Recovering my life - Newbie - Please Help - Long Post

[Anonymous]

Greetings; 

I'm not the most expert of individuals to know how credit works nowadays. I've searched and searched and done so much research my brain is fried and from what I see ; this website is far better in resources and knowledge in getting my life back on track than any credit rebuild agencies like lexington law firm would ever hope to do.

So; please do correct me if I am not posting in the correct format or areas but I want to be as concise as possible with the information I present and what I want to do:

With the information I present I am not looking to garner sympathy. All of us had hardship in one time or another. My hardship was the result of trusting the wrong people and being set back potentially several years of my life.

My goal:

To repair my credit before I waste anymore time of my youth and to mortgage a house hopefully within this year

My background:

I am a 21 year old ; not in college but working full time with steady paychecks at an established company and am making a decent middle class paycheck.

My credit background:

When I was 18 years old I was doing very well. Had a bank credit card (wells fargo) for several months and was always ontime with my payments; phone bills always on time; and even got an American Express ZYNC (a charge card) and was very careful with my credit.

The problems began:

Two years ago when I became 19 years old; my parents were finanically irresponsible. Living paycheck to paycheck, and they got evictions on the records. We ended up on the streets (literally with a moving truck full of our things just sitting in random parking lots every night).  They were so idiotic with their decisions they didn't even find it common sense to find a storage unit to move our things which racked up astronomical costs for having the moving truck in our possession every day.   I should have known better however I was stupid.  

I ended up renting an apartment (which was outside of their means to truly keep) under my name and we all moved in. It was a one year lease.  Ok.   Time passed and eventually my lease ended after a year. However my parents refused to move out of the apartment (I have since moved out) and incurred a much higher month to month rent that they could not afford. Rather than not leaving; they decided to stay.  So after they racked up several late payments and eviction filings (all of this happening without my knowledge) .   They got put into eviction twice with the apartment with lawyers and all involved from the rental community under my name and they successfully staved it off somehow.  However; eventually they ended up being evictied. Marshalls kicking them out and all.  So as a result; they showed up to my job and caused a scene which ended my employment - which at the time I had about $1800 in charge card debt with American Express and $1300 in my Wells Fargo Credit Card debt. I was no longer able to pay them back and months passed and my accounts fell into deliquencies. I got put into collections and my credit became effectively ruined.  I have not been able to recover from  the effects of my unemployment till recently. 

Now I am in a better position and I want to get my life on track with the knowledge I have now.  I saved up a lot of my money after long and ardeous work and I want to buy a house to begin my freedom from obligation.

I now come to this forum as a large for guidance.

Now the things I need help on

I checked my experian credit scores and I am in a 530 currently -  on the credit report it shows my credit card debt and collection fees I have incurred. HOWEVER for some reason there are no court judgements showing against me and I don't see anything relating to my eviction on this report.

I have also checked my Transunion report and I don't see my credit card debt - I see a medical bill and my phone bills and also nothing relating to my evictions or court order.  My credit score on there is 507 

My total FICO score is 565

Is it a miracle that I don't have a public record or am I being deluded? Or is there still time for this entire incident to show? It has been almost two years since this incident has taken place.  Could anyone offer any insight into this?   If nothing showed on my experian report - AM I SAFE?  Will I be able to rent under my name? Or will that entire mess show up when I try to apply for an apartment of any kind?

If the eviction will show - how may I go about removing it off my record? ANY suggestions would help. I will do ANYTHING.  Whether it means going to the rental property and begging the owners to do a Non-Disclosure-Agreement when I dispute the eviction on my record in exchange for money or anything of that matter. Does anyone have a way to remove this if it's a problem?

My other question is also;  in regards to my credit card debt - should I pay in full or should I just settle them? I contacted American express and they put me into collections at one point but for some reason my account is back in their possession. So I'm not sure how to proceed with that.

In general....my question is...how should I fix my life? How should I proceed forward with rebuilding this?  Does it matter how I proceed at this point?

My ultimate goal....to just be able to get my own things again without depending on others.

Thank you for your time.

[taxi818]

Wow. That is incredible. We can't pick our parents. But your story really moved me. 

First of all. From where are you pulling the reports. 

Ibwould go to free annualcreditreport.com 

where by law you get reports once a year for free. 

Younare very responsible already for such a young age. 

Number 2. 

After you check those reports. Don't even concern yourself with score. 

Look to see if evictions are gone. 

Or never there in first place. 

No

judgements as you said. 

If not they will not come now after 2 years.

send good will letter to Amex and explain just as you did here. 

A ccounts in collections. Don't pay in full and waste precious money. 

It will not make a difference to your fico. 

Instead settle with them.  For percentage of amount. 

After you will have get some positives together on there. 

Secured credit card. And secured installment loan. Even 300 bucks each. Just to get your score in the 600's

youvwill be on road to recovery. Only other thing you can do is let time heal the wounds.  

Any questions. And I will be willing to help. Taxi man

[Anonymous]

Hi Taxi!

Thank you for your kind words. I wish I was wiser and thought for myself instead of trying to be helpful for the wrong people.

I just pulled my reports from that website you mentioned...I became weak to my stomach because I see that the only deliquencies I have are from my revolving credit cards (the Amex and the WF credit card) and I see NO judgement against me on ANY of my records or anything relating to an eviction or money owed to an apartment company.  Just an account in collections for sprint , an account for a medical bill, and my credit cards.

My credit cards have status: "Charged off"  - What does this mean?  Does this mean I should send out a goodwill letter and attempt to settle these accounts? 

Same thing for the collections agency accounts?!?

I'm scared....if there's no evictions on these records...does that mean they won't come? It's been two years...I'm in absolute disbelief...I don't know if this is a miracle or if the apartment company took mercy on me and didn't slam me with the eviction...

Man...I'm literally shaking as I type this....my path to recovery might be so much simpler than I thought but I still wanna make sure I proceed correctly with this....if I settle all of my accounts...I could potentially have $500 or so left over to get a secured credit card....should I get a bank credit card or a capital one or both? I'm far more responsible and mizerly with my money but if there's no point getting a capital one unsecured card (that credit rebuilder card) then I won't bother. 

What are your thoughts? I'm just...shaken .  I saved my credit reports in PDF form and I'm just baffled that there's no judgement. HOLY CRAP!!!

Thank you! 

[taxi818]

Well that's good news. Well in many cases. Apartments like this. They just want you out. And they don't want the expense of paying to report you and maintain these files. So as long as you were out it's ok. Same happened to me. I left old girlfriend. She refused to leave apt. So they evicted her. Even was in my name. Never touched my credit report. That was 9 years ago. Now to more serious things.
1. Collection account. Not as serious as charge off bit easier to deal with. Contact collection agency. Not original creditor. Explain you will pay I. Full. For deletion of record in cra. If they don't want to then just agree to pay about 20 percent to have them Notate and close account. Paid in full.
2. Charge off are much more difficult. You will need goodwill letters. Google examples. So you know what to say. And agree to make payments ASAP. Don't deny responsibility. If 1 of them respond. Your score will go up fast. If not. All you can do is wait the 7 years. They will have less effect over time.
3. Put some positives.
Cap 1 is bank. Open with them. They are very good. After 6 months on time payment they will forgive you
Instead of bank. Open account local credit union. Secure card. They will also help you. All you need for now is score to go up to get apartment or keep raising score.
Keep usage under 10 percent on credit card to maximize score.
Also. Open secure installment loan.
Pay on time. You leave bank with money you came with. And in six months. You also have another 500 in savings. If you need more tips. Just ask. I will help. Taxi man.