@Anonymous wrote:Hey everyone,
I'm new to this forum and after poking around and reading different responsed the last few days decided to make a post myself. I'm twenty five years old, and when I was 18, and irresponsible, decided to basically tank my credit score when I opened two credit cards and defaulted on them. Since then I've stayed away from attempting to open credit cards, or really anything. I've never even gone for a car loan, just drive around an old used car I happen to have from family members. Needless to say, as I'm getting older, I know credit will be needed because I would love to get a nicer car that's more reliable, and by my early 30's I'd love to put a down payment on a house.
A little bit about me, I'm currently back in school working on my bachlors, through an online college. I have about a year an a half left to go, and I'm debating continuing to get my masters. (Not that that is really important) but I do have student loans, which I know is a big factor on a lot of things. I approximately owe around 18,000 dollars already and I'm not required to pay on it at the moment since I'm in school -- though I do attempt to throw a check in for the interest to attempt to keep that low.
My issues stem back from these credit cards as well as when I took a break from a school a few years back. I was unemployed and had asked for a deferrment, and after speaking with a woman on the phone, she said it was all processed and handled. Come to find out on my credit score -- I have signed up through Credit Karma, Credit.com and Credit Seseme, that they show they are some as much as 120 days passed due when they were supposed to be on deferment. My issue is, I don't know if they can be removed or if I have to suffer with them. I also have two charged off accounts but have no clue what they are from.
Right now all three of the credit sites rank me at 594 to 601 so definitely not that great.
My question is where do I start? I will say I did recently get approved for a Capital One Quiksilver credit card -- limit of $300 dollars. Not much but a start.
I guess more my question is, is it really possible to turn your credit score around? Do I need to seek legal advice, like the sites keep pointing to that Lexington Law? Any help would be so gratefully appreciated as I'm really trying to turn my life around.
Thank you so much.
Brianna
Welcome to the board 
I would start with getting the errors in reporting fixed with the deferment of the SLs you had and then move on to the COs, if they are not yours then you have ID Theft and they can be excluded by the CRAs if you go thru the procedures outlined in FCRA Sec 605B. If they turn out to be yours you would want to settle them. You also want to know if they are inside or outside of states SOL as this will determine how you approach them with settlement.
