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Hello friends. I'm so glad to be here! Thanks for having me. My Creditkarma score is 555. I know that's not FICO, but it's going to be terrible regardless. I'm 28. So my credit right now is a mess. I've dabbled in trying to fix it, but I really want to make some serious progress now. I'll try to be succinct yet thorough. Credit utilization, payment history, age of credit history, and credit inquiries receive "A" marks on the report card thing. Total accounts (3 accounts) is D. Derogatory remarks (1 + 1 in collection) is B. Overall grade is F, obviously. The following 5 are my baddies. 3 Collection accounts. Two charged off accounts that at least are now paid or in the process of being paid: (1) Sears-CO, paid in full to CA after they had it for a month. I didn't do the DV or anything. Staying until 11/2015 (2) Capital 1, CO, process of paying in full via payment plan. Sent them a DV letter, and they (a legal office CA representing Cap 1) got back to me with all the documents from what I could tell. 1 more year to go. Staying until 1/2016 (3) CA hired by my past leasing office (OC) for not paying a small cleaning bill. I found out recently after pulling my CR. Received no notification from either CA or Leasing office to the best of my knowledge. OC claims not to have received my forwarding address (that I also updated on USPS when I moved). Comes off CR mid-2018. 2 Closed accounts with late payments: (4) BOFA credit card, several late payments over 3 years. Longest one is a 120 day late entry. Will become positive account in 1/2015. Stays until 2/2018. (5) Chase credit card. A few late payments over 2 years. Longest is 60 days. Will become positive 8/2014. Stays until 12/2017. *also 1 hard pull for credit card application last year More about me: I have 3 active accounts in good standing (no late payments). 5 positive (no late) overall including car loan payoff. I used to have excellent credit prior to about 2008. I just got super lazy about paying bills and well.. now I'm in a shameful state. Based on information I'd like the input for my plan and would like suggestions on possible letters to expediate some removals from CR. My to do list so far: 1) Delete previous addresses with CRA. 2) Apply for a credit card(s) to increase accounts. I'm debating between applying for several secured cards that from what I understand should be easy to obtain with a deposit and/or applying for a unsecure rewards card such as Capital 1 Newcomers rewards card. I should have done this earlier. I didn't know about secured cards. My concern with secure cards is they suck, annual fee, and mostly useless once my FICO improves, and I'm eligible for better credit cards. Do I keep the secure cards after credit improves or close them? Most of the recommended secured credit cards have annual fees. I don't plan on keeping any sort of balance on any of the credit cards month to month. Also, I have around $1000-1500 to start off with for the secured cards. What is a recommended way of putting in the deposits for the secured cards that I apply for? 3) I'm not sure what to do about baddie (3). The apartment complex is part of a huge company that basically owns one of the major cities in Orange County, CA, and I'm not even sure they have the authority to accept payment. I'm looking into a PFD or Goodwill letter depending on who I would address the letter to. PFD for CA and Goodwill for OC? Is 1-2 punch worth considering? The CA doesn't seem to be reporting it from month to month. Just the date that the account has gone into collections. 4) I'm open to ideas on using letters for the other baddies. Finally.. do letters still work effectively? A lot of the posts regarding DV and letter approaches were posted a number of years ago. Back then, things like PFD was a lot more successful. It seems to me that the CA's would be much more efficient and experienced dealing with the claims. If you made it through this, THANK YOU! I am just one guy who couldn't sleep a wink last night thinking about all this, and I'm just looking to turn things around.

I have a total of three (3) State Tax Liens on 2 or more of my credit reports. This information is killing my score and any chances of getting my APRs reduced or credit limits and or new approvals. (Still in review process - things still murky). Trying to clean up as much as possible without causing any inquiries and would like to raise my score within the next 30 days as much as possible. My overall status is a high debt ratio. However, I am under the 45% mark with my part-time income. Each week, I will get the majority of my credit cards to 30% availability on cards with a lower balance. Which leaves the larger cc accounts with high balances. 1 - States that it has been Satisfied - However, it was an error. I never did owe. I had moved from the state and wasn't required to file. However, they keep giving me the generic response when I request removal due to error. That don't seem to be reviewing at all. Just the same response. It has "BEEN SATISFIED". Any recommendations 2 - States that it has been Satisfied - It was paid in FULL, SATISFIED. One credit bureau will not investigate any more. Or, later they will let me know that there has been no change. Any recommendations. I am trying to increase my credit score. I will be applying for a mortgage within the next 30 days. 3 - States an incorrect amount due because I am currently making monthly payments. Any recommendations. I am trying to increase my credit score. I will be applying for a mortgage within the next 30 days. Thanks!

