-me, the two places I’m dealing with aren’t willing to help with understanding.
My situation: I’m trying to get a home loan and I’m dealing with a company credit reporting me with a past due/charge off and an attorney collecting their debt after a civil judgement. Both are reflected on my credit report, and I’m not sure how to deal with it. The charge off is $7,675 and the judgement was for $12,461. The attorney is willing to accept a lump sum offer, and credit company says our account is inactive and we can’t deal with them. I am a few points shy of qualifying for a home loan and I’m unsure if this is the route to take to get those few points up, or to focus on another $115 charge with AT&T that I can very easily get off my credit. My credit has been rising, but the Home Loan lady says I should handle the big issue before applying again. If I were to go about handling a seemingly double report for such large amounts, should I contact a lawyer? Or attempt to save money to give them an large offer?
Or any other advice you have for this situation would be appreciated….
Thanks!
Darren – Who is the original lender reporting the charge off?
You can attempt to save money on fees by negotiating and settling the judgment with the attorney yourself. That generally will work out in your favor. I would not suggest this DIY method as a means to offer more in your negotiations, but it may come to that.
I am not sure that the double reporting is an error. You may be the victim of credit report double jeopardy, and it is allowed. But this will get resolved after the record is updated. If it isnt, you can affect change by disputing with the credit reporting agencies.
How much money are you able to pull together to settle the judgment?
When was the judgment entered in the court?
Does your credit report show you are paying other debts on time?
Thanks for the reply Michael!
The original lender is CNAC with JD Byrider and the judgement ($12,461) was 2 years ago. We’ve been paying $100/mo on it since then. As far as I know, or CR says everything is fine other than those three things (The double report and then AT&T).
We are thinking settling may be our best bet but even if we throw out an offer that is close to the original debt ($7657) we wouldn’t be able to pull together that kind of money for a while. Now we could easily postpone looking for a house to save (we were gonna do that anyways). But if I go to settle with the attorney, what would be a good starting point for negotiations?
Given what you shared so far I would target between 50 and 80 percent as my settlement goals.
What is the judgment interest rate set by the court that you are paying?
There was not a rate set to my knowledge. We talked to the attorney, agreed to pay $100 month and that’s what we agreed to in front of the judge. The attorney is sending payments to CNAC from what I gathered. And the attorney made the comment that CNAC may still be reporting my past due because the payments aren’t enough the cover the monthly amount. Does that sound accurate since my account is inactive? Shouldn’t I only be dealing with collections?
Thanks again Michael!
It is accurate. I am concerned that the 100 a month you spend is not really putting a dent in anything depending on the interest rate set by the court. What state are you in?
Illinois
They may be charging as much as 9 percent interest on judgment debt in Illinois. Just another reason to knock this down as soon as you can.
I stayed in a apartment in 06! lost my job and had no way to pay my bills. I got evicted. its now 2014 and I cant rent anywhere. I tried contacting the apartment complex, with no results they have been sold 3 times since I moved out. I went into the apartments leasing office and spoke with one of the leasing agents whom was very rude and told me he would not give me any information about my account balance. which I was prepared to put something on it because I cant find any place to stay. what should I do?
Look up your name in the local court records and see if there was a lawsuit filed against you and a judgment entered.
Also look at your credit reports and see what negative account information is on there.
Post an update with what you learn and lets go from there.
I have looked up my credit and the complex is on there as well as a judgment. I have no idea where to go from here because the guy that works at the complex will not give me any information on paying off my balance
The apartment complex employee may not have any information to give you.
Get a copy of the judgment from the court, or see if you can pull it up on line, and call the law firm that sued you. If they still have the ability to deal with you, they can make arrangements for payment and updating the court record so that the judgment can be updated to show paid or satisfied.
If the law firm cannot work with you, find out who may own the debt today if the original judgment creditor sold it off, or if it was absorbed as an asset in some other acquisition.
If you do not get anywhere in that effort,you may want to start considering what your options are to pay the full amount of the judgment to the court, and can talk to the court clerk about that option.
Hi Mike,
I have a judgment I paid off. I did it on the day of the court date in full in front of the plantiff but it was still filed. The clerk even has told me the judge notated it paid in full. But the court refuses to give me a letter stating it’s removed and Equifax won’t delete it without one. What do I do?? Please help
One Lost Lindsay
I am skeptical of whether the court will remove the judgment. They would not it as satisfied/paid in the court record, and that is how Equifax should be showing it. This situation may not get better than that.
Was there something the court said about dismissing the case?
Do you have some credit and financing goals a paid judgment on your credit is holding you back from accomplishing?
Hi Mike in 2007 I leased a car the loan was from chrysler financial services america. I became ill as i suffer from mental illness and was not able to continue paying the car by 2009. As the years passed I have not payed the debt and it has become a judgement on my credit report which was filed in 2011. I have been doing some reading and was unaware of how bad this could be(may last longer than 7 years possibly 10-20). I have also read that making any payment at all could actually make it worse as they may prolong the debt situation. Will it go away in 7 years from the filing date or do you think it may not? What should i do the balance is rather large now like over $8000 and i don’t really want to pay it the court was westchester supreme court if that helps my email address is [edit: email address removed] in case i dont come back to this site
I live in new york by the way
Paid collections in New York may be removed in as little as 5 years. Paid judgment debts will generally result in them being dropped from the credit report after 7 years. But no, the judgment is not going to go away. Judgments in New York can be good for 20 years. That means the judgment creditor can pursue extra ordinary collections for all of that time, and the judgment is likely growing from an interest rate set by the court (though not in excess of the 9% limit on judgment debt in New York).
Judgment debts can be settled for less, which will lead to the judgment record being updated to show paid or satisfied. Are you simply uncollectable and certain you will remain that way, or can you come up with a strategy to settle this for less than the current amount owed?
well I don’t really want to settle i can’t afford to it is a lot of money I owe unless they would settle for a really low amount I don’t see myself being able to pay the debt so I guess it’s just going to sit there? Any other options
You might be able to get them to settle for half-ish.
No, not many options for dealing with judgments. Not unless there was something wrong, or some defect, with how the collections all went down. And even then you would have some costs working with your own attorney.
i know they say it usually resolves itself within 7 years of the filing date but what is you opinion on how long it will stay if it doesnt get paid do you think it really would hang around for 10-20 years?
It is a trivial matter to renew a judgment, and costs them little, so yes, I think the odds are high that you will have to be aware of extra ordinary collection efforts for the full 20 years if the judgment is not resolved. But that would not be the case with the credit reporting. You may see that fall off automatically after 7 years from the entry date.
ok last reply sorry for so many replies but say i went to get a car after the 7 years when the judgement should clear from the credit like you said, would it still be an issue would they see it? or can they always see it when trying to get an auto loan or etc house…
Public records are… public. And there are big data brokers that track and trade public records. Now understand that different lenders use specialized reporting. Home loan lenders will often use a tri-merge report for example. Part of that may include public record data searches. Here is where a prior judgment may prevent loan approval.
In other words, I cannot say for certain. But if an issue does arise after the judgment is no longer showing on your credit reports, it is probably likelier to prevent home loan approval than auto loan approval.
Thanks for your help
Hey Mike I was afraid to open a checking account because of the judgement on my file I didn’t want them to take the money so i haven’t had a checking account in a long time is this true should i not have one and if so how long should I stay without it. Or would I be able to have one anyway
Around 1700 dollars in your personal bank account is exempt from judgment creditors in New York, and up to 1k more possibly, if you are not taking a homestead exemption.
You can go your whole life without a checking account. But if you do get one now, do not keep much in the account until this all blows over, or you resolve the debt.
and if i am mentally ill or disabled can i fight the judgement
I am not a consumer law attorney, and not familiar enough with how your disability would be viewed by the courts. I can refer you to one to speak with about your options to fight the judgment.
Given what you have shared, I do not think your disability would open up additional options to fight the judgment having happened and existing. You may have additional collection exemptions that could be established at a court hearing, but here again, I would check with an experienced collection defense attorney in New York.
thanks for all your help mike im sorry for the numerous replies i’ve been ill and am trying to back on track but appreciate all of your responses
Mike
About two years ago I got an HSBC credit card through best buy to purchase a computer my (at the time) credit card could not hold. Soon after the purchase I was going to be overseas for some time so called HSBC to set up automatic payment. The guy I talked to on the phone never ended up doing it, by the time I got back to the 1st world the account had been sold off to collections. I have been advised not to pay the debt but I feel both an obligation to pay it back and want to get the ONLY black mark on my credit report removed. I am sitting at 582 at Experian and 600 with Transunion. I like many others here am looking to buy a house soon and wanted to get my score up to get approved for a home loan. I contacted HSBC today regarding the debt asking if I could just pay them directly the remainder of the debt in exchange for removing the blemish from my report but the girl told me since the account had been sold they had no rights to it. After further research I discovered that in some instances it is possible to have the original lending company resend the debt to allow the borrower to pay them back directly. My first question is, is this a good option or not? If not then my only other option is to pay the third part company the remainder of the debt. I have read that it is possible to negotiate a deal with the company to pay in full and have them remove all marks from my report, is this true? If so, correct me if I’m wrong, but that will remove the account having not been paid, but will still show up from HSBC that the debt was sent to collections which will in turn still continue to hurt me? Without this blemish my score shoots up to nearly 800!
Your advice is much appreciated.
Regards
Michael
Who is the current holder of your old HSBC debt?
Good morning I have a concern about judgements that I have on my credit from an apartment complex. I was looking over my credit report and noticed that I have several judgements that are 30 days past due according to the filing date and the date of the actual payment but according to my paper work the filing dates are wrong and so are the date of payments. I do agree that I paid late but what concerns me is for ex. if i filed on June 19th and received my court date which for my county is the first Tuesday of July is the first and I attend court make an agreement to pay you on the 3rd and i do just that but you failed to notify the court of my payment until I find out about it almost 6months later what can i do to get this corrected as far on my credit report can i get this removed if i have supporting documentation or is it because i went to court it stays as a paid judgement.
Not trying to make any major purchases but if i decided to I do not want this to hinder me.
The fact that the judgment is showing as paid is the important part. Judgments on your credit report will impact you, but the more time goes by, the less the impact will be, and the judgment will drop off your credit reports generally after 7 years.
Depending on the loan product you are looking for later, the judgments may have little to no impact after a couple years.
Because this collection went to court is why it is showing on your credit reports.
Thank you very much, I did the best possible thing to do which was pay in full.
Hi Michael,
I have a judgement from a credit card that was sold to an attorney. I am currently making monthly payments to the current holder of the account (a credit collection company). My concern is on my credit report it is listed twice, one by the first attorney and then by the second attorney (2008 and 2012). Can I get get one of these removed since it is the same account?
Who is the second attorney?
Who is the named plaintiff in the lawsuit?
Michael,
hopefully that will be the case. i’m really stressed about it. IF it turns out they won’t do that, what do you suggest? i don’t want to just pay anyone, especially if they can’t sign the release but i don’t want to wait until the judgment expires either.
Talk to an experienced consumer law attorney about paying the total amount due to the court and filing updated docs for the court record to reflect satisfaction.
I am in the process of trying to get a mortgage but am having difficulty due to an outstanding judgment. the judgment was awarded to Mann Bracken on a Discover card debt. Mann Bracken was a very disreputable debt collection/law firm that has since closed it’s doors. Discover has no knowledge of the judgment and as previously stated, Mann Bracken went out of business less than a year after receiving the judgment. There is no receiver on file in the state f Texas. And if the debt was sold to yet another party, they have never made any collection attempts. So, how do you pay a judgment when there is no one to pay it to? logically, only the owner of the debt can release me from said debt once it’s paid. And they are no longer in business.
p.s. the judgment was granted 7/24/08 and the abstract was granted 9/5/8.
Michele – Who is the named plaintiff in the lawsuit for the Discover debt?
Michael,
The named plaintiff is Discover Bank. I might also add that i sold my home approximately 8 months ago. The attorney hired by the title company to get the homestead affidavits done, sent the affidavits certified mail to Discover Bank and there was no repsonse. So, we wound up filing it the “Homestead Affidavit as Release of Judgment Lien” along with all of the documentation showing it was sent certified with the court clerk to satisfy the title company.
another attorney recommend i get the title company to open an escrow amount for the amount of the judgment and maybe that way they would write the title policy. Have you heard of this being done?
Yes, I have heard of the escrow being set up. Pretty common.
Michael,
Thanks for such a quick response. If the title company will not do that, what do you suggest, other than waiting for it to expire?
Hi,
I rented an apartment last year and when I was on vacation a water pipe in my bathroom burst. When I got back from vacation, the rental manager said the management company was still on good terms with me. About a week later, I received a 3-day vacate the premisis demand taped on my door. I moved out immediately. Two months later I was contacted by a debt collection agency in regards to the apartment. They told me I owed $1700 for the water damage and the carpets which were damaged when I moved in and was noted on my initial walkthru. The apartment management company still has my security deposit. The debt collection agengy has lowered the price to $1000 but since I did not damage the apartment in any way I don’t feel obligated to pay the bogus amount. I sent the collection agency all the vacate the premisis papers along with my returned rent check from the apartments, but they said the apartments are denying them. The collection agency told me the apartments want to take me for $2600 because the apartment has not been rented out yet. I was told to leave in January. I also tried to negotiate the price to $500 but they said no. Since I lost my apartment, I’ve been pretty much homeless and do not have $1000 to pay the debt off. What should I do? If I don’t pay the amount, how bad will it effect my credit score?
Before you look at negotiating and paying anything, get a hold of your states and local city/county tenant rights laws. Then talk to the state or local offices about this landlord/management company and see what other options you have to dispute this collection, and what type of assistance is available from local groups that help people in this regard.
I have a judgement filed from a cell phone bill for over 2,000$ in 2003. ‘according to them they got a default judgment in 2007 and since it is good for 10 years, they are just bringing it up now. They have a hold on my chase account and are holding the money I have in there. Earlier last week, my bank reported that I had $980 and so they agreed to settle for $250 to start and 100 monthly but they told me yesterday that they cant do that now since my direct deposit went in and I have money in there. I never received any letter from this people and I am so frustrated. Will this affect me from opening other bank accounts? I cannot afford not to have access to my funds because I have several bills to pay. what can I do?
Stop direct deposits until you get this worked out. You may still be able to open an account with another bank, but can operate from a cash/money order/prepaid card basis temporarily.
What state are you in?
I have a judgment of paternity and medical support with a 0 balance on it from the state of Louisiana for my son and I am trying to buy a house and because it is a judgment they are saying I might not be able to get my new house loan … How would I be able to get this judgment for medical support off my credit
Just not to sure what to do about the situation because I close on the sale of my house in less than 30 days and this just came up on me in the middle of buying a new house
How long ago was it that you paid the judgment to zero?
Are there any other collections on your credit reports?
2 years ago and it’s from the state of Louisiana it’s always been a 0 balance it’s a judgment to carry medical support threw the state on my son
There is no other judgments and I have a credit score of almost 750
Richard – I am not familiar with how that judgment stands in the courts view, and it appears the credit reporting agencies view as any judgment for a fixed dollar amount, when that does not appear to be the case.
