Forums
I have been following the posts in this forum for quite sometime now. I need some real help with this one. My father opened credit card accounts under my name. My report is now messed up with charge offs, credit card debts and one judgment.
None of them are mine except for the student loan. I am working now I was wondering shall pay them off. But don't know where to begin. Or shall i contact the creditors to say they are not mine. If I pay how long it will take to improve my score enough to apply for an auto loan?
First, why in the world would you want to pay off debts that are not yours? You need to first file a police report and have all forms notorized. You need to start fighting that battle now. If the debts are your then you need to try another option. Thats just my own thoughts and I'm not an attorney and this is not legal advice.
Hi kim,
You can file a case of identity theft. In most cases victims are not required to pay the debts that they have not incurred. But may be because your father is involved, you are thinking of paying off the debts. If you actually decide to pay off the debts, you may follow these tips:
1) Pull out your credit report and mark all the negative listings.
2) Contact all the individual creditors/collection agencies and tell them you are planning to pay off the debts.
3) Judgment has a negative impact on your credit score for a long time. So you must pay down the judgment amount.
4) For the "charged-off" accounts, you can negotiate with your creditor to reduce the debt amount.
5) You can also request for a monthly payment plan if you cannot afford a lump sum amount.
6) Remember to come to a pay for deletion agreement with creditors, before you make any payment. You will find a sample Pay for Deletion letter in the following link: http://www.creditmagic.org/repair/pay-for-delete.html
Due to the recent economic slowdown, it is difficult to predict what score would be considered good enough to qualify for a auto loan. But once your score improves with time, you should maintain it by making timely payment of all your bills.
The advised of pay for deletion is wrong companies do it because is their choice to add or remove but that is not part of the credit laws. It actually states that companies need to report accurately and by them removing stuff because you pay they are altering credit records which is cheating and wrong. First thing I would ask if you are a jr. or do you have a similar name as your dad, if you do your answer may lye there, credit reports are known for something called merge files between son and father which have the same name. If that is the case all you need to do is submit a dispute with proof of your social and you advising them that this is whats going on. Second if indeed your dad used your information fraduently you will have to file a police id theft report explaing how you found it and details as to what accounts and or a FTC affidavit notarized. Another thing I would check is when did this happened because if you were a minor this can not be on your credit, they would have to remove it will still need to submit a dispute once again you advising them what's wrong. The only time a minor could inquire a bill would be if a delivering mom has a baby she would be responsible for any of the unpaid bills for her baby but not for hers go figure, besides that if you were a minor you should bear no responsability, any dispute process last between 30 to 45 days good luck hope this helps.