@Anonymous wrote:
So i have really bad credit due to no history of credit Nd unpaid account at a local credit union (wsecu) its at 156 as of today and i want a CC to start paying off bills and build my credit up. Any suggestions??? TIA!
Aside from the scoring issues, you're looking for advice on how to rebuild your credit. If it is just the one unpaid account, then you might not be in terrible shape and a low score could the a result of the thinness of your file. I would start by pulling your free credit reports and identify any other delinquincies. It makes a difference if the unpaid is ongoing and how many days late it is.
One of the other things you are going to have to do is to actually get a credit card. My ordinary advice would be to go to your credit union and apply for one. However, since you have an unpaid account with them, this might not fly. Your next bet is to look at secured cards and store cards. It is hard to recommend a secured card without knowing what your true FICO scores are, but BofA, Discover, and CapOne all have secured offerings. I would stay away from CapOne and First Premier if I could avoid them. However, Merrick might also be beneficial for you. After picking up one or two secured cards (or maybe getting an unsecured, $500 or lower limit card from your CU), you can try the SCT for another card or two. Your goal with those cards is just to have them open and aging. Maybe drive something very inexpensive through them once every couple of months. Getting those first couple of cards should allow your file to thicken and start pushing back against the unpaid account.
Finally, I would head over to the Rebuilding Your Credit forum. They are much more knowledgeable about this sort of thing that we are. They are probably going to recommend you start working on getting the delinquincy off of your reports, but will have better advice than I do on how to accomplish it.
