Trying to Rebuild Credit

[Anonymous]

Good Morning, I am a 30-year-old adult trying to learn how to rebuild my credit, but I am very confused and discouraged.

When I was 18 years old I got a credit card offer from Bank Of America when I opened my first bank account and that's what started all of my credit problems. Being dumb and clueless about credit I charged the whole $500.00 and never paid it back.(First Mistake). Then as I got a little bit older I did the same thing with a few other credit cards.

I have started the journey to regain my creditworthiness, however, I am extremely confused. I have about 8 Collections accounts with about 4 of them being Medical Bills. The others are odd things like old cellphone bills. 

Over the last year, I have had three good standing credit accounts. A discover account (Secured), Toyota Finance Account (Extremely High Payment) and an Indago Credit Card Account ($300 limit). on these accounts, I have always paid in full and have never missed a payment since the card was opened a year ago. 

Currently, myFICO Score 8 scores are as followed: Equifax (582) TransUnion (602) and Experian (604). However, when I look at Credit Karma VantageScore 3 scores they look totally different TransUnion (589) Equifax (590).

I don't know what else I can do at this point and I am very frustrated. I have also been paying $149 a month to Lexington Law which I don't think is helping much. 

Sorry for the long post. I am desperate and need advice. 

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Good Morning, I am a 30-year-old adult trying to learn how to rebuild my credit, but I am very confused and discouraged.

When I was 18 years old I got a credit card offer from Bank Of America when I opened my first bank account and that's what started all of my credit problems. Being dumb and clueless about credit I charged the whole $500.00 and never paid it back.(First Mistake). Then as I got a little bit older I did the same thing with a few other credit cards.

I have started the journey to regain my creditworthiness, however, I am extremely confused. I have about 8 Collections accounts with about 4 of them being Medical Bills. The others are odd things like old cellphone bills. 

Over the last year, I have had three good standing credit accounts. A discover account (Secured), Toyota Finance Account (Extremely High Payment) and an Indago Credit Card Account ($300 limit). on these accounts, I have always paid in full and have never missed a payment since the card was opened a year ago. 

Currently, myFICO Score 8 scores are as followed: Equifax (582) TransUnion (602) and Experian (604). However, when I look at Credit Karma VantageScore 3 scores they look totally different TransUnion (589) Equifax (590).

I don't know what else I can do at this point and I am very frustrated. I have also been paying $149 a month to Lexington Law which I don't think is helping much. 

Sorry for the long post. I am desperate and need advice. 

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You need to do something with those collections, they are the elephant in the room

Medical collections are some of the easiest to get removed from your CRs, here are the steps that you should follow to address them:

1. Call the OC and see if insurance can be billed, (or-rebilled), collections ultimately paid by insurance get removed per new rules that came from CRAs settlement with 22 state AGs. If not then
2. see if you qualify for Charity Care, if not then
3.  ask that they recall the collection in exchange for full payment
4. Send the reporting CA a PFD offer
5. Google the HIPAA Process and contact its creator for help, this process cannot be discussed in any forum of myFico.

For the other collections not medical you want to use the PFD

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/PFD-Q-amp-A-Examples-and-PFD-Success-Stories/td-p/2031275

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/PFD-Example-Letter/td-p/4519

You need one more revolving CC to help boost your Fico and I would use AZEO to help raise your score, this is where you use the cards but pay them off prior to statement cut and let only one card report a very small balance of less than 9% of its individual CL. I would also cancel LL they cannot more than you can do for yourself, all they do is send dispute letters and when they update and remain they keep your Fico from recovering, this is why you want to get the PFD and if you cannot at least settle them to stop that monthly update. Welcome to the board

[Remedios]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Good Morning, I am a 30-year-old adult trying to learn how to rebuild my credit, but I am very confused and discouraged.

When I was 18 years old I got a credit card offer from Bank Of America when I opened my first bank account and that's what started all of my credit problems. Being dumb and clueless about credit I charged the whole $500.00 and never paid it back.(First Mistake). Then as I got a little bit older I did the same thing with a few other credit cards.

I have started the journey to regain my creditworthiness, however, I am extremely confused. I have about 8 Collections accounts with about 4 of them being Medical Bills. The others are odd things like old cellphone bills. 

Over the last year, I have had three good standing credit accounts. A discover account (Secured), Toyota Finance Account (Extremely High Payment) and an Indago Credit Card Account ($300 limit). on these accounts, I have always paid in full and have never missed a payment since the card was opened a year ago. 

Currently, myFICO Score 8 scores are as followed: Equifax (582) TransUnion (602) and Experian (604). However, when I look at Credit Karma VantageScore 3 scores they look totally different TransUnion (589) Equifax (590).

I don't know what else I can do at this point and I am very frustrated. I have also been paying $149 a month to Lexington Law which I don't think is helping much. 

Sorry for the long post. I am desperate and need advice. 

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For non medical collections, you will need to pay/settle them 

On that cell phone collection, call the phone company and ask if they will recall collection in the exchange for payment.  

If you list collection agencies, we might be able to tell you which ones will delete upon payment (PFD). 

For medical collections, here is a suggestion by gdale on how to handle those 

1. Call the OC and see if insurance can be billed, (or-rebilled), collections ultimately paid by insurance get removed per new rules that came from CRAs settlement with 22 state AGs. If not then
2. see if you qualify for Charity Care, if not then
3.  ask that they recall the collection in exchange for full payment
4. Send the reporting CA a PFD offer
5. Google the HIPAA Process and contact its creator for help, this process cannot be discussed in any forum of myFico

Stay current with your good accounts. Make sure you never come close to being late. 

Pay no attention to Vantage scores. For the most part, they are not used for lending. Sites providing them are useful for monitoring your reports only.

Also, pay no attention to their card recommendations. Their money comes from peddling cards and other products. 

One last thing, stop paying Lexington Law and put that money towards paying collections. 

There is nothing they can do for you that you cant do yourself. 

Good luck