For anyone new here that thinks that all the work repairing your credit is "maybe" not worth all the time and effort, WELL HERE IS A NEW MOTIVATOR.

Who knows this may end up in the Success Stories area!

I joined Credit boards last Feb/2004. I had been denied for an auto loan from a dealer and got a LOAN SHARK loan from a small dealership, I had, had it and I needed to do something about whatever it was that was bringing me down in the credit world.

I had no Idea what I was doing when I started. YES I had attempted a few disputes over the years with the nasty 3, but never got anywhere. Heck I thought a "Credit Score" was the same as a FICO!

Upon joining CB I, like most other Noobs started asking questions w/o reading much (boooo) My one question was answered THEN I was directed to the Noob section where I READ AND READ AND READ, and then I lurked in the forums. After a bit I started pulling all three CR's and to my surprise there were TONS of errors! That fact along with my Chapt 7 BK was killing me!

Starting a new credit life: I removed all the old personal info as directed by the VET's here and the war with the CA and CRA's began!! Some baddies fell off in the first few months! I was charged! Then, I just kept up with Privacy Guard and many disputes and monitoring my credit files. which brings me to today.....

Then:Feb 2004
Chap 7 BK about 6.5 yrs old then
One CC "Orchard" CRAZY APR and $59.00 a year for the card its self (ewwwwww)
Hit Man/Loan shark auto loan 14%
Mortgage 10.5% interest
Many, many errors in personal info on all 3 reports
Numerous IIB (included in BK) accounts some still showing as a CO!!
about a billion Inquiries from loan apps
Government overpayment from the ARMY showing as a GOV DEBT KILLED ME! big time
Total lack of good credit knowledge or any credit knowledge at all!

One year later..March 2005
Chap 7 GONE off TWO CR!!!
TransUnion 100% clean FICO 720
Equifax 99% clean FICO 701 (two OLD 30 lates show)
Experian 89% clean FICO 688 (BK still showing & a unk CO AFNI!)
Mortgage 5.2 on refi Payments went WAY DOWN
Inquiries WAY DOWN only 2 on TU!!
Personal Info 95% fix with EX being the stick in the mud!!
Government OP GONE nothing showing
HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT: 25,000 4.5% APR Woot!!
USAA auto loan REFINANCE 5% payments went way down!! I did not even ask they sent the pre approval for a $50,000 Auto Loan!!<--outstanding!
Now I am helping others here with my experiences and achievements!

AND HERE IS THE REASON I WROTE "MY" STORY

PRIME CARDS AQUIRED IN THE LAST 2 WEEKS:
CHASE Cash Builder PLATINUM $8,000
Chase Travel Rewards PLATINUM TODAY!! $1,500 (TODAY!)
Patleco VISA PLATINUM $5,000 (TODAY!)
USAA PLATINUM $4000
PENTAGON FED CREDIT UNION MC PLATINUM TRAVEL REWARDS $8000 (TODAY)<--denied 1 month ago! BK was showing then!!
PROVIDIAN PLATINUM $3000 <--prime? has a good rate?
I think im missing one too???

My point is ITS ALL WORTH IT, the time, late nights writing letters, all the certified mail fees and so on!!! So I say loud and clear, hang in there and you too will be where I am and far beyond..

BEST OF LUCK TO ALL HERE!!!!! and I know your sick of hearing it but

THANKS CREDITBOARDS and all it's MEMBERS!!!

And thank you, recruiting for sticking around to try and help the next guy. I haven't had much time the past few months, but I think it's important to share the load of newbie questions, we've all been there.

Great job!

You are my hero! One day I'll be right there with you.

CT

P.S. Parrotheads rule!

WAAAAYYY TO GOOOOO!! Very inspiring. Thanks for sharing!!

Congrats on your success.

Your story is an inspiration to everybody here.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAH!

Very inspirational story. Thank you for sharing.

Congrats to you!!!

And I "ain't" done yet!!

recruiting - you DA MAN! WTG big guy! You gave me the motivation to get through one more frustrating day with this stuff... yesterday I was getting ready to sue TU but today I'm ready to hang in there and work through this. One year to credit glory is my goal now, and you showed it can happen! Thanks

WAY TO GO!!!!!!!

Congrats!

P.S. When you get the PenFed travel card, would you please post the details from the fine print about how the miles program works? I've been dying to know the rules and how many points you need for what.

Awesome story and truly inspirational to me!! Congrats on all the new money!!

Thank you thank you, my shoe box will be filled with these new cards!! Transfering 99% of my store cards to a 0%APR card!! It's a fun process!!

To All, thanks for the kind words AND being sent to the SUCESS STORIES SECTION!! <taking a bow!!>

That is awesome! You will be getting some PM's from me. You have done a wonderful job! I hope to be right behind you some day!

Jump on the train there is PLENTY of room. I looked at my approvals and still can't believe it..

BoA told me to fly a kite though, AND THATS MY BANK!!!!!!!! ROFL!

