New Guy Help

[Anonymous]

Hello all, I am the new new guy and like Thousands of others, I am requesting some help/guidance.  I will put them in numbered question format to help with the most appreciated responses. I want to try and get a mortage next year and I want to bring this guy up as much as I can.

1.) Where is the most reliable place to pull my credit report/reports. ( I have used free annual credit site, but thats a once a year deal and I misplaced my scores papers)

2.) Is there a link to all these terms users are using? ( EX. GFW CR, CRA, etc etc)?

3.) I have a few collections accounts,charge offs, and one judgement. From when I was younger I would like to do something to get rid of those. Will paid judgements raise my credit score?

4.) What are some of the first steps you guys recommend?

Thanks for this community and all help will be appreciated. 

God Bless

[llecs]

Welcome to the forums!

I'd suggest reading the following:

Common Abbreviations

Credit Scoring 101 - great for knowing what is in your credit score and to see how your score is impacted.

What Steps Do I Take - great for learning the repair process.

and Example letters - PFDs, GWs, DVs, etc.

Aside from annualcreditreport, I also recommend purchasing them directly from the CRAs if you haven't used the freebies in a while. I also recommend subscribing to a credit monitoring service. This is critical, IMO, during repair in that you can pull all 3 reports frequently and get an idea of what is reporting and what is not reporting. It's also a lot cheaper than buying reports at $33/pop for all 3. As with 99% of the services out there, ignore the scores and advice as they are not FICO-related. As you see changes occur and want to know the score impact, then selectively target your FICO report pulls from in here based around those changes.

Paying a judgment will not improve your FICO score, though its removal can. Some in here have been successful in having it removed via contacting the plaintiff's attorney, paying them, and then asking them to vacate with the court and that can get it removed.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply, is there a recommended or widely used credit report monitoring service that you or others suggest?

[llecs]

Check the below link out:

Credit Monitoring Service (CMS) Guide

Some CMSs allow you to pull daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly. There's a wide variety to choose from based on budget, needs, etc. The fan favorite on here was USAA's CMS. Anyone can join but they recently more than doubled the price if you still want to pull your reports daily. EliminateIDtheft still does daily as well.

[Anonymous]

You are awesome, thanks for the help.

[Shogun]

Hello and welcome to the forums.  llecs is pretty awesome huh?    After your done reading all that, we welcome you to jump in and chat with us and see if there's anything you can learn from us.  Then again, maybe there's something we can learn from you.  Welcome to the family!