If this is common in Louisiana, the broker or loan officer you are working with would perhaps have a work around, or perhaps they are new to their job?
I would encourage you to speak with a knowledgeable broker (someone with 10 or more years experience), or with a consumer law attorney with a practice that focuses on Fair Credit Reporting in your state. I can refer you to one or more if you post the name of a nearby larger city.
Hello Michael,
I would really appreciate it if you can provide me with a piece of advice.
1- Just yesterday I have found out that I was sued by collecting agency back in 2012 ( January)
When it happened I had already moved to California and simply did not know that I had to go to the court. When I pulled my credit report it says that I have a public record . Below is what I found on the court’s site under my name
INITIAL CASE FILINGComplaint No.:
Date: 10/12/2011Comment:INITIAL AFFIDAVIT CASE FILING
Type: TRIALComplaint No.:
Date: 11/02/2011Comment:TRIAL SET FOR: 01132012;
Type: NOTICE SENTComplaint No.:
Date: 11/02/2011Comment:NOTICE OF INITIAL TRIAL (ATP)-D1
Type: SERVICEComplaint No.:
Date: 11/25/2011Comment:REGL;10122011;DEF;SV-SERVED ;
Type: NOTICE SENTComplaint No.:
Date: 12/27/2011Comment:NOTICE OF OUTCOME OF ORIGINAL SERVICE (ATP)-A1
ype: AFFIDAVIT JUDGMENT ENTEREDComplaint No.:
Date: 01/13/2012Comment:AFFIDAVIT JUDGMENT ENTERED
Type: TRIAL DELETEComplaint No.:
Date: 01/13/2012Comment:TRIL;01132012;0845A;02;BY 9X2;JUDGMENT ENTERED
Type: NOTICE SENTComplaint No.:
Date: 01/25/2012Comment:NOTICE OF AFFIDAVIT JUDGMENT ENTERED (DEF)-R1
Type: NOTICE SENTComplaint No.:
Date: 01/25/2012Comment:ALSO SENT TO – ATP,
Type: COMMENTComplaint No.:0
Date: 02/16/2012Comment:RET MAIL;AFFIDAVIT JUDGMENT ENTERED;DEF
And this is what I have on my credit report under public charge :
Date filed [?] Jan, 2012
Status [?]
Pending
Amount [?] $1,288
Plaintiff [?] Pasadena Receivables Inc
In addition to this, I have 2 more collection with Midland Credit Management. Bu I would like to ask about it later.
For now, I am thinking what should I do with my unpaid judgment. Do I Have to pay? If I do not pay what are the consequences ? If I pay , how it will help me in in the next 3 years ?
Another thing , that I do not even know what it was for? I have no account number, nothing. I have no idea who was the original creditor. As , I said in addition to this I have 2 more accounts in collection with Midland Credit Management They somehow found me in California , and started sending me letters with their offers to pay 40% less from the current balance. The strange thing about these two accounts is that both of them have assigned date of November 2012, But I knew that I have stopped paying those accounts at the end of 2010 when I got laid off.
My current score is 600 right now, I have a secured credit card for more than 1 year( paying always on time) , and I have purchased a brand new car back in December ( with 18% interest) , I am also paying this on time. I have a really stable and unique engineering job right now. ( Working with special metals and designing device for treating cardiovascular and vascular diseases) .
I am and immigrant, who is trying to stand up form my knees and fix my life.
Mike do you think, I have a chance to buy a house in 3-4 years ?
Best regards,
Igor
You have a chance to buy a house in much less than 3 or 4 years.
Before I pipe in on the collection judgment, and next steps to take to get you closer to your goals, please answer the following:
It is only implied in your comment, so to be sure, is the judgment in a California court?
No matter the court, pull a copy of the lawsuit filed, and find out who the original creditor was (who Pasadena Receivable got the account from)?
Name of law firm that filed the collection action in the court?
Hello Michael,
First of all thank you very much for your reply. I really appreciate it. Thanks!!!
The judgment was in Maryland court. Name of the laws firm was Reroutka and Peroutka P.S.
I think it belongs to Pasadena Receivable .
I am just thinking if I ask the court to send me a lawsuit letter, are they going to provide the collection firm with my address as well, or not.
Should I call to collection firm to ask about this letter, or it is better not to do so. Is it possible to find out from the court letter who was the original creditor ? In addition , can I pay this money directly to the court or not ?
Best regards,
Igor
I would get the documentation directly from the court prior to calling the debt collector.
Yes, you can often pay the judgment balance to the court. Your goal for home ownership will mean getting the judgment updated as satisfied in the court record, so be aware of that if the debt turns out to be legitimately yours and that is the path you take (paying or settling with Pasadena Receivables).
Hi there, can you paid medical collection accounts be removed from your credit report? I have not paid them yet. If so how should I go about this with the collection agency? Also. Can a paid tax lien in Ohio be removed from your credit report? Thank you
You would be lucky if you were able to get the tax lien removed from your credit reports. That entry on your credit is related to public records. Even if you somehow got it off your reports, it could show back up. Getting the lien removed from the public record is not common at all.
You can sometimes work with the medical service provider, or billing company for the provider, to make payment and have that lead to the collection agency removal.
How old are the bills?
Hello Mike,
I noticed you had mention different reporting shenanigans that goes on by the collectors. I have quite a bit of school debt, and early on soon after graduation, I was slapped with a collection within months. I paid nearly the entire loan off directly through the original lender, since I had the ability to do so, and the collection agency was very shady.
The collection agency was still sending me bills and threatening letters, claiming I owe them an amount nearly double the original loan. Now on my credit report, it’s showing payments as continuing to be missed even though it has already gone into collections.
Is this one of their reporting shenanigans? And how should I navigate through that situation. A home purchase is on my horizon, hopefully within the next year.
Thank you for all your help.
Can you be more specific with what happened, when, who the debt collector is, and what it is the collections agency is reporting vs what the original lender is reporting?
Hi Michael,
My husband and I have excellent credit with few blemishes. Recently my husband’s brother is trying to close on a house. On his credit report, he is listed as a co borrower on our mortgage( which he is not) and listed as a co borrower on several of our credit cards( which he is not). I called the credit card companies and they assured me he is not listed as a borrower on our account. Is this a mix up with the credit bureaus and what can we do about it?
It certainly sounds as if this is some form of merged file issue with one or more of the credit reporting agencies. Which of the 3 agencies are reporting these things in error? Is there any time sensitive financing goals that are going to get hung up by this incorrect reporting?
Answer those two questions in reply and I can offer more next steps feedback.
I have an unpaid judgment of $10k showing on my report, It was a credit card debt taken over by a company called Erin&Erin in NY. Judgment was filed in 2009. I want to purchase a home this year. Court letter was handed to my mother in NY at my last known address. At that time I was living in GA and of course could not get to court in NY. I ended up contacting them and they ended up garnishing my wages in 2009 for a few months. I haven’t heard much since except an occasional letter with a higher amount and in March a letter from someone else stating they represent Erin& Erin and offering a settlement. What can I do? I have read most of your answers and I will assume that a credit repare company will not be able to fix this. Help!
The judgment is on your credit as a result of the court record. You would have to vacate the judgment in order to impact the credit reports, and based on what you have shared, I do not see that as a realistic option.
Can you raise the money to settle the debt? Lets say you could negotiate a pay off of 60% of the balance. How long would it take to pull together the money?
You can get a home loan with a resolved judgement on your credit reports. But it is increasingly difficult to get loan approval with a judgment that is showing it is still owed.
help I posted a question and don’t know where it went
Pat – You filled out a consultation request form that I sent to Steve, a CRN debt specialist I have worked with for a decade-ish. You can connect with him, or I can send that email back to you so that you can post the content as a comment here for feedback.
2 years ago my ex husband sued and won a judgement against me for unpaid camera tickets on a vehicle that we were joint titled in. Recently, we found out that unpaid camera tickets can not cause a license suspension and that he had unpaid moving violations that caused the suspension. I have not paid anything on the judgement and although my ex knows and acknowledges that its not my fault that his license is suspended, he has not doing anything to help me get the judgement removed from the report. We live in Maryland.
You will likely have to petition the court to vacate the judgment. I would encourage you to work with an attorney on something like this. I can help locate one with the experience you need if you post the name of a nearby larger city.
Thanks Michael! We live in Prince Georges County, Maryland.
I sent you an email with several options.
Good Afternoon Michael,
My situation is similar to Daniel L says:December 6, 2013 at 6:02 pm in that it involves the EDD in Calif for an overpayment of benefits. My total was originally at about 6k back from 2006. Recently they filed a Judgement for a little over 11k. I no longer live in Calif and reside in Tenn. I am wondering if they can garnish my wage if i am in Tenn. I like Daniel would rather pay the original amount. I do have the ability to perhaps pay in 6 payments. I have discussed this with the EDD but was told they would or could not negotiate. I thought of Bankruptcy but was told that the law firm would not represent me because the $$ amount was less then 20k and because I would have to travel to and from Calif to file. I was also told that Criminal Charges could be leveled against me. So BK is not an option. I wondered if Debt Consolidation is an option? I would appreciate your thoughts.
Thank You
Foreign judgments can be enforced in Tennessee, but likely only once they jump through another court hoop. Talk with an experienced debt defense attorney in TN about this for more details. I can refer you to one if I knew the name of a nearby larger city.
Bankruptcy should still be an option. And people frequently file for amounts under 20k. How many attorneys did you talk to about bankruptcy?
I now live in Memphis Tenn. I only talked to 2 Attys both were the free consultation type. They said the BK would have to be filed in the state i lived the longest and that the documents would need to be signed in person. It is also my understanding that in BK i would need to pay off the entire amount which i have a hard time fathoming. I would love any recommended location you can point me too I have only been in Memphis 6 months.
You can wait longer and file bankruptcy in TN. I sent you contact info to a consumer law attorney in Memphis, so talk with him about those timelines along with what it takes to collect on a foreign judgment.
Paying off the entire amount of debts in a bankruptcy would often mean the debt does not qualify for discharge in a chapter 7 (some debts do not), or that you cannot qualify for chapter 7 based on the income means test, or you would be forced to liquidate stuff that has a value in excess of your debts.
Hi,
A debt collect took my wife to court back in April 2011. I went with her to court and brought a Transunion report showing my wife was in good standing for the particular debt this collector was trying to sue her for. Right before the audience/hearing, I showed the report to their lawyer and he immediately proceeded to postpone the session and said “I need to show this to my client and will take it from there….”. We never heard back from them, but the judgment still appears on my wife’s credit reports. It doesn’t show “status” or “verified” or “satisfied”. It doesn’t show anything, just the date and the court. We don’t know if they dropped the case or else. I’m thinking about filing a law suit against this debt collector now because my wife is still not able to get credit because of this (I guess).
Thank you,
Rui
What state do you live in Rui?
Ok I have a judgment on my husband and my credit report. We fought the original creditor for the amount to be lowered based off of charges from apartment damages we didn’t agree with. We got no resolution and was forced to pay original balance. We said no they sent us to collections. We sent letter after letter to the collection Amgen y but they also refused to looser it. We said we want to take this matter to court. We went to court and the judge lowered our bill from 3500.00 to 2000.00 and said we did not have to pay their lawyer fees they were asking for. I paid what I was told too right away in full. Now I have this judgment of my credit report that is giving me bad credit. I want this removed as I had to go to court in order to get the bill lowered. How do I do this?
Thanks
The judgment will not be removed from your credit reports unless it is removed from the court records. And from what you shared, that is not going to happen.
Paid judgments lose their potency over time, and will fall off of your credit reports typically after 7 years.
What are your credit goals in the next 24 months?
I am finding this judgment is ruining me trying to rebuild. I have been working so hard getting my credit score up. I am currently 579. This is a big improvement. I follow guides (get credit cards, pay off debt, on time payments). My goal is to buy a home for my family. I think this judgment is preventing my credit score to raise.
It can take time for a judgment to lose some of its potency to drag down your credit scores. How long ago did you pay the judgment? It is showing as a satisfied judgment in the court record, and on your credit reports, right?
I have not noticed it saying it has been paid on my credit report actually which is weird because I paid right there at the court house. I am very disappointed about the whole situation. If I where to challenge the judgment on there how would I go about this. I don’t challenge judges decision just I want to get it removed. Would this involve appearing in court?
Does the court record show it as paid?
I do not think challenging the judgment is going to be of any use to you, just more expense and time. But if you were to pursue it, you would file with the court, and it would likely involve appearing.
HI Michael,
SEEMS LIKE I MADE A MISTAKE BY APPLYING FOR CARD THROUGH CAP AGAIN AFTER OPENING A ACCOUNT WITH CREDIT KARMA LAST NIGHT THERE WAS NOTHING FROM CAP ONE NO JUDGEMENTS AT LEAST , NOW AS OF TODAY MY TRANS UNION REPORT READS THREE THINGS,
Credit Score Center
My Spending
$0
$1,255
Collections
TransUnion
629
Credit Rating: Poor
Updated Jun 14, 2014
You have no recent credit report activity.
Past Activity
Jun 14, 2014 You have 1 public record posted on your credit report.
Public Records Activity
Your credit report contains the following public records:
Public Record:
1. Court Judgment Date: Aug 11, 2010
Jun 14, 2014 You have 1 account that has been delinquent on payments.
Accounts Activity
Your current credit report indicates that you have been delinquent on payments for 0 of your open accounts and 1 of your closed accounts. These delinquencies may have occurred at any point over the last 4 years.
Account: Type: Status: Total Late Payments: Payment Status:
1. CAP ONE Credit Card Closed 1 0%
Jun 14, 2014 You currently have 1 open account in collections.
Accounts Activity
The following account is listed as in collections on your credit report:
Account: Balance: Payment Status:
1. PORTFOLIO RC $1,255 In Collections
Jun 14, 2014 The length of your credit history is 0 Years.
Accounts Activity
The length of your credit history is determined by the following open accounts:
Open Accounts: Average Age: Oldest Account: Your Grade:
1. 0 Yrs 4 Yrs 11 Mos
You have no open credit cards. You have no installment loans. Related Article: What is your credit history?
Jun 14, 2014 You have 1 credit inquiry on your credit report.
Inquiries Activity
You have the following credit inquiries listed on your credit report:
Lender: Type: Date:
1. CAP ONE Bank Jun 14, 2014
I WANT TO FIX ALL THAT . GUIDE ME THROUGH PLZ……
AT LEAST THERE NO TD BANK THERE ON THE REPORT
I REALLY APPRECIATE IT .
WOULD THEY STILL SEND ME THE CARD THEY CHARGED ME BUT AFTER TODAY’S INQUIRY I AM NOT SURE IF THEY WILL .
Stockton,ca
I sent you an email with contact details to an attorney with fair credit reporting and debt collection experience. Call for a consult and talk about your options.
I misunderstood. I read your prior comments to say that Capital One already issued you the new credit card, not that you had just recently applied for one, and did not know the outcome.
