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Anonymous
Not applicable

credit repair

Hello All,

 

I began repairing my credit about a year ago.  After graduating from college, I went skiing and decided not to pay any of my student loans which are only to the tune of about 15k.  It was a great plan until I applied for an auto loan.  I have a rogue cell phone bill from verizon on my credit report.  I went into rehabilitation with direct loans and have recently (within the past week) been placed back into good standing.  I got an auto loan last october with unbelievably high interest rate and opened a secured Capital One card with a balance of 200 bucks in November.  I haven't missed a payment and have been paying in full on my credit card.  Well, the first month i left exactly 25% of my limit on card after I read an article.  I've been paying 80 bucks a month to a company called Credit Unlimited to get my report "cleaned up." They haven't been really doing anything besides not answering the phone when i call.  I thought there services would help to get rid of verizon and consolidate the nonsense that is random school loans that are now reporting as one under direct loans. I began with a score of 515 and now have a score of 620 across the board with the three bureaus.  I've hit an emotional wall with repairing my credit.  Any suggestions to keep my morale up...also, I've read about opening another card with a higher balance improves your score but don't see my score getting approved for any decent cards.  I owned up to my mistakes and it certainly sucks paying the price.  

Message 1 of 7
6 REPLIES 6
vish1
Valued Contributor

Re: credit repair

 


@Anonymous wrote:

Hello All,

 

I began repairing my credit about a year ago.  After graduating from college, I went skiing and decided not to pay any of my student loans which are only to the tune of about 15k.  It was a great plan until I applied for an auto loan.  I have a rogue cell phone bill from verizon on my credit report.  I went into rehabilitation with direct loans and have recently (within the past week) been placed back into good standing.  I got an auto loan last october with unbelievably high interest rate and opened a secured Capital One card with a balance of 200 bucks in November.  I haven't missed a payment and have been paying in full on my credit card.  Well, the first month i left exactly 25% of my limit on card after I read an article.  I've been paying 80 bucks a month to a company called Credit Unlimited to get my report "cleaned up." They haven't been really doing anything besides not answering the phone when i call.  I thought there services would help to get rid of verizon and consolidate the nonsense that is random school loans that are now reporting as one under direct loans. I began with a score of 515 and now have a score of 620 across the board with the three bureaus.  I've hit an emotional wall with repairing my credit.  Any suggestions to keep my morale up...also, I've read about opening another card with a higher balance improves your score but don't see my score getting approved for any decent cards.  I owned up to my mistakes and it certainly sucks paying the price.  


 

At this point, I will wait for another few months to let the card age a bit and then open a store card like JCP/GEMB which can grow in CL to abt 1.5 k very fast (as fast as in 6 months).

In addition to this, 25% balance is high, u may want to keep it lower if possible.

Citi Hilton Reserve 22.3K | Citi Thank You 8.2K | CSP 15.5K | Chase Freedom 10K | Chase BA 15K | Chase United 8.5K | Chase Marriott 5K | Discover IT 9K | Club Carlson 13K | Amex SPG 20K | BofA Cash Rewards 11K | BofA Cash Rewards 50K
Message 2 of 7
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: credit repair

 


@Anonymous wrote:

Hello All,

 

I began repairing my credit about a year ago.  After graduating from college, I went skiing and decided not to pay any of my student loans which are only to the tune of about 15k.  It was a great plan until I applied for an auto loan.  I have a rogue cell phone bill from verizon on my credit report.  I went into rehabilitation with direct loans and have recently (within the past week) been placed back into good standing.  I got an auto loan last october with unbelievably high interest rate and opened a secured Capital One card with a balance of 200 bucks in November.  I haven't missed a payment and have been paying in full on my credit card.  Well, the first month i left exactly 25% of my limit on card after I read an article.  I've been paying 80 bucks a month to a company called Credit Unlimited to get my report "cleaned up." They haven't been really doing anything besides not answering the phone when i call.  I thought there services would help to get rid of verizon and consolidate the nonsense that is random school loans that are now reporting as one under direct loans. I began with a score of 515 and now have a score of 620 across the board with the three bureaus.  I've hit an emotional wall with repairing my credit.  Any suggestions to keep my morale up...also, I've read about opening another card with a higher balance improves your score but don't see my score getting approved for any decent cards.  I owned up to my mistakes and it certainly sucks paying the price.  


Stop paying these people immediately.  They won't do anything to help you.  Search the Credit Repair forum for ways to deal with the negatives on your report yourself.

 

Message 3 of 7
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: credit repair

Hi trickydicknixon. Welcome to the FICO Forums!

 


@Anonymous wrote:

Hello All,

 

I began repairing my credit about a year ago.  After graduating from college, I went skiing and decided not to pay any of my student loans which are only to the tune of about 15k.  It was a great plan until I applied for an auto loan.  I have a rogue cell phone bill from verizon on my credit report.  I went into rehabilitation with direct loans and have recently (within the past week) been placed back into good standing.  I got an auto loan last october with unbelievably high interest rate and opened a secured Capital One card with a balance of 200 bucks in November.  I haven't missed a payment and have been paying in full on my credit card.  Well, the first month i left exactly 25% of my limit on card after I read an article.  I've been paying 80 bucks a month to a company called Credit Unlimited to get my report "cleaned up." They haven't been really doing anything besides not answering the phone when i call.  I thought there services would help to get rid of verizon and consolidate the nonsense that is random school loans that are now reporting as one under direct loans. I began with a score of 515 and now have a score of 620 across the board with the three bureaus.  I've hit an emotional wall with repairing my credit.  Any suggestions to keep my morale up...also, I've read about opening another card with a higher balance improves your score but don't see my score getting approved for any decent cards.  I owned up to my mistakes and it certainly sucks paying the price.  


