A goodwill letter, sometimes called a forgiveness removal letter, is essentially a letter you write to your creditor that nicely asks for them to remove a negative mark from your credit reports. Writing a goodwill letter to a creditor is fairly easy and is definitely something you can do for DIY credit repair.
Getting Collectors to Remove Negative Information
Ask for the name and phone number of the person with the original creditor who has the authority to make this decision. Call that person and ask. Explain that you're taking steps to repay your debts, clean up your credit, and be more responsible.
While it's not guaranteed to work, writing a goodwill letter to your creditors could result in negative marks being removed from your credit reports.
A 609 Dispute Letter is often billed as a credit repair secret or legal loophole that forces the credit reporting agencies to remove certain negative information from your credit reports. And if you're willing, you can spend big bucks on templates for these magical dispute letters.
Goodwill letters still work.
It's really not an issue you can dispute unless there was a mistake reported to the credit bureaus. Keep your cool and be patient because goodwill is just that — A goodwill gesture extended by the creditor.
I respectfully request that you forgive my alleged debt, as my condition precludes any employment, and my current and future income does not support any debt repayment. Please respond to my request in writing to the address below at your earliest convenience. Thank you in advance for your understanding of my situation.
Yes, it can work, but be warned that the overall success rate of such letters is generally low. Additionally, the latest credit scoring models (FICO 9, VantageScore 3.0) ignore collection accounts that have been paid, making a pay for delete letter unnecessary if you pay off your debt.
Your letter should clearly identify each item in your report you dispute, state the facts, explain why you dispute the information, and request that it be removed or corrected. You may want to enclose a copy of your credit report with the items in question circled.
I truly believe that it doesn't reflect my creditworthiness and commitment to repaying my debts. It would help me immensely if you could give me a second chance and make a goodwill adjustment to remove the late [payment/payments] on [date/dates]. Thank you for your consideration, and I hope you'll approve my request.
All You Can Do Is Ask
Credit reporting is a voluntary process. There's nothing you can do to force a creditor to report an account to the credit bureaus. And you can't make a creditor update your account outside of its normal credit reporting cycle.
A goodwill letter is a polite written request to one of your creditors asking that they remove a negative or derogatory mark on your credit report out of the goodness of their hearts. Goodwill letters are sent to creditors or collection agencies rather than to the credit bureaus.
Based on my otherwise spotless payment history, I would like to request that you apply a goodwill adjustment to remove the late payment mark from my credit report. Granting this request will help me improve my overall credit history and demonstrate my consistency as a creditworthy borrower.
A goodwill letter is sent to the creditor that reported your late payments with the goal of having them remove the derogatory information. Since negative reporting can stay on your credit report for seven years, it's not difficult to understand how impactful a successful goodwill letter could be.
Your best bet for getting the collection removed from your credit report is to contact Capital One and ask it to remove the collection out of goodwill.
The name 623 dispute method refers to section 623 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The method allows you to dispute a debt directly with the creditor in question as long as you have already filed your complaint with the credit bureau and completed their process.
There's no evidence to suggest a 609 letter is more or less effective than the usual process of disputing an error on your credit report—it's just another method of gathering information and seeking verification of the accuracy of the report. If disputes are successful, the credit bureaus may remove the negative item.
Your letter should identify each item you dispute, state the facts, explain why you dispute the information, and ask that the business that supplied the information take action to have it removed or corrected.