If anyone can help me with advice, that would be great! So here's my story: I have been working my tail off for the last year to rebuild my credit. I really screwed it up in my teens/early 20's and I'm finally on the right path. It has been over 4 years since my last baddie and I have had a 15 month streak of on time payments. I have acquired quite a few credit/retail cards in the last year that have helped me bring up my score. (started with a CapOne secured card/ now have Nordstrom, Kohls, Kay's, VS, Express and recently a Barclay's card.) Anyhoo, I just had a baby and my employer switched health insurance providers when I was 7 months pregnant. My copays were through the roof and my out of pocket medical bills now = $4500.00. I have about 7 different creditors coming after me, now of which have hit my credit report and I am running out of time. I don't have the money to pay them right now. What can I do to save my report??? Any suggestions?? Please Help!

I'm trying to clean up my CR and I see the a duplicate paid collection. Can you PLEASE advise on me on what I should do??? 1. Does that affect my score 2x? 2. How do I get these removed? I paid a credit repair company to get them removed but they only successfully removed the TL from Equifax. EX and TU both show duplicate TL

I am currently trying to improve my credit score. I have made some mistakes in the past and am paying for it now. My credit score is currently 550, up from 510 in July. I currently have 3 accounts in collections, none of which will do pay for delete. 2 of them are hospital bills, one for 1330.00 and one for 470.00. I am currently disputing them, hoping that they will not reply back to transunion. The 3rd is a bill to Sprint that is also in collections. I owe 1200.00 and have negotiated them to do a settled in full amount of 517.00.... Is this a good amount and idea. I have other negative marks on my credit, but all of them are closed. I currently have one active Credit Card with up to date payments. My horrible credit score is the result of being careless when I was younger and I really want to fix it. Any advise on how to handle this would be great.

Hi all, This is my first post, as I am new here. My husband and I recently filed Chapter 7 BK and it has been discharged since September 2014, we are now wanting to rebuild our credit, our scores are both just shy of 600, (my husbands score shot up 87 points AFTER BK was filed...mine went up by 1 point...weird huh) We are thinking we will need to get a secured credit card, which is fine, but do not know who to go with? We currently bank at a local credit union and thought of going through them, but wanted to make sure it was reported to all 3 credit bureaus, So should we go for a MAJOR company such as Capital One? What do you guys recommend? Any help/advice would be great! Also we were advised by someone else rebuilding their own credit, to only use 10% of credit card limit and pay off on time each month to get BEST credit rating. So only use $30 on $300 limit and NO more. Does that sound right to anyone else? We want to make sure to do this right. We are not in NEED of a credit card, but just want to use one to improve our credit so one day we can buy a house. We currently have NO credit cards, No car loans, No personal loans, No retail credit cards, Nothing that is reporting to credit bureaus. We are in need of getting a small car loan ($5k or less) some time soon (within 6 months) should we apply for that now? or wait till we have had credit card for a few months to show on time payment history? What would be the best scenario? I don't wanna add too many "inquiries" to our credit reports right after filing BK, so trying to do this wisely. Thanks again for your help!

Hello, I was pre approved for house and bank just accepted my offer last week, I received notification today that credit score dropped 28 points ONLY thing changed was alert saying "credit usage significantly increased 45%" it takes me to 608 score which is below 620 needed with lender for FHA. Spoke to loan officer and said yes it could affect me closing on home. My inspection is tomorrow so I have time, I paid off card today to $0 balance. Do you think I will be OK come closing?

http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/11/pf/credit-score/index.html?iid=HP_LN

