Mike
Radford,#2Consumer Comment
Sun, July 04, 2004
The "age" of bad credit is based on the Date of Last Activity, which would be the date of the repo. Even if you did have a receipt showing a car was repo'd in 2000, that would not prove that you didn't have another car repo'd in 2004. The burden of proof is always on the creditors. After four years, it is often possible to file disputes and have the entire affair removed from your credit reports. Having the account entirely removed is the best way to improve your credit. Having the date reported properly as 2000, rather than 2004, will help considerably if you can't get it removed. But just getting it marked "paid, chargeoff" or "paid, repo" is still as bad as unpaid. Paying old debts is, for practical purposes, a waste of money.
Alan
DALLAS,#3Consumer Suggestion
Sat, July 03, 2004
When a reposession has not been paid, sometimes a lender will turn it into a "charge-off". They can renew this charge-off every few months to make it appear as if it is a current debt that was just recently done. I have not figured out a way to do this. I had a car reposessed in July 2000. The bank showed it as a charge-off and was listed in October of 2000. I have recently been car shopping and the "charge-off" is showing as April of 2004. I have not financed a car since the repo. Four years later they are still renewing the charge-off. The only way to get it marked paid is to pay the amount. I am thinking that if you have the car reposessed maybe it would be a good idea to get a receipt that shows that they took possession of the car on such-and-such a date. Then when you are ready to try again, you can have that receipt saying, this repo is NOT from last month, it's from x years ago. It may help, it may not. I have no paperwork on my old car loan, so I'm stuck with whatever the credit report says, which says I just dumped my car. I've owned 20 or so cash cars since then.