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Quick and dirty background: I spent years in poverty with maxed credit lines and medical (and other) bills going to collections. In the last few years I've quadrupled my income and am now sitting at about 114k/yr cash pretax without bonuses. My expenses aren't all that great, and quite frankly neither are my debts now that i've payed off a bunch. I did, however, find some surprises today when I pulled credit reports for myself and my wife, and my credit score is abysmally low (580-660 depending on where its pulled from, wife is in the mid 700s). I also want to buy a house this year. How can I best clean up my credit? What things do I need to worry about and what things can I not control? Are there any reliable and legitimate credit cleaning services that I can talk to to assist me? Help me, goons!
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Mar 9, 2017 23:22
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 01:12 |
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Paladine_PSoT posted:Quick and dirty background: I spent years in poverty with maxed credit lines and medical (and other) bills going to collections. In the last few years I've quadrupled my income and am now sitting at about 114k/yr cash pretax without bonuses. My expenses aren't all that great, and quite frankly neither are my debts now that i've payed off a bunch. I did, however, find some surprises today when I pulled credit reports for myself and my wife, and my credit score is abysmally low (580-660 depending on where its pulled from, wife is in the mid 700s). Can you give us a little more information about the nature of the derogatory items you found on your credit reports?
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Mar 10, 2017 03:12
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How do you quadruple your income overnight and what reason is there to believe it'll stay there.
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Mar 10, 2017 20:56
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Veskit posted:How do you quadruple your income overnight and what reason is there to believe it'll stay there. It took just over 4 years to quadruple. My salary for close to a decade hovered around the 30k/yr point because I was stuck in entry level hell attempting to define a career. I left my last 30k job in Oct 2012 for a contracting job that payed 65k, held onto that for 15 months before the contract ran out. had 6 months of unemployment, got a new position contracting for the same company at 90k, then after 18m got hired as an FTE for over 100k, plus a merit raise and a promotion gets me to just under 120k base.
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Mar 11, 2017 00:25
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pig slut lisa posted:Can you give us a little more information about the nature of the derogatory items you found on your credit reports? I have 3 credit cards: 1: co-signed with wife, 2250 limit, 10 years old, 1 late payment 6 years 9 months ago 2: co-signed with wife, 1000 limit, 9 years old, no late payments 3: no co-signer, 300 limit, 6 months old, no late payments 1 car loan, co-signed with wife, 12k remaining. Term is 60 months, I'm on track to having it paid in 12 Several old medical collections paid in full A non-paid debt for about 1000 from an old apartment. This one actually has a technical flaw in it that I could likely use to get dismissed (collection agency back-charged interest prior to them receiving the account) A collection for about 200 from an agency for a time warner bill that I don't remember An unpaid medical debt that I have no idea where it's from
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Mar 11, 2017 00:37
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Paladine_PSoT posted:I have 3 credit cards: It sounds like you have a couple derogatories that you may be able to dispute. Another possible thing holding your score down could be a high utilization rate. The credit limits on your credit cards are pretty low, and if they're reporting a utilization rate of >30% or so (e.g., if the statement period on your third card closes with more than $90 on it) then your score will take a hit. You may want to look into either bumping up the limits (potentially difficult with your score) or paying them off more frequently.
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Mar 11, 2017 00:49
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pig slut lisa posted:It sounds like you have a couple derogatories that you may be able to dispute. Another possible thing holding your score down could be a high utilization rate. The credit limits on your credit cards are pretty low, and if they're reporting a utilization rate of >30% or so (e.g., if the statement period on your third card closes with more than $90 on it) then your score will take a hit. You may want to look into either bumping up the limits (potentially difficult with your score) or paying them off more frequently. What's the best way to dispute things off? Should I just start the process of writing letters? Is it better to get a lawyer involved? are there credit repair companies that are worth anything? Also, there's just tons of small value medical debt that's paid off. Is there any mitigation to remove medical debt or does it just sit there like everything else?
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Mar 11, 2017 01:06
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Paladine_PSoT posted:What's the best way to dispute things off? Should I just start the process of writing letters? Is it better to get a lawyer involved? are there credit repair companies that are worth anything? Unfortunately I have reached the limit of my expertise. I know a decent amount about credit scores themselves but have no experience with disputing derogatories. Hopefully someone else has something useful to add.
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Mar 12, 2017 03:26
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Paladine_PSoT posted:What's the best way to dispute things off? Should I just start the process of writing letters? Is it better to get a lawyer involved? are there credit repair companies that are worth anything? I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, I'm not an authority or professional, blah blah don't sue me. Stay away from "credit repair" companies. A lot of medical debt is ignored / low weighted on the models used by financial institutions. It's impossible to predict what your score will actually be when pulled by any random company because you have no idea what model they'll be using. The scores you can generally get yourself give you an idea, but it's rough. If the medical debt is sub $500 dollars you have a pretty good chance of getting it wiped. Frame your disputes as best you can the first time. You don't need to write letters, you can initiate disputes online now. You also get a full copy of your credit report when doing so.
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Mar 12, 2017 05:04
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Paladine_PSoT posted:What's the best way to dispute things off? Should I just start the process of writing letters? Is it better to get a lawyer involved? are there credit repair companies that are worth anything?
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Mar 12, 2017 16:13
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I think pay for delete is the fast credit score fix if you are unsuccessful in the regular dispute. Otherwise 7 years they just drop off. (This is internet knowledge so who knows if it works). Credit card utilization as mentioned also is a big part of the new score. Ask your credit cards to raise the limits. They will do this with a phone call. (Usually) Then you have to wait 3 months and call again to get more limits.
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Apr 11, 2017 18:47
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Elephanthead posted:I think pay for delete is the fast credit score fix if you are unsuccessful in the regular dispute. Otherwise 7 years they just drop off. (This is internet knowledge so who knows if it works). They're technically not supposed to do that, but it can happen. Raising credit limit usually requires a hard pull which will drop your score a tad, it's usually still better than high utilization every month though.
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Apr 12, 2017 00:11
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