@B_tothe_C wrote:I will try to simplify this as much as possible, it's all very embarrassing. I'm a single mom with two young kids, and I am the sole provider. I went through a tough divorce in 2018 and due to my ex not keeping up his end of the bargain on support, alimony and child. I had a lot of accounts that were charged off/gone to collections. In the beginning of December, we lost our home and all our belongings to a fire. I now realize I have been barely scraping by but I have to find a way to rebuild our lives. I need credit to do that. I will have to start chipping away at the debt. I have 6 accounts that are charged off for a total $9300. I have 11 accounts in collections totaling around $10,000. All original deliquencies occurred between July and October of 2018. I am unsure if I should settle what I can? If so, do I settle the charge offs or the collections? Are some so old that they don't matter? My credit score is 565, and I need to find a way to get it to 620 as soon as possible. I have some donations that people have sent us, and I want to make sure I use it the best way possible. Thanks in advance.
Grab your three credit reports: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/
List out your accounts: Creditor Name/Credit Line/Balance/ APR/ Status ex: charge off, closed, ect. Lastly DoFD.
Figure out how much money you have (after putting away $1000 for emergencies) and remaining current on everything you're current on + essentials and see how close you can get to settling/deleting all of these accounts.
The goal will be to settle with anybody who will delete their entries on your credit PFD (pay for delete) and then getting the rest of the accounts to show a $0 balance by paying or settling in full. This should improve your credit if you're able to get all of those balances to $0.
@B_tothe_C wrote:I will try to simplify this as much as possible, it's all very embarrassing. I'm a single mom with two young kids, and I am the sole provider. I went through a tough divorce in 2018 and due to my ex not keeping up his end of the bargain on support, alimony and child. I had a lot of accounts that were charged off/gone to collections. In the beginning of December, we lost our home and all our belongings to a fire. I now realize I have been barely scraping by but I have to find a way to rebuild our lives. I need credit to do that. I will have to start chipping away at the debt. I have 6 accounts that are charged off for a total $9300. I have 11 accounts in collections totaling around $10,000. All original deliquencies occurred between July and October of 2018. I am unsure if I should settle what I can? If so, do I settle the charge offs or the collections? Are some so old that they don't matter? My credit score is 565, and I need to find a way to get it to 620 as soon as possible. I have some donations that people have sent us, and I want to make sure I use it the best way possible. Thanks in advance.
First of all you have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. Quite the opposite. Going through a divorce is difficult enough, life changing. But to endure a fire as well, ugh. Be proud of what you've been through and accomplished. And know that you've come to the right place for help. The people here are amazing and I'm personally so grateful to have found it.
As always, @GZG comes through with awesome advice. If you'd like more detailed help with a plan forward, list out the things he mentioned here and I'm sure someone, probably @FireMedic1, will be along shortly to help.
Welcome @B_tothe_C
Sorry about the multiple hardballs thrown at ya. Especially the fire. Know that all too well. Getting new credit isnt the answer right at this moment. Getting the CO's settled will help the most. Points and all. $0 balance CO's no longer are used in your aggregate util %'s any longer. CA's being paid does nothing to a score. But need to know who they are. You may have some that PFD. Once all the CO's and hopefully all the CA's are ones who PFD dissapear. Then the score rises. May be enough to get you to that point. New credit will only ding for new accounts and so forth. Fix whats broken first. So heres the homework. List out the baddies:
Creditor/ Credit Line/ Balance Owed/ CO/ DoFD
Collection Agency/Balance.
It appears your past the SOL with 2018. Just to be sure. What state do you reside in? It can be done. Take a little time.
Whats done is done and its for the good. C-Ya CA's! Theres no score changes with CA's. So now start tackling the CO's. They go against your overall util %'s. Or as a maxed out card on each account. Once all the CO's are settled or paid. No more util hits. Just the CO ding. No they wont PFD CO's. They'll fall off 7 yrs from the first 30 day late on your reports that led to the CO status. Theres your next mission. Util is a bigger killer of scores than a CA will ever be. Please keep us updated as each one is done. Any score changes as they fall one by one. You got this. If we were all perfect credit. Why have a Rebuilding Your Credit Sub-Forum right? We've been there, learned, and pass it on!
Please do. It helps others. They may not join, but lurkers outnumber us. Members will learn each step as you go. And of course curiosity kills the cat. We wanna know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get Em!