Question by Sarah Seward: I have severely bad credit. No credit cards. Lots of student loans and some collections. Best way to repair?
I already have my credit report… when I say its bad.. I mean its BAD! The entire thing seems greek to me. I’ll take any suggestions I can get. Should I consider a credit repair service like Lexington Law or go a different route?
When I am looking at the age of the item to determine whether its +3 or +7 years, do I look at the reported date or the opened date?
PS.. I dont need a loan. Just looking to clean up my credit.
Best answer:
Answer by Dixie Darlin’
Never pay someone for what you can do yourself. We need a little more information in order to help you. How old are the debts? How old are the collections? The student loans will have to be paid back, they are federal, and they can and will take your income tax refunds.
Add your own answer in the comments!
Popular search terms:
Having a good credit report can make your life so much easier and offer numerous more financing opportunities later in life, the whole time saving you a ton of money financing everyday things along with big ticket items such as cars and housing. Even the rates you end up paying for car insurance or the ability to find a great job more than likely are affected by your credit reports and your credit scores. Just try to rent a nice apartment while having collections and judgements on your credit!
The negative items on your credit report might be there because of financial decisions that you had made in the past or they could be legitimate errors made by creditors or the credit bureaus themselves. Regardless of how these black marks found their way on your reports, we will talk about identifying them and also the steps needed to remove them most effectively.
How to Find Negative Items on Your Credit Report:
It is simple to see how errors may find their way to your credit report when you think of the total amount of information that finds its way to the credit bureaus everyday. There are literally millions upon millions of accounts that get reported every week. That is why it is so crucial to keep an eye on the items that are being reported on your credit report. I suggest you sign up for a monthly credit watch program such as MyCreditKeeper.com or several others that are available for around $10 per month.
After you have received a copy of all three of your major credit reports including, Equifax, Trans Union and Experian you should go through line by line checking for mistakes. Look at your personal information along with the public records sections and accounts. You want to check for anything that is possibly negative to your credit rating such as late payments, judgements, charge offs and collections. Are your addresses and personal information correct? Are there more than one variation of your name or social security number?
Correcting the Errors and Removing Negative Items:
You have several options here including: writing letters yourself and corresponding with the credit bureaus on your own, or hiring a professional credit repair service. I personally suggest the later, as it is best to have someone versed in handling the credit bureaus and creditors daily, to handle your disputing process. Professional credit repair companies know the ins and outs of credit, as that is what they do every day. Of course, if you have time to study and learn the laws that are in place to protect you as a consumer then handling your own credit repair might be the answer for you. If that is the case, I suggest finding a credit repair forum as you will have many questions.
Article Source: http://www.itempad.com
Popular search terms:
|
Christopher M wants to know:
Is there an exact amount of debt or is it if you have any kind of bills in collections no matter the amount? I have a couple of bills in collections that equal to about one thousand dollars. Would that disqualify me from getting a secret security clearance from the army? If anyone knows the amount I would appreciate the help.
Popular search terms:
|
Cris P wants to know:
I was watching my credit report earlier this year and I noticed something on two collections. They have opened dates of 4/10/2002 and 7/31/2003, but they keep reporting it every single month. How do they do that? Does it cost them money to do that? And will the reports still fall off my credit after the open date? How badly is it hurting my credit since they keep hitting it current?
|
Star wants to know:
We are working our way to buying our own home and only have 50 pts to go to get approved, but I would like to raise it a little more than that so we can get a little better rate. Would it be quicker to get a secured credit card that reports to the credit bureaus or is there a better way?
I have several judgements (civil small claims) from landlords in the past, and also some collections, mainly from the hospital bills. Is it true that both of these will stay on your report wether you pay them or not? I have heard that sometimes when you pay off everything it actually lowers your score even more…
Any advice is appreciated.