It is typically not a good idea to request new credit products from a lender you have unresolved accounts with. It is not impossible to get approved if you do apply, but rebuilding credit is best done using resources that have the higher likelihood of succeeding. I like the credit rebuilding tools available through credit.com.
As far as those negatives go, it appears you need to focus first on resolving the judgment by making an arrangement to pay in full, or for whatever savings you can negotiate. Then focus on adding positive history (new accounts), which you lack.
I graduated from college in May 2000. I have an old student loan I was not great about paying timely until about 6 years a ago & then I started paying monthly. I was paying what I believed the monthly fee to be since I hadn’t received any billing info in years. Apparently, the student loan company (Hinson Hazlewood) sued me about 8 years ago, but they didn’t serve me with the papers until 3 years ago. They said they couldn’t find me, but I had been paying them for years, using my current address. I contacted the attorney listed on the paperwork who told me he could keep the issue from going to court and could keep my dad’s credit clear (he was the consigner) if I would enter into an agreement stating I owed the debt. He said it would show as a “judgment” on my credit reports but said it would NOT affect my credit but could be considered a lien should I ever try to sell my home. Well, I am told by creditors that it is absolutely affecting my credit. And I can’t even do a streamline refi on my home because of it. I continue to pay the correct amount timely every month, but from what I read, this will always & forever haunt me. Furthermore, the attorney ended up including my dad any way & then said he was sorry but said it would not show up on my dad’s credit as long as I was never late on a payment. I wish I had not felt so pressured years ago & wish I would have tried to fight the judgment. Is there anything I can do? I owe approximately $20,000 more which will take nearly 10 years to pay off. Any suggestions are appreciated.
I would talk about your options with a consumer law attorney, and one with debt defense experience. Post the name of a nearby by larger city and I will email you contact details for any I know of in that area. There may be no recommended course of action, but the initial consult will likely be no cost, and will help you get your bearings regardless.
Hey Shelli,
I completely understand. HH loans file judgement on me two years ago and when I received the court documents in the mail, I was completely confused. I did call the attorney on the claim and she directed me to someone who was suppose to be HHloans. I was stupid enough to sign in the judgement in thinking it wasn’t going on my credit nor was it a default. Now I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to get put of this mess. I just talked to a settlement attorney (free review) and they told me that there was nothing that they could do. I think it’s quite “snakey” how private lenders do individuals.
I made an account ladt night with credit carma it only shoed $1225 BY portfolio now orignal creditor is capital one and the date is 7/9\2009 .only trans union records on this site.does not show any thing else.what that means there was never a judgment? Noting from td bank. And how about cap one card that they approved how should i go about that sine i already paid $99 kind a secure card i guess.ty for quick reply .realy appriciate this
I would keep the Capital One card you just opened and use it as a credit rebuilding tool (use sparingly, and pay each month in full).
You can pull your credit reports for free from each of the majors at http://www.annualcreditreport.com.
Just because a credit report does not show the judgment does not mean it isn’t there. Pull the others and verify, but also look to the court record where you know this all took place and verify it there for yourself.
Make sure TD bank is not reporting elsewhere.
Post an update, and lets go from there.
Hi Michael,
I was renting an apartment for a few years and due to a reduction in income and basically having more bills than I could keep up with and other circumstances, I fell behind on rent. I communicated my situation with the landlord but he eventually filed a notice for eviction for unpaid rent. I moved out timely and went to court because I disputed the amount he recorded that I had not paid. I have proof that he missed counting some payments also I never got my security deposit back . I ended up inadvertently missing the court date and he won a defaulted judgment against me for $6500. My situation now is that my finances have improved 100% my credit score is 590 and I am working on deleting some items to continue to boost the number. I want to purchase a home by the end of the summer and I also want to resolve this judgment so that it is no longer on my credit report. What is the chances that they would accept an offer to pay in full lump sum for a slightly less amount and request that they file a order to vacate? I should mention also that I work for an attorneys office here in Philadelphia PA actually and I can get this proposal done through my attorneys so it appears to have more “teeth” by coming from an attorney
It is possible to settle the judgment debt. Getting them to vacate in order to be paid is not a realistic expectation though. Was it a large property management company you rented from, or a small property owner?
Even if you are only able to get the judgment entry in the court record updated as satisfied, and then get the credit reports updated with same, you can still qualify for home loans (if all other criteria looks good).
What are some of the other credit report negatives you have?
Hi,
PLEASE BEAR WITH ME I KNOW ITS A LONG QUESTION. THIS WAS ALL AT LEAST FIVE YEARS BACK MAY BE 6 YEARS NOW AND I HAVE NO RECORD OR PAPERS OFF ANY THING .
i had capital one credit card for five hundred which I took out and never paid they called me many times . then they sent it to collections they started same thing i never answered . then it went to court in new jersey got summoned was not at the address at the time but they kept coming. never replied got judgement against me . same with TD bank it was about $100 dollars with bank . question is things are different with me now finally i recently applied for capital one card again they approved me and said to deposit $49 dollars i deposited $99 . why did they approved only the address is different ss # is same what now ? how long does judgement stays on record on credit and in new jersey? what about
TD BANK DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY DID. WAT IS THE BEST ADVISE FOR ME HOW CAN I REBUILD MY CREDIT AND DO I HAVE TO PAY ALL THOSE DEBT . I HAVE BEEN IN DIFFERENT STATE LAST FOUR YEARS NOW PLEASE ADVISE ME TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE.
Capital One issuing another credit card may be due to error, or data bases not connecting about the past account, other.
The judgment they have is good for 20 years. It may not be on your credit report for that long, or continue to slow your credit score improvement, but it can prevent you from credit approval on home loans and the like. The judgment grows with interest set by the court. Taking care of this as soon as you are able would be good, and not just from a credit reporting perspective.
On the TD Bank account that went to collection:
Does TD banks still show that there is a balance owed to them on your credit reports, or is there a zero there? If a zero, they sold it, if still owed to them, the balance should show an amount.
Settling a really old debt like this (that is not a judgment); where you cannot be sued due to the SOL in your state passing; and where your credit report and score are the number one concern, may not be a good idea. Settling means updating really old ans stale account details. While settling is a good thing over all, the fresh updates to a collection account can drop your credit temporarily (lasts for several months). Unless the TD collection on your reports are holding up other credit approval, it may not be something to address credit wise.
Hello Michael,
Back in the day when i was 20, I purchased a computer through Gateway. Of course, it was financed and my sister decided she would buy the computer from me. Of course, she did not keep her end of the bargain and the computer was not paid. As I got older, the bill went delinquent and I was under the impression that this was written off. Recently, I have been looking through my credit report, at the age of 36- looking to improve my rating and overall score. I realized that Asset Acceptance has a judgement against me around the sum of $3500 for the computer or the purchase of the debt. Court papers were filed 2009. What should i do? I want to call them and declare this debt as passing the statue of limitation, but I don’t want to open a can of worms! Will this come off my credit in 2016, satisfying the seven years? I don’t want to act without some kind of consolation and knowing these agencies, they are hungry for payment, PLEASE HELP!
The judgement may come off of the credit report after 7 years from the date of entry in the court. But the debt is still out there, and probably growing with judgment interest. You will still be at risk of extra ordinary collection efforts like liens on property, bank account levy, or wage garnishment (depends on the state you live in).
You cannot call Asset Acceptance and declare a judgment already final in the court record as passed the SOL. You would formally have to challenge all of that in the court. And after 5 years, I am not sure how realistic that would be.
What financial goals do you have in the next 2 years and beyond?
Hi Mike,
I recently pulled my free annual credit report and discovered a judgment filed against me by some Apartments that I have never lived at. This is in a different state than where I live and someone has used my identity. I have filed a dispute with the credit bureau’s regarding this. I have been working so hard to rebuild my credit and now this has happened. Will the credit bureau’s remove this with the proof that I sent them showing where I have been living and working. I am looking at hiring an attorney to try and have the apartments recall this. Not sure where to start. I also filed a complaint with the FTC. Any advice? Thanks
Did you live in the state the judgment was filed at any time?
credit r
Credit reporting is not perfect. Far from it. There could be a mixed file issue, or something other than identity theft at play. That said, if it is an issue of identity theft, I would want to file a formal police report, and have that to share with credit reporting agencies too.
Hi Mike,
I had a credit card judgement levied against me in 2008/finalized in 2009 during a prolonged period of unemployment. I was supposed to have insurance on the card against unemployment but when I tried to contact them about it, they claimed they couldn’t find any evidence that insurance was on the card. Basically, what I think happened was they had insurance on the card and when I sold a house, I paid the card off. When I moved out of the house, as a precaution against fraud, I closed all my accounts and had the cards re-issued. I was afraid someone might find something in my trash and steal my identity. So my move to protect myself may have resulted in them removing the credit protection from the card. In any case, when I needed it, I discovered it was no longer there.
The creditor got a judgement on me that was finalized before I became aware of it. In a few months, I may be coming into a little money, but I’m not sure how much– so I’d like to try and negotiate with them. Before, I couldn’t, because I just didn’t have any cash to pay the debt. Could you recommend a lawyer in California that could help me settle the debt with the creditor’s lawyer, and get them to file a satisfaction of judgement with the court? Should I try to counter-sue them or file a complaint with some government agency (the court? the FTC?) and argue that I did not authorize the removal of the credit protection insurance? Would something like that give me any leverage to get a lower settlement amount to satisfy the judgement? Your advice would be greatly appreciated. I just want to move on with my life, but am only now getting some money to deal with this.
Suing them over the cessation of credit protection is not likely to lead to anything productive. How much is the judgment for?
I will send you an email with contact info to an excellent debt defense attorney in California. Talk to him about what he can do to help settle the judgment and get the court record updated.
Thanks, Mike. That’s what I figured. Thank you! It was originally for about 5800, but is now between 9-10k with interest I just need to settle it now, and hoping for the best outcome possible. I also don’t trust settling it on my own because I am afraid they will not file the court satisfaction paperwork unless an attorney handles it.
Hi Michael,
Great news! The attorney to whom you referred me was able to get a settlement for half of the amount of the original judgment, due to a couple of clerical issues with the original case. I paid about 4700 instead of 9400. Thank you again for all your help with this!! You have really helped me out. I am so happy not to have to worry about this any more.
I do have one additional question. The lawyer said the Collecting law firm will probably send me a 1099c. My tax preparer said it will probably be for the difference between the initial judgment and the settlement amount, but the law firm may try to send me a 1099c for the difference between the judgment+interest (9400), and what I settled for (4700). My tax preparer, who has done several 1099cs, said she would need to do some more research, but that the taxable event was in 2009, so it ought to be the amount that was from when the original judgment was finalized. She said if they try to send it for a later year, then I could file a form with the IRS to dispute the year, because it’s pretty clear when the event occurred. The lawyer said he was not qualified to speak on tax issues, so he didn’t know.
Do you know how the 1099c would probably be calculated? Is she correct about the taxable event? If she is, I’d get a 1099c for about 800. If she’s not, it will be for about 4700. I wasn’t working that year, I was a student living off student loans. It probably won’t affect me much in any case, because she said I could file a claim for insolvency since I owed more than I was bringing in during that tax year. I didn’t even make enough money to pay taxes that year. But it would be good to know what to expect.
Thanks,
Rachel
p.s. Her reasoning for the amount was that the interest accrued after the event occurred, but if I paid 4700 and the original event was about 5800, then I’d only owe the difference between the initial event and the settlement amount, which is about 900-ish. She said the 1099c was sent because the IRS considers the unpaid debt as income from the initial event. The subsequent interest she was unsure of, but felt that it would be a different event year, if it is taxed at all, and might be carried over a number of years.
I believe there are tax court rulings and/or policy decisions pending regarding the tax treatment on forgiven debt, and how phantom money (interest after default) is treated.
Those decisions could be a while….
Congratulations with resolving the judgment!
I cannot speak to the tax question as a qualified professional, and would encourage you to speak to one. My impression of where you are at is that the year in which the debt was forgiven will be the year you have to consider the tax, and whether you are solvent. I cover this in more details in this report: https://consumerrecoverynetwork.com/debt-forgiveness-taxes-settled-credit-card/
Hi Michael,
Thanks. That is not what my Enrolled Agent said, but as you said, this is a very murky part of the tax law and it has changed a lot. She said the IRS has said it must be the year of the taxable event. Otherwise, people could get the 1099c years later and the IRS says it must be timely. She said she had heard the IRS was going to rule against CAs sending 1099cs years later for a current tax year, but that is what she heard at her workplace. I could have her call the IRS about it when I get it. If they sent it for this year, I would dispute it, but I think I might have to get a tax lawyer at that point.
We’ll see how the whole thing pans out.
In any case, thank you so much for putting me with a lawyer who could get a settlement. That is huge for me!
Rachel
If you do get some solid answers to your questions come tax time (or before), please post about that in the comments of that link to the report I provided above. That would be great!
Thanks, Michael. I will do that. She has a line she can call to speak to the IRS about it, and also some tax experts who are on call who specialize in different areas. I have asked her to let me know as soon as she gets a solid answer. I hope consumers will get some clarity on this soon. For the past couple of years, I’ve seen a lot of posts on the 1099c from people who got one many years after a taxable event. I really hope the IRS will clarify the timeframe in a more precise way and exactly what to expect in terms of the amount on the 1099c.
Law School soon to be 1L student in need of advice.
I am a 28 year female from New Jersey. I have been accepted to Law School and was thankfully awarded a 20k dean scholarship. However, I still owe 52K in tuition including housing. My credit history is not well. I have 6 accounts in good standing, including a car loan company.
Bad Debt
1) I have 2 medical bills I never knew about, but they are small in the amount of 1,000, which is in collections
2) I have one civil judgement that was filed in 2012 in the amount of 5300, which originated from chase but was taken over by another company. This also shows in my bad debt as well in collections, thus hitting me twice.
3) I have a 10,500$ outstanding debt from 2009, which started when I was 19 years old. They had given me a 9000$ limit and I have no idea how, but regardless, I was unable to pay any of it, thus, it is now in collections.
My mother is going to try to get a loan or mortgage of some sort on our home in the amount of 20k, hoping that if I pay off these ‘bad’ credit accounts and civil judgment, I will be able to obtain a student loan from sallie mae or similar company.
My question is this, if I pay these accounts off, in total an amount of approximately 18K, which I am hoping I could knock down to around 9 or 10k, would my credit score improve enough in order for me to acquire a private student loan without a co-signer. I am being given the max in unsubsidized federal money – 20,500. But I am still left with 30k in tuition/housing, which is the amount I would need in a loan.
I do not have a co-signer, my mothers credit is not good enough to enable me to obtain a private loan. However, if my credit improved, would her mediocre credit be that much of an issue. She is in the high 500’s and I am, I believe in the 400’s.
Like I said, I do have 6 accounts that are open and in good standing and current, including a financed automobile.
I can not get a grant for post-Bachelors degree and I am getting the max in unsubsidized, and the graduate plus loan requires a good credit standing, or a parent to have good standing, but I have neither.
