Judgement

That was down right filthy, I had that happen once, agreed to pay, the lawyer told me I could leave and next thing I know there was a default judgment.

You should go to the court house and file the paperwork to have the judgment vacated. When you get the canceled check show that to the judge and point out the date of payment verses the judgment date.

I know I would also be telling the judge what the rep for the collection agency told you about not worrying about the judgment - that they said it was taken care of.

If there is a regulating agency over the collection agency I would contact them as well to file a complaint.

You might even get a hold of the medical provider and complain to them about what the collection agency did.

Good luck with this matter.

The key is to get the collection agency to re-tract the judgment - to update the court house that it was dismissed. That will get the judgment immediately deleted off of all of the credit reports just like it never existed.

Unfortunately the damage to the score has already been done. I would say starting out it could be as little as 20 points, but the damage might more likely be higher than 50 points, maybe more.

And to add insult to injury, even if the judgment comes right back off, the damage is already done, there will be no way to recoup the total amount of points lost on the credit score. You could expect only a fraction of that to be credited back.

If you can't get the judgment off by dismissal, you can try to dispute any errors in the reporting you see.

I use to work for a credit bureau and it was my job to go into court houses and collect judgment data to forward to the credit reporting agencies. I know not a popular job, but when I came to the balance field I was always confused as to what amount to enter, if it was the sole amount of the judgment or if it included the court cost. So I would say if you dispute the judgment - dispute the balance, there is always the possibility that the balance is in fact wrong.

And at the very worst, if you can't get the sucker off, you are allowed to add a consumer statement, be careful thought that you don't paint yourself in a bad light when complaining about a company. You need to word it just right to state your point, but not come off whinny. Consumer statements can hurt just as much as help. Oh and when the judgment comes off, remember to write back in and remove the consumer statement. Otherwise it will remain forever - then people will be wondering what the heck you are talking about when they don't see a judgment anymore.

That is a different story if you are dealing with ID Theft, you have the leverage you need to force removal of the judgment and any other thing included in the theft.

You would need to do these things:

1. File a police report
2. Activate a fraud alert with each CRA
Experian - 888-397-3742
Equifax - 800-685-1111
TransUnion - 800-916-8800
3. Visit the FTC www.ftc.gov - obtain an ID Theft Affidavit
4. Contact the creditor and notify them of the ID Theft status.
5. Forward copy of the police report & ID Theft affidavit to all companies - credit reporting agencies, creditors, and collection agencies.

You need to keep good records, take down names of companies, date and time you called, name of rep you spoke with, their number & extension. Notes about everything talked about.

I tell people when they are dealing with ID Theft, to just get a tape recorder with one of them phone attachments and just record all conversations. Now understand if you are not in a state allowing recordings, you are required to ask the other party if it is ok to record. They have the right to hang up on you. This way you can legally use recording in court if it comes to that. But if you just use the recorder to tape then copy notes to writing, that should not be a problem.

You are entitled to 2 free reports per year when ID Theft is involved, Fraud alerts only last 3 months, so if you need more time you can re-new the fraud alert as needed.

With ID Theft you need to be aggressive and charge it on full steam.

Yeah, ID Theft, bad credit it is just terrible what things out of your control can do to hold you down. All the suffering for years of high interest rates, denied credit, required deposits and such.

It does not hurt to keep renewing that Fraud Alert, and if you have not done so yet, you should add a victim statement. Saying "I am a victim of ID Theft, please verify my identity before extending new credit, please call ________ " then give them your cell phone number if you have one, otherwise your home number.

Have you looked over your personal information on the credit report, like names listed, addresses, and social security numbers?

If you see anything that is not yours - dispute it, that might make a difference in getting off incorrect accounts when disputing them. Sometimes removing incorrect personal info automatically pulls off incorrect accounts.

You know what is just as bad as ID Theft? ----- Mixed Credit Files. These are not ID Theft, it is a credit reporting mistake. And often after fixing the problem - it just happens again - over and over. Talk about major headaches.

You know I have thought about that exact issue.

Bad credit, ID Theft, Errors on credit all equal one thing.

Creditors making more money off of the sub-prime group.

More credit reports being pulled from consumers trying to get into better credit.

It does pay off for the credit industry to keep consumers down.

If everyone had good credit they could not charge the high interest rates they make off of sub-prime customers.

Also you want to know another rip off. When I worked at the credit bureau - we resold credit reports to creditors for say like $1.30 each report or even lower than that, because they were buying in bulk, but then they turn around and charge consumers over $10 bucks for the same report.

In fact it is not the same report, the creditor version is a whole lot better, more fancy information displayed then what consumers see. You would think for what consumers pay - they should be entitled to these fancier credit reports.

Hi Kathleen,

If you have all the papers of the payments, you should immediately go to the court house where the case was filed. There request the court clerk to provide you with a form to file the motion to vacate the judgment. You should also mention to the judge that the representative of this particular collection agency had asked you not to worry, as you had already paid the money.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Aaron