New kid on the block

Anonymous · ‎12-18-2014

Hello everyone. I've been lurking here for a few weeks trying to come up with an attack plan for repairing mine and my husband's credit. Right now mine is 560 and his is 562. We were able to qualify for Capitol One cards and have paid on time since we've had them. I also have Fingerhut and those payments have been on time as well. The biggest issue we both have are medical bills. I'm disputing a few of those because I believe we had insurance when the bills were issued to us. I have about 8 inquiries on my credit, I didn't realize they were credit killers until a few weeks ago.

Should we settle into our 2 credit cards and start paying off what medical bills we feel are our responsibility or should we try and get another credit account ? I was also wondering how you check your credit monthly. I know the FICO account is about $20. There is no way we could afford that x2.

Thanks so much.

gdale6 · ‎12-18-2014

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello everyone. I've been lurking here for a few weeks trying to come up with an attack plan for repairing mine and my husband's credit. Right now mine is 560 and his is 562. We were able to qualify for Capitol One cards and have paid on time since we've had them. I also have Fingerhut and those payments have been on time as well. The biggest issue we both have are medical bills. I'm disputing a few of those because I believe we had insurance when the bills were issued to us. I have about 8 inquiries on my credit, I didn't realize they were credit killers until a few weeks ago.
Should we settle into our 2 credit cards and start paying off what medical bills we feel are our responsibility or should we try and get another credit account ? I was also wondering how you check your credit monthly. I know the FICO account is about $20. There is no way we could afford that x2.

Thanks so much.

For valid medical bills I would suggest you look into the HIPAA Process it cant be discussed on this board you can Google it. For monitoring I would recommend MPM its I believe 18/mo for a married couple. 8 inquiries is not a lot and they lose their impact on Fico 6 months to 1 yr after they are recorded even though they are on file for 2 yrs.

welcome to the board

Anonymous · ‎12-19-2014

Inquiries are not nearly the 'credit killers' you often hear them described as. Yes they will lower your score - a little - but they are not a major part of your score. For the medical bills - contact the original creditor and try to find out why they were not covered under your insurance. You may be able to get a statement of coverage from your insurance carrier. In some states I think if the provider doesn't bill something to your insurance and they do have your insurance info, they can't hold the bill against you later.

For legitimate bills that you wish to clear, try to negotiate PFD. It seems like a lot of medical collectors will do this (though I've not had luck yet myself). Another strategy you can use is to try wait them out - often they will move it to another collector if there is no action from the first one they use. However the risk here is that if its a fairly large bill there is a risk of them suing you over it. I was sued for a medical bill that was under $600, but YMMV.

If you can't get PFD's or if something is already paid off, you can request a 'goodwill' deletion. It takes perseverance and a good story most of the time to get these but it is possible.

Two credit cards are fine to start out with. You will want to ad some more as your scores grow, until you have 3-5.

Anonymous · ‎12-19-2014

Thank you so much for the responses. I went back to confirm the dates of coverage for my insurance and two of those bills should not have been sent to me. I will follow up on those and hang tight with the cards I have for now.

I read that having different kinds of credit is a good show as well ? Should I pursue a small personal loan ?

Thanks again. The information you all have posted here is fantastic !

gdale6 · ‎12-19-2014

@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you so much for the responses. I went back to confirm the dates of coverage for my insurance and two of those bills should not have been sent to me. I will follow up on those and hang tight with the cards I have for now.
I read that having different kinds of credit is a good show as well ? Should I pursue a small personal loan ?

Thanks again. The information you all have posted here is fantastic !

I would not do so just to build a score as you get very little bang for instalment loans, they only place they influence is the type of credit area of Fico. A mortgage is the only type of instalment loan that will give you a reasonable boost over time, CCs give you the biggest bang as utilization of them is 30% of your Fico score, the types of credit category only comprises 10% of the score.