If anyone has a judgement and wants some advice at getting it vacated (completely erased from your record/file), let me konw.

Help me, Wildrage! I have 2 judgments from the same debt (Providian) that was sold to two different agencies. UGH. And Discover Financial Services as well! HELP! I want these paid judgments off my report!

This is my opinion happylady, I give wildrage, thumbs up!

I give thumbs up too!! You always have such great insight Ms. Meya I love to read your posts/replies...I learn so much from them!! Thanks!!

If you knew a lawyer it wouldn't hurt.

The way I did it was contacted them and asked them if they could do it if I paid in full. They told me that they would agree to it, but it would have to be initiated by me (they didn't want to waste their time heliping me out and filing the papers!).

So anyway, I filed the papers with the court, the other party didn't object, and viola...everything worked out fine. Depending on where you live, you may never actually see a courtroom.

It all depends on your state, but many areas have free legal clinics where you can get some more advice.

Till date the safest of all the investments has been the real estate.If you are comfortable enough you must and just invest in a small piece of land and feel safe.

The moral of this story is avoid a judgement at all costs. It depends on the state that you live in, but I got my wages garnished for good 'ol Discover...pissed me off everytime I saw my paycheck. If anyone has a judgement and wants some advice at getting it vacated (completely erased from your record/file), let me konw.[/quote]

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I would love to know how to do this. I had a judgement filed against me last year at about the time I moved to another state. Had I known I was getting sued I would have shown up in court to pay the Bast**ds off. (Cap1) I am in a position to pay this (about 1k) but have no idea what steps to take. I have no idea where to start who to contact, who to pay. I've heard I need a lawyer to get this vacated . I sure don't want this on my CR for the next 6 years. Oy Vey!

Depending on the state it is anywhere between 3 and 16 years. In my state (NJ), it's 6. Based on my experience with creditors, they will try to file anywhere between 4 and 5 years in.

Unfortunately, like 95% of all judgements are default. Those being sued simply don't show up in court. That's how I got a judgement against me when i was 20 or 21. Chances are, if you let a card get charged off, you probably won't be all that proactive when it comes to the lawsuit (I can only speak for myself lol). Anyway, thank god for sites like this to provide good information. I'll never let that happen again.

Just incase anybodies interested, I'm posing a link with the statute of limitations below.

http://www.cardreport.com/laws/statute-of-limitations.html

Look into your states: statute of limitations. I know for sure that in Texas you can be sued if the debt or collection is within the 4 years. As far as junk debt buyers (JDB), send them a notice requesting validation under Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 USC 1692g Sec. 809 (b). By law they must comply and furnishall historical documentation that you request, if not then sue them; I did twice and won.

I'd also like to warn anyone that even if these things drop off of your report the credit company or collector can still sue you. They can also sell it to someone else, which creates a new record for another 7 years. Maybe some of you have been having very good luck, but in all of my experiences (and the people I know), they will sue you within 3-5 years of the charge-off if it's a credit card. I've never had any other type of collection even threaten legal action. Out of the 4 cards I had, 3 have tried to sue me and 1 fell off my report and (hopefully) disappeared.

6 years ago when I was 21 Discover sued me and got a judgement for a measely $900. Just last month another old Mastercard account that charged off in 2002 filed for a judgement, and I got a default judgement because I never got the summons. Thanksfully I was able to prove this, get the judgement vacated, and paid it in full. I guess law school paid off for somethin'! lol...

The moral of this story is avoid a judgement at all costs. It depends on the state that you live in, but I got my wages garnished for good 'ol Discover...pissed me off everytime I saw my paycheck. If anyone has a judgement and wants some advice at getting it vacated (completely erased from your record/file), let me konw.

For all those thinking of paying an old collection account, don’t do it. It will re-age that account and drop your FICO scores dramatically.

Thanks for mentioning this, this is exactly what I was told when I began to re-build my credit. I forgot about this one, thanks Adicus.