They pulled the dredded EXPERIAN..!

Congratulations.....I'm so jealous!!!!!

Thanks for the congrats!

You have been a member since May 04 and only ONE POST!!! You need to come more often, JOIN US and grow your credit success!!

Trust me It can be done!

AND YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!!

Thanks. I hadn't been that active looking in the website until a week ago. I promised myself that I was goint to work onmy credit and DWs as well. Let's see how it goes.

Thanks again for the encouragement.

Well Ralph thanks for reading my story!!! Glad your back!

Thanks for sharing your success. I too am a VET. I have an old Navy overpayment that is the lone blemish on my reports. I would be interested in what methods you used to clear yours up. I am a Newbie on the board and just now beginning to read all the posts and FAQ's.

Any info you can share with me would be highly appreciated.

Thanks

Thanks for reading, PM me and i'll tell you what I did..Just to let you know I am paying...

great story

Thanks for reading it.. I hope it shows it CAN be done!!

Wow, I'm inspired. I really need to get more active in this thing. I still pretty clueless. Hey can you answer a question for me? I checked two of my reports and I don't see an old credit card I maxed out when I was a freshman in college in '91. I never even made a payment! I wantted to contact them and pay it off but it doesn't show. I'm afraid that if I contact them and inquire about it my credit will be ruined. Is it because of the SOL? Is it gone and forgotten or will it pop up some day when I try to buy a house? What should I do?

Sorry for not making this a new topic but that feature is not available to me.

Wow, I'm inspired. I really need to get more active in this thing. I am still pretty clueless. Hey, can you answer a few questions for me? I checked two of my reports and I don't see an old store credit card I maxed out when I was a freshman in college in '91. I never even made a payment! I wanted to contact them and pay it off but it doesn't show. I'm afraid that if I contact them and inquire about it my credit will be ruined. Is it because of the SOL? Is it gone and forgotten or will it pop up some day when I try to buy a house? What should I do?

Sorry for not making this a new topic but that feature is not available to me.

Thanks for reading my on going story!

As for that card, I would leave it alone. BUT, if it does ever pop up THEY will be S*it Out of Luck (SOL) on collecting it! It's old as the hills, I would not loooooose any sleep over it thats for sure..

Hey thanx for the reply.

Here is my story if your interested.

In the summer of 2003 I decided to go back to school and finish my degree. Since then I've been going mostly part-time as I was not eligible for financial aid. As I got down to my last few credits and could see the end in site, I decided to try for Law School. The thing was, I knew no one was going to cosign for me. I was on my own and with my credit the way it was, I was stuck. I bet my score was in the 500s or worse. Heck, I had just read that I probably would not be fit to sit for the bar with bad credit.

About 18 months ago I had two student loans in default, two cards maxed ($500.00 and $150) and forgotten from about 10 years+ ago, and a slew of little things like a final payment on an ab roller and never returned blockbuster movies (stolen).

The only good thing was that my credit was so bad that I was unable to &*^% it up any worse. At this point a collection agency was hounding my relatives and my boss trying to find me. Wanting to desperately try and clean up my credit or atleast get myself loan eligible, I bit the bullet and called the collection agency. I set up a payment/rehab plan.

I swear, w/in a week a second collection agency called me about my other student loan. I knew I was going to have to bite the bullet hard now! I set another payment/rehab for my remaining student loan debt.

Fast-forward 18 months, the rehabs are done and my other debts are SOL. My credit scores as of 1 week ago are:

trans 709
eqifax 734
exper 696

All my reports say 0 for baddies. The only thing I have is three inquiries from the last two years. I just got approved for a credit card w/ a $1000.00 limit. I am expecting to see my score go up even higher with this credit approval.

This credit thing is amazing.

My bad credit has worked to my advantage! My brother who has never had a problem with credit has 100,000 in student loan debt and I am going to graduate with less than 20! Hell in a year I'll probably have 20,000 in credit!

This is really insane and I just had to tell someone! My credit was so bad that it went from one extreme to the other. WOW!

UPDATE!
As of today I now have 2 VISAs and a Target store card. Total credit $4000. I just checked my experian and...(drum roll please)...746!

Not too shabby if I do say so myself.


shaz

Not too shabby at all, CONGRATZ! Keep going!!

Recruiting,

Have you gotten you last BK off yet?

To answer the question posted above YESI had not checked my reports for a few months, took a peek at them a few days ago and they are finally ALL GONE! EVERYTHING

ANOTHER WONDERFUL THING IS AFNI IS ALSO GONE, I AM 110% CLEAN I HAVE BEEN SAVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PRAISE CREDIT BOARDS AND IT'S MEMBERS!!!

HEY PAV, GLAD I COULD HELP YOU WITH USAAAAAAA and for me, THAT ALL SHE WROTE!!!

WOOT!!!!

Recruiting,

I am a new member and cannot PM as yet. Can you please tell me HOW you got the BK7 off your reports. I have a BK7 discharged in 5/99, and need help.

