Greetings BigDLight!!
Welcome to the forums! I am going to try & address each issue below, but let me just say...read, read, read before you spend ANY money or talk with anyone on the phone...especially a collection agency!!!
@Anonymous wrote:Ok I started out 6 months ago trying to repair my credit. I am using the Equifax service. I have gone from a 471 to 617. Using EQ is fine, totally a matter of preference. I use it too.
Apparently I have to actually Join each site Ex/Eq/transunion to actually get anything changed. NO...you don't! You do not have to subscribe to any of the 3 to do this...ever! ( wish I'd know that from the start.)
Ok once I started paying off my past problems. Its seem like creditors actual called each other saying hey he has cash send him everything you can. What have you been paying off??
I have stuff from the year 2000. Is their not a statue of limitations. Yes...if these are old, unpaid bills, there is an SOL on how long they have to sue for payment, and there is also the CRTP that must be abided by! I will address this below. *if you don't understand the abbreviations, go to the link in my sig block & keep it handy!!
I am in California. I have read if I even talk to any of these guys they can just change the date to make it start from today so I will never get out. WRONG!!! That is illegal.
I paid my Tax lien off first at almost $7000.00 Equifax just said too bad it does not matter if its $50 or $7000 Tax lien its not Manditory for us to take anything off nor is it Manditory for FICO to do so either. Someone more versed in tax liens will have to address this, as far as getting it dropped off...BUT...to clear up a couple things, Equifax is a "Credit Reporting Agency" (they have to post the information sent to them by your creditors) and FICO is a scoring system. Two entirely different animals!!
So can someone please Explain the " GAME" to me what to do with old stuff, who to talk too, whom not to talk too. I am and have been trying to repair but Honestly that's is the last thing that the Credit companies seem to want. If I screwed up it down 50 points if I fix it its up 2 points....I recently signed and paid on time an agreement with a Golf company for instruction. It was so I could have them report on time payments for 6 months to help my credit. They were like you can't report that only the Company can. They keep saying sorry we never received it..........So I am listening and trying to do the work. I need some help here...
Now, to try and explain the "game".... I will post some info in a few minutes. I'm at work & have a couple things to attend to. What I will say is this, if you have not done this yet...you are entitled to a free report from all 3 Credit Reporting Agencies once every 12 months.<--- By LAW! The link for the annual credit report site is in my sig block. You mentioned "joining each site". If you have already done this & have a current credit report directly from all 3, that's cool & don't go to my suggested link. Save those freebies for down the road.
Get all those together & post some info here....don't worry about the bad stuff being aired out here. We've all had BK's, collections...repo's...you name it. We've all screwed up and we judge no one! So...let us know: (among all the baddies)
WHO is the creditor?
Is this paid in full?
DOFD: *on equifax this date will be listed in the block for "date of first delinquency". <--this is THE most important date you will need to tell us, Bar None!!
Is this acct a CO? (charge off) or is it still with the OC? (original creditor)
In those accts you post, let us know if this is one that you mentioned as "paying off your past problems"
That's enough to keep ya busy for a minute! 
I'll be back!!
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you so much I will get to work. I paid off my Car with wells fargo in March, a few 30 days late.
I paid off my previous Car Capitol one with a few 90 days I understand I can't do anything about them.
Open accounts T-mobile paid off,
ATT paid off,,
Direct TV Paid off,
Primex Medical Paid off,
Verizon Paid off,
Vidoeits paid off
.And my Tax Lien paid off.
These have been updated and or removed from my Equifax report. Are all those either gone or reporting in your POSITIVES??
Now I am Trying to get the same from the other 2.Who are the other 2??
I will take a look at all of the credit letters I have received and cross reference those against my reports and get the ( start dates ) this week. I have now accumulate at least a 6 inche stack of Papers/Faxes/Reports. I will also look at the abbreviations so I understand what I am looking at/for. And again Thank you....
Oh, I totally understand the big stacks! If it's any help, I keep manila folders. I have one for each of the 3 CRA's. Those have my report print outs & any scores. Stacked in there, oldest to newest.
I have another folder just for the Dep of Edu that has been a Nightmare of the worst kind! Still a baddie but they can kiss my grits!
And finally, a folder labeled "all 3". This has my mortgage LO credit pulls, one side has my GW results that worked, the other side has GW results that didn't work.
I hear ya Gotons...everyone has their own system that works for them. I guess I use the folders because I can keep all correspondance in there. Mainly their letters to ME!