New Here. Need All The Help I Can Get. 418/401/389

[Anonymous]

Hey guys and gals. Long time lurker. First time poster. After some absolutely horrific financial decisions/situations I’ve placed myself in/life has thrown at me, I’m currently at a TU 418, EQ 401, and EX 389. I have started the very early stages of the DIY credit repair process after watching hundreds of YouTube videos, reading hundreds of pages of forums, and purchssing a couple highly recommended guides. I’ve submitted address corrections with all bureaus, places freezes on the big 3 as well as ARS, LexisNexis, Corelogics, SageStream, Innovis, and a couple others. I’ve also placed freezes with ChexSystems, TeleCheck, and Early Warning. I’m going to wait 30 days from the date of the freeze to send my first round of Dispute letters and inquiry disputes while simultaneously send validation letters to the debt collectors. 

I have 2 repossessions (one from 4 years ago and one from 2 years ago), I have a myriad of collections accounts (around a dozen), as well as a handful of chargeoffs/closed accounts. I don’t want to file for bankruptcy as I think with all the tools available to me, I can make some progress in the next year or two. I have one secured card that shows a 30 days late notice from last month as someone got my card number and there’s an ongoing dispute and I’m hoping the credit department will correct that notice once the dispute is over on the next statement. 

Once I start the dispute process, I plan on opening up a few tradelines and/or more secured cards. Any opinions or knowledge on which of the following or all of the following I should open would be immensely helpful:

Fingerhut

Hutton Chase

Ox Publishing

Online Jewelry Store

My Jeweler’s Club

New Coast Direct

Self lender

Credit Strong

[LakeLife]

Good luck on your rebuild.  Slow and steady wins the race.  

[simplegirl]

Since you mentioned bankruptcy I feel you have too many accounts to be fixed to apply for anymore. Your scores are low so I’m not sure you would be approved for any of them and most of all are installment type revolving credit and you have two repos to deal with. I would work on Debts first and if you list them the forum can help you tackle them. Then I would apply for new credit or go for something that doesn’t pull your reports like opensky or greendot.

[Anonymous]

Thank you to all for your replies so far. I’m going for the route of disputing everything for validity for a few rounds to see what falls off. What’s left, I will slowly work through some pay for deletes. Anyone have any opinion on other than a couple secured cards, which of these should I open, as all of them are guaranteed approvals:

*Fingerhut

*Hutton Chase

*Ox Publishing

*Online Jewelry Store

*My Jeweler’s Club

*New Coast Direct

*Self lender *Credit Strong

[Anonymous]

With the exception of opening new accounts just yet, I agree with your plan. Normally just disputing everything isn’t a good plan because anything that comes back validated is essentially refreshed as a newer debt in terms of scoring and can cost you points. With so many negatives right now, I agree with you and say go for it - you may get lucky and have some fall off, which will give your scores a boost. If they come back validated it’s not going to hurt much at this point.

Please list each negative you have though, who the original creditor is, who currently owns the debt if not the OC, the limit on the account as well as what is owed, and the date of first delinquency (this is the earliest date from which the account went behind and never recovered). You can do a free report pull from www.annualcreditreport.com once every 12 months and you’ll find the DoFD listed there.

There is a tremendous amount of earned wisdom and experience on this forum and we can likely tell you which of your creditors are easy to work with, who might delete derogatory entries in exchange for payment, who is a straight up PITA, and which debts to tackle first.

Clean house now, then when you’ve boosted your scores as a result, start looking for new accounts. Your approval odds and starting limits will be far better as a result. Right now you’re far better served using your money to pay old debts than to secure new tradelines. Trust me, it’ll make a big difference later on when it’s time to start building.

[Remedios]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you to all for your replies so far. I’m going for the route of disputing everything for validity for a few rounds to see what falls off. What’s left, I will slowly work through some pay for deletes. Anyone have any opinion on other than a couple secured cards, which of these should I open, as all of them are guaranteed approvals:

*Fingerhut

*Hutton Chase

*Ox Publishing

*Online Jewelry Store

*My Jeweler’s Club

*New Coast Direct

*Self lender *Credit Strong

---

Hi and welcome to the forums 

You do not need new credit at this time. I understand it's necessary for rebuilding  but you have too much going on to start paying deposits, fees etc.That money should be put towards paying your existing debt. 

You're also about to engage in disputing accurate info. It does not work like that. 

Rebuilding your credit will not happen via disputes and seeing " what falls off". It's a lot of hard work and it starts with repayment. Without that aspect, there is no lesson learned. 