I am at your mercy and need advice on how to proceed. Two of my bad debts are going to expire by 2016, but I do not have two years. I start in August. Please please help me and let me know what I can do to optimize my potential for obtaining a loan, either private, or otherwise.
Thank you.
Sometimes there just are no feasible financing options. Your situation may be one of them. As you pointed out, time is your friend, but not when your goals are more immediate.
You could certainly settle the debts you reference in your post, and perhaps for better savings than what you are preparing for. But that will not necessarily mean you will be approved for the student loans you need.
Are you working?
Fallon – any advice from someone with experience. Do not get any loans through Sallie Mae for student loans. If for whatever reason you are unable to pay them… They will sue you faster than you can blink. I have also commented on this article about trying to obtain a mortgage loan but Sallie Mae is really causinproblems. Feel free to read my section if you want to know more of my experience with them!
Hi can I seek advice I have a credit account in kay jewelers and I think we missed to pay for about 5 mos I think, actually its a joint account. Kay jeweler already send it to law firm and law firm send us a letter notice of intent litigation, are we gonna be sued with that? What are ways we gonna do because we still want to pay the balance and we tried to contact kay jewelers but we remained hold for about a hour and half in phone call so we just left a message, but there’s no reply with them yet, we just want to know if there is anyway we cand send the payment.
rhem – With Kay Jeweler sending your account to an attorney for collection, you will typically have to call the attorney to work out the payment arrangement. Be very careful to get everything in writing that you agree to. Just because you are paying the attorney does not mean they will not sue to secure payments from you.
We sent a settlement letter to them but we didnt received any reply with that we just received a notice of intent litigation
With that notice of intent litigation is that means they already file a case to us?
It may not mean they have already filed, but it does certainly sound like they will.
Sending letters offering to settle is often counter productive. Is there a reason you are unable to call?
Thanks Michael. We already talk to them and agreed on us how we can settle the payment. Thanks a lot for you time and help. Appreciated.
I have a credit card judgement in my name since 2008 and i was told by the credit bureau that it will go off my credit report in 2015. I tried getting a mortgage loan this year and i was told by the loan officer i needed to pay the judgement. He said they will still be able to see it on my record even though its off my credit report when applying for a home loan. Is this true?
Public records, which include the court entering a judgment, do not go away once the credit reporting ends.
I had a motorcycle repo in 07/07 from Harley Davdison that shows as a charge off on my credit for 6400 it will be 7 years in a couple months does that fall off or can they go back and file a judgement against me I live in NC my wife and I are trying to buy a house Thanks
The statute of limitations to sue you in North Carolina in order to collect on a debt like this is long gone. I do not think you are at any risk of them trying to get a judgement now.
“Is this a big deal? Not for most people. Getting the judgment paid, even for less than the balance owed if that is agreed to, will result in a satisfaction of judgment being filed. You can use the court record to rapidly update your credit report yourself if you are dealing with the judgment in order to get a home loan approved, or refinance a current mortgage.”
I am in this situation. I have a student loan Judgement against me that is reporting on my credit from Sallie Mae, and they are not reporting that I have paid ANYTHING towards it. They aren’t updating balances and they are not reporting that I pay them monthly. I had a really bad credit score (in the 400s) at one point and I worked my ass off to correct my horrible decisions when i was younger and now it’s up to around 620. I am trying to finance to get a mortgage loan and the lender wants to see my credit score up to at least 640. The ONLY two things I have outstanding are this Judgement for student loans, and a medical bill that is in collections that will be paid off in a couple of months. That’s IT. And I dont know what to do at this point.
Sallie Mae was of no help to me whatsoever. They told me to get a private loan to pay off the Judgement so it wouldn’t report anymore. WHAT? I dont care that it’s reporting, but it’s not HELPING my credit if they aren’t reporting that I’m paying them.
WHAT DO I DO?!
Brittany – When paying a judgment off with monthly installments, it is not updated to the court record. And it is the court record that is reflected on your credit reports. Your credit report will probably next update once the satisfaction of judgment is filed, which is not going to be until you pay it off in total, or as agreed if settled for less.
You will probably get a bump a couple months after the medical debt shows up on your credit reports as paid.
What are you doing to help your credit score besides dealing with the old debts?
The only thing I’m doing is making sure that all of my bills are paid before the due dates.
I have two store credit cards, Kohls (100$ credit line) and Victoria’s Secret (with a 500$ credit line) which both are paid off (no other credit cards… No MasterCard or visa). I have a car payment and normal household bills (cable, car insurance, gas, electric, rent, cell phone)… But other than that, I don’t have much else. I’m not sure how to better my credit score other than to pay off this medical bill that has 300$ left and get rid of this judgement. Crappy part is that I can’t just give them 11,000$ and call it a day so the judgement goes away.
Any other suggestions on how to raise that credit score with things that I can control?
Not much to suggest. You have a couple of revolving credit cards with low to no balance, an installment loan you are paying, and keeping current on all bills.
You may/may not get the score bump to 640 after the medical debt is taken care of. But you may still be able to get a mortgage. Is the lender you are working through using FHA standards? FHA will clear credit scores under 640.
Michael,
So I got some more information from my Mortgage lender asking me to write a letter to their investors explaining the “faults” on my credit report. Which is fine, I can do that no problem
I have paid off the medical bill that was outstanding so that is an easy explanation because it will drop off my credit report by the end of July. The ONLY other things on my credit report that need explanation are 1-the judgement and 2-the two loans that are combined “the judgement”.
I guess my question is this. Sallie Mae sued me for 2 loans that I had through them, which they have combined together and got one judgement for them. The judgement is for like 15,900 give or take for the two combined (for for 6k and the other for 9k). So the judgement is on there which we have already established will not get updated due to it being a court records thing (blah blah)…
My question is… how can I stop Sallie Mae from reporting those two loans separately on my credit and show them with a “past due” balance when I am paying them via this judgement that is against me.
Seems like thats the ONLY thing that they are worried about on my credit report… the fact that 2 loans appear to be “past due” when in fact, those two loans are included in the judgement against me.
Any help would be great!
There is no standard for Sallie Mae to update the courts with monthly payments that will translate to your credit reports that I know of.
You could contact Sallie Mae and ask for some written outline of the payments you have agreed to with them. Attach proof of your on time payments pursuant to that agreement.
You could also just outline that yourself in a letter you give to your lender, and attach the proof of all payments. From what you shared in your comment, that is what your mortgage broker is asking for.
I have a question. Back in June 2013 I was entered into a judgment for 499 plus court fees. The case was over a merchant account lease. They came after me after the statue of limitation had expired. Even though this was my defence the judge still awarded them the case. I did appeal it and at both times they were awarded the case. This was a very sneaky company that I was dealing with. They send me the contract after I had signed the application, but that is another story. I received court papers stating that I had enter into a judgement and I was obligated to pay the amount owned. I checked my credit report that month and the judgment never appeared. I keep checking it every month and the judgment has not appeared my credit score right now is at 703 – 713- 769. I’ve been trying really hard to keep a good credit. Since this judgement did not appear on my credit reports I did not called the court or the plaintiff. Today after 6 months I got a call from a collection agency CLN Law asking me to pay the money. This is not my original debtor and when I asked for an address to send a money order they gave me a PO box Number. Now my concern is that if I pay for this judgement it will now appear as judgment payed satisfactory rather than not being shown on my credit reports. Im about to apply for a line of credit for my business that its not a corporation but rather under my name, and I’m also looking to buy a house with in the next 6 months. I want to know if I pay this judgement would it appear in my credit report even though it has not appear before?
It is possible it would show up later, whether you pay it or not. Have you looked up the court record to confirm the judgment is entered correctly? Errors happen… not that you would want this one fixed.
Wow! Michael Bovee you really know your stuff. I read a few of your answers and I really need some advice for my current situation. But first let me thank you in advance for your help and interest to help me resolve my conflict.
In 2010 my wife and I got married and moved into an apartment together. In 2011 two months prior to completing our one year lease we both lost our jobs. We paid the eleventh month with our 401k and some money we saved however by the 12th month we moved out before they were able to evict us. Eventually they sued us for the last month’s rent plus lawyer fees and all. Shortly thereafter it turned into a judgement on my credit. By 2012 my wife and I filed BK and away went everything. Or so we thought. Now after living with my parents in a 10×10 room with our two year old daughter and another on the way it’s imperative we find a new place, we looked into renting another apartment but found that we are on some sort of blacklist and is EXTREMELY hard to rent anywhere because of that judgement. What can we do if anything. Its hard for me to believe we have to suffer like this for 7 years. I mean what if I didn’t live with my parents? Would me and my little family be living on the streets? There has got to be a way for us to rent something. Living with parents is just NOT an option anymore.
Michael – There are probably some options for rentals even with the judgment form a prior rental. Keep looking and be upfront about what you have going on before you submit any application. If the policy with a property owner or management company is strict, they will probably tell you and you can skip the application process. You may need a cosigner or larger deposit in some instances.
Hi Michael,
I have three judgments against me for credit cards. I went from a very well paying job to disability which was less then $20,000. Unfortunately, I was just not able to pay them. Two are dated in 2007 and one in 2008. I still cannot afford to pay any of the unpaid balance which has probably quadrupled in time because of the interest. I am trying to finance a home and the loan officer said there was no way I would qualify due to this matter. Since it will be seven years soon I am assuming or rather hoping they will come off my credit report. On my credit report they are not listed under collection and no collection agency has contacted me in three or four years. I have been told though that the judgment can be sold to a collection agency again and the seven years will start over again from the date of the sale. Is this true? Also could they still be listed on my credit report after seven years stating time had passed and were “obsolete”. I’m sorry I can’t think of the correct word for what I am trying to say. I live in Alabama and I am assuming that 7 years is the statue of limitations. I really need help with this because I am in a situation where I need housing within a few months. Renting is not an option. Thank you so very much for your help. Anim_lvr
You could still find that you are unable to get financing after judgments age off of your credit reports. That is because you still owe the debt, and the fact that the judgments are unresolved is still a matter of public record. The credit card judgments are good for 20 years in Alabama. They can be growing with as much as 12% interest (legal limit in Alabama for debt like this).
Being blunt, I do not like your chances here.
Who are the judgment creditors we are talking about here (name of plaintiff). What are the amounts (roughly) owed on each?
I have a question. I returned my car lease and was charged 1600$ in overage miles. It is now 60 days late and also in collections. I am in the process of getting my home loan with FHA program. They require no late payments or collections. If I pay my lease bill, will they automatically remove any derogatory information (late payments, collections) from this account? The goal is to have no history of negative information so I can get the loan. NO OTHER PERSONAL ACCOUNTS had every been negative. My credit score went from 715 to 642 in 30 days once this one lease bill went to collections. WHAT DO I DO PLEASE?
You can take a shot at the finance company removing any reference to the late pay from your credit reports by offering full payment. But more than likely, you will have a paid account that either went to collections, or was two months late.
Did your loan officer tell you FHA underwriting required there be no collections appearing on the credit report? You may have some specific things going on for that reference to be made, I do not know, but FHA underwriting will often require no unpaid collections, not that there be none at all on the credit report.
A while back i had several medical bill that added up to around $1,400 and i asked for a detailed outline of the bills from the collection agency.
What i recieved was a bunch of medical bills that had treatment numbers and a treatment location number. I then asked for more details about the bills because i had no clue what treatment #(#s) were or what place they were even coming from.
I called up the hospital and they would’nt give me any info. The hospital saying it was sent to collections and they were not allowed to talk to me.
I then sent another letter to the collection agency asking what these numbers ment. The next week i got a knock at the door with a police officer seving me papers.
My dad and my lawer went into a pre. Court meeting. My lawyer called the clerks office a few days later and the clerks office said the case was dismissed.
Well all of the suden i get my wages garnished. I have payed of the garnishment but now i just got another medical bill get sent to them. I know this bill is acurrate but, I am worried about paying it to this collection agency. With all of the history between us.
My question is how is the best way to pay this? Because in the past i have payed small about to them (because i knew what some of the bills were), before they garnished me and they say they never recieved some of thoughs payments to them.
Also how can a collection agency garnish my wages after the case was dismissed? Can they do this without reserving me and is their a way that i could pay the original depter? I dont trust this collection agency and im afraid to paying thinking they might still try and bill me again for the same bill like they have done in the past.
Get all things documented when dealing with the debt collector. If they will not send documentation about your payment arrangements etc., record everything said on the phone with the collection agent, and let them know you are recording and why.
Something certainly happened with the court case, but I cannot speculate as to what. You can pull the docket for the case from the court and post more about that situation when you read through the case progression.
You do have an ability to request a hearing from the court about any garnishment creating a hardship. State’s set a limit on amounts that can be garnished that will vary depending on each persons income and expenses. Look into that, and how to request a hearing, by calling the court clerk.
What is the name of the debt collector you are dealing with? Have you considered filing a complaint about your dealings with the CFPB?
Good morning,
In 2006 I had an overpayment from the state of Washington unemployment office. My wages were garnished and the debt was paid in full in 2011. The issue I am having is that the debt is showing up on my credit report as a “tax lien” filed in 2006 and released in “2011.” This appears to be a debt owed to the IRS. This is dragging my credit score to the ground. I was told that a “tax lien” is not removed until 7 years after the date of “release.” I never owed the IRS taxes. So my question is, why is an unemployment overpayment debt showing up as a “tax lien” in the court records. I contacted the unemployment office and all they can say is that they can send me a letter showing I paid off the overpayment – this does not resolve the fact that it is showing as a “tax lien” they say that they have no control over that and that I will need to contact the court. I am extremely frustrated as I have worked hard to clean up my credit – I have opened up a couple of new credit cards and a car loan which Ive had since 2012 – my mortgage, cards and car all all paid on time – I have a couple of very old collection accounts (which Ive tried over and over to dispute) are do to come over my report in July and the bankruptcy is due to fall off in October of this year. Any advice you can give me on the unemployment garnishment debt filed in 2006 and paid off in 2011. If this was listed as a judgement, which it actually was, then it would have been removed by now as it is 7 years from the date filed that those things get removed, if I’m not mistaken. Please, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Alice – Is the account showing as an “IRS” lien? You seem to indicate that it is, and that should be simple to dispute. Have you disputed this entry and requested the correction already? Perhaps your repetitive disputes have flagged your file.
Hi Mike,
Thank you for your reply. It shows up as a “Tax Lien” I went to the courts and got a copy of the first document “tax warrant” is how the unemployment dept filed it. So the Courst told me to send Equifax a copy of the judgment showing that it has nothing to do with the IRS and that it was an overpayment of unemployment benefits,, I have disputed this three times thus far with Equifax – I faxed in my documentation and spoke with the disputes dept in Atlanta – who attached my document to my recent dispute and said that she will flag the public records dept to inform them that there are inaccurate as to how it is being reported – it should be a judgment not a lien which means it should have been released 7 years from the date it was filed which was 2006. not from the date it was paid (2011) This has been a nightmare but I am not giving up until it is OFF my report – I have no IRS debt or issues and I never have. But the unemployment department filed it as a tax warrant but it clearly shows its an overpayment of benefits nothing at all to do with taxes and that is the court certified document I sent in. It is currently under investigation. – I am still waiting to hear back
Alice – Please post the outcome and if needed there are some additional steps.
