Where do I start?! :-(

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

I am a single mom to a 5-yr old, and the last 5 years have been very tough financially. When I was married (5 years ago), I made the very stupid decision to finance all our major purchases in my name (his credit was horrible, my FICO at the time was around 700). I am seriously paying for it now, with several negative items on my credit report, including a Cash Call judgement.

I am finally in a position where I am making decent money, and am beginning to pay down these debts. I am going to send "pay for delete" requests to creditors, dispute anything I can, monitor my score closely, pay everything on time, etc. I really want to buy a house within the next couple of years, so I am very serious about this.

The last time I pulled my score (September), it was 462 (embarassing). I don't know which credit reporting agency that was from, I think I just pulled it from myfico.com (is this site associated with one of the 3)?

I know I sound really naive to all of this, and it's because I am. I don't really know where to start. Should I pull all 3 scores again as a starting point? If so, what is the best resource for this?

Any tips you could offer would be MUCH appreciated. It seems like almost everyone on this site has been in a similar place (needing to boost their score), so I would really love your input.

Thanks so much in advance!! :-)

[RobertEG]

Welcome to the forums!

Where to start?

I suggest you begin by putting your score aside for awhile, and focus only on your credit reports.

I would begin by going to annualcreditreport.com and pulling your three CRs from each CRA.  That site is the official government-sanctioned site for consumers to get their free annual credit reports.  It is not a commericial ripoff site, and is truly free as long as you dont purchase any credit scores while on the site.

Lay out your CRs, and compare any differences in information reported to each of the CRAs.

Then focus on your credit report, not in terms of accounts, but in terms of each delinquency reported.  Make a list of all delinquencies, by date of occurance and type of delinquency.  Cleaning up old delinquencies usually gets the most score improvement.

Record an extra date for each collection and charge-off.  That date is called the DOFD, or date of first delinquency, which is the first date in the most recent chain of delinquencies on that OC account prior to the charge-off or collection.  It will usually be the 30-date late in the last chain of delinquencies.

Once you have a chart recording all of those delinquencies by date and type of severity, come back to the forum for specfic advice on how to address each.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Robert!! I have just pulled all 3 reports and will begin to put together the information.

One question - when considering the "7 years" that a negative item can remain on your credit report - do they go by the date it was originally reported, the date it was opened, or the date it was last reported?

Thanks again.

[RobertEG]

Actually, none of the above.  The statutory date is the date of actual occurance of the adverse item, not the date of reporting.

With respect to monthly delinquencies, it can get confusing.  The OC is not required to report each delinquency, or to report it in the same month that it occurs.  They can, for example, forgo the reporting of a 30-late, and first report a 60-late.  So the date of first delinquency is often not apparent from your payment history profile, or the current status.

For practical review of your CR, just assume that any monthly delinquency occured for the month reported, which is what they are supposed to report.  Add 7 years to the date of profile history reporting of each, and that is its credit report exclusion date within a month of accuracy.

However, when reviewing the date of exclusion of either a charge-off or collection, you need the DOFD on the OC account.  That technically is the date that is one day after the due date of the first billing statement that was not timely paid.  That is often not reflected in your monthly delinquency profile.  To provide the CRA with the accurate DOFD on a collection or charge-off, the FCRA requires that it be separately provided to the CRA within 90 days of any reporting of a collection or charge-off.  YOu often cannot determine the actual DOFD from the credit report being viewed, but can approximate it by using the first 30-day late in the last chain of delinquency prior to the CO or collection.

[Anonymous]

Conrats on making the decision to work on your financial freedom!!!!

The one tip that i can offer you is to realize that this is a process. You have DEF come to the right place as far as support and knowledgeable input. Everyone here is fantastic! But credit repair is not an overnight fix. It will take time, patience, and a bit of stalking when it comes to pay for deletes and things like that (lol). But you are not alone, you can climb as high on the FICO chart as youd like with everyone here cheering you on

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Conrats on making the decision to work on your financial freedom!!!!

The one tip that i can offer you is to realize that this is a process. You have DEF come to the right place as far as support and knowledgeable input. Everyone here is fantastic! But credit repair is not an overnight fix. It will take time, patience, and a bit of stalking when it comes to pay for deletes and things like that (lol). But you are not alone, you can climb as high on the FICO chart as youd like with everyone here cheering you on

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Thank you!!

Yes, I completely understand it takes time. My goal is to qualify for a home by the end of 2013, so hopefully I am taking the right steps to make it happen by then! If it takes a little more time, that's okay, I know I am heading in the right direction. And I know exactly where my tax refund is going! ;-)

Okay, so I have 6 delinquences on my credit that have not yet been paid, 5 delinquencies that were settled back in 2009, 4 delinquencies that were sold to another collection agency, and 3 delinquencies that were paid and closed.

I also have one judgement which I am currently paying off through monthly installments. My last installment is in April. Is there any way to remove this judgement from my credit report once it has been paid? If so, what steps should I take to do this? It's for a Cash Call loan that I took out 2 years ago, and I HATE that it's on my credit report. To be honest with you, I didn't even know that Cash Call reported to the CRAs. I thought it was a payday loan company.

I sent out deletion letters last night to the ones I still owe money to - asking them to send an agreement to delete the item from my credit if I pay it off (well, I offered a 50% settlement on each).

