Possible help

[Anonymous]

So I've been creeping on this site for the past few months looking at improving my credit and believe it or not my credit has gone up from a 345 to a 531 in the past 6 months. So some background when I was in high school I got a credit card, being young and stupid I was like oh hey free money! Maxed it out, never paid it went to collections. Fell off my record, then I let some other things slip into collections being military I went through some hard struggles. My wife and I got married I gunked her credit too. I can admit my credit problems are my doing, and I have been working hard to get my score up. I was just wondering if anyone can help with what else I can do, I have 3 accounts in collection but they refuse to send me proof of the debt, one of the companies is IQ data which I've never read anything good about. I have about $2300 in unsecured debt. One being which a military star card I pay that on time(have some late payments from 3 years ago) and I have a capital one Mastercard(unsecured opened 2 months ago), I try to keep both down. Now it's hard to get it all fixed as I explained I'm military so i don't roll in the dough. Before any military ask I had an ex who had my social opened a navy fed account on my behalf and overdrew that, (she got into drugs, thus leading to her being an ex), I haven't gotten my score on here yet, (waiting til after the holidays). But Credit Karma doesn't, show any negative from NFCU so should I try going there again? I have tried getting a secure card from capital one, and Discover, (read those were good ones) and got denied by both, my wife works part-time in retail and we are fixing the mistakes I created on her credit. Anyone have any advice? I have finally become an adult after 26 years and I learned credit is super important... should I try to get put on as an authorized user on a family members account to help my score increase? Any advice would help thanks.

[Pikaboo-icu]

Thank you for your service!  

And welcome to My Fico..  

The first things I would suggest is to get all your credit reports and your scores.

That way you can see exactly where you're at.

Free reports: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action

Reports AND scores for $1 (cancel prior to 7 days to avoid additional charges) https://www.creditchecktotal.com/homepage8

If you can get back with NFCU- that would be insanely good but before you contact them, you should see where your scores & baddies are at. 

For your collections; You should be able to work out smaller settlements with the collectors, 25-30% is common.

Contact them and ask for pay for delete, they may or may not but it doesn't hurt to ask. Depending on the CA some are willing to delete after payment.

Try the snowball method; Start with the smallest debt, pay it off, on to the next in size.

I'm sure others will have some advice for you as well.

Keep plugging away at it- it can only get better from here..

[Anonymous]

So to verify if I have a collection for 315, offer 79(25%) as a settlement and pay for delete? Sorry for the newbie questions

[Pikaboo-icu]

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@Anonymous wrote:
So to verify if I have a collection for 315, offer 79(25%) as a settlement and pay for delete? Sorry for the newbie questions

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Yes, along those lines..

On that collection, I would offer them $100. to settle and/or ask them if they will delete once it's paid.

If they wont delete, a paid collection is still better than an unpaid one. 

[Anonymous]

Awesome thank you!

[Pikaboo-icu]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Awesome thank you!

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No worries, everyone here is happy to help & answer any questions (as long as we are able).

We all started somewhere, ya know. Most of us have been in your shoes err boots and that's how we ended up here..

Now we're just paying it forward. 

Good Luck! 

[gdale6]

I would check with local CUs about getting a share secured card or even possibly an unsecured starter card. CUs are more willing to help out. I would also get an Open Sky Secured as they dont check your credit for approval. Once you get 6 months of good payments under your belt then hit up Cap-1 again. You need 3 open revolvers to drive your Fico score. Welcome to the board