Hi Mike,
Equifax came back with the same generic reponse ” Verified” is there anything else I could possibly do?
Recap of the issue: unemployment overpayment filed in 2006 as a tax warrant. Paid in 2011. Still on my report and is not scheduled to be removed until “7 years from the date paid” which is suppose to be 7 years from the date filed as it is a Judgment nothing to do with the IRS… It was an unemployment overpayment. Thanks for any info you can provide
I would encourage you to file a credit reporting complaint with the CFPB here. Be detailed and precise with all time lines, efforts at communication, etc.
I would also start looking at your options for suing based on Fair Credit Reporting Act violations. Are you still living in Washington? If not, what is the name of a nearby larger city?
hi Mike thank you so much for your response and information you have provided and yes I am still living in the state of Washington.
Alice
I am going to send you contact info to some experienced fair credit reporting consumer law attorneys. A couple of them are in Portland (may still be able to help you), and one I know in Spokane. Distance does not have to be an issue in these cases. Kirk, for instance, works with people all over Washington.
Good Afternoon,
I am looking to possibly purchase a home in Connecticut in a couple of months but I need to get my credit score up a little to qualify for FHA. I have a few items on my credit report that is due to fall off my credit report by the end on the year 2014. I not sure what should I do. Should I attempt to pay them off because I would probably need to show them paid before I would be able to get approve by FHA? IF so what percentage should I offer on such an old debt.
Also I have a question about a debt letter I received. I got a letter in the mail from one of those attorneys who is looking to collect a debt on behalf of the credit card company. The letter said I owe almost 3500.00. I get served with some papers from the same attorney’s office that the debt was $1600.00 I called the attorneys office and setup payment arrangements. I pulled my credit report recently and I notice that there is a judgment on my account from this attorney. Can they file a judgment with me if I setup arrangement with them before any courts proceedings? We had already come to an agreement. I wanted to know is there a way to have the judgment removed because I already came to payment arrangements with them and the first letter they sent me was more than double the amount of actual judgment.
One last question for you, when hard inquires come off your report, does that improve your credit score.
Thank You very much for your time
Roman – Are you already working with a mortgage broker, or loan officer. Have you talked about these really old collections on your credit reports? Is there some reason you want to do this now instead of waiting for those negatives to fall off later in the year?
When you are sued, and agree to long term payments, you will typicality be asked to consent or stipulate to a judgment. That sounds like what happened with you. It sounds like this could have been explained better too. For instance, if you knew a judgment was going to appear on your credit report, you may have opted for some other resolution. When did you enter into this payment agreement? Who is the judgment creditor and attorney that sued?
Hard inquiries falling off of your credit reports may help your credit score a few points, but it is file by file. You may have other things happening on your credit report that would mean no score increase, or a better increase.
Hi,
I just pulled my 3 free credit reports and I found that I have public records on my report that do not belong to me but to my dad. The spelling of our names are very similar. My question is once I get that removed will it help my credit score go up? The public record is from 2009, I do have some late payments (student loans, credit cards & collections item) that are more recent but I am working towards improving my credit to buy a car and anything will help as my credit score is 553.
According to Credit Karma my score is 553. I really don’t know how accurate Credit Karma is…
Credit scores vary. A lender pulling your credit report to finance a car is going to look at, and score differently, than a lender looking at whether or not to open a credit card account. If you are looking at a free score through credit Karma, it might be a close estimate to what a lender would see, but free scores are known to be off by quite a bit too.
The more recent late pays are likely hurting your credit the most.
You will need to dispute the public record items as not yours with the credit agencies. I suggest doing that in writing, not online. Send your credit report disputes certified mail return receipt requested. Include a copy of their reports you are looking at, and even use a highlighter pen to draw attention to the item that is not yours.
Keep a copy of everything you send for your own records. If the stuff that is not yours does not come off of the report on the first effort, post an update and lets go from there.
I received a judgment note on my door for a credit card . If I call the number of the person that posted the judgment? Do you think i have a chance to make arrangement to little at a time ?
ana – Payment arrangements for debts in all stage of collection, including judgments, are common. Can you be more specific with what was put on your door? Was it notice you are being sued, or that a judgment already exists?
Hi, I was sued for $1500 almost 7 years ago. The amount was immediately paid in full within 30 days. It has never been reflected on my credit report. How can I get this off or at this point should I just wait for it to fall off? It’s supposed to come off Dec 2014. It was fully satisfied and frustrating that it keeps showing there!
Thanks!
Wendy
Wendy – I am a little confused. You say the judgment has never appeared on your credit report, but then leave the impression that it will fall off late this year. Can you provide more details about the history of this debt, and your concerns?
Hi. I have been having a problem with my mortgage company reporting my payments 30 days late as early as the 13th of the month, even though they already have the payment. I noticed that they held one of my payments in a “suspense” account before applying my funds. When I asked why, no answer was given other than to say it would be applied within one business day but more than one business day had passed since it had been received and it still had not been applied. I have been having this problem for awhile regarding my credit report even though I can show my payment history. No luck disputing with credit bureaus. When I spoke to someone at mortgage company, I was informed that they report a month behind so they report December’s payment in January spot on report but that is inaccurate anyway because I have not been late like they state. What can I do? Anything?
hm – You have some options. Who is your mortgage with? Is that who is servicing the mortgage? If not, who is the servicer?
Wells Fargo is who our mortgage is with and yea, they are servicing the loan as well. Thank you.
hm – If the inaccurate mortgage reporting from Wells Fargo was not holding me back from credit approval, or a better rate, for the next 60 to 90 days, I would file a formal dispute with all credit reporting agencies showing the late pay, and copy Wells Fargo on everything too.Send all mailed dispute items certified mail return receipt, with a copy of each for my records. If after the credit reporting agencies and Wells Fargo review of everything, any inaccurate reporting remains, I would then file a credit reporting and/or mortgage servicing complaint with the CFPB through their web portal.
If you are in a hurry, or a bit exhausted from calls with Wells Fargo mortgage servicing that lead nowhere, you could skip the credit reporting dispute with Wells and the agencies, and move directly to the CFPB complaint portal.
Mike,
I’m currently having issues obtaining an auto loan due to a negative reporting from an issue from 12/2007. In this instance it was a credit card bill (MBNA) that was bought by Mann Bracken LLP. I had an arrangement with Mann Bracken to pay monthly and the debt was to be settled a long time ago, however, Mann Bracken LLP went bankrupt in 2010 and I have not been contacted by a new agency in order to rectify this issue. The outstanding debt on for this instance is $8500.
What are my options at this point? Wait until 12/2014 and request it be removed from my report, or do I have other options?
Thanks for your time.
Taras
Taras – Were you sued for collection that led to a judgment in the court? Who are you trying to get auto financing through?
Thanks for the quick response! No I was not sued. The debt had been sold to this specific collection agency and a payment arrangement was in place and being paid on time for at least a year prior to them filing chapter 7 bankruptcy. I was attempting to get financing through my Credit Union.
At this point the debt is likely out of stat, or too old to sue in order to collect. What state are you in?
If you cannot get the loan direct from your credit union, you may have a better opportunity, and even a better rate, available from the dealer, or the auto makers own finance company i.e. Honda Finance etc.
You could also dispute the credit reporting entry from Mann Bracken as paid, or inaccurate if you see anything there to pick apart (balance, or DOLA is wrong).
Are you in a hurry to get this approved?
I’m in MN – statute of limitations is 6yrs (which we are beyond at this point). I was in an accident 2 months ago and am in dire need of a vehicle so I’m trying to get as much info as possible before trying to get a loan. My score is in the low 700’s but I was deterred after finding out this was still on my report and my CU wasn’t willing to look past it.
Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it!
Taras
HI
I HAVE RECENTLY HIRED A COMPANY TO DO CREDIT REPAIR FOR ME ALONG WITH TRYING TO PAYOFF DEBT I HAVE SEEN AN INCREASE DUE TO SOME OF THE DEBT I PAID OFF AND IT BEING REMOVED. I RECEIVED BACK REPORTS OF THE CREDIT REPAIR IN REFERENCE TO DISPUTING ITEMS WHERE REMOVED FROM ONE REPORT BUT NO ANOTHER. MOST IMPORTANT JUDGEMENTS WHERE REMOVED FROM EXPERIEN AND EQUIFAX BUT NOT TRANSUNION THE TRANSUNION ONLY SAYS UPDATED AND THE JUDGEMENTS REMAIN DO YOU THINK IT ONLY GOT REMOVED FROM THE OTHER TWO AND THEY SHOW REMOVED AFTER THE DISPUTE BECAUSE THEY DID NOT RESPOND IN ENOUGH TIME AND IF SO WIL THEY MORE THAN LIKELY BE ADDED BACK TO THE OTHER TWO CREDIT REPORTS?
THANKS FOR YOU HELP
Meme – It is common for items that were reporting accurately, to be removed from some form of credit repair effort, only to show back up again. What are your credit goals over the next 6 months? How old are the items you are disputing (when was the last payment made)?
hi mike
im trying to fix my husbands and I credit we are interested in purchasing a home. we pulled up his credit and find that he has 2 judgment’s on his credit report. At this point he doesn’t remember what they are from. One is in Tennessee and on is in Utah we live in WA I have no idea where to start with this. Do you think its best to contact a attorney to settle this matter we want to maybe buy a house by the end of the year if possible. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you if you need any more information feel free to let me know. I will take any advice.
ingrid – Did he live in those states at any time? If so, what are the dates the credit reports show as the judgments were entered? Was he living in those states within those time frames? Who are the judgment creditors?
Hi Michael!
Thank you for all the useful information you post on this site. I have a question for you. I owed money to Cash Call back in 2008. The total was for about $1700. They took me to court, and I was unable to appear because I was living in a different city and was about a week away from giving birth to my son…I vaguely remember, but I think I sent a form that I filled out to the court, letting them know that I was unable to travel due to my health situation. Well, as anticipated, I lost the case and had a judgment on my record. I paid Cash Call directly, and got something from them stating that my debt with them is now done and over with. My husband and I want to purchase a home, however, my credit report shows the judgment. I was told that I need to go to court and get that fixed by bringing the proof that I’ve paid it off…Could you point me in the right direction at trying to get this fixed on my credit report? I’m in California, this happened in end of 2008, beginning of 2009…Everything was paid off by 2010. the judgment is in Los Angeles, however, I live in San Diego…any suggestions, comments or advice will be greatly appreciated!
Dalia – Is the judgment in the court record accurately reflecting the judgment is satisfied? Do you have a proof of payments made? Was there any written agreement or outline of payments that were agreed to?
Hi Michael!
The judgement on my record doesn’t say paid/or resolved. Under status, it says “judgement” I do have a letter that Cash Call sent me stating that I had paid them off, and my understanding was that they have to send something to the court to state that I’ve paid, but I don’t see it reflecting on the report…
Dalia – Check the court record directly to see what it says about the judgment. If it is a matter of the credit report not showing an updated version of the judgment as satisfied (if the court record is correct and showing paid), that will be simpler and quicker to fix. If the the judgment creditor never did do what they were supposed to, and the court record was never updated, you can call the attorney in the San Diego area I sent you contact details for, and find out if they can help you with filing the necessary docs with the court to get this corrected there, and update the credit reporting agencies.
Thank you Michael,
I will contact the court to see what they say. Will keep you posted!
I appreciate all your help!
Dalia
Mike,
I’m in an interesting situation at the moment — perhaps you have some advice?
I defaulted on a Bank of America credit card in 2006. At some point the debt was sold to a company called NCO. NCO obtained a default judgement in early 2011. I’m just now trying to satisfy the judgement. This is where it gets weird — I called NCO and they had no record of anything — they said that they “don’t deal with Bank of America anymore” and referred me back to Bank of America. I called Bank of America and they said that the debt was sold to NCO so deal with them. Finally, I called the law firm that obtained the judgement for NCO……they did have record of it, and the interest is still running at %12, but said that “NCO closed the file and won’t get back to them”.
This is in Wisconsin.
So, in a nutshell, I have a (about $20,000) judgement on me and no party involved will accept money so I can satisfy this.
What are my options here?
Thank you SO much for your help 🙂
Tony – What is your current ability to satisfy or pay the judgment? Your options are limited given what you shared, but you have some.
I cannot pay the judgement in one lump sum. I can afford to pay 30-40% in one lump sum.
If I somehow come up with the entire amount, does that change things?
Tony – No one wants to take ownership of the court judgment, so paying the court the full amount owed would get this all sewed up and satisfied. But you would need the full amount, and if you do take that path, working with your own attorney would be ideal (basic docs, but best to get everything right).
Without the funds to do that, you could file a debt collection complaint with the CFPB against NCO, Bank of America, and the collection attorney. See who wants to resolve the debt at that point. I suspect NCO would step up to resolve the judgment they got, unless they sold that debt off to another buyer. But you should be prepared to settle this rapidly. And 30 to 40% is not a gimme when settling judgment debt. If it were me, I may want to have 60% on hand, or readily accessible, before I poke everyone involved.
I have a question on this instance. If the debt owner cannot provide records of the debt, and you dispute it in your credit report, and no one responds within the given amount of time, don’t they have to delete it from record?
Generally, that is how it works. Based on your prior comment on a different page, is this about the Jefferson Capital account? It was not clear that your credit reporting dispute was sent directly to Jefferson Capital, but rather to the credit reporting agencies. From that comment it appears Jefferson may have responded to any investigation request you sent to Experian.
Yes. I’m working with a mortgage company. Thanks so much for your responses.
Mike,
Thanks again so much for the response. I live in TN. The co-signed loans are charged off accounts that linger on. I recently inquired about a mortgage and the lady checked out my profile and my student loans were really what showed up on the debt-income ratio for the payment. I make great money and not looking for much of a home in contrast to what I can afford. I can afford the payment on a $300K home but only looking in the $180K range. The 620 credit score and the 640 credit score bares seperate interest rates and the 640 is pretty significant with a .5% interest rate difference. I have a credit card from Best Buy that I settled for many years ago, but all three reports show it as charged off and not “settled.” When I requested information from Best Buy about this, their response to me in the mail was that they had no record of my account. Just changing it to “settled” from “charged off” would probably not get me much difference in a credit account that’s about 4-5 years old, but do you reccomend a strategy to have this account removed altogether since it’s 1. being reported incorrectly and 2. listed as an account that was charged off.
I have spotted some errors and hired Lexington Law (8 months ago) but they’ve not removed one thing from my credit yet and I’ve been on the phone with them monthly trying to see what they can do for me. I guess with the struggles I had back in 2008-2009, it’s about impossible to escape that suffering for another 2-3 years, but I really want to buy a home.
But to answer your question, I live in Tennessee (Nashville area).
