Meh I’ll give back a little of Trump’s shitty cut in fees I guess 
You might still have a safe harbor exemption from penalties depending on your circumstances.
I had this for a while too. Absolutely infuriating. I still had my receipt from my equipment turn in showing my account balance zeroed out so I tried to dispute it but it either didn’t work or they put it back on later.
It’s absolute horseshit. I had my credit drop 100 points over a collection from AT&T despite me never having an AT&T account. Once it hits your credit there is basically no way to get it off - even if you pay it stays on there. The system legalizes extortion.
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Yeah, this exactly.
Much is premised on the idea that you’ll pay small amounts of money you don’t really owe rather than deal with a hit to your credit or much larger bills down the road.
So I finally had a collections drop off my credit report after the 7 year wait. I checked my report to make sure it was gone. But my credit score didn’t increase at all. Is this normal?
I think you gotta give it a month or two after drop off
But also, as it ages, it impacts your score less and less so its possible the impact between it being on at 83 months isnt much different than it not being there at all
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I think so. Negative marks on your credit score affect it less as time goes on, so it probably wouldn’t have been dragging your score down much at all by the time 7 years rolls around.
The main positive is that it won’t show up at all for anyone doing a credit check going forward, as opposed to being something that was a long time ago but still hanging around.
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I’ve recertified several years without issue.
The only time there was a minor error, I resubmitted and there were no issues.
It takes like three minutes to fill out the certifications.
When my collection dropped off my score jumped from like 770 to 840. /humblebrag
Gruette changed her withholding the wrong way and we owe the IRS $11k 
Before I clog this thread up… is it OK to ask questions that reveal an embarrassing amount of ignorance in this field?
I believe that is exactly what the thread is for
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OK, here’s the deal, with all ignorance included.
I’ve lived in Europe, married to a Euro, for about 15 years. I have dual citizenship (USA#! and EU), though I was born and raised in the States. I have an elementary-school aged kid who is also a dual citizen.
We have a little bit of money for the kid sitting in our savings (earning ~0% anything). My Dad (American still in America) wrote to say that he and his wife would like to start contributing to an education fund for my kid. I have no idea how much they intend to contribute (if that’s important, I can ask, I suppose).
He mentioned that my sister (also in the States) has something set up for her kids (and I didn’t ask, but I assume he is able to easily make contributions to it). I asked my sis and she said they are 529 plans.
Now, the parts that seem tricky to my little brain:
529 plans don’t apply to all schools outside of the US (and there’s a good chance that my kid won’t be going to the States for college), so I’m wondering: can’t I just set up a simple investment account in his name? Like at ETrade or something? I’d take our small lump and invest it in his name in something like a Vanguard 500. I assume I could set it up so that his grandparents could make monthly (or at least regular) deposits?
If all of that makes sense and is true, what’s the deal with taxes? Assuming the investment grows a bit each year, would someone (me, anyone who contributed, my son) be required to pay taxes on earnings? Or would there only be capital gains taxes when my kid turns 19 or whatever and decides to withdraw the money?
Perhaps most importantly, are these tax issues actually only relevant for the euro country in which I reside? Like, do I need to ask a specialist in this country? (Czech Rep.) This is my tax home. I do file returns with the IRS every year, but I don’t earn enough for it to matter, once the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion is applied.
I’m sure I will need to clarify something or add whatever I left out, so feel free to ask questions, but any advice is appreciated.
You or anyone else can give your child a tax free gift of up to $15,000 every year and then invest it for him every year in a mutual fund or ETF. You could do etrade but I’d do Vanguard. Your son would have to do taxes on this every year, but if you just buy mutual fund shares and never sell you won’t have to pay much in taxes. Just whatever dividend income there is (2-3% yield) and a trivial amount of capital gains some year due to the routine buying and selling the fund has to do every year.
Or at least that’s what an American living in the US would have to do. My understanding is that you’d have to pay capital gains and dividend taxes as you would if you lived in the US but I’m not sure. And of course I have no idea about Czech law. You should ask a specialist both in Czech Republic and in USA#1.
I wouldn’t contribute to a 529 if I were in your situation. They’re not that great anyway and if you don’t use it for education then you’d have to pay both taxes and a 10% penalty.
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For those who are a bit more in the know about the credit system, a question.
I got a collections notice today on a 1.5 year old bill from an ER visit that occured when living at my former address. We had paid bills related to this when the incident occured and I believed we were finished as we had moved on to another insurance provider and I assume a bill for a physician or something we didnt originally get came in later. They likely sent bills to our old address, so I never got a physical bill and never receievd a phone call about the debt.
That being said, I have the means to pay and have a few questions.
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Is it best to pay the collection company or the original creditor? Which is most likely to remove the credit knock if I pay in full and explain the circumstances?
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I have heard that a negative collection hit is no longer the death sentencr for your credit that it used to be and now most credit agencies view paid collections the same as any other paid in full debt and it does little to affect your overall score especially if its paid quickly. Ive heard this is especially true for medical bills as they dont report as 30, 60, 90, or 120+ day delinquencies. Can anyone confirm whether this is something that has changed in the last 5-10 years? Ive found conflicting info online.
How do you have an accountant but don’t have enough income to contribute to retirement?
I believe that is a tax free gift, not a pretax gift. (Meaning the recipient doesn’t have to pay taxes on the gift.)
If you have the money and qualify to contribute to an IRA and/or Roth IRA I would still go ahead and make the 2019 contributions now. You can keep the funds in a money market or short term treasuries for now if you don’t have the stomach for equities.
As far as not making a difference to your tax burden for 2019? Well that’s impossible to know without more information.