Also, I am not sure how a CC fraud caused late payment. A minimum payment would have been sufficient to prevent it while fraud investigation was going on, and those do not take 30 days. 

Work on negatives the right way, then start adding accounts. With everything you have on your CR right now, I am very doubtful it would make any significant difference. 

[calyx]

+1 to those above about not opening new tradelines at this time.   You need to get a handle on your credit report/finances and get things cleaned up a bit first.    I think this especially true with some of the "pay for tradeline" accounts you have listed as possibilities - why pay $99/year for a tradeline, when you can use that to settle accounts?

If you list out your accounts with the amounts, people here can help you figure out the best course of action.  A number of collection agencies entertain pay for deletes, and getting those low-hanging fruit out of your way will help get your rebuild going faster.

Issues filing false disputes aside - filing disputes on everything, particularly correct information, can actually hurt you in the long run.  It will be more difficult to file valid disputes regarding actual incorrect information later.

[Anonymous]

https://www.selflender.com

When you get a moment, take a look at selflender. (if someone has already mentioned this in their reply, its worth repeating when you consider the benefits from a building standpoint).  I want to give you some suggestions that worked for me.  A lot of my problems with credit rebuilding - and I am not where I want to be - can be attributed to my "processes" (spending on the wrong things v paying down debt etc); fortunately, my processes are far better than they were a year ago. So, look at your processes and ask yourself; "are my processes - my behaviors consistent with the credit goals that I have established for myself?"  This is essential.   A 30 day late on a secured card is a personal red flag that should force you to take a step back and look at your process.

Now, I agree that bankruptcy at this point may not be the way to go; for one, its giving up. But, in reality, it is not always tantamount to giving up; sometimes bankruptcy is just a strategy to reset. If your situation is worse than you disclosed, then maybe bankruptcy is an option; repos, chargeoffs and few collection may not meet the requirement for bankruptcy. I don't know.

Disputing things that are accurate - not to suggest that you would - is a potentially losing strategy.  Just as another responder suggested, it could backfire by resetting the time on a bad item.  Here are my ideas:

* Write out your plan/goals/time lines . -  (what score do you want? when? how will you do it? what if you don't?)

* Set aside some time during the day that you will devote to your credit rebuild strategy (Name it "Project 600, 700" or whateve score goal you have) . I named mine "Project 550" and kept changing it, "Project 600" and so on..  It made me become more entrenched in an evolving process.  A real process.  So, create your narrative so that you can come back here and share.

* Create files for correspondence w/ creditors/collection agencies

* offer pay-for-deletes with collection agencies - fight them; if they don't play fair, complain to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

 https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/getting-started/ - you would not believe how fast agencies move when they get a complain filed with this bureau! 

* look for inquiries that are greater than 2 years on your credit file - get them removed

* invest in 1-2 Credit bureau memberships (MyFico/Experian) and use the benefits like you are here

* Dispute online; no need to send letters; Equifax can be a mess - have no idea what their story is. Experian is fast, efficient

* Fingerhut increases CL w usage and nice pay history

* open Self Lender

* manage inquiries

* consider becoming an authorize user 

* track your progress; take baby steps; adjust when necessary

Read James Clear's,  Atomic Habits

Good luck!

[KJinNC]

(Mod cut-you know its not allowed yet you advocate it anyway)  Be aware that this board is owned and operated by FICO and has an ethos against disputing accurate information. Asking a creditor to verify a debt is not a lie, and some percentage of the time (much more than 0%), they don't bother doing it. There are types of companies and related topics we are not supposed to discuss here but you can find that information elsewhere. If you don't want to go the bankruptcy route, that is probably your best avenue at this point IMO.

That said, I agree that new accounts at this time would probably not be the best use of resources, time or mental energy.

[DIYcredit]

Disputing every negative item will not get rid of them weather disputing accurate information is right or wrong.The only way I think you can fix this situation and avoid bankruptcy is make a plan of action to pay everything back as agreed.If you are not financially able to their are hardship programs with each lender and their is also debt management programs.In the meanwhile when your secured cc is squared way use it to charge something small like putting gas in your car,do this monthly, pay every month as agreed.When I had my financial difficulties and the only two choices I had was either  bankruptcy or a dmp.I chose the dmp.I paid all the cc debt, I had numerius lates and collections. It took years to fix everything.I still made one small charge every month on the one open cc that I still had open and I learned to live within my means again.GOOD LUCK...