Please help me!

[Anonymous]

I want to begin repairing my credit. Right now my experian and Transunion are BELOW 500 and my Equifax is 618. I have about 9 negative items. About half of those are zero balance . The others are small collections accounts. In total my debt is about $1,500. I have no credit cards. No revolving accounts. No installment accounts either. I have tried applying for a few secured credit cards but have gotten declined. I did open a furniture leasing account which hasn't been reported yet.

I work for Lexington law so I get a free case but nothing has been deleted her .

What do I do?!?! Where do I begin?! This is ruining my life! Please help!

[LShawn08]

You work for Lexington Law and yet you've come here for help ?! Somebody is gonna have a field day with that. 

What are these nine accounts that are negative ? What agency's are holding your collections? How old are all the accounts ? List everything out so people can better assist you. 

[Anonymous]

Haha I'm sure everyone will rip me apart for employer lol

Well here we go

Negative accounts with $0 Balance;

First light fcu (car loan)
120 day late

Portfolio recovery (collection)
Purco fleet services (collection)
Wells Fargo card services (charge off)

These items have balances:
Central credit services $157
Lamont Hanley and associates $173
Microbilt collection agency $168 (paid this off 3 weeks ago with original creditor)
Source receivables management $734

Most of these are new. 2012 to 2015. Oldest is probably 2010

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I want to begin repairing my credit. Right now my experian and Transunion are BELOW 500 and my Equifax is 618. I have about 9 negative items. About half of those are zero balance . The others are small collections accounts. In total my debt is about $1,500. I have no credit cards. No revolving accounts. No installment accounts either. I have tried applying for a few secured credit cards but have gotten declined. I did open a furniture leasing account which hasn't been reported yet.

I work for Lexington law so I get a free case but nothing has been deleted her .

What do I do?!?! Where do I begin?! This is ruining my life! Please help!

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First step, apply for an Open Sky secured card. Once that hits your reports you will get an upward bump. If you are clear on chexsystem, you should open an account at SDFCU and get a share secured $500 loan (3.99% for 36 months). Put the loan proceeds back into the savings account and open a share secured credit card. These three things should push your scores up considerably. Let these items report for a couple of months, then app for an unsecured Capital One Platinum card. If you get denied app for their secured card. If you get approved, immediately app for the QS1 card. Stay away from the predator lendors Credit One and First Premier. You DON'T need them or want them.

As for your negatives - if you have ANY charged off credit cards that the OC is reporting an unpaid balance on, you need to settle those, number one priority. Next go over your reports and if any collectors are updating every month, try to get a PFD, but if you can't then settle with them for as little as you can get. Attack the others with PFD offers, and try to work from newest to oldest. If any items are past your states SOL, just let them sit for now. Any paid items, you can try to get removed with GW requests.

It takes patience, but you can get to the 700's in just a couple of years with this strategy.

[Anonymous]

Norman, thanks for the great advice. One question though, I have about 4 debts that have been written off that I do plan on setting up arrangements to pay, they are only 3-4 years old. I have been offered settlements at some as low as 40-50 percent off, I know it sounds crazy to pass on them but I thought that paying in full the balance rather then settling in the end will help my score even more and also help the chances of eventully getting them removed. So it would be paid as settled vs paid in full. Any thoughts on this? Thank you. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Norman, thanks for the great advice. One question though, I have about 4 debts that have been written off that I do plan on setting up arrangements to pay, they are only 3-4 years old. I have been offered settlements at some as low as 40-50 percent off, I know it sounds crazy to pass on them but I thought that paying in full the balance rather then settling in the end will help my score even more and also help the chances of eventully getting them removed. So it would be paid as settled vs paid in full. Any thoughts on this? Thank you. 

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Settled vs paid in full will make no difference in scoring - it just looks better on a manual review. I would make PFD offers (for payment in full) to the ones that are willing to settle.