FYI: If you didn't agree in writing on a removal/deletion from your credit file upon payment, wait 3-4 months and send the CRA and the collection agency a "reporting inaccurate information" letter and they will remove it from your file. They won’t fight it because you already paid them. Nothing screams red flag like a PAID judgment and (or) collection(s).

For all those thinking of paying an old collection account, don’t do it. It will re-age that account and drop your FICO scores dramatically.

Also, the GE money bank one was reporting as a major derogatory every week! I don't know if this was actually affecting my score, as it was just one collection account,

Its not, the same thing is happening to me with Applied Card Services, they report on my report constantly since Jan 08. before then, the last time they posted was back in 2004. They know their time is up next year so I just let them put what they want to on there. My scores are not affected by their negative reportings, the 3 cb's already reconize them and it still have them to be released in 2009.

After my judgement 6 years ago, and another attempt at a judgement that was just narowly avoided this past Feb., I really don't think another one would be good for me. Both of these charge-offs hit my report around 3 years ago. Maybe I just have bad luck, but (for example) the last judgement that i just barely avoided was from a card that had already fallen off my report last year - it would have been on for another 7-10 years had I not caught it.

It's been my experience that the collections like cell phone, etc., will just drop off and never be heard from again - but the actual credit card ones tend to catch up to you sooner or later.

Also, the GE money bank one was reporting as a major derogatory every week! I don't know if this was actually affecting my score, as it was just one collection account, but I would get a warning from TrueCredit everytime they re-reported it.

I did spend around $2k paying both of them off, but atleast I have some peace of mind, and don't have to get nervous everutime I get a certified letter, etc...and after all, these are debts that I did owe.

After this I only have 2 collections - 1 AT&T and 1 Sprint (I seemed to have issues with cell phone companies while in college). Both of these account are over 5 years old, so I'm not even going to bother.

Thanks for your help and encouragement!

James

well wildrage2 congrads on getting those charge offs paid. How old were those items? Fico score actually takes new information in consideration when providing you with a score. (giving you a second chance to re-build your credit)

Sometimes, charge offs , leins, judgements collections are so old, even if you paid them, or have them totally removed..it won't effect your overall FICO score : For example if your items were pretty new...(within a year), it would look good if a creditor was looking at your actual credit report and see that that item was paid. Like Shanie1120 said, you might get a few points.

I've paid a debt that was in 2004, was $139, settled for $91 and it was updated with: "paid legally with lower amount than was owed" What the heck does that mean? Meya made a funny comment about that. They might as well put on my report: "it took her so long to pay such a small amount, and even when she did we had to offer her a settlement to finanally get it paid!! LOL

Most times, it doesn't matter what it does to your score, but your overall well being knowing you owe someone and mature enough to make the effort to pay it. It have took me years to come to the knowledge that you currently have in payment debts and many will be walking in your footsteps. Congrads on re-building your financial furture.

Ms. Meya has great wisdom on these things I can't wait to read her thoughts

Now there "YOU" go!

I give all credit where credit is due, Wildrage, that was a very smart move you made of course. Since happylady want to see me give shouts out about my suggestions, I will tell the truth, I did NOT go your route. I had way toooo many charge offs on my report and a lot of them were due to fall off in 1 or 2 years, so I let them all fall off. For everyone that fell, my scores went up by 6-8, not a significant amount.

The only reason why I did not pay anyone off was because I did not see the difference in paying the creditor, and only to see the same charge off sitting there holding my scores down with the creditors remarks "Paid by settlement" or "forced to pay". The charge off is still there, and when I apply creditors will see that I had a charge off. So from my opinion, I just let it ride out becasue it was still a charge off.

What you did was the best and when creditors see that you paid you charge off, they will look at you a little better than what they would have looked at me. There was no way I could have paid down over $50k anyway....lol

This is my opinion happylady, I give wildrage, thumbs up!

Good job with handling your accounts! I believe that it would help your score some.
I too just recently paid a settelment for a chargeoff. I used myfico simulator which told me if I paid the balance down my score would go up. Just by me paying down more than half of the balance my scores went up over 20 points!

Good luck!