Ready, set, go

[dthomas]

Hello all.  I'm a 34 year old single mother on a mission to rebuild and repair my credit.  I wasn't taught the importance of good credit growing up and have made very bad decisions credit wise over the years.   As of right now my scores are as follows:  Experian 525, Trans Union 460, Quizzle 463, Credit Karma 573.  As you can see they're pretty much all over the place.  I have set up a new checking account with KeyBank that includes credit monitoring and will pay to have all of my credit scores pulled Friday.  I'm really on a mission to fix my credit so any tips, suggestions, advice you guys can offer would be much appreciated.  When I look at some you guys who have gone from 500 credit scores to 700-800 in a years time it makes me very optimistic.  Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

[Shogun]

     Hello and welcome to the forums.

My suggestion?  Well, OCD helps in my case.    j/k     The information you will find here will help you get to where you want to go.  You just have to look for it, ask for it, sometimes beg for it.  (Well it worked for me)

The members here are more than happy to help, and our Community Leaders here are best!

You say you are paying to pull your scores Friday.  Have you used your yearly free ones from www.annualcreditreport.com ?  This website is provided by the big 3 CRAs under a federal mandate to consumers.  They will offer to sell you scores, but you don't want those.  Just get your free reports.

Make you a list.  

1.  What's good?

2.  What's bad?

1.  Take what's good and garden it, meaning take good care of it, make your regular payments and keep it in good standing.

2.  The bad,  take this and break it down again into 2 more categories.

A.  Paid

B. Unpaid

A.  Paid baddies.  You will want to start the GW process and see if they will remove these.  Creativity and patience comes to play.

B.  Unpaid.  Can you pay them now?  If so, then the PFD method may be right for you.  Offer to pay if they will delete.

You will also need to do some research on the unpaid ones.  Are they still within the SOL of your state where you can get a judgement against you?  How long until they reach the CRTP?   This is all good information to research and know.

So pull up a chair and join us.  Ask questions, that's why we hang out here.  And good luck to you.

[justrock]

You are entitled to free credit reports once a year.  Don't pay for that if you don't have to.  I'm sure you have better uses for your money. 

[dthomas]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions.  I plan to pull my reports tomorrow.  I was thinking that I should buy my scores just to see exactly where I stand.  I'm sure that the Equifax and Trans Union scores are correct because I got them when I was denied for credit but I know that the Quizzle and Credit Karma scores are FAKO.  I'm thinking that I should pull all three FICO at the same time just to get a clear understanding of where I am.  Should I hold off on doing that?

[Shogun]

I would hold off on it.  You are at a point in your rebuilding where the scores aren't really going to matter much.  You should save your money and put it to other things.  With that being said, I do know  that motivation plays a big part in success, so pulling now and working hard on your CR and pulling in 6 months or so could give you some inspiration.  So that's up to you.

Right now you should concentrate on cleaning your CRs, then after it's cleaner, you need to build.  They go hand in hand.  Having an empty file is just about as bad as a dirty file.  

[TrishN]

I went from 588 to 700+ in 6 months. all I need to do is. pulled my credit report from all 3. send GW to paid CO or CA. make sure your debt is out SOL for them to sue you before send debt validation,disputed old CA and offer PFD. if some don't accept PFD I sent 4 times in 3 months. ill pay for it and GW like crazy. just make sure copy all documents. when u pay them, pay by money oder, never use checking account, with debt still in SOL you can send DV, but you better have some cash to pay them to avoid they sue you and leave judgment on your credit report. sorry for typo. I can't go back when using phone

[dthomas]

Thank you so much for all of the helpful info, TrishN going from 588 to 700+ is phenomenal!!  I will definitley heed off of your advice!  Thanks again everyone!