Rebuilding Your Credit

[adam12]

Hello everyone, this is my first post so I will try to keep it short and sweet and to the point. I lost my job in the summer of 2008 and unfortunately had to chose between finishing school and putting food on my table vs. paying my bills on time, or at all. They ended up in various collection agency's.. Over the passed two years I have managed to pay back the CAs from my previous debts. I now am left with the negatives on my report, and one collection notice.
My main question is what now and what steps do I take to raise this horrible 575? I'm not sure I fully understand the report or whom or what letters to send out to try and get some of these off of there. I really want to move on with my life, I have a good job, a decent home that I am renting by myself, and a good girlfriend that I intend to make my wife. She understands my situation completely and what we have is unconditional, which is a great thing, but I really want to be able to bring a decent score into this when the time comes. Any help would be greatly appreciated and thank you in advance.

[jamie123]

We need a little bit more information to give you accurate advice.

How many collections do you have on your report? Paid? Unpaid?

Do you have any student loans? Any late payments on them?

Do you have any positive credit? Credit cards? Auto loans?

[adam12]

I'm sorry about that, I was just scanning through some other posts and realized I should have included more.

I'll start with my auto loan through Honda financial, I have it fully paid off but I did have a couple 30 days through the life of it.

I had four credit cards, all of which ended up in collections, I settled all of them in lump sum payments in sept. The OC accounts in my report say something like, closed, zero balance.

As for student loans, I had two, they are fully paid, but on one of my reports it says I have a $9.00 balance. I'm going to have to call to confirm this, however I did this in sept and the agent said I was paid off completely.

As for currents, I am in the process of applying for a secured card. Looking into BoA and capital one.

[jamie123]

I forgot before...Welcome to the forums!

Well....You are about 6 weeks late for some really good advice! You really should have used the PFD (Pay For Delete) process in paying off those credit cards in September. Now you will have to learn how to write GW (Good Will) letters to have the credit card collections removed from your reports.

Paying off bad debts does ABSOLUTELY nothing to your scores, good or bad. You need to have the negative information removed! Read these forums and learn how to write GW letters to have ALL the negative information removed. Don't take no for an answer! Send letters every week!

Yes, you need at least 3 credit cards to maximize your scores. Start with BoA and Cap1. Add Walmart once your scores reach 640.

Good luck!

[adam12]

Jamie, thank you for the prompt responses! I am really hoping over the next two years I'll be able to have this thing turned around. I have already been reading over the examples and In a nutshell, I'll basically have to send GW letters to all of my previous creditors asking them to remove the negatives and let time and persistence pay off?

Are there any further steps I need to take with the previous collection agencies or was I clear of them once I paid? I guess I was confused because I saw one still currently listed on there.

Anyway, thanks again! I've got a whole lot of research and road ahead of me!

[jamie123]

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adam12 wrote:
Jamie, thank you for the prompt responses! I am really hoping over the next two years I'll be able to have this thing turned around. I have already been reading over the examples and In a nutshell, I'll basically have to send GW letters to all of my previous creditors asking them to remove the negatives and let time and persistence pay off? Yes, you need all the negative information removed from your reports. GW letters work!

Are there any further steps I need to take with the previous collection agencies or was I clear of them once I paid? I guess I was confused because I saw one still currently listed on there.Just paying them off doesn't solve the problem. You need the baddies removed completely!

Anyway, thanks again! I've got a whole lot of research and road ahead of me!

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