Where to start?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone. I'm new to myFICO. I'm looking forward to taking advatage of all the knowledge and advice available on the myFICO forums. I'm just coming out of a marriage and my credit is pretty trashed. I'm not going to point fingers or try to place blame on someone else. I'm just ready to buckle down and get it fixed. I'm sure its asked repeatedly here, But I guess my first question would be "Where should I start?

[Shokk]

Welcome.  And its ok, you can blame the ex. 

Can't tell you were to start without know what's going on.  Is everything still recent?  Charge offs?  Collections?  Need more info to help.

[Anonymous]

Start by pulling your full free credit reports from annualcreditreport.com. Save electronic copies of them, and print hard copies as well.

[Anonymous]

Some is old and some is new. I believe I have a bit of everything to face. A judgement, charge offs, and collections. The upside is I have a good job with good income so I have cash to work with to get this resolved and cleaned up. Looking back I wish I would of been alot more aggresive and defensive during the seperation. I also would of been more active in our finances while married. Lesson learned. Just because the money is coming in doesnt mean shes sending it out to the right places. I also had just bought a new truck about a year and a half ago and I'm just renting a place, so Im not worried about being able to borrow credit at this time. But I just want to get my credit looking good so I can buy a house in the future.

[RobertEG]

I would suggest, once you have your complete credit report, to initially focus on major derogs that can get worse.

By major derogs, I mean monthly lates of 90 or more days, charge-offs, collections, and public records.

By getting worse, i mean some additional action could be taken or reported.

My first focus would be on delinquent accounts reporting as late.  If they remain delinquent, higher levels of monthly delinquency and/or a charge-off, collection, or even legal action, could be on the horizon.

Next, accounts that have been charged-off, which can escalate to collections and/or legal action.

Then any accounts with reporting that you consider inaccurate.  Address those by filing a dispute of their accuracy.

Finally, attempt to get accurate derogs removed by offering to pay the delinquent debt in exchange for dletion of the reported derogs from your credit report.