Once again, thanks so much for your feedback.
Randy – If you have documentation to show the Best Buy account is settled, I would use that to get the account updated on your credit reports. You are just on the other side of the line you want to cross for the better credit score. That one account should not really be hammering your score all that much 4 years later, but I cannot see your credit reports to say much. The student loans are not helping either, and I suspect that is what is preventing your scores from recovering more rapidly.
So you are working with a professional on an FHA loan?
Mike,
I have a good one for you…..
So, about 5 years ago, I was given a warrant for a civil issue. I called the court and notified them that I was unable to attend that day and was out of town (death in the family). So the court in Campbell Co., VA mailed me a letter (not certified or warranted) saying the hearing was in two weeks. I was out of town this entire time and never heard back until I was served a form saying I had a judgment. So I paid this judgment of $3,000 in a couple of months fully. It’s been on my credit report for about 5 years now and I really want to buy a home. I have a few other issues that are hurting, like late payments and a co-signing gone wrong, but for now I am curious if there’s any strategy to get this judgment removed quickly since there was no real proof that I was aware of the hearing and by paying it in full so quickly, explains that I had the money to do so.
I hired Lexington Law 8 months ago and they haven’t really done anything at all to help me out. Letters sent on my behalf is obviously not the approach needed. I called the two car loans I had late payments on and pleaded for mercy in a nice way and both said to just write them a letter stating my plea and apology (basically) and they would remove 3 of the 5 late payment markers (ball park). The co-signing was with Sallie Mae so there’s probably not much I can do about that account.
Question 2 for you….. In my hard times back in 2009 (wife was very sick and living on one income and paying bills like crazy), I had to default on my 3 credit cards and pay settlement amounts in 2010. These are still on my credit report and it’s with big boys, lol (Chase, PNC Bank and Best Buy). Are there any strategies you have for removing these accounts?
So my question about getting Equifax and Experian to get this judgment removed from my account….. how possible is this and how bad is a five year old judgment affecting my score?
I think my score is about 615 and I need a 640 in about 4-5 months.
Randy Is the judgment on your credit reports showing as paid and satisfied, or does it still show as if money is owed?
The cosigning with Sallie Mae, are those private student loans, or government backed? Do you still have contact with the person you cosigned for? What is their intention with that debt – if you know?
Are the settled account showing zero balance owed on the credit reports?>
What are your main credit goals in the next 4 to 5 months?
I can offer more meaningful feedback with answers to those questions.
The judgment shows correctly as paid.
The sallie Mae is hard to deal with. The consigned person left the country and no PI can track him down. I can’t afford it now due to it being charged off. My credit goal in 4 months is to purchase a home. I have great credit accounts that I’ve kept active so that’s why my score is up to 615 considering all of the bad items on it.
It’s a bad situation because I’m making very very good money now but paying my wife’s med bills, outrageous health insurance payments, two car loans and cost of living for a family limits some of these. All of my bad debts trace back to 2009 when I was suffering badly with finances. I’ve brought my score from 440 to 615 in the last 3-4 years just from making consistent on-time payments.
Any advice at all would be very appreciated.
Randy – I would not put much time and energy into getting accurately reporting negatives off of the credit report. Lexington Law, like others offering the same service, are hit and miss, and sometimes the stuff that gets taken off, shows right back up again.
If you are working with an FHA lender, I like your chances at a home mortgage. Wells Fargo just announced how they are lowing their score qualifications for FHA loans to 620. What I am concerned about is how the Sallie Mae loan balance will be calculated into your debt to income and skew the new ability to repay rules. How long ago was the last payment on the Sallie Mae loans? What state do you live in?
I have a question, actually a few questions. I received a judgment but I didn’t even know I had one. My credit score is above 700 and this judgment comes from Midland Funding LLC. I am in Arkansas. I own my own home and have good credit however, this judgment is keeping my credit score from advancing. I paid the attorney $1875.00 so far and then got a notice of a law suit against Midland Funding LLC. The original debt was $800.00 and had now become 3800.00. The lawyer sent me discovery of a signature that is not my signature. If fact it looks like the servers writing. The time of the serving is different on the court documents and the servers document. I am about to get my PhD and am applying to teach at several colleges and this judgment is really going to affect me. Is there anything I can do to vacate this from my credit report? Everything else on my report is excellent. I also want to by a new home.
Debar – The judgment is appearing on your credit report as a result of the record in the court, which is public. Midland Funding, nor the attorney that sued, are reporting the judgment. Data miners scoop up the court records and sell that info to the credit reporting agencies. The surest way to get a judgment off of your credit report is to attack the source. That would be where vacating the judgment (not the reporting of a judgment) comes in. But I am not sure what argument you would have with the court for doing that – when you are paying money toward the judgment already.
How old is the judgment?
The first is Culligan Water and the second only says medical
Thanks. I sent you an email with contact info to one of the most experienced consumer law attorneys in Michigan I know of. Let me know how you progress from there.
My fiance and I recently went to our credit union to see about the steps we would have to take to qualify for a loan for a house. We got our credit reports back, and mine contains 2 judgments that do NOT belong to me. The first is a company I have never used, the second is a medical bill.. Both are by the same person..who has a different middle initial than myself. What steps do I have to take to clear this off my report?
Kristina – Let me just first say OUCH!!!
Who got the judgments (name of plaintiff)?
Sending a typical credit report dispute is not what you need here. You have to attack the source of the information – the judgments in the court record – and that will have some formalities.
First thing I would suggest is talking about this whole thing with a consumer law attorney that has experience with debt collection defense. This type of lawyer is going to have ready answers to questions about undoing judgments that should not even be there. Most of this type will consult with you initially for no cost. I can help you locate one if I knew the name of a larger city near you.
The judgments were for a Kristie (an alias I’ve never used) L. (mine is M.) Allen (which was my maiden name before 97.) I live near Mt. Pleasant, Michigan if that helps. Thank you for replying. I am lost. We want to buy a house, but those judgements are bringing my score down.
Kristina – Thanks. Who is the plaintiff in these cases?
Hi,
After extensively reading your thread, I have several detailed questions about judgements and the process of removing items from your credit report. I have also joined as a member, but I thought posting my questions rather than talking with someone one-on-one would help others who might have similar questions.
I have one judgement (initially $7500) that was granted in Feb2010 for a credit card account that was originally $6k. I defaulted on the card sometime in 2007 or 2008.
I have 5 other credit cards that went into default around the same time. I live in Nevada, so the 6 year statute of limitations (SOL) has either passed or is up on the other cards sometime this year.
Two months ago, I hired a company to dispute information on my credit report. They are disputing it both with the creditors and the bureaus. I am beginning to see derogatory items removed from my reports at all three bureaus.
However, I ordered a credit disclosure, a more detailed version of my credit report, from Experian, and saw recent inquiries from new collections companies (within the last 2 months). Could this, in any way, be related to the actions taken by the firm I hired to dispute my information? Have I possibly brought this new attention onto myself by disputing? How likely are these new creditors to take me to court for new judgements for the other credit cards this close to the SOLs being up?
Regarding my judgement, I would like to call and settle it. For the same reason that the SOL will soon be up on the other cards, I have not wanted to give any other creditor a reason to think I have any amount of money, lest they sue me, also. At your company’s advice, I got all of the information on the judgement from the county circuit court and found out that the woman in charge of the original law firm that sued me died two years ago. Should I stay under the radar with the new firm or would they be more likely to settle for cheaper than the original firm? The new firm has a reputation for being hard-nosed.
I have had my bank account garnished twice, once three years ago and once two years ago (probably before the original firm closed), but never my wages. They barely made a dent in the judgement. I have no assets and cash my work checks.
Do I need to worry about potential additional judgements until the SOL is up on the other cards, or is it probably okay for me to settle this judgement, take out new credit lines, and make a larger purchase like a car?
Nicole – It is possible to set alerts and/or monitor someones credit activity as a debt collector. If you are seeing a sudden increase in debt collector inquiries, it may be due to recent disputes sent in by the credit repair company. Recent hard pull credit inquiries can sometimes have the same affect.
It is difficult to comment about how likely it would be for the other creditors, and debt collectors, to want to pursue collection in the court. I only have your above comment to form an opinion. But that opinion is there is little likelihood of additional collection lawsuits being filed. Who are some of the collection outfits you are dealing with?
I would need to know more about your specific set of circumstances, and who the law firm and plaintiff are, in order to better offer feedback on settlement amount targets. There are indeed tougher firms, and less forgiving judgment creditors out there.
I do not see the other accounts holding you back from the further collections angle. It would be the credit reporting that is more likely hold you back. I would encourage you to resolve the judgment. It is not going anywhere; can be renewed; is likely growing from judgment interest; and getting it dealt with will mean no longer looking over your shoulder for bank levies and garnishment.
Mike,
Me and my husband would like to buy a house this year. We both have good jobs and I’ve been at mine for 9 years. Several years ago (5.5 years) we were in a rough patch and lost a house, vehicle and several items went into collections.
Currently, I have one judgement (credit card) on my account for just over $800 and some collections totaling no more than $2000, one of which is for $1500 for unreturned equipment that is 5 years old. I want to take care of my judgement and the collections but don’t want to hurt my score any further.
I have worked my way back and have several accounts in perfect standing, credit cards, student loan, vehicle, etc but the credit score is just above 600.
Can I do anything about that judgement which was filed in 2010 to have it removed and pay the collections (or partially pay) to negotiate a pay for delete and up my credit score significantly. I can pay off most with a cc but that will up my used credit and lower my score.
What would you suggest would be the best course of action?
Thank you in advance for any advice.
Jennifer – What state do you live in? What is your current debt to income ratio calculating all debts (paid and unpaid)?
Pay for delete is not an option with public record items like judgments. But that does not mean you cannot accomplish your goals. You will likely want to settle that debt and get the record updated as a satisfied judgment, and it would be good to have the credit report updated as soon as possible in 2014.
How many collection items total are there?
Thanks for getting back with me Mike.
I’m in Ga and the judgement occurred when I lived in a different county and I was served. I was told to answer the complaint which I did by taking my reply to the courthouse.
This stems from a $300 balance card that I couldn’t pay due to hardship, and now we are talking over $800 which is ok if court costs etc. But I’ve been reading some of the other posts here and can’t comprehend why in the world they would go to court for that little money.
Neither here nor there I understand I just need to settle it all along with the 6 collections.
Since the highest collection for $1500 is so old is it possible to ask them to settle for much less? And what are the steps if so?
My DTI is around 27.5%. I added some for the outstanding judgement and collections so it may actually be lower. We rent a house also but I’m only using debt that’s in my name. Please let me know if there is anything mentioned that should be added to that.
Thank you again.
Thanks Jennifer. Are you already working with a loan officer? It can help to get a head start on what you need to do to qualify for different loan products.
I would prioritize the judgment debt in order to get it to show satisfied first. Then tackle the larger collection. You may see a slight drop in your credit score from the recency of updates to these existing negatives on the reports, but you may not. You would potentially be in good shape within 6 months of the update, or a bit later.
Your DTI is in line, and your credit score is near FHA ready.
Hi,
You have lots of interesting info on this site. Thank you for trying to help so many people understand how all this judgement stuff works.
My husband has a judgement that was issued a year ago in Feb. It is for a little over 7,000. It is legitimate, however, he was not served papers. I am so upset that we can’t buy a home even though he is making 80,000 a year. It is hurting us bad.
My question is: If we pay this judgement and get it as a satisfied debt showing on our credit reports, can we then try again..with hopefully better results…with a lender? They frowned on this last month when they saw it. What do you think our chances are with a lender working with us when we pay it, and show it as satisfied on our Credit reports? Btw…a credit repair company did have it removed from Transunion. How, I do not know. But, they did. They are now trying to remove it from the other two. I don’t think we will have that much luck with the others. I am angry with my husband, and upset that because of this, we can’t buy that home I have waited for my whole life. (He got this judgement before I met him, when he was going through a divorce). NOW I find out about it. I have cried my eyes out. The home we were going to try to buy was my dream home. 🙁
Phyllis – If I were in your shoes I would first look to getting the judgment unwound if there was lack of proper service, or some other deficiencies. I too would doubt the credit repair company is going to have much luck, especially with keeping the judgment off the credit report. Judgments are part of the court records. Credit repair firms do not impact that with their dispute letters. Once a data miner gobbles up your courts public records and spits them out to Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, the judgment is likely to appear again.
I can help you locate an experienced debt collection defense attorney if I knew the name of a nearby larger city.
You can also look to settle the judgment for less, or pay it off in full. The judgment will still be on the credit reports, but will get updated to show as satisfied. You can still get approved for a mortgage with a paid judgment on your credit reports. What are your mid credit scores today?
Mike,
I would definitely like for you to send me the name of a defense attorney. I live in Baton Rouge La. We thought about paying it, and getting it off that way, but since he was not served the papers, we feel they should remove it. I have heard that they can mail these things in some states. We lived in Indiana at the time. We did not get the papers in the mail, but I suppose they can say they did mail them. Seems it would have been certified mail?? Yet, there wasn’t any mail that came to him certified, or any other way. They can’t prove that he was served with these papers at all. So, I believe we should contact an attorney about this.
Thank you for any help you can give us with this. It is most certainly disturbing, and hopefully an attorney can help.
Regards.
Phyllis
Oh and his middle score is 570, because of this judgement, and a failed business, and marriage. Mistakes…and he has learned a lot from them. But, it is frustrating at this time in our lives, because of our ages, and the hopes of having a home. He has a lot to do to fix this. The judgement is only a part of it. 🙁
Phyllis – I sent you an email with contact details to 3. If you are up to it, post what the other issues on the credit report are for additional feedback.
First, does one have to be informed when a debt becomes a judgement debt? I am in the process of purchasing a property and a debt came up in my name. The bank still has to confirm whether it is in fact me. I do not recall incurring this debt. This debt is dated 1987. By the way whoever owes this debt I am curious , does a judgement debt go on forever? What about the statute of imitations? Does it apply to judgement debts?
Anthony – Generally yes, you would be informed that a judgment is entered against you. The first sign is that you are served or receive lawsuit documents that initiate an action.
Depending on the state where this issue is ongoing, and sometimes the type of debt/judgment, it can live for a very long time. But not typically on your credit report (also can depend on the state). State SOL for judgments vary. Many last 10 years with the ability to renew for another 10. Some a bit shorter, and some for longer.
Post an update with what you learn.
Mike
My credit score is close to 600. I have a lot of medical bill from assult that happen to my son and few other medical bill. I do have student loans but all are in deferment. I have two judgements listed one that has been satisfied and one that was included in my Chapter 13. The judgement that have paid is still listed on my report. I have sent the letter to the courts but its is still listed on my report. Is there anyway to have this completely removed?
Toy – Judgment debts showing on the credit report are due to the court record. In order to legitimately get a judgment removed (earlier than what is mostly a 7 year limitation on how long one can show on your credit report), you have to attack it at the court level. That is just not going to be worthwhile for most, and does not appear to be an option in your situation if you already paid it.