Thanks.

BTW, if you think YOUR auto loan was "loan shark/hit man," check out the interest rate I got stuck with . . . 23.99% (ouch!)

Sorry It took so long for my reply (I have no excuse! SUMMER????) Anyway, all I did was dispute, dispute and dispute again. (NOT MINE NOT MINE NOT MINE) One fine day I looked and BAM! they were falling off!

NOTE: There was a 6 month stretch when I did not dispute the BK's but then on the next round they started to fall off, one by one.

Not magic just determination!

WOW the the car loan you have has me beat! REFI if you can...

Thanks for reading and GREAT LUCK TO YA!!

Your hard work paid off! Congrats!

And it continues to pay off, Woot!!!

Thank you for reading!!

Recruiting,

Thank you for sharing your sweet success story. I too am in the military (Air Force) with an Government overpayment of $1234 reporting on all three credit reports. To which is was the gov's fault for the overpayment. If you do't mind can you school me on how you got the overpayments removed from your credit reports?

TIA
Kim

I will PM ya!!! Thx for reading!! AIM HIGH!!!

Hi ,
I used Lexington Law Firm for a year and they did help me remove several collections.I stopped using them a year ago.I have a paid judgement from 6/99 and I was wondering if you think I should dispute it.Or will it come off because the Sol is about to be satisfied.?

Outstanding job!!!!!! I hope to be where you are at in a year time.

Thanks for the inspiration. I joined here in 2004 right before my discharge. I wasn't active again until December 2005 due to being out of work and I just let my credit go, once again. But I am so inspired now. I just returned to work and for the past 2 months I have been writing like crazy and was beginning to get burnt out by the creditors, CRAs, collection agencies, etc. But I am on fire again. This is such an inspiration!

Preezie

CONGRATS!!

How did you continue disputing? I thought you can't or shouldn't dispute more than 2 or 3 times with a CRA? Also, did you continue this as online disputes, or only handwrite? About to redispute some CA for the 3rd time. But only for CA don't have a BK listed anymore!

I am happy for you! That is what happened to me. Until I saw some of the OLD ONES falling off I was no a happy camper, but then!

Today JUNE 13 2006, I am well into the 700's and loving my second chance at life!

Congrats!

Well my friend you thought wrong (thank god!) Some disputes will take longer than others, but they all eventually made the fall from grace including my Chapter 7. I would give each dispute that does not come off a two month waiting period before you hit them again, other wise you "may" get the already investigated or friviolus response. Personally, if a CA failed at Validation, I would keep slamming them every month!

Don't handwrite anything, type'em! Send them certified RRR! IT IS EVIDENCE THAT THE CA FAILED TO RESPOND OR VALIDATE YOUR REQUEST!!

Good Luck!

I read your story and i have to say that I am inspired again to fix my credit. My story is long.

I tried years back to fix my credit, after my marriage ended we both filed a BK7, it's been discharged for 5 years, I have been reading on the boards and in the past I have disputed most of what is on my credit report with some success, but I did it online. Two years ago I hired a credit repair company (too busy to try myself to fix my reports myself) they cracked me over the head for 1k and didn't improve my scores at all, they managed to get one of my Bk's off of my report, but failed to get the CC's that were in the BK updated, so up until this past year, those CC's I kept disputing that they were included in a BK, but since I dind't have one on file anymore, they continued to report as charge off's My last try with them I disputed not mine and they finally updated them to included in BK, I thought they would get deleted. I need help, that's for sure, thats why I have joined the CB'S, i have been reading thinking that my eyes were going to fall out from over use.

now!

My question is, I have some accounts that I want off of my report, they were the accounts that were in my BK, what's the best way for me to tackle them?, they are old, some 3 years some as old as 5, they all say included in Bankruptcy. What is the best way for me attack the CRA's to get them removed? Any info would be great. Thank you.

Michelle

I really need to subscribe to this thread as I never get notified when someone writes to me!!

Well, what I did was work on the BK's first. When I managed to get it removed from one CR I disputed as not mine.

This took quite a while to do and after several tries they all fell off but one FILENE'S DEPARTMENT STORE. That took a bit longer but it came crashing down too.

Having good credit again is so worth the time it takes to get the bad stuff off. I can go buy almost anything I wish, I DON'T, but it's nice to have the option.

There was so much old and incorrect info on my CR that I really had no choice but to fix it. Some NEG accounts were so old that my score was much lower than it should have been at that point in my life.

I did not do any pay for deletes as i felt that practice would confirming their position. Also, I did no "so called" mandatory arbitration.

I am at the point now that I am closing credit cards that (BOTH CHASE CARDS) that try to jack my rates for no reason. My scores are well in the 700s and they want to raise my rates to 20+% that's BS! HOWEVER I MAKE SURE I HAVE A GOOD CARD TO REPLACE IT FIRST Don't want the revolving credit ratio getting messed up again.

Good luck in your quest, stay the course, you will fine the pot of credit gold at the end of the journey!