Bad credit repair

[Tuxguy]

Anyone know of a good trustworthy company for credit repair? Please Pm me.
I tried to buy a car and a house this week and can not get financed due to my bad decisions from years ago.

[forgop]

Seriously-those "repair" companies can't do anything you can't do yourself. They just pray on those looking for quick fixes and there's no such thing when it comes to fixing your credit.

You can get a lot of information here and ask for advice for any problems you have. I used it in the past to get advice getting rid of old stuff. You just have to be persistent with the credit reporting agencies to get stuff deleted.

http://debt-consolidation-credit-rep...ce.com/forums/

[Scottw]

Originally Posted by forgop

Seriously-those "repair" companies can't do anything you can't do yourself. They just pray on those looking for quick fixes and there's no such thing when it comes to fixing your credit.

You can get a lot of information here and ask for advice for any problems you have. I used it in the past to get advice getting rid of old stuff. You just have to be persistent with the credit reporting agencies to get stuff deleted.

http://debt-consolidation-credit-rep...ce.com/forums/

AMEN, I have been in the debt business for 7 years, you can do this yourself. I have running around to do but if you PM me questions, I'll try to help. You get the BOTL rate of $0.00 for the help so ask away.

[bobarian]

As the others have said, you can start rebuilding without outside help. Start small, a jewelry store loan on a watch or a department store credit card. You can also check with a local credit union. But its not going to happen overnight, it will take time to build your score. You can get a free report from one the major credit bureau's like Experian. Check with your bank or the credit union and ask if they can recommend a credit counselor.

[Tuxguy]

Did the free credit report dot com thing and now feel overwhelmed.

[forgop]

Originally Posted by Tuxguy

Did the free credit report dot com thing and now feel overwhelmed.

First thing first, copy letters from that site to each of the creditors that show negatives on your report for validation. Otherwise, they have to remove them from your report. It'll probably take 60-90 days at least from the date letters go out to seeing some real progress in getting lines deleted.

In addition, keep good records of what you're doing as you can sue them for failing to perform as required under the fair credit reporting act I believe it is ($1k for each violation I believe).

[Blueface]

Not an expert on this but I believe it is critical to not only look at what you did in the past but also what is it you are doing now.

Reduce your debt to credit ratio.
If you owe over a certain amount of your total credit line, it very negatively impacts you.

Reduce the number of credit cards you have.
Close out as many as you can. The more cards you have, the less credit worthy you are and hence lowers your score.

Pay all your accounts on time, without any exceptions. Don't hit 30, 60, etc, lists.

My son's was a total mess due to stupidity. Took him a while to work on it in the above fashion and recently has just bought his own house, on his own, with no co-signer.

No magical fix overnight. These are the things folks get to sometimes live long enough to regret. You made mistakes, now pay for them slowly, as should be. Otherwise, where would the lesson learned be?
Good luck.

[neoflex]

Just have a question as I am far from a credit expert to say the least. If he closes out a lot of his credit cards at one time wouldn't that also reflect negatively on his credit report? Just asking as I have heard this in the past but never could understand how this would reflect badly on a person although a few years ago I paid off most of my debt and canceled most of my cards except for a couple. Just curious.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by neoflex

Just have a question as I am far from a credit expert to say the least. If he closes out a lot of his credit cards at one time wouldn't that also reflect negatively on his credit report? Just asking as I have heard this in the past but never could understand how this would reflect badly on a person although a few years ago I paid off most of my debt and canceled most of my cards except for a couple. Just curious.

From personal experience, I can't see that being accurate if what you are closing is accounts with $0 balance and if you are closing them voluntarily at your request.
I had an onslaught of cards I never used. They were just there. I closed out about 10 in one month and my credit score jumped up in only a couple of months from 740 to 780. Didn't affect me anyway but positive.

[AD720]

Originally Posted by neoflex

Just have a question as I am far from a credit expert to say the least. If he closes out a lot of his credit cards at one time wouldn't that also reflect negatively on his credit report? Just asking as I have heard this in the past but never could understand how this would reflect badly on a person although a few years ago I paid off most of my debt and canceled most of my cards except for a couple. Just curious.

I just talked to my financial advisor about this same question. I'm sure that every situation is different but he advised me to not close out my $0 balance cards. He said that by far the heaviest weighted item that affects your credit score is length of credit.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by AD720

I just talked to my financial advisor about this same question. I'm sure that every situation is different but he advised me to not close out my $0 balance cards. He said that by far the heaviest weighted item that affects your credit score is length of credit.

I guess that makes sense.
In my case, all my cards are/were so old, for so many years, it didn't make a bit of different which ones I got rid of.

[AD720]

Originally Posted by Blueface

I guess that makes sense.
In my case, all my cards are/were so old, for so many years, it didn't make a bit of different which ones I got rid of.