Hi, Michael,
Thanks for all of the helpful information. I have a judgment on my credit report that I paid one month after it was entered (fall 2010). Two of the credit bureaus had it reported as satisfied, but one didn’t. I disputed the status with the third bureau and a rep said they would look into it, but now I’m wondering if I did the wrong thing. Since it’s been so long on the judgment, my credit scores were going up. Will updating it to paid on the third report cause my score to fall because I’m updating essentially what’s negative information? Thanks!
Sue – I do see instances where the “newness” factor of an already negative item like a judgment hits the credit score, but the hit, if it does occur, is often fairly brief. No way did you do the wrong thing though. Having an unresolved credit card judgment on your credit report causes more harm to you credit report than a satisfied one. You needed to get this corrected anyway.
It does matter which credit scoring model is being used. Are you planning on applying for credit in the next couple months? If so, what for?
Hey Michael,
I failed to pay Macy’s once on-time as I was on travel and that has been reported. It happened like 0.7 years back. Can I ask Macy’s to remove it as it seems it will stay on my record for 7 years? I have been a loyal customer for Macy’s and all other cards and have paid on-time otherwise.
Also, my credit score is 676. I am trying to improve it further. Have got three credit cards, two shopping cards and one auto loan. Using <10% of my credit. I am having 18 hard enquiries since I have been moving a lot recently and also trying for new cards.
My auto loan is at 7.5% and I am getting better rates now. It is 5 months old. Shall close it and get new one at 3.5%. Will this affect my score?
I am planning to buy a house soon. What is your suggestion to improve my score further?
Thanks you!
Panky – It is unlikely that Macy’s will remove the 30 day late reporting. But a single late pay is not the credit score killer it has been in the past. If that is the only late pay on your credit report, you’ll be fine credit wise.
Do you already have the auto loan finance of 3.5% approved?
18 hard inquiries is a lot. When will the fist lot of them be 24 months old?
When are you looking to purchase a home? Do you have any money you will put down?
Yes I am getting offers of 3.5 to 5% from two banks. Yes 18 inquiries are a lot. I did the mistake of applying cards, check for auto loans etc a lot recently. 7-8 are like 22 months old now. I plan to buy house sometime in 2014. What’s ur suggestions?
Hey Michael my name is Daniel and I have a judgement from EDD (Unemployment Development Office) against me from an overpayment a long time ago. It was originally around $700 and it’s now accumulated to $3000 with fees and penalties added over time. Is there anyway I can get help to just pay what I originally owed and have it vacated from my credit reports? Any information would help. Thank you!
Daniel – It may be possible to get the amount you owe on the judgment reduced somewhat, but you have next to no shot at getting the judgment taken off of your credit report.
How much money are you prepared to offer to settle the judgment if you cannot get it reduced to 700?
Thank you for the reply! I am willing to try to pay half if not less. The lowest possible. I’m working with a credit agency and the judgment is off my report right now due to it being verified and I don’t think edd responded in the 30 day window so it was deleted but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time when it comes back on my report updated. So how can I negotiate the balance owed or what do you suggest?
Half or less may be a bit optimistic unless you can show some hardship situations and limited income that persist. What state are you in? How long ago was the judgment entered?
I’m in the state of California and the judgement was entered back in 2009.
Daniel – I have only worked a handful of files lifetime as relate to resolving debt like this that originate from overpayment by a state government. California is tough. My first step would be calling them and getting the discussion going with a focus on your difficult finances then, and now, and if you were able to pay it would be the result of outside help, not because there is room in your budget.
I have tried communicating that I’m in a hardship but all they could say is pay as much as you can monthly until it’s paid off. So I really don’t know what to do at this point. Is there anything else I can do? I can’t believe over 2,000 of it is interest and fees which is more than double of the original debt.
Daniel – If all you have discussed are payments, that is the type of response you can expect. If you are serious about settling this (paying less than the balance) you would need to be ready with the money to make a realistic offer. If you were able to get them to approve a 60% pay off (waive some fees etc), how long would it take to come up with the money?
It would take me a month to save up 60% from now. When I am ready how can I try to get edd to lower my balance to 60%?
I would start by speaking with a supervisor about your hardships, and ask if they are willing to abate penalties and some interest, you may be able to borrow enough from family to resolve this, if its affordable and within reach.
I will do that thank you so much for all your help! Happy new year!
Hey mike,
Thank you for taking the time in answering all these questions. I have a question reguarding two judgments filed against me 4/11 and 3/11 both from my apartment complex for non payment of rent. However I still paid those just right after I received the papers from the court and never actually went to Court. They show up on my credit but they don’t show anything about being paid or satisfied. I was hoping for some insight here and was wondering if there was anything here that I need to do. Thank you for your time!
I reposted this because I forgot to hit the notify my email button. Sorry
ross – Do you have documentation showing proof of payment (bank records)? Did you pay the attorney suing, or the landlord/property management company?
I purchased a car in NC in 2000 it was repossessed in December of 2003. The repossession stayed on my credit report for 7 years and in 2010 it fell off. June of 2013 I was served papers to notify me that a judgment was being filed against me for the total amount that I initially purchased the car for, even though I had made payments on the car for almost 3 years before it was repossessed. I am military and I didn’t receive a court date unless it was in the initial serving of papers, because I was gone on training mission. As of September 2013 a judgement by default was granted against me and is now showing on my credit report. I did not have any judgement against me until September of this year so it wasn’t a renewal of judgement. What can I do? I don’t understand how a debt that has been removed from my credit report and it has been 10 years since my repossession that the credit company can still come after me.
James – There are a host of concerns I have with the information you shared.
The debt is probably to old to legitimately use the courts to sue you for it.
But you would have to raise that as a defense. Unfortunately you were not served appropriately in order to protect your rights.
You are also protected by the service members relief act, and the debt collector may have ignored that too.
I have some feedback for you to follow through on, but first I need a little more detail.
Who is the debt collection law firm or attorney that sued?
Who is that attorney working for (the named plaintiff in the lawsuit)?
Post answers in a comment reply and lets go from there.
Michael,
Thank you so much for your time and all the helpful info!!
I have a judgement on my credit report for around $7,500 from 2009. I’m working on cleaning up my credit report so I can purchase a house within a year. After hitting several walls, I was finally able to contact the lawyer who represented Arrow Financial Services in my court hearing (I did not show up for the initial hearing in 2009, I was young, scared and dumb). Arrow Financial Services is current not in business, but the lawyer informed me that LVNV has purchased the debt.
I would like to just pay the judgement, but will this help my credit score at all? Do I need the attorney to agree to any terms in writing before paying the judgement? Is is possible to have it removed from my credit report? Will the 7 years start over again from the date that I pay it off?
I don’t want to be taken advantage of from the law office. I’m willing to pay the full amount, what do I need to do before I make the payment?
Thank you in advance!
Angela
Angela – Paying off the judgment, or settling it for less than what is owed, would result in a satisfaction of judgment being filed in the court (done correctly). That will not necessarily immediately help your credit score, though it it could. But it will likely help you purchase a home within a year, as the unpaid judgment will go into calculating your debt to income, and may even prevent you from qualifying for a home loan. At this point it will not really matter if you pay it off in full, or settle it. The satisfaction of judgment is the key to your goal.
It is unlikely in the extreme that you would get the judgment removed from your credit report, as the entry is relying on a legitimate public record. But that is okay, as it is not necessary for it to be removed in order to reach your goal. The seven years credit reporting time line would not begin anew as a result of taking care of this.
Did the law firm suggest that they would work with you on resolving this on LVNV’s behalf?
I would encourage you to read through this post about Arrow debts: https://consumerrecoverynetwork.com/arrow-financial-services-debt-buyer-closed-shop-debts-purchased-lvnv-debt-collection/
Thanks for the quick response!
I had sent a DV letter to Arrow Financial Services and the certified letter was sent back to me as not deliverable. When I spoke the the law firm I asked if this has any effect on the debt owed, they told me that Arrow Finance is not in business, but LVNV acquired my account and that I now owe it to LVNV. They are mailing me information regarding paying it off. Would be it ok to ask to settle for less than the total amount or will they not negotiate that? Should I deal with the law firm or call LVNV directly?
Angela
Angela – Why not save money where you can in this effort? I would absolutely look to negotiate a lower payoff. What is the balance showing as owed for this account on your credit report? Is it the same amount shown in the court record? When you get the documents you requested, it may show a higher balance owed than what is appearing on your credit reports due to legal interest on the judgment. Negotiating 4 years of interest away (if applicable), would be a significant savings.
If it were me, I would reach out to LVNV Funding and try to resolve this with them directly. They may refer you back to that collection attorney, or another agency they had placed the account with, but I do see many situations where people get better results by dealing directly with the debt owner (where that is possible).
Hi Michael,
I had a joint Macy’s credit card with my wife. We obtained the credit card to get a discount on a purchase there several years ago. We never use the card – except last Chrstimas I bought her some shoes as Macy’s and used the card to get a discount again. For some reason, the account was set up for online billing and I wasn’t aware of that. Fast forward a couple months and I get a late payment notice in the mail on the credit card – the original bill was apparently only posted to an online account for which I was unaware. I contacted Macy’s and got the details, made payment over the phone and got them to switch to paper bills.
Unfortunately, we each now have a 30 day late payment on our credit reports, all for a billing issue and about $80 pair of shoes. I assume this will be on the report for 7 years and have a negative impact on out scores.
Is there any way to remove or mitigate the damage?
Larry – If the only late pay on your credit report is that single 30 day with Macy’s, it will have a negligible impact on your credit scores. And perhaps no impact at all. While a late pay may stay on the report for 7 years, a single late pay (if it drops the score), will not depress your score for that 7 years. It will typically lose any potency to affect your credit over a period of a year or two.
You could send them a “good will” letter, explaining the oversight (also show where they could have done a better job notifying you with email or phone call earlier), and asking for the late pay to be removed. It is worth a shot for the 5 minutes of time to compose the letter and the cost of a stamp. But I would not have high expectations for them removing the late pay.
The judgment was vacated jan 2011 but then the collection agency entered in a judgment june 2013 and backdated to june 2011 that showed up on my credit report this year oct 2013 for full amount that I origanally owed. This judgement was entered after I had been paying on it for 16 months. Is that legal? I moved and was not aware they were taking me to court. They said I never signed a contract in january 2011 and never appeared in court in june 2011. So they are not removing the judgment. But I was paying on it since jan 2011 to may 2012. I am confused and frustrated. I called asked them to send me payment history and today i went to bank to get copy of allbprocessed ach debits and the checks they accepted and cashed. Should I get an attorney?
Lori – Does the judgment show up on your credit reports as satisfied or paid?
Yes, I would encourage you to speak with an attorney. Few attorneys have a practice that focuses on debt collection and credit reporting issues. If you post a comment reply with the name of a nearby larger city – I will email you contact info for attorneys in that area that have the experience you would want.
Hi Michael,
The credit report says civ cl judg as public record with creditor name there is no reference to paid or unpaid or satisfied. I live in the Fairfax, VA area. How much should I expect to pay this specialized attorney?
Lori – If it is a legitimate judgment (which I question at this point), it should have been updated to show as satisfied if you met your pay off agreement (which is how I read your original comment above).
I sent you an email with contact info to 2 experienced consumer advocate attorneys near Fairfax. Both are less than 30 minutes from you. I can send info to reach others that are an hour or more away.
I cannot say what you would pay an attorney in this situation. Consumer lawyers with a practice focused on debt and credit issues tend to price themselves within reach of their clientele – who are often struggling financially. Call and speak with both, and even additional attorneys to get a feel for fees. Most of this attorney type offer no cost initial consults, so nothing out of pocket to get some professional feedback.
Our offer & all communication is via phone.
Okay. Depending on how collectable you are viewed (often based on what your credit report looks like) by either the firm, or the judgment owner, your settlement can be considered either still too low, or they are simply motivated to hold out for more regardless.
I would be better able to offer feedback if I knew the answers to my questions in my above comment. If you do not want to post those details to the site, send them to me in an email. I will respond to that.
We are attempting to settle a deficiency judgment for a 10 year old debt. The debt has been sold to a third party law firm that deals in collections. We are attempting to remove this debt in an effort to clean up our credit report. This judgment is the only thing standing between us, and qualifying for a home loan. We offeedr 10 cents on the dollar for original amount owed, and were turned down. Next we offered 1/3 of the entire original debt. This offer was submitted to original creditor, whose response was a demand for pay check stubs. Its my understanding that these are requested in an effort to obtain a higher amount than offered, or to determine if they would collect more money garnishing wages vs. agreeing to settle. My question is what do we do next. This debt originated in Colorado. The statue of limitations on a judgment filed in county court in Colorado is 6 years and renewable every 6 yrs. We have 60-90 days to fix this. What do we do next?
Stephanie – Most debts, no matter the situation, will not settle for 10%. A judgment debt is unlikely to settle for 30%, though I have both seen and settled some for that low.
I can help you better target your efforts if I knew who the original creditor was, who sued if different than that lender, the attorney debt collector you dealt with, and the amount owed on the judgment today?
Also, is the judgment 10 years old, or is that when the debt was originated?
Michael,
How much time does the creditor legally have to get back to us with a response regarding our pay off offer we submitted?
There really is no legal time limit (or requirement) for them to respond to your settlement offer (given the circumstances shared so far regarding the judgment). If you put forward an offer via negotiations on the phone, you would generally be able to follow up on that with them if you do not hear back after a few days. If you submitted a written offer only – you may never get a response. Establishing contact on the phone is how most settlements get done, whether negotiating judgments, or debts that never reached the court.
How did you make your offer?
I have a satisfied/paid judgment but it does not appear on my CR as satisfied nor paid. This judgment was in 11/10 it was paid in full as of 09/11 Can this judgment be removed form my CR if so how?
Wilda – Getting the judgment removed from your credit report is unlikely at this point. Even if for some reason you were successful at getting it removed, the next time some data miner scoops up your courts info, it would probably just reappear.
Have you checked the court record to verify there is an entry of judgment satisfied? I have worked files where the judgment gets negotiated and settlement documented and paid, but where the attorney or plaintiff drops the ball on updating the court. Let me know either way and I will have additional feedback to offer.
I have a judgement on my credit report from a medical bill. I had coverage during the time I had gotten my surgery done. The hospital and Dr had my insurance info and yet I have this judgement from it. I don’t recall being notified of this and my insurance company at the time have no records of billing for me at all. They are sending me a certificate of coverage for the time frames I was insured. What are my chances on having this vacated or taken off my credit without me having to pay it. I live on Long Island, NY fyi. Thanks for any feed back.
Ray – There are a couple of reasons or strategies you could take to get the judgment set aside or vacated, which would ultimately lead to the judgment getting removed from your credit report. I would suggest you connect with a consumer law attorney with a practice that includes debt collection defense. This type of attorney will be the best able to talk strategy with you. I can send you contact info to a couple if you would like. Let me know in a comment reply.
