topic Re: First post. Need some advice. in Rebuilding Your Credit

First post. Need some advice.

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 21:34:54 GMT

Long time lurker. First time post.

Long story short, when I was younger I trashed my credit, I am 27 now and looking to fix everything now that I am doing alright financially, in hopes to purchase a home in the future. I have not messed with my credit in quite sometime.

First is a collection account in the amount of $4000 which according to TU is scheduled to be deleted, 12/14. This was a lease for an apartment I could no longer afford, both my roomate and I lost our jobs (same company) and unfortunately I could not find work at the time.

Second is a school loan with a current balance of $3200. I opened this loan in about 2010 and have made a few payments as of late.

I was going to just let the lease collection fall off. Is that the right idea?

As far as the school loan I was going to see if I could work a deal with them. I planned on writing them a $2000 check if they could make the loan to show as if I have been paying them every month since I opened the loan. Is this possible, is it probable? The loan is through Sallie Mae. If so, how should I go about it? Phone call, letter, email?

My current score is 580-590 depending on which bearue you pull. Hypothetically if the collection falls off and my school loan is paid down to $1200 with my payments showing as current. What would like score likely be?

What is some good advice moving forward to build my credit? I was thinking maybe 1-2 credit cards, possibly with my current banks GTE FCU/CHASE.

Thanks,

Jay

Re: First post. Need some advice.

Whitneyy — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 21:40:54 GMT

Hello, I personally wouldn't mess with it for the simple fact of it falling off really soon. And then, when it falls off, I'd offer them something. Who is the collection with?

What is the EXACT issue going on with your student loans? Only way for them to update the lates is if you enter a rehab program, that once you make 9 consecutive payments, they will update to reflect no late payments, close your loan open a new one and allow you to start fresh.

As far as credit cards, I'm not sure what your scores are. But you could try with a secured card to get started and carry very small balances. Good luck.

Re: First post. Need some advice.

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 22:01:54 GMT

Collection is with Southern Managament systems. Assuming it falls off on 12/14, what would be the reasoning offering them anything? I was under the impression once it falls off its gone for good.

In reference to my student loan, I just have quite a few missed payments since 2010. How should I go about contacting them? Phone, email, letter? I plan on taking care of that ASAP.

Re: First post. Need some advice.

Whitneyy — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 22:34:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Collection is with Southern Managament systems. Assuming it falls off on 12/14, what would be the reasoning offering them anything? I was under the impression once it falls off its gone for good.

In reference to my student loan, I just have quite a few missed payments since 2010. How should I go about contacting them? Phone, email, letter? I plan on taking care of that ASAP.

I like calling by phone because it's immediate. I think you should head over to the student loans section of this forum and you will find a lot of helpful information on that.

And I said offer them something because it has been stated on here a few times that if you request a mortage for over 150k sometimes they can still pull old unpaid debts. I'm scared of that ever happening so I just pay what's due even once its fell off, I just offer them pennies to the dollar.

Good luck!

Re: First post. Need some advice.

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 23:07:57 GMT

Hey js2787,

I would agree with Whitneyy that it is best to call them. I believe you can only rehab a federal student loan. Basically, the rehabbing process takes around 9 months. You pay a low amount each month to prove you can get back on the right track with paying your debts. Once this term is up (without any late payments), the loan would be rehabbed and the collection agency passes the loan back to a loan company. What should happen on your credit report is that the orginal loan with late payment records should disappear from your credit reports and the new loan will appear. This is a really good way to turn a negative TL into a positive one. My husband is in the process at the moment. If you wanted to then pay this loan off rather then keep the positive additional trade line (which would help your score), the time to do it would be after you had rehabbed the loan and the bad TLs had been replaced by good. The new loan company may even accept a lower offer than the full loan amount.

When you do ring them, please make sure that your loan can be rehabbed and get them to confirm that at the end of the rehab the bad lines will disappear from your CR.

Good luck!

Re: First post. Need some advice.

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 18:20:50 GMT

Would I still need to do this "rehab" program even though the student loan is not in collection? It is showing as still owned by DEPT OF ED/SALLIE MAE.

Re: First post. Need some advice.

Whitneyy — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 19:13:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Would I still need to do this "rehab" program even though the student loan is not in collection? It is showing as still owned by DEPT OF ED/SALLIE MAE.

You never have to do, its just good because your lates will disappear and your loans will be in good standing when done.