New and in need of help

[Anonymous]

Hi.  I am new. 

My husband and I are looking to rent a townhouse in a decent development in about 8 months.  Our current landlord is a friend so he did not run a credit report.  

I pulled my EQ 2 months ago and my score was 645 (not great, but 3 years ago it was below 400  ) I pulled it again this morning and it was 491!  aaarrgggg.  I do know why.  Our util is at 98% right now.  I am currently sending double the minimum to all of the CC's (together we have 4. 2 ours, 1 his and 1 mine).  I plan on using our tax refund to pay off the rest.  

Using the score simultor here, it said by paying off the CC's my score would jump to 661-690.  

I am off on a tanget...

Looking at my report, I have a few items on there that I have no clue what they are or who they came from.  

It says I have an HSBC account past due for $43xx.xx!!!  We have an HSBC card currently that has a $300 limit and that is the only time we have had one.  

There are several collection accounts where the collection agency is "180yc16283" How on Earth am I supposed to know who this is to find out if this debt is legit or not?" 

I am so confused.  I know just by paying off our CC's it will push us into the "OK" category.  Most of the bad ones on my report are 4+ years old and we have paid everything on time since then.  

I blame our crappy credit on being young and stupid, but being stupid is no ones fault but our own and we are paying for it dearly.  I need to pull my husband's report but he has to contact myFICO to fix his accunt log-in issues.  

*sigh*  Can anyone help?

[Anonymous]

Pull your free CR once a year from all 3 CBs. www.annualcreditreport.com  Do not pay for scores here.

You can only get FICO scores for TU and EQ here. But the CR is a 3rd party puller and is not a complete report.

180yc16283...............might be medical and you will see complete info on a CR pulled direct from CBs.

If they are medical collections remember they are not handled the same as other collections.

Your UTIL is way to high and will continue to hurt your scores.

CCs should be below 10%

Is the account # for HSBC the same as what you do have?

[Anonymous]

I know our uti is way too high, working on that.

The HSBC item on my CR is not listed.  

I cannot pull my free report until September.  

[Anonymous]

First off breath relax and search your butt off!

1. dont call or talk on the phone to anybody you owe! This is IMPORTANT get everything in writing.

2. You should dispute any thing that is not yours by wrinting dispute letters that you can find here and sending them to the CRA's via CM.

3. as for paying things off send a PFD letter to anybody you plan to pay off via CMRR and hope that they will accept, a few will only if you pay first but get it in writing.

another tip is to do search here for the CA's that you owe and see what luck others have had with them.

[Anonymous]

I just pulled a report straight from EQ and I can see the names of the agencies.  HSBC has me listed 3 times with 3 account numbers only one of which is mine. 

*sigh* 

Getting ready to draft a whole bunch of letters.  

[Anonymous]

Still trying to figure out how to "quote".

OK.  So about 6 out of 10 collections are all medical.  Strange as it sounds, this is good news.  The leasing office we will be working wth does not look at medical or student loans.   Only large collections (the HSBC one I need to get figured out). 

We have 24 months of perfect rental history (never a late payment and we have been great tenants), no other debt aside from CC's which will be paid off.  The leasing agent said that they don't look at scores, just large collections, evictions, foreclosures and bankruptcies.  We have none of those.  Im feeling a little better. 

[MarineVietVet]

I blame our crappy credit on being young and stupid

You don't have to be young to do stupid things. We've all been there. If you stay in contact with the good people in these forums and work hard and realize there are few quick solutions you'll get there.

Good luck to you.

7/09
TU-742
EQ-779

Time can heal all wounds and a low FICO.
"Hello my name is Sandy and I'm a recovering crediholic".

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have experience with Saferent? 

Im losing hope again.  This is depressing. LOL

[Anonymous]

You Lose hope You Lose! so keep your head up. just take it slow. do a search in the forum for saferent. who is saferent?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
You Lose hope You Lose! so keep your head up. just take it slow. do a search in the forum for saferent. who is saferent?

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Saferent is a reporting agency that landlords/rental complexes use.  Mainly to check for evictions, etc. I hate being disappointed and I really want to move.  We are a family of 5 living in a 650sq ft, 2bedroom house. We can get a 3 bedroom, 1250 sq ft house for the same rent.  

My husband pulled his TU and his score on that was 596. Ugh.