Caroline “Dear Steve, We used to own a home with a 1st and 2nd mortgage. Because we were unable to keep up with the mortgage payments after our in-home daycare business closed, our home was forclosed in June 2008 and was sold in auction for about the same amount as our 1st mortgage I also had to stop making payments ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, I have a lot of charge offs and medical bill collections, I also have a few good accounts on file. What in the world do I pay first to clean my report up? Susan” The Answer   Dear Susan, First, get a copy of your consolidated credit report. This consolidated credit report is the same one I use ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, Hope all is well! My fiance and I are getting married next April and are currently saving to purchase our first home! We are saving around $12,000-$15,000 for the down payment, we are looking to purchase a house no more than $130,000. The only problem is I have 2 charge offs from CC that I had about 2 ... Read More »

Mel “Dear Steve, I have a charged-off bank account, a charged-off cell phone bill, a charged-off credit card, and have not paid anything on another credit card for almost 6 months. The bank account received several overdraft charges that were a result of a cab company charging me $70 instead of $10, but I didn’t keep track of the receipt. ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, We have a modified first on our home. The second mortgage has been turned over to a collection agency as it was “charged off” by the bank. We have an equity line of credit with a balance and we have not heard from them. This has been ongoing for more than a year. We are not flakes and ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, I have 2 credit card debts that total $30,000 that have not been paid in 4 years and the banks have written them off. 1 bank has already sent me a 1099 form last year and I already settled that tax debt with the IRS. I have no intention of paying these debt offs, since they drop off ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, Frederick Hannah & Asso. P.C. have contacted me per phone and state they are representing a certain credit card company. They are unable to prove they are indeed representing this credit card company as their client. I have contacted the credit card company several times and they state that this acct. has a zero balance and is closed. ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, My credit score is currently listed at about 560 ish with Experian and Equifax. There are a total of 5 olds accounts all not more that 400.00 dollars. I paid 3 off and I’m waiting for my paid in full letter. the other two I am disputing because a junk debt dealer bought the accounts, changed account numbers ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, Bankruptcy or Writeoff? When it comes down to it which is worse? Is a debt write off from a company as bad as a bankruptcy? I have some funds coming soon and I was going to settle with them, but they tell me the debt is about to be written off. My question is do I let it ... Read More »

Michelle “Dear Steve, Back in 2007 I made a payment arrengment with BOA on my credit card. The balance on the card was 3500 but with intrest and fees it had gone up to almost 4700. The payment plan was 100. a month. Then in 2008 my husbands hours got cut and we had to talk to the credit card ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, Four years ago, I had four charged off accounts which I later paid in full. They remain on my credit report, but now show as “charged off/paid”. I made agreements with the credit card companies and/or collection agencies before paying them off, not knowing I could request a pay for delete. Can I contact the original creditor or ... Read More »

Debt Chicken “Dear Steve, Okay, so I did the ignoring thing with two credit cards and the banks charged them off. However, when I was finally able to pay them, I paid them off one through an attorney and the other a collection agency. My current credit reports shows the original creditor as charging them off and the collection agencies ... Read More »