HI freststart! You came to the right place, not only will you get some good financial info from members, you are going to enjoy the warm family welcome that is going to be around you always.

Yes, I must say that we all have fell short of our finances, so let that be the least of your problems, but what I wanted to ask of you is, how long has those baddies been on your report? My reason for asking is, lets say that you have an unpaid baddie on your report for ummmmmm 5 years. I would definitely tell you not to pay that baddie, just wait for it to fall off. This may seem harsh or guilty, but let me explain my reason. If you pay that baddie off, the creditor will turn right around and extend that baddie for another 7 years all over again. It is damaging to the report to constantly report that you were once in collections but pays as agreed. They will keep the bad side on your credit report, and that is something that you do not want.

Now, if you so happen to have a baddie on your report for like 1-3 years and you want to pay them off, the first thing you do is tell them you are willing to pay, but want a written document that states, when your account is paid up, you want a "letter of deletion" to have some type of proof that they are going to remove it from your credit report. I have had so many baddies on my report until your eyes would become sore from looking at them all. My problem was that I could not afford to pay all that debt off, so I just decided to rebuild, and let the entire thing wipe off by itself. Of course this is pretty lengthy, but at the same time, i compared the length of history I would have accomplished with my new credit card(s), while waiting for the baddies to drop off. So far it has been 5 years, and I am down to one baddie, which will drop off in Aug 09. Its been hard waiting 5 years for baddies to drop, but at the same time, I have gained 5 years of good history with my new creditors. What kept me focused? The members here, the long haul of recovery, and the new credit world that is basically knocking at my door.

Here is some helpful links for you to read:
1. https://www.financeglobe.com/SocialNet/forum/showthread.php?t=909
2. https://www.financeglobe.com/SocialNe...read.php?t=853

Check out Mary Tomkin's article where she shared some info (It is the last 6 paragraphs)
https://www.financeglobe.com/Finance/...ent/Page1.html

Also, here is an article that offers 10 steps to improve your credit, she has some information in there that will help out in your situation. https://www.financeglobe.com/Finance/...ore/Page1.html

Welcom Fresh Start

Well you are definately on the right track with the secure cc/loans @ your Credit Union; don't u just luv Credit Unions:cheesing:(I work @ a CU) they sure did help my husband get out of the 400 club into the 640 club.

OK back to you; if your primary goal is to get a mortgage in the next few years; then what you should start focusing on is your DTI. It is always good to keep you debt as low as possible when you are buying a house; so apply that extra money toward your Studen Loan so you debt will start to decrease & continues to (pif) each month your credit cards.

As for your collection; I agree with Brian23 especially if they are due to fall of soon as you stated.

Remember you are not alone in this rebuilding process and you will get to your goal.

Thanks for your input! What I am enjoying most about this forum is the way everyone is sharing personal knowledge based on their own real life experiences. I’m not in any hurry to get my credit perfect, I just want to make constant strides to improve it and with time I know things will get back on track. Honestly, I'm not noble enough to just pay off the collections and not have it do me any good credit wise, but I also did not want to be sitting on a lot of money and not applying it to past debt if that was really going to help. I’d rather apply that money to debt that isn’t going anywhere, like paying an extra $1,000 on my student loans each month.

I am fortunate, financially, to be able to purchase everything I need without credit, but I think I'll be ready for a new house in a few years. It is almost time for me to purchase a new car ( I want a new Impala) but right now I'm in a position to purchase one with cash, or possibly even with a CD secured loan from my credit union. If I decided to go that route it would strengthen my relationship with my credit union as I know they are more prone to factor in your relationship with them as well as your overall credit.

You need a "everything is going to be ok" post, don't you?


Trust me, I was in your boat. The day my quest for credit came was when one of my best friends ran my credit in March 2007, as he was a "mortgage broker". He pretty much started that game late, as last call at that bar was pretty much called. I told him, f it, run my scores. My mid score was a 555, 5 points higher than his own. The first negative I decided to attack was my defaulted student loan and learned about "loan rehabilitation". Went through the process and at the same time started getting back into cleaning up my credit. Later that year, I got my CJ and Macys accounts. 3 months later, I got a bad car loan, an HSBC account and a Rewards 660 (I believe R660 came first). By the middle of the year I was in 600 land, but still not quite in Canaan-land. By the time I knew it, my default was gone and it was just around the time I was able to see a tax refund for the first time in 2 years. I was able to get better cards like Juniper, Target, a secured BOA card that turned into a nice $4k unsecured WorldPoints...Macys and CJ limits had blown up too from it's humble beginning. November will be 2 years since I've had real credit and I'm practically in 700 club (EQ needs some work...9 points shy, but I'm positive EX and TU have gotten me in 700 terrority).

