Search the Community

Is there a way to rebuild my credit without buying a secured card?

Hello! I am pretty new to CB and am looking to try to rebuild my credit after some mistakes in my younger years. These are the credit cards I currently have- CapitalOne- $1800 CL HSCB/CapitalOne- $400 CL CreditOne- $700 CL Discover IT- $200CL JCrew- $300 CL Victoria's Secret- $600CL Buckle- $250CL Target- $200CL I have a car loan through Nissan for- 23,000 that I am still paying on as well as a student loan -$250.00 left to pay I ran my credit report and my score is currently at 609. As for the "Baddies"- Charge off from 2013 for $14,000- which is still being paid through a Chapter 13 bankruptcy under my boyfriend Missed payments- 3 - one at CapitalOne and two at HSBC before it was CapitalOne Accounts in Collection- 1 (this account was paid in full in 2010) Is it possible to have the lawyer look into removing the charge off from my account since the balance is still being paid throuhg his Chapter 13? I am really hoping to find a way to get my credit score up within the next year or two to about 700. Any advice would be appreciated.

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

Hi everyone, I am new to this site and hoping I can find some advice. My situation-- My childrens father passed away a few years ago leaving me with a bunch of bills, no job and bad credit. It has taken me a while but I am finally almost done paying all of these bills.. currently have 1 revolving credit that I am paying towards monthly 1 collections which will be paid by the end of this month 1 other account that I just disputed because it is paid in full 3 public records -1 which will be paid in full tomorrow -1 which will be paid by the end of march but still paying monthly -last one is larger medical bill... 6k that I am paying monthly I have 3 inquiries on my report.. -1 from 2012, 2013, and 2014. just got a mandees store card back in jan 2014- $300 limit.. staying under30%.. paid before it was due and I put a few extra bucks towards it throughout the month. (sorry for making you read all of this) I am trying to see if the shopping cart trick works but I have had no luck. I would like to get another credit card in hopes that will kick my score up a little bit. I am trying to buy a house. My bank (bank of America) has been very great and have given my an amount that I would be approved for if I can get my middle score to a 620 or above (for fha loan) current scores 588, 598 and 619. I really want a house for my kids to call there own. we are currently renting a very small house, outdated. if we can get the loan we would be paying the same amount we do now. any help, advice ect. would be greatly appreciated. thanks so much

When I was 16 I had everything figured out. I got a friends mom to cosign on a new car for me. I worked hard and paid it off in a year and a half. From there I was approved for anything I asked for. I remember walking on to he car lot to purchase my second car at 19 and they pulled my credit, asked me how I did it, and told me to go pick out whatever I wanted. When I met my college "sweetheart" things went down hill fast. I wont go into too many details but the guy was greedy. He found out I had credit and started running up bills I couldn't afford. When I tried to leave him things got even more sour and I ended up walking away and leaving everything. Seriously. The house that was rented in my name, the utility bills, the credit card bills there was no way I could afford anymore, and everything I owned that wouldn't fit in my trunk. I know I should have been more responsible about things, but I was young and just didn't know how else to handle the situation. I did pay off what I could afford like my computer loan, and my student loans and such. In total there were about three cards the balance was just too high on I said let them sue me. The car wasn't a problem since he wrecked that and insurance paid it off. So for the last ten years or so I have lived exclusively on cash and haven't given a second thought to my credit. That is until a few years ago I met my husband and we decided to have a baby together. I wanted a minivan so I could do the whole soccer mom thing. I knew it wasn't going to be pretty but figured whatever debt I owed should be gone buy now. When they pulled my credit report it was horrible. There were things on there I have no idea where they came from. I got my van at 28% interest. They bragged to me that it was a great idea because it would improve my credit score. After that I started trying to pull my credit report online but couldn't even get through the identity questions. Fast forward two years later to the present, I am really desperate and seriously trying to fix things for the first time. I want to buy my first house in the next year because we are out growing this one. I went to annualcreditreport.com, pulled Experian and Transunion and disputed everything. I still couldn't get into Equifax so I wrote them a letter. A couple of weeks later I was able to logon to the website and see what I missed and dispute the rest of it. There was only one negative which was actually mine on any of the reports and that was a library fine I had forgotten to pay before I moved to another state. That actually got removed. All of my legitimate debt is gone. (one of my cards I couldn't pay for was best buy for example. It doesn't show up anywhere. It has been way more than 7 years) Most everything else (there were about 10 negatives in total) has been removed except a power bill for a company I never had service with and one other I have no clue what it could be for. I plan to write the creditors to validate the debt, because there is no way they can actually prove I owe them something because I don't. I was pretty satisfied with my efforts so I decided to apply for a credit card. I read that capital one gives credit cards to just about anyone so I applied for their platinum card and got the "wait 7 to 10 days" response. I thought it meant denial, but they sent me a letter to verify my income. Originally I put 40k as my income because I thought it better to under estimate, but I sent in last years 1040 showing I make 62k a year. I called the automated line to check the status of my application thinking I might actually have a chance but I keep getting transferred to an agent who tells me my app is still pending. I filled out my app on Nov. 22, they said they received my verification on the 5th of December and that it will take three additional weeks to make a decision. As of today (the 11th) I still get transferred and no automated response I don't know my scores except for credit karma which had me at a 595 when I started all this last month. In all honesty I have no clue what I am doing. So I turn to you guys. Where do I start? What should I expect from capital one? I have thought about it for a while, and there's really nothing I would like to put on credit but maybe a few Christmas presents. I hate shopping. I don't even know what kind of purchases I would make with a credit card, I am so used to not buying anything unless I have the cash set aside for it. My biggest problem area in my credit report now is lack of revolving credit. How do you get a credit card with no credit? Please help me wise ones. Advise me where to go from here.