The 1st day of my mission!!

Anonymous · ‎06-12-2007

First of all hello everyone I'm newbie to this site. After years of not caring and living a wildlife, I'm mature now and regretting my financial past. In about two years I would like to build a home but, definately need a 360 on my credit report. I have never made an attempt to getting things cleared up on my CR. I was careless and stupid and paying for it now. To tell you a little bit about myself because you'll be hearing from me a lot, I'm a 27 yr old male. I recently got married making our total net income about 150k. My wife has awesome credit, with a bankruptcy for a stupid mistake she made. Anyways all we could do is strive to improve. Ok I pulled my 3 CR's today my FICO's are Equifax 571, Experian 592, and Transunion 618. I have 9 adverse accounts:

AFNI- Balance $1346.00 (collection) last updated 01/2006

Allied Interstate $117 (collection) that is paid, but showing open with same balance, last ud 04/2006

CBC National $281 (collection) paid but showing open and unpaid

Citicorp Credit Services (installment acct) 0 balance 90 days past due, will be removed 8/2007

autoloan -paid in full opened in 02/2000, closed 07/2005 30 days late 19 times

2- medical collections from the same CA totaling $2100, updated 04/2007..I haven't paid anything on this yet

RJM ACQUISITIONS LLC (collection) that I recently paid in full, but showing open on CR

another collection from a fitness club-$919 updated 04/06

medical collection-$77 paid but showing open

I have 7 satisfactory accounts (car loans, such) only 1 being open which is a credit card.

Well there it is so I'm ready to start my mission. Help getting started would be greatly appreciated.

Tuscani · ‎06-12-2007

Welcome! Have you read the Scoring 101 thread? That should give you some direction.

Anonymous · ‎06-12-2007

Good for you, I'm 50+ and not mature.....

However, a ton of good info here, I read every nite till doze off into the keyboard....I'm still new to this myself, but like Tusc said, Scoring 101 is a good place to start...I made a few misteps before I learned some of the tricks so I highly reccomend getting the basics before you dive in

good luck - two years should be plenty of time

Anonymous · ‎06-13-2007

First thing I did was typed a GW letter to send to a CA, one of my smaller ones $77. Just curious if these letters need to be certified?

2nd I have two collections, 1-Allied Interstate 1-Park Dansan both from the same creditor MCI w/ the same balance $117. This should be paid off also, I have reciepts but they are for the Park Dansan CA. What to do?

Tuscani · ‎06-13-2007

cody wrote:

First thing I did was typed a GW letter to send to a CA, one of my smaller ones $77. Just curious if these letters need to be certified?

2nd I have two collections, 1-Allied Interstate 1-Park Dansan both from the same creditor MCI w/ the same balance $117. This should be paid off also, I have reciepts but they are for the Park Dansan CA. What to do?

No need to certify GW letters.

Are your collections showing as paid or unpaid?

Anonymous · ‎06-13-2007

I first thing that I did (or would consider doing in your case) was to dispute any Trade Lines that appear on your credit reports that are bad (baddies - hurting your credit).

Anything you have have paid, should at worst be updated to show paid, so long as the OC/CA verifies the information to the CRA.
Be sure to include copies of any letters showing paid/settled in full, from the CA or OC.
At best, the CA/OC doesn't respond to the verification request from the CRAs and the adverse (baddie) Trade Lines would be deleted from your CR.
Many people here recommend doing this all by mail. The first time I disputed, I did everything by the available dispute process on the CRA's website. It seemed to shorten the process slightly.

Even if something is kind of bad, but you want that to remain on your credit report, it may be best to not dispute this Trade Line w/ the CRA, as a first step.
Instead get in touch with the OC or CA that is reporting and ask them to update the CR information.

"We" could probably be of more help by knowing exactly how these trade lines are reporting.

FYI: I am not a professional and this is only my opinion. There are many others here who have more experience than I do, and may offer different opinions to your situation.

YES, read through many of the threads on here before taking any first steps. There is a lot of great information.

Best of Luck!!!

Anonymous · ‎06-13-2007

Ok I do appreciate the help. I guess I need to work on one at a time for now until I get the swing of things.

1st collection is from AFNI, INC original creditor Cingular Wireless

Collection amt. $1346 past due as of Jan 2006

date opened 10/2004

reported since 11/2004

date of status 11/2004

scheduled to stay on record until Aug 2009

Should I send them a PFD or dispute and wait for a verify? I know they will because this one is on all 3 CR's and pretty accurate?