My Journey To 700's

[Anonymous]

Guys hows it going... I'm new to this forum and glad I found it. Did some reading before joining and in my opinion this is an awesome community to be a part of . So here it is.. Im a 24yr male/teacher assistant with a score of 553 as it reflects on my free report (dont know what company that score corresponds to but hey).  Want to start focusing on building strong scores as I'm still young and would love financial security in the future. That said, I will be opening an account with BoA and immediately try to open a secure card. I currently have a loan for school which I do not have to pay until i graduate, but my question is should i start to? so that this reflects on my scores? Newbie here so would like some input on things that I can do to get my score up there with some of you.... advice etc all welcomed. THANKSSSSS

[Guava]

Welcome to the forum! This is a great place to get educated about all credit things! 

To start, I'd read Credit Scoring 101 to get a feel what's in your score and what impacts it. Then identify your baddies (collections/charge off/lates, etc.), for unpaid derogative, offer to Pay-For-Deletion; for paid derogative, send Goodwill letter.

A secured credit card is a good start! Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Guava thanks for your 2cents, definitely going to get a hold of my report from this site and see what i can make of it

[RobertEG]

If you want the best credit reports available without paying a penny, go to annualcreditreport.com and get them there.

That is not one of those ripoff free but not free commercial sites.  It is the official site established under approval of the FTC for compliance with your right to a free CR once a year.  If you dont want a score, you dont have to purchase one there.... you can simply get your full, free CRs.

[Anonymous]

how about just purchasing them from fico? figured their more trust worthy lol 

[llecs]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

how about just purchasing them from fico? figured their more trust worthy lol 

---

As much as I want to promote myFICO, the reports from annualcreditreport.com (or directly from the CRAs) are virtually mandatory when repairing your credit. These reports contain info you cannot get elsewhere like a full 7-yr history (everywhere else is 2 yrs), better contact info, drop off dates on EX and TU, a clear DOFD on EQ, better demographic info, and soft inquiries which comes in handy to see who's been sniffing around your credit. Plus the reports are free.

MyFICO reports contain less info than your full reports from the CRAs, but they also have info important in repair including your FICO (obviously), the top items helping or hurting your FICO, red flags to indicate which items are hurting (e.g. balances, # of accts reporting negative, inquiries, # of accts reporting balances, etc.), including red flags to show specifically which accounts are hurting your FICO. If improving FICO is a focus, these are important to have in conjunction with your reports from the CRAs.

[Anonymous]

thanks very helpful. i just got mine from freecreditreport.com is this equivalent to annual or no? on my report it read only two negative accounts, in your opinion how do i go about deleteing these..Guava mentined deletion for pay

[llecs]

No, the report from annualcreditreport differs from the not-so-free report from freecreditreport.com. FCR is a service provided by Experian and focuses on EX only (though I think you can buy all 3 as a one-time purchase). Anyway FCR's reports are limited and don't show drop off dates, only show the last 2 years of history, don't show soft inquiries, and incorrectly identify bad or good accounts. If you do use that service, be sure to ignore the FAKO score, the advice, and how they label good/bad accounts. I still recommend pulling from annualcreditreport.

BTW, freecreditreport has all of those funny jingles, singing waiters, etc. The FTC has come down pretty hard on them for mimicking the annualcreditreport name and respond with their own parody:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ0xsF5XWfo

I will throw out that there are some credit monitoring services out there that claim to be free but aren't or offer a free trial. Some of these services are good for monitoring your credit on an ongoing basis. I've used FCR for that purpose before. Just ignore the scores and advice.

Example letters - PFDs, GWs, DVs, etc.

I don't know what's on your reports, but PFDs are for unpaid baddies. GWs are for paid baddies. PFDs go to whomever reports the bad debt balance. GWs go to whomever reports a paid balance.

[Anonymous]

llecs thank you soo much man. i had no clue. i guess when your 24 and vulnerable like me you think each service does the same purpose but i guess not. if you would have ask me i would have told you they were the same. going to try and get their report now hopefully im sucessful

[Anonymous]

I would seriously consider doing more research on BoA. As you will find out..they are far from the best places to put your money. Although i am in finacial distress due to circumstances beyond my control, I do know enough to put your money in a place with the least 'fees'. You may want to check into some online investment banks like this one http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/accounts_products/accounts  

“But I don’t want to use an online bank.” Some people will balk at using Schwab because it’s an online bank. That’s fine, but I urge you to reconsider: It’s rare to find a checking account that (1) avoids screwing you at every turn, and (2) actually rewards you for using them. Hope this helps. Good Luck!