Rebuilding Your Credit

[kitm]

Thank you everyone for all your helpful advice.

Will it make a difference if we make arrangements to pay for deletion, do a pay less than full, or is it better just to pay it off?

[guiness56]

Having been in the military for 25 years and holding a TS SSI, I can tell you what is looked at by the investigators for a military clearance.   It doesn't matter that money is not handled.  They look at if you are trustworthy or not, whether or not you would be a security risk due to the amount of debt owed.  The more you owe, the more likely you are to take a bribe.  (Not my words, theirs).

They do look at unpaid debt and how long it has gone unpaid.  Why it is unpaid.

Any type of arrangements you make, whether they benefit you, as far as your score is concerned, will be a plus for the investigators.  Just have proof you have and are keeping the arrangements.

As stated, don't lie and try to cover anything up.  That will look very bad.  Have a current copy of your CR with notations on it showing what has been done to rectify any negative information.

A lot also depends on the investigator.  There are the good ones and the bad ones.  The bad ones can make your life hell.

[jadeite788]

im going to tell you straight up I know someone that went through sercurity clearance, and yeah the collections were an issue.  They check everything, they go back as far as your daycare you went to as a kid.   I kid you not. But then again that was his issue.

[Cageym]

@guiness56 You hit it on the nose. After 22 years in the military and most of the last 10 as a contractor that's how I see it. I always take in paperwork explaining ANY questions they might have. As soon as they bring something up I start showing them. It's one of the reasons I got involved so deeply in my CR in the first place, there was a baddie on my report that shouldn't have been there at all, a mistake on their part.

[guiness56]

---

Cageym wrote:
@guiness56 You hit it on the nose. After 22 years in the military and most of the last 10 as a contractor that's how I see it. I always take in paperwork explaining ANY questions they might have. As soon as they bring something up I start showing them. It's one of the reasons I got involved so deeply in my CR in the first place, there was a baddie on my report that shouldn't have been there at all, a mistake on their part.

---

Yep.  I got involved due to a vehicle I co-signed on being repoed and them coming to base to look for it.  They involved the security police, which was a no, no.  It breached the peace.  At any rate, I got my clearance pulled by my unit until I proved I was trustworthy. 

That led me to this forum and my learning a lot.  After 9 months, I was able to return to my workcenter.