My credit is a mess and need help deciding best method for quick score boost

[bott6698]

I can understand where it has been an issue with credit a lot in my life but it is not on purpose.

I have been dealt a bad situation after bad situation. I bought a home and credit was really doing well

then found out the home was full of toxic mold and we lost everything we owned. Had to use credit cards to survive

then a business person stole $200,000.00 from my company. This totally destroyed me and I won a judgement that meant

nothing because they owed millions to others. In the end I lost everything and I was very lucky to bounce back and not make

my credit even worse. But now I need to get it higher unfortunately.

Rental Kharma told me they report to TU and EQ now. I have average age accounts now of 3 years so a 1 year boost of rent can't hurt.

It might not help but I am trying. I did not have as much luck with CA as I hoped and an attorney on LVNV settled for $979 on

$1,303.00 but at least I did something. Each month I plan to pay off each CA and CO to eventually have them all cleared but it is one step at a time. I will update my scores after Rental Kharma adds to my accounts and the CA drops and let you guys know what happened.

Not sure what else I can do at this point except wait. 

[designated_knitter]

That's terrific in terms of getting one collection settled! Every bit helps and you go one step at a time and one dollar at a time!

Please do let us know how Rental Kharma turns out!  

I wish you nothing but the best!

Cheers!

[chijo]

Maybe it would help to look for a small landlord who may be more flexible. Any time a realtor or property management company gets involved they seem to be more difficult to deal with due to more "policies" being involved. More people and entities to cover their legal behinds, etc. In this area the affordable housing is mostly owned by smaller mom and pop type landlords who only own a few properties. Once the management companies moved in big time rents were higher and rules got much miore strict regarding what epopel needed to qualify. Yet people are still renting with very bad credit and low incomes in this region. (STL area)

[HowDoesThisAllWork]

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@bott6698 wrote:

EQ 542 TU 548 EX 555

I am trying to rent a new home and my score needs to get to 580.

Please let me know what are the best methods and each step I should take to get my score to 580 by

the next credit report?  All my Tradelines are below. 

Accounts:

Fingerhut balance $136  Web financing not a credit card

American Credit Acceptance-My Jeep

paid or paying as agreed but 30 days late six times or more

Bridgecrest Credit-My car

paid or paying as agreed and never late

Amex-Chargeoff 2018 $1,170.00

Amex-Chargeoff 2018 $2,133.00

Discover-Chargeoff 2021 $1,200.00

Collections:

Midland Funding-Capital One $1,258.00 and I believe a default judgement was just awarded

against me.

Midland Credit Management-Credit One Bank $1,733.00

LVNV Funding-Credit One Bank $1,403.00 

No public records and no Bktpcy

@bott6698 

The charge-offs are a HUGE problem.  They are hitting you - and hitting you hard - in the two most important "categories" of the FICO score algorithm:  Payment history (35% of score) and credit utilization (30% of score).

A charge-off is a simple accounting term that the lendor (aka, Financial Institution) uses to designate that they have essentially given up attempting to collect the debt (that you legally still owe).  These amounts count against your credit utilization (which is 30% of your FICO scores) - and hit especially hard as they are usually 100+% - and they are also a series of late payments (typically, a credit card will need six consequtive missed payments before it reaches the "Charge-Off" status.....so, that typically means that you have six late payments per charge-off).

So, in the credit world that are a total of 12 credit profiles - eight clean profiles and four dirty profiles.  You currently seem to have the 'delinquent' side of the dirty profiles covered (with the Charge-Offs and the collections).  However, if there was indeed a judgement against you, that brings you over to the "Public Record" side.  Possibly a score drop there (not trying to be the bearer of bad news, but that is likely to happen).

I would do this:

1.  Contact each of the charge-off parties and attempt to enter into an agreement with each.  It is IMPERATIVE that whatever you agree to do that you do.  You get one shot at this (typically).

2.  Contact each of the collection accounts and attempt to enter into an agreement with each.

I beleive that both Midland Credit and LNVN will do a Pay for Delete.  Make sure to discuss that.  Do not "demand" that they put that in writing as most CAs will not do that.  They really can not as that would provide evidence that they are breaking their agreement.  Companies do not have to report things, but if they do report things then that reporting needs to be accurate.  So, you pretty much need to agree to the terms and then keep your end of the bargain and trust that they will, too.

3.  I might ask Jeep if they could/would do a kindness and remove some - if not all - of the 30-day late payments.  If they will not do all of them, but will do some of them, then ask if they would be so kind as to remove the most recent late payment hits.

I wish you the best.  I am sure that things look tough right now.  Work out agreements with all of the Financial Institutions as best you can.  For the Collections accounts - how old are they?  I ask because the older they are the more likely that you might be able to strike a bargain with the CA.  They paid pennies on the dollar....so you paying, say 30% of the current total, might be of interest.  If not so old, maybe 60% of the current total?

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