First things first-- You really don't need to use those unethical, and all-too-often harmful (to both your credit & your bottom line) "credit repair" companies. The phrase, "anything you can do I can do better" comes to mind, but the fact of the matter is that they frequently do things that you shouldn't & wouldn't do, and YOU can do what's ethical & most helpful for free. They rarely do anything other than submit repeated disputes, that will probably be ignored by the CRAs, and to the detriment of your rebuilding efforts. My two cents on the matter is to cut your losses where they are, and get rid of that company. Take a trip over to our exceedingly helpful Rebuilding Forum, kick your feet up and do some reading. Then, start asking any specific questions that you have.

 

Leaving 25% of your credit limit unused (75% utilization) is very near to being "maxed out" and detrimental to your credit score. Ideally, you always want to pay in full so that you don't spend your hard earned $$ on interest. And, some people find (depending on your overall credit profile, so you may have to tweak things a little) that letting a balance of 1 to 9% of your credit limit report on 1 card maximizes the utilization points in FICO scoring. To do this, you can use your card as much as you want, up to the credit limit, but you have to be aware of when (often the statement date, or a specific day of each month) the lender reports to the credit bureaus. You pay by the due date & before the statement cuts, leave a small balance (1 to 9% of your credit line), let the balance report, then immediately pay in full.

 

Where did you get your scores from? I ask, because consumers are no longer able to purchase their Experian FICO scores (not since February '09), so unless it came from a mortgage app, or PSECU, then it's most likely what we call a FAKO (non-FICO consumer credit scores that are rarely used by lenders). FAKO scores have no correlation to your actual FICO scores.

Message 4 of 7
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: credit repair

I do have a question about credit repair.  I went through some bad time with a divorce and had some things really negatively effect my credit.  This was 4 years ago.  I dont have the time to work on my credit myself because I work 2 jobs and dont really understand the credit system.  I know if I pay my bills I will be ok, but the negative stuff I have no clue how to handle.  What is weird is when I search the internet I find information like:  credit repair companies NOT helping people and often some media outlets critisizing them calling ALL of them a scam.  But then in the same article it says I can repair my credit myself?? 

 

This makes no sense.  Isnt credit repair a service?  If I can repair credit myself, then why cant a company do it for me?  I signed up with a company last year and they removed almost all of my negative items, helped me settle on some misc. debts, educated me a little bit, then helped me remove the paid off misc collections after I settled.  Right now I am in good shape.  I know there are a lot of shady people in this world, in every industry, but I am uncertain of why the credit bureaus and other media outlets do not support any credit repair companies?   Im not the smartest guy in the world but I think the conflicting information is intentional or something because it just doesnt make any sense.  Please reply

James 

Message 5 of 7
llecs
Moderator Emeritus

Re: credit repair

There are companies that can do it for you. The beef that many of us have is that these companies just do blanket disputes whether the debt or reporting was valid or not (ethics or legality be darned). Then they charge you a fee to do it (you can do the same for free yourself if you really wanted to) and their results are never guaranteed. Unfortunately many don't realize that a dispute can cause many things to happen to your credit. One of the bigger dangers is that the collection agency or creditor will wake up. Collection activity will increase and if inside SOL, then they odds of being sued (even if successfully deleted) go up tremendously. Early in my dark credit days, I did the same thing and regretted it for a number of reasons with a threat of lawsuits being one.

 

Aside from the questionable methods used by these firms, there are steps that anyone can take to get it legitimately removed without disputing and certainly without spending money on a service. Check out the Rebuilding Your Credit board and the stickies therein for more information. Using legit methods like described in these forums will result in a cleaner report without spending hundreds of dollars. Besides, we're free. And I do want to be clear that this isn't a credit repair group or organization. Just a few of us had problems in the past and found ways to get it removed via sending the right letters or saying the right things.

Message 6 of 7
docwise24
New Visitor

Re: credit repair

Trickydicknixon,

 

Credit Repair doesn't need to be as hard as you are making it. I have done all my own credit repair for years. Seriously I learned it all from a little book I bought at Barnes and Noble like 12 years ago for $5.99. Everything these companies do you can do and usually you can do better. I do know of some good compaines who get stuff done but we can't discuss that here.

 

First things first, stop paying people money to do what you can. That money is better spent on bills or even better in your savings account. My biggest piece of advice is call a mortgage broker. Sure they are going to run your credit but they also will run your credit score through a simulator and they will tell you exactly what to do to raise your score in the fastest way possible. These professionals do this all the time for my Real Estate clients and it works. Negative items will eventually follow off but the current financial picture is the biggest part. Just make sure you use a local mortgage broker as you wont get these services from large institutions such Wells Fargo.

 

I hope this helped.

 

mod cut-remove website address

 

 

Message 7 of 7
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