Time, TIME, TIME

Time will be the only weapon you have to increase your scores. Between the rebuilding and the repairing...you too can see 700 within 2 years (give or take a year). But you gotta work at it. You will get help/encouragement, but ultimately, it will be YOU that gets the job done.

I wish you all the best. And by the way...Everything will be ok.

Welcome to the group!!! I can only provide you with assistance as I was in your position about 5 years ago (except for I didnt have the money to pay the cards back)... You seem to be on the right track (with the secured cards) so I really wouldnt get to crazy with trying to pay the charge-offs. I know its tough with the position that your in, but just as a word of advice. No matter when you pay the collection agency for the charge-off, it will never be deleted from your CR until the 7 years has passed since date of 1st delinquency.... They try to promise you that to get you to pay but it really doesnt matter because once you charge-off an account its stuck on their for 7 years (regardless if you pay it or not)... It really is a judgement call of your own right now, if you really feel compelled to pay it, than by all means pay it... But, its not going to change your CS or report anytime in the near future... The only thing that you can do at this point is just realize that none of this is going to change overnight, and for right now you have to just keep moving forward in the right direction....

You are in a very sticky situation (as I too am still in for 2 more years)... But you have to remain positive about it no matter what... The good thing about credit (in my eyes) is that no matter how badly you ever mess up at it, you can always start over... yes, I will be the 1st to admit, that 7 years of bad credit feels like a lifetime....But honestly, you always have the opportunity to start over again if things get tough....

Just my opinion, please keep us posted on what you decide and how it all works out for you (people like me will def benefit by your experiences).... I am sure the other members of this forum will help out with some more advice for you, and they will respond as soon as they see your post...

Time...Time..Time, I didn't like hearing that either to begin with but it's true. If you apply for new cards you will notice " length of time of new trades" and " percent or balances to credit lines". I would suggest a secured card like B of A. I wish I would have started that way.

Your in a little bit of a pickle now, cause you've been trying to apply for so many different cards and every CC is looking at you as trying to obtain credit asap (its a negative in their eyes when your trying to open a new account).... What are your scores now and were have you tried to get credit from??

I Have Paid Everything On My Credit That Was Negative. I Paid Off Old Collection Accounts And Had Some Accounts Even Removed From My Cb Reports. I Dont Know Why Its Soo Hard For Me To Obtain CL From Different Banks When I Have Paid Everything Off On My CB Reports. I Have One Secured Card Two Unsecured Loans With My Credit Union ....1 Education Unsecured Loan A Car Loan ...and My Score Hasnt Gone Up And I Have Never Missed A Payment ...my Car Loan Is Thru My Cu Its Fairly New ...but Ever Time I Apply For Credit It States I Have Too Many Inquires ....can Someone Give Me Some Advice As To What To Do Now!!

I Have Paid Everything On My Credit That Was Negative. I Paid Off Old Collection Accounts And Had Some Accounts Even Removed From My Cb Reports. I Dont Know Why Its Soo Hard For Me To Obtain Cl From Different Banks When I Have Paid Everything Off On My Cb Reports. I Have One Secured Card Two Unsecured Loans With My Credit Union ....1 Education Unsecured Loan A Car Loan ...and My Score Hasnt Gone Up And I Have Never Missed A Payment ...my Car Loan Is Thru My Cu Its Fairly New ...but Ever Time I Apply For Credit It States I Have Too Many Inquires ....can Someone Give Me Some Advice As To What To Do Now!!

Hi all! I'm new to the group but have checked out much of the site and got plenty of new information. I'm approaching 30 and am trying to get my credit back on the right track. About 6 months ago I got 2 secured cards, one with $1500 and one with $1000. I also have a $1000 secured installment loan from my credit union. I've been using the cards and pif by the cycle close date just so there is activity on them. I'm also planning to add another $1500 to each this month to increase the limits. Those three items and my student loans are really my only active lines. The other blemishes...or unsightly sores... are collections and charge offs, many of which aren't due to fall off anytime soon.