I am dealing with the same situation but in CT. I had insurance and there was a larger balance that was settled but the hospital billed for anethisia seperately and I never recevied this notice of the small claims details so judgment was entered in the hospital’s favor. I sent this information to my attorney and recevied an email from the hospital’s attorney saying he didn’t connect the two cases along with his apologies. Is there something that can be done to get this vacated or removed? It was entered 1/13… Thanks.
Enisha – I would look to the attorney for plaintiff, now that you have his “oops, my bad” response, to get this judgment vacated on his motion, and the collections amount settled or paid in the process. Have you looked at getting something like this done already?
Hi Mike,
I am assisting a friend of mine with a purchase of a home. She has an unpaid judgment on her records that is 2 years old. She negotiated a settlement and cashed in her 401K to pay it.
The creditor changed their mind at the last minute
and the judgment remains. Can it be removed by a credit repair service or is an attorney necessary?
The approximate amount is $10K.
Thank you in advance for your answer.
Craig T
Craig – While not impossible, it’s unlikely that a credit repair company, or an attorney acting as one, will get the judgment removed from the credit report. The judgment is part of the public record and considered highly reliable. Getting the judgment to show satisfied through a settlement is the more realistic solution. Do you have any more details about why the earlier agreement was turned down at the last minute?
Hi Mike,
So my question is about a judgement that is on my credit report. I was in a car accident in 2009 and 2 years later the gentelmen sued me because there wasnt enough damage for my insurance company to pay him. He didnt like that an claimed life long injuries, we ended up going to trial. I had insurance and they provided me a lawyer. He didnt want to settle which is why we went to trial. Needless to say after all was said and done my insurance company paid what was established as a “fair” amount. Now i have this on my credit report and im not sure why. It was never a debt or sent to collections this was something my insurance company paid and i want it removed, is that possible? Im trying to buy a house and this is the only issue standing in my way.
Sarah – Is the judgment showing as satisfied on your credit report? If not, does it show as satisfied in the court record?
Mike,
Yes it is showing as satisfied on my report. It was filed march 7 2012 and paid march 22 2012 by my insurance company. I have spoke to the lawyer who was with the plaintiff and he said it shouldnt be on my report and he would write me a letter and get me the satisfied paperwork from the courts. Will that help at all?
Sarah – It may, but because the judgment is already showing satisfied, that is not a problem. If you were sued in your name, and a judgment entered against you, that is what is coming from the court record.
I agree with the attorney, this should not hurt you or your credit report and access to new credit. But I can assume why it ended up happening. I think you should call an experienced fair credit reporting attorney to talk about your options. If you post the name of your state and a nearby city, I can email you contact info that I find for this type of attorney.
I am in Omaha NE. I dont want to have to spend a ton of money for this but if it is fairly affordable i would consider it because this is stressfull.
sarah – I sent you an email with contact info for 2 attorneys in your area with practices that focus on credit reporting.
Are there any in hte Houston, Texas area?
Denise – Are you looking for attorneys in the Houston area with credit reporting consumer law, or debt collection defense?
My case is exactly like Sarah but my report shows I satisfied. I live in Maryland.
Is it possible to remove this from my credit? And how soon
Pls advice
Mary – A satisfied judgment is not likely to come off of your credit report for 7 years from the date the judgment was entered in the court record. When was the judgment entry date?
Another question I have is that in reviewing one of my credit reports I noticed a creditor listed that I have never done business with but I am listed as a co-sginer for a car loan that my ex-husband had signed for with CitiFinancial Auto and learned by calling the creditor’s phone number and speaking to a live customer service rep of their sister company that they are no longer in business. Is is true that the credit bureau listing this on my credit report as a derogatory collection item will have to delete it off my credit report if I file a dispute in writing giving the relevant information regarding that entry? Will that improve my credit score after it is deleted?
Gayle – Having a credit report collection item removed will often improve your credit. But if there are more negatives than that CitiFinancial entry, it may not be by much. Are there any other key derogatory collections listed?
Also, not all disputes sent to credit report agencies end up with a deletion. Is this a situation where you never signed off on the loan docs? What is the relevant information you intend to provide in your dispute?
Hi Mike,
I wanted to ask if on my credit report I show three items that show the 7 yr. mark for coming off in early 2014. Do they automatically come off or do I need to contact the specific credit bureau to prompt the removal of those items?
Gayle – The negative items do generally fall off as they are marked on your credit report. I would not take that for granted though. Monitor your reports to be sure that they are gone after that date.
Hi Michael. Thank you for this service.
I have a judgment against me in Calif. (Santa Cruz) and I now live in Oregon. I was going through a home foreclosure and the suit paperwork from the Credit Card collection stated I had 1 year to go to settlement mtg (I think it was a clerical error by the Court). Anyways, I put it aside because it stated the settlement date was a year away. Within a month I received a Summary Judgment. Also, I am permanently disabled from breaking my neck and becoming paralyzed. I have zero extra income. Do you know if I can use an OR attorney or do I need to get one in Santa Cruz? Do you know of any experienceed attorneys that may be able to help me?
Thank you in advance. Dan
I am going to email you contact info to an attorney in California that I would encourage you to speak with first. He offers a no cost initial consult. See what he has to say about your situation.
Mike I have a similar situation with a judgement in Orange County California.
Can you let me know about a lawyer experience in judments
Thanks
Rafael
I sent you an email with contact details to get in touch with him and talk over your options for the judgment.
Please post an update with how thing progress for you.
Hi Mike,
I appreciated and valued the information I read in the above story you shared with others like myself. My question first is regarding the Transunion credit score I pulled from two different sites the first was credit.com and the other was karmacredit.com I believe. Each one produced a different score. Which one is correct?
Gayle – were those the free score checkers from credit.com and creditkarma? How far apart were they?
Credit scoring models will vary from one loan product to the next, from one vendor to the next, and from one credit report to the next. The reasons for the variance are many. Rather than focus on the score for the moment, post a comment reply about what credit goals you have (car, home puchase or refi etc). I can offer better feedback based on a goal you are reaching for.
My main goal is to clean up my reports so I can rebuild my credit and get approved for a secured credit card and create more lines of credit so I can bave a higher score in a cuple years when I will need another car loan.
That is a reasonable goal and time frame. What other items are there to deal with on your credit report besides the Citi Financial entry?
Hello Mike,
I just checked my credit score after having a credit card for about 6 months and it has gone up 83 point since 2013 which brought me from very poor rating to poor and climbing if I have any say going forward. I still have that collection showing which I have no paperwork to produce to CitiFinancial who no longer exists since I wasn’t a co-signer that I ever ever recall … I don’t know where to turn at this point to get that corrected and noted on my credit report that it was filed in error by CitiFinancial before they were dissolved . ??? Addiitionally I noticed I have a judgment for $100 balance for a medical bill unpaid …. I never new medical bills could be reported to credit bureaus in the first place not to mention a judgement issued for a defaulted on balance …?? Do you have any advice I can put in motion to further clean up my current credit reports ?
You might consider filing a credit reporting complaint with the CFPB about the Citi Financial never being an account of yours, but is some how showing on your credit reports. I would typically recommend first sending a dispute to the credit bureaus as “not my account”.I would send that in a written letter, using certified mail return receipt, and not through the online dispute portals. If you have sent a dispute already, or if you skip ahead, file that complaint here.
I would pay the court judgment, and on a balance that small, I may just pay the court directly. But talk to the clerk first to see about how the court would handle updating the court record to show the judgment as satisfied. Once the record is updated,check your credit reports roughly 60 days later. If you do not see the judgment updated to show paid/satisfied, post an update.
Great work with the progress so far!
Mike – I respectfully disagree here. The proper and EASIEST way to get such items removed is to use the ID Theft provision of FCRA. This requires only the filing of a police report and sworn affidavit that you did not authorize the account. The affidavit and police report should be forwarded to the CRA’s and they are REQUIRED to exclude the item, no other proof of anything should be needed. This method is much faster than using the dispute process, which will undoubtedly take months of back and forth investigation and re-investigation.
Good suggestion for accounts that show on credit reports that are the result of ID theft.
I will say that I see legitimate complaints filed with the CFPB being resolved to many peoples satisfaction in a matter of weeks.
The dispute process direct with the credit reporting agencies has been know to be time consuming, and a waste of time in many instances. That is improving, but more based on better regulatory supervision.
mike thank you so much for all your advice and help. i feel confident i’ll be able to accomplish my goals
Hi Mike,
I never paid macys, or the other store credit cards it all happened back when i was 18 or 19 years old. Im 27 now. They are falling off automatically because its reach the point of the 7 year mark. Ive never reach out to these companies/nor have i ever made any payments or speak to anyone from macys, or newyork and company. I’m a victim of fraud , i had my purse stolen at that time and it had my i.d. and ssn# inside my wallet. I never filed a police report at the time of the incident. and surprised my parents never mentioned it to prevent fraud from happening. when i got my car my score was 620. my realtor pulled my credit report on monday and told me they go by my middle score (what ever that means) he said they don’t take the highest or the lowest score only the middle and my middle came to 550. he only told me i took a hit in august when i opened my credit card. mastercard gave me a limit of 500. I wish i could see my score from all three bureau myself. so many websites offer u to view ur score but im not sure who to trust. when those collections and charge-offs drop off next year will it increase my score and or add points? im considering opening a secure card with my credit union but is it true i will take another drop in my score for opening a new line of credit? i so badly want a house. im so tired of renting. ive been paying my car note on time and my credit card. i thought my score would have went up from 620 instead i was dissapointed with a 550.
Jai – Your middle score is arrived at by comparing the credit scores from Experian, Equifax and Trans Union. The high and low score are tossed leaving the middle score.
The credit card you took out in Aug can bring the score down briefly (6 months-ish). Generally, once a new account is seasoned 6 months, it begins to have an incremental positive impact on your score if there are no other fresh negatives.
When the stuff from 7 years ago falls off you should see some benefit to your score. Some of the reason for the low credit score, based on what you have shared, is that you have a fairly “thin” file. 2 open and positive credit entries, and one positive but closed entry is thin. I do think an additional revolving account would help you. A secured card from your credit union, as long as they report to the credit bureaus, would help. It too could keep your score suppressed for the first several months after you open it. Be sure to confirm the credit union reports secured cards to the credit reporting agencies.
One of the reasons I like credit.com and refer to that resource is that the credit report card link above gives you access to your credit scores and makes suggestions for credit to help you achieve your goals. It also uses intelligence based on what it sees and recommends credit products you are most likely to be approved for. The credit report card is free.
If you make informed and good credit moves now, you can set yourself up to be able to realize your goals in 2013.
Hi Mike,
I currently (as of today) have a credit score of 774 from Trans Union. However, I just moved to a new state and filed my taxes in October (after an accepted extension). I attempted to submit e payment for the $300 that was due the state. The state issued a 10 day demand 5 days after filing which I presumed was a cross and that the e payment would hit any day. I subsequently found out the state does not accept epayments from 3rd party payors like Turbotax but by that time I was outside of the 10 day demand period and the state issued a tax warrant. Of course I immediately paid the $300 plus penalty but the warrant was still already filed with the clerks office and will likely show up on my credit report next month. They are providing me with a satisfaction of lien letter which I will sent to the credit bureaus to show this lien as satisfied but now my credit score is going to take a big hit. I am appealing to the state’s tax advocate group in an effort to show this lien will create a hardship because it could affect my employment. Since I deal with financial instruments, my employer pulls credit and driving reports routinely. Additionally, I am the financial representative payee for my critically ill parent. It will take 30 days for them to respond. Beyond this, what other suggestions do you have? Would a tax attorney be of assistance?
My experiences with tax advocacy offices have all been positive, but are mostly at the federal level. While what you shared should appear as excusable, I do not know your states reputation for handling similar situations.
If there is that much on the line, than yes, I would talk about your options with a tax attorney. At least consult with one, and ask about their experiences with situations like yours. You could sleep better just from the consult, even if you do not hire the attorney.
Thanks for your reply, in response to your questions. I am looking to buy a house in 6 months. my credit score is 550. Other negatives on my account are macys, newyork and company store credit cards, sprint and other medical bills recently added in*which i already made payment arrangements. the new medical bills are not listed as bad or good as of now. macys fall off in jan 2013 (its been 7years) ..new york and company falls off april 2013 and sprint falls off june 2013. I have 2 great accounts. my car loan i got in feb 2012 and my mastercard credit card i got in august 2012. I also have sallie mae student loans currently listed as in school forbearance. sallie mae has been on my account since 2006. i have one payed off visa card totallying 1,500.closed account/settled/made in full/ its been there since 2004.
Thanks for the follow up details Jai. Your credit report is going to have a better appearance mid 2013, but you need to bring your score up. The credit card you got in Aug of this year should help more with your score in a couple more months as it becomes more seasoned. That will be timed well for the other negative items that are due to come off.
The car loan adds good diversity to the report.
I am somewhat surprised that your score still hangs down in the 550 range given the details you provided. Collections certainly weigh down a credit score. Yours are really old though. Has the Macy’s settled account been settled since 2004, or was it settled more recently? If recent, when?
You may want to establish one additional revolving trade line and have it be reported for 6 months as an additional improvement on what is currently a pretty thin positive credit profile. You can get a secured card that reports to the credit bureaus to accomplish this goal. Check out some of the options available here: https://www.credit.com/credit-cards/bad-credit/
I really like the free credit report card tool offered by credit.com. You should look into using it as a tool to help you reach your goal of qualifying for a mortgage next year. It takes a measured approach to helping you recover and improve your credit: https://www.credit.com/free-credit-score/
You can learn more about rebuilding your credit tools in this video interview I did with Gerri Detweiler: Improve credit video
Can a public recod judgement be closed from public so that it is not reported?
Not without getting the court to do it, and that is not common.
Judgments on credit reports do age off though.
i have a court judgment currently on my credit report that states it is active and that it was filed in 2010. I have documentation on court paper work, that it expired on May 3rd 2014 and that it was actually filed in 2009. i am trying to get a mortgage, my credit score is a 650 right now this is the only thing negative on my account is it smart to dispute this or will that hurt my chances of a mortgage?
What do you mean the judgment expired?
If the judgment is part of the court record it can typically stay on your report for 7 years. Most mortgage lending will want that to show as resolved to put the loan through. Disputing a legitimate judgment does not often lead to a positive outcome and tips off the judgment creditor that you have goals.
Who is it that got the judgment against you?
Over the past year I have paid two outstanding collections accounts that were on my credit report and were able to get them removed from Equifax and Transunion by stating that I paid the debt in full and please remove because I am trying to get a mortgage in the next year all by online dispute. Experians policy was not to remove the paid collections but of course changed it to reflect they were paid. I also had a judgement that I paid, I mailed in the letter from the attorney stating I paid and in the meantime online disputed to ask each one to remove it a little early please because I paid it and everyone but Equifax removed really quick but of course Equifax updated to show that it was paid. I cannot wait until the judgement falls off 11/2016!
what website did you go to if you don’t mind me asking? I have a medical bill from August 2015 that I did not pay until May 2016 and it just recently took about 80 points from my credit score….I went from 780 to 698.