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Hello everyone!
Quick summary I am a mid-20 year old who graduated from college 4 years ago, I am currently in professional management, and I never really paid any attention to my credit score, Big surprise! So I had a credit card while in college. I got screwed by a school that I was taking summers courses with. They said that my financial aid paperwork came in too late... I think they lost it... long story short I had to out of pocket 1 semester of undergraduate work since I couldn't prove that I sent it in on time. I ended up putting it on my credit card since I had no other options. I ended up having this card go to collections since I had no form of income coming in while in college. On to after graduating from college... the job I got after graduating didn't really allow me a lot of spare room. By the time I got the job I am currently at I had defaulted on my student loans. Now on to the situation I am currently at! I spoke with the collections agency that held my credit card debt and I negotiated a lower price to pay in full. That debt is taken care of. I am currently in process of repaying my student loan debt. They have a big "rehabilitation period" you have to go through with the collections agency by paying on time before it gets to the loan originator. I went to apply for a dental loan a couple months ago with Care Credit and they said they had to deny me for "Serious delq/collection filed, number of delinquent accounts, time since collection item reported, and lack of revolving account information." They said that my credit score was 577. This was as of 4/26 with Trans Union. I told myself that I can do the adult responsible thing and work on my credit score now that I have a job that I am moving quickly up in. A couple days ago I wentto Time Warner Cable to get Internet in my house. I guess they run your credit to see if they should charge you a deposit. I got a letter afterward that my credit score is 139 with Experian. They said it was for 00006 - derogatory medical utility account, 00018 - lack of open service/professional accounts, 00013 - insufficient available credit on revolving accounts, 00004 - recently opened account not current. I don't have a derogatory medical utility account. I didn't open a recent account either. When I went to their website to view the actual things being reported on my credit report nothing was listed about a medical utility account or anything recently opened. I have 5 student loan accounts that were closed when the collections agency bought them. Then I have 5 open student loan accounts once they were transferred back to the loan originator as of earlier this year. I also have the Bank of America credit card that shows it is closed and paid. Nothing else! Does it make any sense that they would give me a 139 credit score? Regardless... what do I do now to get myself where I need to be. I want to get my score in the high 600s or low 700s at minimum. If I am ever to get a house or a personal loan (which I hope I never will need to), I want to have respectable credit. I also work for a company where they will let me reimburse $400+ a month. I am missing out on so many airline points! I applied for a wells fargo credit card a year ago and I was denied. However, recently they sent me stuff saying that I am selected to apply for a card. I don't know if they have some algorithm to determine the amount of cash deposited into an account to get a estimate for preapproval without running someones credit. If my credit score shows up as 139 I know I won't get a credit card.
So my questions:
How do I start with improving my credit score? - Should I get a secured credit card?
What is the derogatory medical utility account that Experian is talking about?
Which company should I use to keep track of the improvement?
Thanks for any advise!
Hi CaliforniaLife,
First, the 139 score is an internal score from TIme warner. Not your actual credit score. Those are as low as 300 and I don't think I have ever seen anyone in the 300s. Trust me, I was close being in the low 400s and it took a lot to get down there. lol
First, pull your FREE reports from annualcreditreport.com. There you can get a true copy of all 3 of your reports. Once you get those, you can start to weight the good and bad cause you will have a true report.
Any past due balances or unpaid collections need to have a PFD letter sent. That is if you can afford to pay those debts.
If everything is paid up, start sending out GW letters.
If you don't have a current credit card right now, I would recommend a secured card. I recommend the US bank card as it is easy to graduate after 12 months of use.
Pull those reports and list the negative items you have and I think we will be able to guide you down the right path.