Rebuilding credit HELP

[aliciannalston]

My scores are 498, 498, and 501. A couple years ago I went through separation and divorce which caused me some debt. I have a repo, a defaulted school loan which I am in rehab for now, everything else are small things such as cable, utilities bills, I have never owned a credit card or store card. I am on my feet and would very much like to start working on rebuilding, however I have no idea where to start. I applied for a cap 1 secured and was denied. At this point I have no clue what to do from here. I know that paying my debts off will only have a small affect. i would like to be able to start some positive payment history but cant find a place that will give me a chance. If anyone has any suggestions please help me out.

[myjourney]

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@aliciannalston wrote:
My scores are 498, 498, and 501. A couple years ago I went through separation and divorce which caused me some debt. I have a repo, a defaulted school loan which I am in rehab for now, everything else are small things such as cable, utilities bills, I have never owned a credit card or store card. I am on my feet and would very much like to start working on rebuilding, however I have no idea where to start. I applied for a cap 1 secured and was denied. At this point I have no clue what to do from here. I know that paying my debts off will only have a small affect. i would like to be able to start some positive payment history but cant find a place that will give me a chance. If anyone has any suggestions please help me out.

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Welcome to the forum

Start by finding out what's on your credit report ...yearly pull for free https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

Or pull 1 from each CB again free once a year

Determine what's wrong on CR and take steps to correct from members here

[guiness56]

Welcome to the forums.

I would start by pulling each of your free reports from annualcreditreport.com.  You get one free from each CRA every 12 months.

Helpful information will be the DoFD of each account (EQ shows the DoFD, TU and EX have drop off dates), and your states suing SOL.

Once you get your reports, you can post the accounts you need help with.  Someone will be glad to give advice.

You are correct, paying off collections will not help you and can sometimes further damage your score.  The really need to be removed to help you. 

Read the stickies in my signature for some good information and to help you understand about PFDs, GW letters and DVs.

As for getting credit, you may need to get some things taken care of before applying again.

It takes a second to get in a credit mess but will take some time to get out of it.  We are here to help you do that.