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Credit repair starting place

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Credit repair starting place

Well,

I am MOSTLY posting my information here so that I do not MESS UP my credit score worse than where I am at now. The goal is to improve score, clean-up any old issues that are bogus, remove unauthorized inquiries, and challenge a few errors on bigger issues.

 

CURRENT STATUS: 

EXPERIAN: 573

EQUIFAX: 544

TRANSUNION: 563

 

-Inquiries: up to 21 on record (hard pulls) - many are unauthorized as someone transferred my name to a credit pool for a car loan last year.

Public Records:

-1 bankruptcy; with 3 versions of the filing date, and 2 versions on the case #,

-and 1 judgement for <$800 for a car sale transaction that was bogus (guy said it did not run properly after I sold it as-is-- I did NOT go to court since it was 4-states away and would have cost more than the judgement). 

 

Errors: 

-I had a foreclosure with my bankruptcy.. however, 1 report (EQUIFAX) still show that as an active loan, showing I have $141K balance that does not exist (foreclosure in 2005).

-4 collection accounts; of which 2 are petty and related to not receiving mail after a move ($40 fee from the trash collection service). The other for $44 from a dentist who did not send the full requisition to the insurance agency for payment...and sent the invoice to old address.

 

PLAN: 

I think that that above issues are pretty straight forward; try to challenge any errors, to improve the situation. See if I can remedy the collection accounts by challenging first with credit bureau and second with the collection company if no luck with the first (small change to get those fixed).  I will probably challenge the judgement, and likely that person will not dispute the case; could also disclose the errors in the case # and see if they will remove after non-response, however I assume it is public record. The bankruptcy information listed in incorrect, and I will dispute the errors within it. Doubt much will happen with those, but the errors need corrected (dates, and the case number issue). 

 

NOW, the part I need advice; I have had credit counseling (they did not follow thru with any repair) and they disclosed that I did NOT want to simply go through and remove or even challenge old accounts- even some with late pays (if closed and paid as agreed). What is the best advice here to use when cleaning up old accounts?

 

Thanks guys, any advice is appreciated.

Message 1 of 4
3 REPLIES 3
LIGHTNIN
Senior Contributor

Re: Credit repair starting place

Welcome to the forums,

 

Where did you get your credit scores?

There is a difference between FICO's and non-FICO's (which we call FAKO's). Most lendes use FICO scores.They are only available in a few places,one of them being here.To save a little money, myFICO offers discounts every now and then, just google "myfico discount code"

 

Credit repair does take time,so read,learn and ask questions before doing anything. We have all made mistakes by trying to do things too fast,before we totally understand what can happen.My mistake when I first started was....I was trying to have a few lates removed from a account to raise my FICO score, so instead they deleted the whole thing and it was my oldest account and my FICO was lowered.Smiley Sad

 

As far as bankruptcy,foreclosure the judgment questions, others will have to help you.

For the collections, you would need to know your DOFD and where you stand legally with your states SOL.

Reading What Steps DoI Take?DV?PFD? it goes into great detail about collections.You may use the link below.

Check out the common abbreviations so you know what we are talking about. lol  Freq Req Threads also has some valuable info too.

 

I would start with Credit Scoring 101, just the 1st post is OK. Have a fun time reading and learning.Smiley Wink

FICO's May 2015 EQ764 ~~Live below your means and always keep an emergency fund -Love Everybody ~ Big Kenny ~ Big and Rich ~~~~~Credit Scoring 101 - Common Abbreviations - Freq Req Threads - Free Credit Reports - What Steps Do I Take?DV? PFD?
Message 2 of 4
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Credit repair starting place

Well LIGHTNIN, I knew there was a reason for coming here! Thanks for the helpful info.. 

 

I have now received my 2-FICO (NOT FAKO)

and found the folllowing: 

 

Equifax: 588

Transunion: 652

Experien: could not access, but saw that they now feature scores on their site for a special starting price of $1.00 - I am awaiting a code in the mail though.

 

How important is the Experian score?

 

Is the experian score typically higher or lower than the others? 

 

I will heed your main advice, which is to ASK before doing anything here... 

 

THEREFORE, 

 

STEP #1.) I have TOO MANY hard-inquiries from about 1-year ago when shopping for a car loan. I have near 20 listed on each report (one has lower). I could say that honestly only THREE were authorized, the others were due to my info being passed around by one of the dealerships trying to make a sale by locating financing.

 

Is there ANYTHING AT ALL That I need to know about removing inquiries before I proceed with removal requests?

 

I MUST TOO admit that I tried personal credit repair 7-years ago, and had the same issue occur where I had the WRONG thing deleted, and the a few bad ones still remained. Oops, I learned by repair lesson, learned how to protect my credit these past few years (with exception to LEGIT errors that I need to correct now).

 

Thanks guys!

Message 3 of 4
leah5570
Frequent Contributor

Re: Credit repair starting place

For now if you're looking at repair you really won't need your scores. Just take the three credit reports, lay them next to each other, and begin marking the ones that have wrong information, etc. What's in the reports dicates the score.

 

For me, when my husband and I had our report pulled from a mortgage lender, I noticed there was the same info on our Exp and our Equifax. Also the lender pulled scores were exactly the same for EX and Equ. So now when I look at our Equifax and experian reports, and both have the exact same info, then I "guess" both the scores are relatively the same, like they were last year. Just for guessing I do that to know we have two out of three for my husband safely above the 670 line.


EQ. Starting Score 08/19/12: 545
EQ. Current Score 09/02/13: 611
Goal Score: 700


Take the FICO Fitness Challenge

The effects of waking a sleeping giant...
Message 4 of 4
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