NWR: CREDIT PROBLEMS!!!

Bad payment history

Are you back on track now? Having you been paying everything on time.

It really ***** you can have a great payment record for years but then mess up for a few months and it takes a while to get back on track.
I don't really know how long you have to be on a good payment schedule to start uping your score. Suzie Orman covers this topic alot and has tons of books, maybe check out one of them see if it can help you out

Unless you have a lot of money owed with a lot of different companies to consolidate, you may not need outside help to fix it.

You do have to accept that it takes time before they 'trust' you again and for the bad stuff to not 'count' towards their decisions.

The best thing you can do is get your payments in on time. If you can, pay more than the minimum. They actually like it when you carry balances instead of having a zero balance, as long as you're paying on time.

Get a copy of your credit reports, all three, and see what they see. There are a lot of scams out there but NYS allows a free set once every 12 months:

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

Anything that you can dispute (and prove in writing), you should take action on.

I had bad credit too and fixed it because I had a job where I traveled. At first, I only had one card with a $1500. limit at 13%. But by charging meals, travel expenses etc. and then paying the card off with my expense check (always on time; never late), I repaired it over time. I stopped applying for new cards (this shows on your report too) and left it alone for a year.

Once I had paid down all but $500. on the one card, I applied for another card. Not a very high credit limit but better than the other card. I did the same; charged a little, paid a little, on time.

I transferred the balance of my old car loan onto one of the cards and paid it off over time too.

It took 5 years where the good credit outweighed the bad credit but in the end, I was able to get a 1.9% loan for my car through VW and they said I had 'stellar credit'.

You can do it. You have to be diligent at all times though, and do whatever it takes to stop sending in payments late. Double up on payments wherever possible and get those balances down. We used our tax returns each year to take a chunk out of our combined debt and stopped going on vacations.

Good luck with everything!

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Posted by krispyc

Suze Orman is great and offers alot of good advice on what to do to help raise your credit scores. Start with her 'Young Fabulous & Broke' book.

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I recommend this book. She gives great ideas on how to work on things and which issues to focus on first. Best of luck! I've had some friends with credit issues and know how difficult it can be.

Are there things on there that should be off? Say-old things that you can request to have them to come off?
Make sure all of the stuff on the report is accurate and yours. I had someone else's judgement on my credit a few years ago. I had to call the lawyer and fight to get it off and he wouldn't help me. I finally requested an investigation from Equifax and it was resolved within 30 days.

I would not go to some credit repair agency!! Read a good financial book like Suze Orman or Dave Ramsey. I got my fiances credit up over 100 points in less than a year! Don't worry!

Thank you all for the advice!