Just wanted to thank everyone for the wealth of information that is being provided. Didn't know a forum like this existed and had always believe that only time could fix bad credit reports. Never knew about GW and PFD letters until a couple of months ago. And the fact that many people have had success with them is very encouraging. I recently pulled my credit scores. Well I now realized they are FAKO scores from freecreditreport.com (I am going to get the real ones from myFico at the end of next month). Anyway they are at 566 for all three. I knew my scores would be low because of my utilization (currently at about 85% I think), but I did not know that they were that low. From the two-year history posted on these reports, I found out I had 4 collection accounts: one 3-years old, two fairly recent, and one from Verizon from 2004. All four are from service providers (not CC related). My lates include: one 30-day late with a CC (JC Penney), one 30-day late with my current car loan (NFCU), and a 60-day late with my student loan (ACS). Have never had judgements, liens, BK's, charge-offs, or any of that stuff. In the past week I took the plunge and sent out GW and PFD letters to all of the affected accounts. I have my fingers crossed that I will get some good news here pretty soon. I know that sometimes it takes more than one try but at least I know I don't have to wait seven years to see the bad stuff drop off of my reports. I got married about a year ago and my wife has really change my attitude about managing my money more wisely. She is very frugal (I like to called her a tightwod). She knows that I have CC debt that I need to get rid of, but luckily she has been very supportive of me. We plan on buying a home sometime in the next couple of years and I know that my credit needs to be in good shape. I am hoping that with good responses on the letters and the fact that my wife has already planned a budget for me to get rid of the CC debt, that buying a home in two years will be hassle free (and cheap too with the way the housing market is turning). I just have a couple of questions for anyone on the forum: 1. For anyone that has ever had CA accounts deleted, by how much did your scores improved and how long did it take for the changes to take effect. 2. Why are these FAKO scores only showing history for two years. I thought creditors and lenders looked at seven years worth of history. Again I thank all of you the information you are providing and will keep everyone informed of my progress. eknock
