Bad credit repair

[Scottw]

Originally Posted by forgop

Seriously-those "repair" companies can't do anything you can't do yourself. They just pray on those looking for quick fixes and there's no such thing when it comes to fixing your credit.

You can get a lot of information here and ask for advice for any problems you have. I used it in the past to get advice getting rid of old stuff. You just have to be persistent with the credit reporting agencies to get stuff deleted.

http://debt-consolidation-credit-rep...ce.com/forums/

AMEN, I have been in the debt business for 7 years, you can do this yourself. I have running around to do but if you PM me questions, I'll try to help. You get the BOTL rate of $0.00 for the help so ask away.

[bobarian]

As the others have said, you can start rebuilding without outside help. Start small, a jewelry store loan on a watch or a department store credit card. You can also check with a local credit union. But its not going to happen overnight, it will take time to build your score. You can get a free report from one the major credit bureau's like Experian. Check with your bank or the credit union and ask if they can recommend a credit counselor.

[Tuxguy]

Did the free credit report dot com thing and now feel overwhelmed.

[forgop]

Originally Posted by Tuxguy

Did the free credit report dot com thing and now feel overwhelmed.

First thing first, copy letters from that site to each of the creditors that show negatives on your report for validation. Otherwise, they have to remove them from your report. It'll probably take 60-90 days at least from the date letters go out to seeing some real progress in getting lines deleted.

In addition, keep good records of what you're doing as you can sue them for failing to perform as required under the fair credit reporting act I believe it is ($1k for each violation I believe).

[Blueface]

Not an expert on this but I believe it is critical to not only look at what you did in the past but also what is it you are doing now.

Reduce your debt to credit ratio.
If you owe over a certain amount of your total credit line, it very negatively impacts you.

Reduce the number of credit cards you have.
Close out as many as you can. The more cards you have, the less credit worthy you are and hence lowers your score.

Pay all your accounts on time, without any exceptions. Don't hit 30, 60, etc, lists.

My son's was a total mess due to stupidity. Took him a while to work on it in the above fashion and recently has just bought his own house, on his own, with no co-signer.

No magical fix overnight. These are the things folks get to sometimes live long enough to regret. You made mistakes, now pay for them slowly, as should be. Otherwise, where would the lesson learned be?
Good luck.

[neoflex]

Just have a question as I am far from a credit expert to say the least. If he closes out a lot of his credit cards at one time wouldn't that also reflect negatively on his credit report? Just asking as I have heard this in the past but never could understand how this would reflect badly on a person although a few years ago I paid off most of my debt and canceled most of my cards except for a couple. Just curious.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by neoflex

Just have a question as I am far from a credit expert to say the least. If he closes out a lot of his credit cards at one time wouldn't that also reflect negatively on his credit report? Just asking as I have heard this in the past but never could understand how this would reflect badly on a person although a few years ago I paid off most of my debt and canceled most of my cards except for a couple. Just curious.

From personal experience, I can't see that being accurate if what you are closing is accounts with $0 balance and if you are closing them voluntarily at your request.
I had an onslaught of cards I never used. They were just there. I closed out about 10 in one month and my credit score jumped up in only a couple of months from 740 to 780. Didn't affect me anyway but positive.

[forgop]

Originally Posted by neoflex

Just have a question as I am far from a credit expert to say the least. If he closes out a lot of his credit cards at one time wouldn't that also reflect negatively on his credit report? Just asking as I have heard this in the past but never could understand how this would reflect badly on a person although a few years ago I paid off most of my debt and canceled most of my cards except for a couple. Just curious.

I would leave them open to boost my score if I was ACTIVELY working on improving my score. Once you hit a threshold you're comfortable with on your score, then I would close them if that's want you want to do.

[forgop]

Originally Posted by Blueface

Not an expert on this but I believe it is critical to not only look at what you did in the past but also what is it you are doing now.

Reduce your debt to credit ratio.
If you owe over a certain amount of your total credit line, it very negatively impacts you.

True. Ideally, you won't exceed 25-30% of your balance/limit ratio in a typical month.

Originally Posted by Blueface

Reduce the number of credit cards you have.
Close out as many as you can. The more cards you have, the less credit worthy you are and hence lowers your score.

False. Closing accounts can negatively impact your score because you decrease your available credit. If you have $20k in available credit and you eliminate $10k in available credit, you DECREASE your score in that you have a much harder time lowering the balance/limit ratio if balances are any issue at all.

Originally Posted by Blueface

Pay all your accounts on time, without any exceptions. Don't hit 30, 60, etc, lists.

True

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by forgop

False. Closing accounts can negatively impact your score because you decrease your available credit. If you have $20k in available credit and you eliminate $10k in available credit, you DECREASE your score in that you have a much harder time lowering the balance/limit ratio if balances are any issue at all.

I should have been clear.
I meant close them as you pay off.
In my case, when I closed down those accounts, the only debt I had was my home and I had an open equity line of credit with a zero balance.
I kept two cards only with about $20K credit line with no debt.