Fingerhut Late Fee Nationwide

 It must be great to live in a fantasy world where the sun rises in the west and sets in the east and you can just make up anything out of the blue and believe it is fact...Seriously.

The fact is that YOU are responsible for your credit.  YOU should have been on-top of your statements every month.  If you come and try and claim that you were just "too busy" to monitor your credit, then you are "too busy" to have credit.

The sad part is that you have bits and pieces of "facts" about the Collection Process.  But have totally warped them into some romanticized view where having an account in Collections is the most wonderful thing on the planet.

First of all a "Charge-Off" does not freeze the account in some magic state of suspended animation.   Collection Agencies contrary to what you think are still allowed to charge Interest, now it may not always be the full amount of the interest of the original account, but there is interest.  You are however correct about other "fees", in just about every case a Collection Agency can not add on their own "fees".  You also won't get things such as Late Fees or over the Limit fees being assessed any more. 

 I don't know where you get the idea that timely payments to a Collection Agency are reported as a Positive, and with a statement like that I wonder why I am even posting here.  But even if we take that as fact.  The minor positive influence they have is overshadowed by the huge negative a Collection Account has on your report. 

I know for a fact 500-600 is pretty much the norm in the USA today.

- Really?  And just how do you know that?  

At best one bad credit report, as in my case will not harm me at all. 

- Oh really...how about coming back here and telling us how great of an Interest Rate you got on your next car loan.  Or how when you were trying to get a house your lender refused to approve you for the loan until you paid the collection account.

Oh and as an FYI, you were right about one other thing..the courts.  When you are sued they must prove that you owe the money.   So just as some advise, when you do get sued please come up with a better defense than you have posted here.  Because with this "defense", you can guarantee you will loose.  They will most likely get a Garnishment or attach your bank account if your State allows it.  Oh and you will have what is known as a Public Record on your credit report.  Where if you think that a Collection Account is a Positive, you haven't seen anything yet.

Actually Fingerhut does have a min payment always due monthly, but a person can go into their account and increase that amount which I have done. No a deferred payment mean no increase in min payment due until a certain date per the deferred payment agreement. I am not leaving anything out about the fee's in my case. I could understand if I missed a payment, and my payments are over the min monthly request. I have been writing and calling Fingerhut since the first of year when they slapped the first fee on my account. I get the standard answer of please call a certain number and those reps tell me I have to write customer service. BTW everytime a payment is made on any Fingerhut account a email notice is sent to that person about the payment and if there are problems with that account with paperless statements. At no time did those emails state a problem with my account. I discovered the fees when I checked my account through the Fingerhut website. I must have been doing just great because all my credit cards have increased there limits to me, even Fingerhut. 

If any account is sent to collection the account is frozen, and no longer part of Fingerhut or any company. Interest is no longer charged to those accounts. It would be illegal to do so. That type of practice is known as charge-off debts for products never purchased or loaned to a person. It has to be justified in court. So actually Fingerhut looses in the end because the collection company gets part of the amount they are collecting. The loose the interest and the fee's of $35 a month which basically is 40% a month on a account with them. Tmely payments even to a collection company are reported as positive. Base on the economy credit reports and those who rely on those reporting agencies are pretty flexable. I know for a fact 500-600 is pretty much the norm in the USA today. At best one bad credit report, as in my case will not harm me at all. 

In my case I did have my payments scheduled to the end of the year over the the minimum monthly payments. Since the upgrade some of my statements are missing on-line and the account error is very apparent within those documents. Yes Fingerhut is a source to repair credit history but it does come at a price as they do jack up the product price and charge a huge interest fee. 

First off I will say, Fingerhut has been a saving grace to my credit repair. If it wasn't for Fingerhut, my credit would be at the bottom of the barrel. They were the only company to approve me for an unsecured credit line of 400 dollars. Due to divorce and layoff from job in 2008...my once mid 700 credit scores plummeted to high 300s low 400s. I went from having the American express one card with no preset limit, and American express blue card with a 15k limit, among others; chase preferred (3500), gems walmart discover with a 2800 limit, target visa (4900), among others...All taken away. Fingerhut approved me for 400 dollars beginning of this year...within a few months they automatically bumped me up to 1k credit limit. Mostly I would be unexcited about the 'small limit', but for a guy who got the taste of truly elite credit and got short winded by life...this was truly exciting and a start on the road to recovery. I haven't seen an active credit account with a comma in the credit limit since 2008. 

IIt's simple. Keep up with your statements, pay your minimum monthly every month, and when In credit repair, you must take a manual stance. Don't let it hit automatically. From what you wrote, you opted for the minimum monthly payment to be drafted from Bank or card. By manually managing your account, you can make payments before the due date and it posts in time, no late fees or anything. Plus, after 3 months with finger hut, they can double or triple your Cl. You have a choice, let them help you rebuild your credit, or let it go to collections, either way it is your choice. Let me guess, you do rent to own and have trouble making monthly obligations. 

 In what you wrote in this report, it is not a surprise that you have a "questionable credit score". As your report has several issues.

First of all if you set up automtic payments, they set those up to make at least the minimum amount due.  So even on the off chance they "forgot" to defer a purchase, your minimum payment would have been reflected in a way such that it would be higher.  But there is NO reason you should get a late fee for this.  So you are obviously leaving something out.

Next, how come it took you a long time to "catch" this.  Being YOUR account it is YOUR responsibility to review your statements every month.  YOU should have caught this the very next month after you got the first late fee and corrected any possible issues.

But the funniest line is how you think Collections is a good thing.  Not only is it very bad for your already trashed credit, interest does NOT stop.  That's right...they still add on Interest.  Oh but you say they make "arrangements"..yea but in the end those arrangements are such that you are still paying more than had you just paid the original bill.