I recently got into a position financially where I could actually pay most of them off. I'm sure these things are really case by case but I'm wondering how I should start (newer ones or older ones), if "settled for less than full amount owed" is even worth doing, and if the only real time to pay a charge off is when the collector sends you in writing that once the amount is paid the will remove it from your credit (as I was told by a good friend in the 700 club). I'd appreciate any suggestions!

Yes i do have monitoring service through myfico and identity guard. Thats how serious I have been lately about cleaning my credit up. I just started my rebuilding process just last year in Jan so I dont have anything that goes way back to 2003 but from the 2008 CR it wasnt on there and also the collection too. I do not know where they got that account from but its scary knowing things like that. How can I dispute something thats not on there? I just dont want this to all the sudden pop up form no where.

This account they said should be falling off my CR soon because of the SOL i guess but it has never been on there in the first place. Should I be worried? Any advice would be appreciated. Im so confused and frustrated right now

The mysterious Cap 1 account charged off in 2002? Then yes, it should fall off soon. I would even dispute it through TU as obsolete data now and see what happens. (I have had good luck in removing three GEMB accounts (Mervyn's Best Buy and Care Credit) from my bureaus after just 5 years-they werent charged off or negative I just didnt want them on my bureau anymore and disputing through TU did the trick).

Regardless if the card was sent to your address they should have looked into the fraud. Especially if you have those old school mailboxes that anybody could get into, you know the ones in the yard with that red flag on them. They could have compared signatures and requested video from some of the merchants to see if it was you or not.

Do you have a copy of a past credit report between 2003-2008 that clearly did not show this Cap 1 account? I could see their side of things "why is this chic just calling now about an account opened 7 years ago?" So if you have those reports handy you could send it to them as proof.

I would recommend monitoring your credit report-it would be worth the money for a year that way you do not have any surprises when something comes up. If you feel better you can also put a fraud statement on your bureau asking potential creditors to call you before extending credit. And if you live in CA you can freeze your bureau. I wouldnt do either though unless you are really concerned that someone is stealing your identity because it makes applying for credit a hassle.

Anyway, I wouldn't sweat it too much if it is just this one account and it is about to fall off. But seriously monitor your credit for a while.

Guys I have a situation. Northland Group just sent me a notice in the mail 2 weeks ago about a debt from Capital One Bank. I did not open this account. I called Capital One and they told me that someone at my address at the time filled out a application and that the card was sent home. It was not me I know because I only had one card back then and it chargedoff which just recently fell off my CR this month. I was so sure it wasnt me that I called the fraud dept of Cap1 but they said since the card was sent to the address that they couldnt do a fraud investigation because it might be a family member.

The fraud rep stated that the account was open in 2002. What is odd to me is that why hasnt this acct show up on my CR for all these years. Good or bad. There is no tradeline whatsoever in my CR for this at all. I started my rebuilding process last year and it wasnt on then. Im trying to get them to send me a copy of the original application so I can see it.What is also odd is that I just recently recieved a CC from Cap1 in Jan 09. I had asked the FRaud rep about that and she said that it doesnt really matter, if I had the credit they would still give me a card regardless if I was in collections earlier.

This account they said should be falling off my CR soon because of the SOL i guess but it has never been on there in the first place. Should I be worried? Any advice would be appreciated. Im so confused and frustrated right now

You can charge on CC as much as you wish. The question is how much of balance you allow to report. I would say do not allow to be reported more than 9%.
And yes, it will boost your FICO.

I live within my means. I have 0 debt. I have no credit cards. 20K in the bank. But I have a bad credit score (593). Nothing bad there, mind you. There's just nothing there. I travel some throughout the year and rent cars when I do. I used a debit/CC for years for this. Last season got rejected at the desk: low score / no CC. The answer for this appears to be a secured CC (BofA, probably). I've read and understand the idea of a 0 to 30-35% utilization rate as the range to stay in for good credit score improvement. I could probably throw anywhere from $1000 to $3000 at this (as a deposit). That would mean putting up to $300/mnth on a $1000 limit CC (and paying it off every month, religiously), or up to $900/mnth on a $3000 limit CC. Will one increase my score faster than the other? In other words, along with the CC utilization rate, is the total paid/mnth (on a given CC) a factor? Or perhaps is the larger payment nonlinear in additional advantage, i.e. diminishing returns?