First Time Here & Looking for Assist

[Anonymous]

First off Hello to all on this site, good to see so many also looking for answers or help.  I've been reading about improving your credit and wondering if anyone can give me a little assistance.  We had hard times, but for right now we have picked ourselves up by our bootstraps and are on the right track.  We have been on time with our mortgage since December 2008(went from rolling 60 to rolling 30 to on time over the last 2 years), paid off all collection accounts in March 2009, the one vehicle loan, since April 2006, that  we have has always paid on time and no credit cards.  Haven't had credit cards for over 6 years now.  Our scores as of March 31st, were around the 550 range.  Any idea if we don't change anything about how long it takes to get your scores up to a descent range?

[Anonymous]

When you mention collections, are you talking about accounts reported by the CA? If so, start sending GW letters seeing if you can get them to remove. Otherwise, they'll remain for up to 7 1/2 years from DOFD.

After you've paid about a year on your mortgage on time, try GW'ing them.

With good payment history and as the lates age, you'll slowly begin to increase. It will take some time, but the more collections you can get GW'd off, the better.

Do you have charged off/collections reported by the OC?

If you haven't yet, pull your free annual reports-- see link below.

Also, where did you get your scores?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply sidewinder, but I have a couple of questions.  First, yes to your question about CA's.  They were all medical bills, but what does "GW" mean?  They were all through the same collection agency, as we are a small town and they stated they would send me paid off letters this month.  I have no charged off collections, I paid everything.  Though I do have some older ones that I paid off about 4 years ago, that still show up on there.  I got my credit scores from purchasing them from My Fico.

[Anonymous]

If they are medical bills, follow the HIPAA process, you can find it over on the "Recovering from Medical Debt" board-- see link below.

GW = Goodwill

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for the information, yes all were medical bills only.  Just got home for lunch and, as promised, I just got all my letters for each medical provider in the mail showing paid in full.  When I paid for my fico information the end of March they all showed 0 balance.

[Anonymous]

I'm going to move this thread over to the Recovering from Medical Debt board.

Read this thread and post the information it ask for as a reply to this and someone will help you out on your next steps.

[fused]

Welcome to the forums, raisescore!

Lets see if we can get your paid med collections deleted from your reports. First things first, have you had a chance to read the medical collections and HIPAA letter process link in my sig line?