In article <1120704961.510226.225020[at]g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> ,
russ[at]russ.net wrote:

- quote -

I think you should make an effort to go though your records
and sort this out. You should have copies of the paperwork
from the lease deal. You should also have cancelled checks
and your checking account statements. If not, you can go to
your bank, and they can pull these records for you (likely
for a small fee).

If you make the effort (a common theme in your life), you
should be able to figure this out. If you didn't pay it,
then yes, you should work it out with them. If not, they
may come after you and sue you, and you could end up with
a judgement that will stay on your record for 7 to 10 more
years.

- quote -

You can always challenge the black mark. You might get lucky
and the creditor will not bother to go back and look it up,
and it will be removed. That is kind of a low ethics way
of doing it since you know you were at fault. If you wait,
it will be about 7 years from the time of the event.

Sometimes, if you are back current, you can ask the creditor
to clean up your record. Some will do that if you have had
a long history of good behavior.

What does trouble me is that both of these events were not
results of financial problems. Rather, the result of an
attitude. The attitude you have is that paying bills on
time is not your top priority. Creditors have a right to
know that, and charge you higher rates given that you are
a higher risk (ie, when you get busy, you might cut and run
rather than make the extra effort to pay a bill on time).

-john-

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John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708 john[at]johnweeks.com
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
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I've had a spotless credit report pretty much all my life. A couple
years ago, however, my wife was a couple months late making her car
payment since we moved and she had to mail it back to Nebraska and was
a bit late a couple times. Then, after we were moved for 8 months we
decided to get out of our apartment and buy a house. We had to pay a
'reletting' fee to get out of the apartment early of about $470. A few
years went by, and I suddenly get a collection notice saying we never
paid the reletting fee and it was due. I called the collection agency
and said #1 I never heard anything until now about this fee and #2 I
could swear (although not 100% certain) that I paid it back then, but
unfortunately don't remember how I paid, and can't really find any
proof I paid.

So, now I have these 2 marks on my credit report. Other than that it's
spotless.

We're planning on moving to a new house in a couple years, and I really
don't like these things on my credit report. I think my credit score
is around 780.

Is there any way to get these bad marks removed from my credit report?
How long do they generally take to "fall off" your report? Should I
just go ahead and pay the collection agency or contact the apartment
complex directly and deal with them and try to work out a deal to
remove the bad mark?

Also how about the late payment on my wifes car which I co-signed back
then on (before we were married)? Any chance of getting that removed
or must I just wait?