That's probably true, if all your cards have a lot of history then it wouldn't really matter.

PS - Carlos there was an old guy joke in there somewhere, but I took the high road.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by AD720

That's probably true, if all your cards have a lot of history then it wouldn't really matter.

PS - Carlos there was an old guy joke in there somewhere, but I took the high road.

Something I advised my son to do that I have been doing as well for a while now, post having closed all those accounts, is using a CC for everything in lieu of my ATM card or cash.
I then pay it all off at the end of every week.
Incredible what it does to your score and I have racked up almost enough points for a free cruise soon.

[AD720]

Originally Posted by Blueface

Something I advised my son to do that I have been doing as well for a while now, post having closed all those accounts, is using a CC for everything in lieu of my ATM card or cash.
I then pay it all off at the end of every week.
Incredible what it does to your score and I have racked up almost enough points for a free cruise soon.

That is exactly what we have been doing. Makes a lot of sense.

[forgop]

Originally Posted by Blueface

Not an expert on this but I believe it is critical to not only look at what you did in the past but also what is it you are doing now.

Reduce your debt to credit ratio.
If you owe over a certain amount of your total credit line, it very negatively impacts you.

True. Ideally, you won't exceed 25-30% of your balance/limit ratio in a typical month.

Originally Posted by Blueface

Reduce the number of credit cards you have.
Close out as many as you can. The more cards you have, the less credit worthy you are and hence lowers your score.

False. Closing accounts can negatively impact your score because you decrease your available credit. If you have $20k in available credit and you eliminate $10k in available credit, you DECREASE your score in that you have a much harder time lowering the balance/limit ratio if balances are any issue at all.

Originally Posted by Blueface

Pay all your accounts on time, without any exceptions. Don't hit 30, 60, etc, lists.

True

[forgop]

Originally Posted by daniellemahlerla

Hey,
I know a great company called Corporate Funding Direct. I got 30 thousand in a credit line in about 25 days for my work at home business and it really helped my personal credit score. You don't have to have a personal guarantee or even any income. I tried it and it is completely legit. Alot of companies have to wait 3-4 months to get an 80 paydex score and with them, it is only 21. I was shocked, so go ahead and look them up. Do your homework and see if this is the right fit for your needs! Good Luck

Not being judgmental, but isn't this the exact reason why our banks got in the financial mess to begin with?

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by forgop

False. Closing accounts can negatively impact your score because you decrease your available credit. If you have $20k in available credit and you eliminate $10k in available credit, you DECREASE your score in that you have a much harder time lowering the balance/limit ratio if balances are any issue at all.

I should have been clear.
I meant close them as you pay off.
In my case, when I closed down those accounts, the only debt I had was my home and I had an open equity line of credit with a zero balance.
I kept two cards only with about $20K credit line with no debt.

[forgop]

Originally Posted by neoflex

Just have a question as I am far from a credit expert to say the least. If he closes out a lot of his credit cards at one time wouldn't that also reflect negatively on his credit report? Just asking as I have heard this in the past but never could understand how this would reflect badly on a person although a few years ago I paid off most of my debt and canceled most of my cards except for a couple. Just curious.

I would leave them open to boost my score if I was ACTIVELY working on improving my score. Once you hit a threshold you're comfortable with on your score, then I would close them if that's want you want to do.

[forgop]

Originally Posted by Blueface

I should have been clear.
I meant close them as you pay off.
In my case, when I closed down those accounts, the only debt I had was my home and I had an open equity line of credit with a zero balance.

I understand what you meant, but I would leave them open because if someone has a high balance/limit ratio, closing out an account after you pay it still means you may have a high balance/limit ratio. For example:

Scenario A: $20k balances/$25k limits
Your balance/limit ratio is very high at 80%. Let's just say you pay $10k off the top and leave it open. You lower your balance/limit ratio to 40% which will boost your score.

Scenario B: $20k balances/$25k limits
Your balance/limit ratio is very high at 80%. Let's just say you pay $10k off the top and close out $10k in available credit. You lower your balance/limit ratio to 40% which will boost your score. Here, your balance/limit ratio drops to just 66% rather than 40%.

Word of advice: Do not drop any available credit unless you are going to be less than 30%.

[Rabidsquirrel]

Originally Posted by forgop

Not being judgmental, but isn't this the exact reason why our banks got in the financial mess to begin with?

It's a spambot.

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Going to freecreditreport dot com was a mistake, the website is a scam. You'll now be hounded to join in in some monitoring service. Always use Annualcreditreport.com.

Consumerist.com just had an article on closing credit cards, and found that the impact was minimal if any. Besides, if your credit is already in the shitter, why worry about closing unwanted cards?