I can't believe I didn't find these forums sooner!!! You guys are awesome, and thank you!!

[p-]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi everyone,

I am a single mom to a 5-yr old, and the last 5 years have been very tough financially. When I was married (5 years ago), I made the very stupid decision to finance all our major purchases in my name (his credit was horrible, my FICO at the time was around 700). I am seriously paying for it now, with several negative items on my credit report, including a Cash Call judgement.

I am finally in a position where I am making decent money, and am beginning to pay down these debts. I am going to send "pay for delete" requests to creditors, dispute anything I can, monitor my score closely, pay everything on time, etc. I really want to buy a house within the next couple of years, so I am very serious about this.

The last time I pulled my score (September), it was 462 (embarassing). I don't know which credit reporting agency that was from, I think I just pulled it from myfico.com (is this site associated with one of the 3)?

I know I sound really naive to all of this, and it's because I am. I don't really know where to start. Should I pull all 3 scores again as a starting point? If so, what is the best resource for this?

Any tips you could offer would be MUCH appreciated. It seems like almost everyone on this site has been in a similar place (needing to boost their score), so I would really love your input.

Thanks so much in advance!! :-)

---

Welcome to the forum...  Most of us found this place because of similar situations, and a real desire to make a change.  First and best advice - read up and learn all you can, go over all the sticky's at the top of each forum that explains scoring and repair tactics, and soak up anecdotal information from others who have been though the same thing.

Simply put, your credit score is a measure of how likely you are to pay on time if you borrow money, based on your history of previous committments.  The best way to improve it is to pay on time, all the time.  Start by taking a hard look at your monthly budget and get organized.  Make sure that from today forward you never miss another payment.  Live tight so you can pay down any credit cards (learn about how utilization affects your score), and save up money to pay off outstanding debts.

Go to annualcreditreport.com and get all 3 free reports.  Make a list of all derogatory accounts and their dates of first delinquency, as well as late payments.  List them on a spreadsheet and start with the most recent derog.  Use DV and PFD for collection agencies, and GW letters to get rid of late payments.  Work your way back to the oldest items until your report is as clean as possible.

Then, look at your credit picture.  If you have credit cards, manage them well, keep utilization at 3-9%.  If you have no cards, get added as an AU if possible, and apply for a secured or subprime like Orchard.  

The judgement is a problem - you have to get it paid if it's not already...  and look into different ways to get it removed.  Sometimes if you have full payment you can negotiate to get it vacated.  Read up on that.

Take it one bite at a time, and good luck!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Conrats on making the decision to work on your financial freedom!!!!

The one tip that i can offer you is to realize that this is a process. You have DEF come to the right place as far as support and knowledgeable input. Everyone here is fantastic! But credit repair is not an overnight fix. It will take time, patience, and a bit of stalking when it comes to pay for deletes and things like that (lol). But you are not alone, you can climb as high on the FICO chart as youd like with everyone here cheering you on

---

Thank you!!

Yes, I completely understand it takes time. My goal is to qualify for a home by the end of 2013, so hopefully I am taking the right steps to make it happen by then! If it takes a little more time, that's okay, I know I am heading in the right direction. And I know exactly where my tax refund is going! ;-)

Okay, so I have 6 delinquences on my credit that have not yet been paid, 5 delinquencies that were settled back in 2009, 4 delinquencies that were sold to another collection agency, and 3 delinquencies that were paid and closed.

I also have one judgement which I am currently paying off through monthly installments. My last installment is in April. Is there any way to remove this judgement from my credit report once it has been paid? If so, what steps should I take to do this? It's for a Cash Call loan that I took out 2 years ago, and I HATE that it's on my credit report. To be honest with you, I didn't even know that Cash Call reported to the CRAs. I thought it was a payday loan company.

I sent out deletion letters last night to the ones I still owe money to - asking them to send an agreement to delete the item from my credit if I pay it off (well, I offered a 50% settlement on each).

I can't believe I didn't find these forums sooner!!! You guys are awesome, and thank you!!

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I would try to send GOODWILL requests for these accounts. They may take them off sooner than scheduled f you ask, search letter examples here. I actually just had one accepted

[RobertEG]

Giving yourself the lead-time in cleaning up your CR before mortgage application is important.

One important factor will be what the mortgage lendor will require when you do apply.  Some will require payment of all delinquent debt as a condition for final approval, and others will also require that they were paid prior to a year ago.  Whatever their criteria might be, I suggest you have an informal discussion with a potential mortgage lendor now so that you can use their requirements as a guideline for your repair efforts.  PFDs, for example, may take months to resolve, and if continually not accepted, may force payment without CR deletion.  Is score more important to your lendor than showing payment?

[Anonymous]

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@RobertEG wrote:

Giving yourself the lead-time in cleaning up your CR before mortgage application is important.

One important factor will be what the mortgage lendor will require when you do apply.  Some will require payment of all delinquent debt as a condition for final approval, and others will also require that they were paid prior to a year ago.  Whatever their criteria might be, I suggest you have an informal discussion with a potential mortgage lendor now so that you can use their requirements as a guideline for your repair efforts.  PFDs, for example, may take months to resolve, and if continually not accepted, may force payment without CR deletion.  Is score more important to your lendor than showing payment?

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Thanks Robert, that's a great idea. :-)