HELP rebuilding credit !!

[Penister1983]

I NEVER realized how my credit would impact my life......until NOW ! I'm a 29 year old single mom of three, and I have finally decided to work on EVERY aspect of me. I have a Equifax Fico of only 572, and a Transunion Vantage score of 596. I applied for a ton of credit cards (JCP, Old Navy, Dillards) throughout college (2001-2003) and got instant approval on almost all of them due to my mom having me as an authorized user on her cc's. I used them for a while, made the minimum payment, and just stopped paying all together (Young & Dumb, I know)  Long story short, I need ANY & ALL help/tips on rebuilding my credit. I currently have NO cc's. The SOL of 7 years passed on all the ones I obtained while in college , so they are no longer being reported on my credit report. My credit report includes the following: 2 student loans ($1400 & $2900) that I pay each month(dating back from 2001 that had been deferred;late payments,but non in the last 3 years), I took out a collateral loan against my truck (only for $2500) just to build up a payment history, an old phone bill of $496 that will be removed as of next month, an Entergy account that was a charge off that I paid, a directv bill of $295, and 4 medical collections, but I just paid off one of them.........WHAT DO I DO NEXT ???? I am soooooo LOST ! PLEASE HELP !!

[cookiebird]

Congrats on being ready to rebuild. I wish I had done this at 29 and not 38!  It just seemed so HUGE before I found this forum.

What I found to be the easiest way for me to tackle it was pulling all of my reports. Then I made a list of all the baddies and collections for each report.  I sent DV letters to all my collection accounts and then started to work at paying them the most recent ones first. I only started this on May 16th and have had a 22 point increase on my EQ so far!  Tips I found to be helpful for medical is to try and pay the OC first!  I had 3 medical with NCO. I sent NCO the DV letter then contacted the OC and paid in full. NCO then sent me a letter that they are removing all my CA's from my report. I had 11 collection accounts when I started this. Paying the OC directly also worked for my T-mobile bill. That collection is gone as well now. Then I had a few CA's that just sent letters back to me that they were removing.  Some because they were too old and should not have been reporting anyway.

You could try to GW the student loans and see if they will remove the late payments. Especially since you have been paying on time for 3 years.Also. anything on your credit that is bad (collection or charge off) that is paid you could try and GW.

[cwwatts1202]

This may be inappropriate, but when I began working on my husbands credit in October 2011, I disputed about 4-5 medical bills on his report that were all 5+ years old. We have been together 10 years in November and I recall him going to the ER twice. These bills were not in the time period that he went to the ER and he had insurance when he went, and once was workman's comp. Him and his dad have the same name, so I figured they were his dad's (several things of his dads have wound up on his report, but I also dont recall his dad going to the ER either so idk) so I disputed them with EQ and they were removed within like 2 weeks. It was fast. I dont know if they actually investigated and foud they werent my husbads or what, but they were removed so if it's outside the SOL try disputing them. The medical collections were the only thing I was able to get off his report by disputing.

[Penister1983]

Thanks so much ! I actually paid a couple of bills directly to the CA and then disputed, and they removed them from my credit reports. I now need a revolving account.....so I'm thinking about obtaining a secured card.