New Here looking for advice and support!

[sswt4]

Hi everyone. First, a little background on me. Sorry for the length!

I had a very rough patch over the past few years. My son's father was a drug addict. I left in 2005. During the course of living with each other, he stole all of my personal information and his 'other' GF used it. They had phone, cable, credit cards, and an apartment in my name. All this action on my credit began happening about 8 years ago. I was unaware of the situation until I applied for a car loan and I had 4 pages of negatives and a credit score of 418. All I could do was cry and I let it sit.

In 2010, i perked up and realized that I should fight all the negatives. It dropped a little over 2/3 of them. There is now a fraud alert on my credit reports. 

This past month, my sister and I talked about buying a home together. I saw a realtor and found out my scores increased to 565/550/559. Talk about a nice increase, but still very far away from what I need. 

Current collections:

I pulled up my report and I still had a few negatives. Some popped up with dates from 2007-2010. I am trying to get these cleared from my name. Last week, 2 have agreed to have the collections deleted and throw away the collection (in writing!). One of them was a $914 collection from 2010. The other was a $71 collection from 2009. I am now left with 4 minor ones - $256, $56, $75, $75.

Current loans:

I am also a F/T Student and employed F/T. My student loans are @ $22,000 and will be deferred until I graduate (and rise for that matter). I also have 2 small personal loans that were paid off with no lates.

Current Credit Cards:

I have 3 credit cards. 

Limit - 500  Bal - 370 (made a payment of 100 today)

Limit - 300  Bal - 110 (made a payment of 90 today)

LImit - 300 Bal - 211  (made a payment of 100 today)

I have 4 recent inquiries:

Mortgage 6/12

Student Loan 8/11

Merrick Bank 6/12

JC Penny  11/11

I did have a 3 month late pay in summer 2011  and a 1 month late in Feb 2012 on one card.

So, what is left for me to do? I would really like to push my score to at least a 640 (first goal). For the first time, I am anxious. How long for the 2 promised deletions to disappear? What would be the best balances to maintain on my cards? Is there anything else I can do to help improve my score? Or will I have to wait a few more years for another large bump?

I appreciate all advice you can offer. Thanks!

[RobertEG]

The FCRA provides specific procedures for getting information related to fraud or identity theft blocked from your CR, and for obtaining information from the creditor about the unauthorized transactions.  See, for example, FCRA 605B and 609(e).  A fraud alert does not address CR deletion.

A prerequisite for taking such actions is your filing of a police report,  thus putting your allegations into a sworn statement before a law enforcement agency.

Are you willing to take that step?

[sswt4]

Hi, RobertEG,

I was not aware that there were certain procedures to have items deleted. I have contacted the creditors and explained the situation and they took them off. I asked for documentation and the majority did not have anything. The same applies for the two that were coming off this week.

Of course I contacted the police department about everything that was going on at the time, however they did not take any report. In fact, they made my 1 year old son and I leave our home for the night without our possesions after he beat me for finding questioning a cable bill I found in my name. Not only was my information stolen from me, my bank account was cleared out, and my great-grandmothers jewlery was at the pawn shop.

I was 23 with no help; no help even from the people that were sworn to serve and protect. Would I file with the police? Yes. Was I able to? No. I didn't know what my rights were at the time. So I ran, not looking back. Now I am just trying to make my past that he created disappear. No new charges have come up since 2010.

There is no police report on file. Would I still be able to file a report now, even after all these years? Would I have to file in the town where I lived? It was in Allentown, PA. I now reside in Little Falls, NJ. It's a 2-3 hour drive.

Was it wrong to ask for proof of debt and let the collectors know what really happened? I can't see how it's wrong since it's the truth. They never asked for a police report.

Thank you very much for your reply.