So I need assistance dealing with Capital One, opened an account in 2011 to help rebuild my credit score after post-college debt. I was approved for $300 and always paid it on time. After returning to the country in 2012 from deployment abroad, I started using the card and paying it with a joint account I held with my grandmother. Capital One flagged for account verification and potential fraud. After several attempts to verify my account and identity through email, fax, and telephone. I gave up with a $0 balance on the account and I didn't recieve anything for 2 years from them, hoping they had closed the account because they would not allow me to do anything with it, including close it. Then in April 2014 they began sending me emails that I had an annual fee that was 30 days in the rears and so I called attempting to pay and close the account again only to be told once again that it was flagged for fraud and there is nothing I can do until they get proper paperwork. Of course I attempted multiple times over the past 4 months to correct this error and close the account. I have sent in PDFs and JPEGs of my statements, copies of my DL, SS card, and Checks only to be told they needed something else or the they did not recieve the items. I have even went as far as to do a three way call with my grandmother and a supervisor. My bank has also faxed the information to them. Also note that I have sent each docs multiple times through the email link that they give to upload docs or have faxed them in. Now after spending 3 hrs on the phone today they have told me I have to physically walk into my bank with my grandmother (who lives 600miles away from me) and verify my account that way. After directing expletives with a case manager I hung up.... I am at the end of my rope with this company. Any help in dealing with this? i have disputed with experian, but should I take legal action since they are causing stress and dinging my credit score by charging money to an account they will not let me access and now saying it is 150 days late. Knocked my credit score down 100 pts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/04/your-money/credit-scores/vantagescore-ignores-paid-collections-in-setting-a-credit-score.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1& I hardly believe it - but then, it's a FAKO score think FICO will take this up?

Hello all. New to the forum and have a question about credit score in the context of mortgages. I'm a soon-to-be first-time buyer, in my early 30s, recently married, and have approximately $6K in credit card debt that I've held on two cards for just under a year. I've cycled payments and purchases on both cards but they always lingered in the $2-3K range, which I believe is adversely affecting my credit score. I am now able to zero both of them out and am considering doing so as I would like to buy a house in the next 6-12 months. My wife and I have a combined gross income of approximately $90k/yr and are shooting for a home in the $250-300k range (not sure how many of these details are important to share but am doing so in case it helps with advice). All that said, how important is a solid credit score for first-time home buyers (particular in our condition, given the details above)? I currently have a "fair" credit score (in the 690-700 range). What should my target score be to get us the best mortgage rate? Will zeroing out the credit cards help to raise the score, and if so by approximately how much and in how long? Are there other things that we could do to help the score (i.e: getting rid of one of the cards or adding another; keeping a smaller amount on one or both cards and cycling through it regularly; etc.), and help us get the best possible mortgage rate for that matter? Your help is much appreciated! Thank you all ahead of time, and thanks for putting together this great forum!

Hello! Credit Card Question! I currently have 3 open credit cards. 2 of the cards have a balance of $0 and a limit ranging from $100-$300.The last card I have happens to be the oldest card on my credit history with a limit or around $3000, however has an 89% utilization. I was added to this card to help build my credit while in college, however, was never the primary user of this card. Needless to say the 89% usage has not been a result of any charges I have made to the account. I was advised previously not to remove myself from this account because it was the oldest on my account, however, I'm not sure how beneficial that is being that the balance is so high and after a year has a remained high. Thanks! Please Advise!

Hello All, I took a break from writing, just reading daily. The last update was that I had 3 CO... Since then First Premier gave me the option to re-apply for a new card and transfer the balance, which I did. Was that a wrong move? I also received my Capital One Secured Card in the mail. Two things maybe three things I need help with... 1. I opened an account with my local credit union and they informed me that my score is a 640 TU score... However, CK is stating 577.. Which one is accurate? I will be pulling my scores and reports to see how First Premier is reporting. 2. As I mentioned my Cap 1 just came in the mail with a $200 limit. How should I use it to show activity? Charge $2 then pay it off??? 3. How can I get my other 2 CO to work with me (Macy's and Victoria's Secret)? As always your help and advice is thoroughly appreciated!

