Hi! My name is lamb33 and I'm a former bad debtor. I have been in recovery since 2016 
After reading many many super helpful posts on this forum, I finally decided I could no longer just wait for things to "fall off my report" and hope for better credit. I started by committing to on time payments and making sure nothing else EVER got sent to a collection agency. When I started reading the posts on this and other credit forums, I didn't realize that a person could have errors on their credit reports. I figured "they know what they're doing"- yeah right. So far I've been able to have 7- SEVEN- derogatory items removed from the 3 bureaus due to erroneous information.
Now I am ready to pull the trigger on my first pay for delete letter. I'm pretty nervous that they will come back with the big fat NO, but I figured that's the worst they can do. I plan on paying it either way, and if they remove the line from my reports- yay for me.
Current standing:
Capital One $0 balance/$300 limit (2- 30 lates- last one in 2/16)
Credit One $13 balance/$600 limit. (never late)
Autotrakk- $12,000 balance- opened 12/2014 (never late)
Great Lakes Education- $24,000 balance (smattering of 30-60 days prior to 1/2014, all ok since then)
Mortgages- None
A couple good lines from personal loans and closed credit cards in the past, but they are coming up on the 10 year mark- not sure what will happen once they fall off?? 
5 total collection accounts totaling appx $4000 from 2011-2014 (mix of medical and wireless charges). These are the items I am tackling next. I have no doubt that the debts are mine, so I am going to try for PFD's. If I can do this for even 2 or 3, I will be ecstatic. As of right now, PSECU has my Experian score at 626. I started at 525 exactly one year ago. Believe it or not, this is the highest my score has ever been. Sorry for the book- but you guys give me hope and I would like to document my progress here. Any tips are appreciated! Thanks for reading!
