Rebuild on my OWN help!

[Anonymous]

So I was looking up credit repair compainies like Lexington Law and cam across this forum.  I have searched this forum for a couple of days and my brain hurts from trying to figure this out by myself.  Can anyone help me start in the right direction on getting my score up. 

My Equifax FICO Score 8 is 640 and transunion is 610.

Credit scores are: Exp:504, EQ 593, TU 572

I am so close to going with LL or Blue SKY because I am so confused!!!!

Here are the negatives on my account: 

I have 5 different accounts from one hospital that totals $5,428

I have a DIRECT TV for $1,256.. It shows on my report that it was opened Jan. 2017 which is not true.  I had direct tv 5 years ago or so and I did get defaulted on it. 

I have 6 student loans that say Account closed due to transfer and are negatives.  I just finished rehab on 4 of my student loans and have 4 that are still defaulted.  But there are 6 that say acccount closed to transfer but I have a ton that say transfer closed/ never late and are good marks on my credit.  So weird..

I have 2 vericheck/bad checks that I paid and the status is paid/closed but they are still negatives.  These should fall of in July though.  They were from 2010. 

Then I have a verizon that I know will be impossible..  $522

I was divorced and suddenly a single mom of 3 on a teacher salary.  I have a lot of revolving credit that is good and I know I can get my credit utilization down.  But where do I start with collections and medical collections.  I have probably about 6 more medical collections that aren't very high amounts. 

I don't know where to start tackling at.  Any advice would be very much appreciated!!!  I'm not trying to hide from my mistakes or not pay them.  My student loans have been my biggest priority and have worked hard the past year on those and finally this month was able to apply for teacher forgiveness. 

My hubs and I would love to be able to buy a home but I know i am not anywhere close score wise!

[rmduhon]

First, take a deep breath. I can't help you with the student loans, but there are others that can. The open date for DirectTV just means that is when the Collection Agency (CA) received collection authority, either by buying the account or by having it assigned to them. Not an important date. Have you pulled your actual credit reports (not from a monitoring site)? If not then do that. The important date will be found there. That is the Date of First Delinquency (DoFD). Date of Last Activity and Date of First Major Delinquency don't matter. Experian and Transunion will show an estimated removal date (or something similar). That's based upon the DoFD. Are the accounts out of SOL for your state?

[Anonymous]

First, welcome to the forums. There is a wealth of information and tons of contributors that are happy to help with questions as you have already noticed.

2nd, take a deep breath as rmduhon mentioned. Be patient, understand it is a journey.

3rd, credit repair companies can't do anything for you that you can't do yourself. Most would agree that your resources would be better spent on paying things down or saving for your down payment on the house. I would suggest doing a little more research.

I will let others chime in here as I am new to credit rebuilding myself.

Good luck. A journey is one step at a time and you are already on your way 🙂

[iowe]

Welcome and you've found the best place for help on what to do. I'm toward the end of my own rebuild. I started with scores in the 530's and just recently broke into the 700 club. My myfico dashboard scores are just starting to turn green for the first time. I signed up here in 2012 but really didn't start rebuilding until mid 2015.

Most all people here speak from experience. Myself included. It can be done and your scores will be jumping in 10-30 point bursts in no time.

First thing, I would go to annualcreditreport.com and get your free copies of all the bureaus to start with. Print them out, hole punch them and then put each one into a binder or folder. This will be your starting reference from which to begin your work.

[Anonymous]

I did go to my free annual credit annual report and got my reports.  That is as far as I have gotten.  I just don't know where to start with that. 

[Anonymous]

There is not a DOFD on it but it does say on record until Jan. 2019.

[rmduhon]

Then the DoFD would be about January 2012.

[iowe]

For medical collections, google the HIPAA method and it's creator. 😉

[jdxprs1]

I would start with the non medical derogatory marks. The medical ones don't hurt as much. Try contacting the creditors and request pay for deletion. Pay off any that agree. After that I would pay your revolving utilization down to less than 10%. See where that gets your scores.

[Anonymous]

Ok so do you just call the collection company that handles the bill and ask them if to do the delete if paid?  I think on my medical I'm going to wait until September when I re enroll at my place of employment.  They offer a medical card that I can put so much money on and they take it out of my check monthly.  I can then pay off my highest ones with that and then pay off the smaller medical bills little by little after that.  I know that some creditors offer you a deal to settle the debt and if you do reach a settlement will they still delete if you ask or will they only delete if the amount is paid in full?