First, a little bit background of me: male, in early 30s, in good financial conditions, earning around 130K per year. I am always very careful of about my credit history, never missed a payment to credit card, car loan, utilities company. I check credit report regularly and the score is always at the high end of 700. However, chocolate still happens. One year ago, I made an unfortunate decision of joining a nearby gym before checking any Yelp review. Immediately after that, we have a lot of disputes over its billing. I don't want to go over all the details, it would be too long and boring. Anyway, I stopped going there several months ago. I thought they would call me or mail me if they want to solve the issue, but they never did (they have my phone number and address). Two week ago, I got a regular mail (not certified) from a collection agency, claiming I owe them 200 bucks. The mail states that I have 30 days to dispute the amount, otherwise they will assume it is valid, blah, blah, blah... To be honest, I am willing to pay 200 bucks just to make the problem go away, but I want to listen to some expert's opinion before doing that. First of all, is it possible the collection will be shown on the credit report? They have my address and phone number, but not SSN. I subscribe to the credit monitoring service and so far there is nothing. I am also curious what kind of business could potentially put a collection item on my credit report? Think about it, it's scary that if a local coffee shop could put a collection on your report if they think you owe them 5 bucks. Second of all, what should I do? (a) pay them directly; ( write to the collection agency, dispute the amount; © do nothing. I am inclined to do (a), which seems to be hassle-free, but am afraid that will make lose any negotiating power if a collection item eventually show up on the credit report. Thank a lot of reading this. I would really appreciate for any suggestion.

Hi all, I have some numbers I want to share to see if I can get some feedback. I posted earlier that in May I approved for mortgage, and since then I have a 30 day late report for a credit card. I am contacting the company with a goodwill letter to see if they will remove it, but if not, I don't know if I can qualify. My house in on the market. I have a house I'd like to buy. The house is listed at 319. I will have 20% down payment. According to my LO, here are the numbers for me today. He said that the numbers beside the + show that if I pay down my credit card debt, I will qualfy. XP is 580 + 46 TU is 605 + 36 EF is 590 + 47 If my house sells I can pay off all cc debt. In the meantime I can pay it off in two payments. I'm really worried about loan going through and looking for advice.

Hi all, new here. I was approved for a conventional mortgage in May, with a credit score of 690. The seller backed out and that same week, I ended up needing to take care of an aging parent in another state; this was really stressful, and while I was gone, I made the unfortunate mistake of missing a payment with Carecredit. and now I have a 30 day late showing on my credit. It was a really bad oversight. Anyway, I am back in the market for a house again. I looked at CreditKarma and it says my score is between 639 and 665, which is a significant hit for one late payment. However, I checked a free Vantage score and it's terrible -- 587! My mortgage lender said he can work with the late payment, but I'm really worried that the loan will fall through because of this. Two questions: am I likely to get approved (I have 20% down), and what can I do to bring up my score quickly?

I have a Capital One Secured Credit Card with a deposit/credit-limit of $2000. I deposited that much money into it in the hopes of bumping my score by having a lot of available credit and no balance. I have had this card for 2+ years now, perfect payment history and low balance, and am ready to remove it or convert it to a non-secured card. Unfortunately, Capital One can't just convert it, they said they'd have to close that account and create a new, unsecured one. Should I close this 2 year account, knowing that I need to finance a car within 1-6 months? What will the effect be on my credit score? Will my AAOA go down? I don't necessarily plan on re-opening a non-secured account with Capital One if it doesn't help my credit. Neither do I need the cash right now (card is fully paid off), but would always be nice to have more emergency cash in my savings, and with a car purchase coming up, it's always better to have more cash on hand. My other accounts are: * Credit Union secured card, $1000 limit, 1 year * Non secured CC, $800 limit, 1 year * Retail store credit, $5500 limit, 1 year * Retail store credit, $800 limit, 6 months Thanks!

I am fairly new to the credit world. I got a secured BOA credit card a year and a half ago which got upgraded 2 months ago to a standard card. I immediately applied for the BOA cash rewards and was approved. The new card came with a paper saying that my credit card was 750- what a pleasant surprise for me. About a month later I applied for a Chase card and I was denied with a credit score of 712. I don't know much about this, but that seems like a pretty substantial difference in a short amount of time. An added hard credit check wouldn't account for that much would it? I went and got my annual credit report and everything would seem to be ideal. Credit Karma pegs my score at 722.

Hi,i'm here to ask you guys for counseling about my debt.I have a debt approximately 30-ish thousands. And i'm looking for a way to decrease it as low as possible.I want to pay it off,I do,but it's just too hard to do with this economy. I don't want to go bankruptcy because i know i can pay it off,just not all of it.Is there any way i can do that? I have a friend that did it,it went from 30 thousands to 15 thousands.But he moved and i lost his number so. Please help!

