General Credit Topics

[RW2012]

what are these tradelines you speak of? i've never heard of them before.

[RW2012]

I have:

12 installment accounts

3 revolving

[webhopper]

In my experience your scores will not improve until you start addressing those negative items. My advice would be to check out the rebuilding forum

You will find a wealth of information here!  I am going to suggest that you start the journey by reading the following threads: 

What Steps Do I Take?

That will give you a great place to start!   Also you want to opt out first before contacting these creditors... to opt out go to: www.optoutprescreen.com

The next advice I can give is to contact and deal with each creditor one by one. Best of luck and if you use the search function to search for each of your creditors yoi can see how others have dealt with them successfully in the past. A lot of members have had.much success with simple goodwill requests to remove a few late payments... especially if your overall payment history was good. Best of luck!

[webhopper]

In addition you should check out the goodwill thread: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/GW-letter-Q-amp-A-Examples-and-GW-Success-Sto...

[RW2012]

i have already contacted sallie may and the Dept. of Edu. they have strict policies and refuse to budge. those are dead ends that i have to live with.

the other ones, i am in the process of working out. hopefully i can get them removed. 

thank you very much for your advice. 

[webhopper]

No problem! Good luck!

[RW2012]

what is the benefit of opting out of getting firm offers? i don't understand what the benefit is.

[webhopper]

Sometimes if your credit score starts to dramatically improve; a collector will file a collection or judgment because they buy the info from the bureaus. If you are opted out then it makes it harder to notice that you are improving and you can stay under the radar. Its not uncommon for debt collectors to try to collect on bogus or zombie debts when someone has an initial pull for a mortgage. Some of this activity is illegal on their part but for convenience sake I rather not deal with them. I have been opted out since 2008.

[RW2012]

i am considering it. thanks