So I got an alert just now stating that my Fico score dropped from 555 to 537. It was 545 on Monday then bumped up to 555 before dropping. I am checking my updated report and have an alert for every possible scenario including new inquiry and changes to accounts, however nothing visible has changed since Monday… I'm just wondering what could possibly cause daily fluctuations like this? Do the FICO computers work like slot machines churning out new 3 digit numbers when they feel like? I find it bizarre...

My boyfriend's named similarly to his father (example: imagine his name is "Derrick James Jones," and his father's name is "Derrick Jarrod Jones"). There are a few items on his credit report that are his father's, who has medical issues, for example an unpaid ambulance bill. In order to get this removed, it says we need to write the companies with proof but I'm not really sure what that would include. Is there anyone who can give us any ideas about what to do? Thanks for any help you can give!

Hi there, I'm new to this forum so please excuse any missteps in my explanations. My husband and I are looking at buying a house within the next year or so. I have very little credit as I have only had one credit card 3 years ago and it went to collections, for a balance of 400.00. (I worked for Dillard's and they made you get a credit card to get their discount.) I was young and dumb (still probably am) but I have since paid the amount off, not realizing that I could probably negotiate by paying and then having them take the collection off my credit report. All of the bills for my utilities (electricity, phone, and cable) have been in my name and I have never made late payments. All of that to say, my credit score is horrific at 545. I was wondering what would be a good way to raise my score at this point. Most credit advice I have read states to pay off debt but I have no debt. No car payment, as the loan was in my parents name but I paid the bill, no house payment, no student loans, and no credit card debt as the only one was the one mentioned above. Should I call my utility companies and ask that they report my payments to the credit agencies? Should I apply for a credit card and make regular payments? Should I get a small loan from the bank and repay it slowly? I just really am at a loss as to how to rebuild my credit, and it seems that most with bad credit scores have had more than one thing reported on their credit score. Thanks so much for your attention to this, and again I apologize if this is convoluted. Thank you,

It is a TransUnion FAKO, but FYI.

I was able to successfully remove all 3 of the judgements off of TU. One of the Judgements is not mine so i knew that one would come off. EX shows two and EQ still shows 3. I am currently disputing these items with EQ and EX. Is there a way to successfully rebuild my credit with judgements listed. They are scheduled to remain until at least 2016. CC's I have CAP 1 - $500 limit- Just applied and approved last week, should i ask for CLI with a TU score of 645? CAP 1 Secured card $750 limit Macy's - AUTH USER $1200 Denied credit by Barclays and GECRB

I understand that there are multiple models of FICO scores in use, as well as various industry "enhanced" scores. I also understand the difference between FICO/FAKO scores - and I'm beginning to feel that I have a grasp of what does what in relation to changing the various scores. One particularly weak point in my mind is what (if any) specialized score might come into play for Home Insurance. It makes perfect sense to me that auto enhanced scores weigh past auto installment loans more heavily, and that traditional credit scores weigh your history of revolving lines more heavily - seems to make sense. What factors are key in a home insurance credit score? I only ask because any place I see a FAKO listed as a "Home Insurance Score" (CreditKarma, for example) it is grossly lower than my credit score, auto score or insurance score - by a couple hundred points, and invariably listed as "Very Poor". I've only ever had the one mortgage, and it's 11 years old and 100% positive. I don't figure they (the credit karma type websites) factor in non-credit criteria such as income or time at current job - but even if they did my income is pretty great and I've been at my job for twenty years, so that seems to be out. DTI and utilization are grossly below normal for me as well. Never filed a single claim, either - I pretty much only know the name of my homeowners insurance company from the mail they send me periodically... Any input on what (if anything) these sites use to derive their Home Insurance scores? Is there a FICO equivalent out there? My gut feeling is that this is a particularly poorly calculated attempt at a FAKO, but maybe there's something out there that the home insurers take into account that I'm not aware of? ETA: And, yes, I am aware I misspelled "insureance" in the post title. It's a particularly cruel to not allow edits in the most visible location for an OCD individual.