| Fast ways to boost credit score? |
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Mmmamma
New Member
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Joined: 27 Jan 2005
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| Fast ways to boost credit score? |
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My credit score is horrible - high 400s to low 500s...a from old, negative TLs and judgements. Many paid already. What can I do to fix my credit?
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Sat Feb 05, 2005 12:48 pm |
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xboxundone
Senior Member
Cash: $ 67.83
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Joined: 19 Sep 2004
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Pay your bills on time. and if there are any errors on yoru report correct them... Unfortunately there is not "quick fix" but every month that goes buy that you have everythign paid on time the less those negatives will be weighted as an offense within the last year is weighted more than an offense that happened 4 years ago.
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Sat Feb 05, 2005 1:30 pm |
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kingston
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Cash: $ 2.69
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Joined: 14 Dec 2004
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obtain a secured credit card or go to your local credit union and take out a secured loan against your savings or other account as collateral (do this at several different credit unions)
and let someone put you on their account as an authorized user who has outstanding credit
That should bump your score fairly quickly
I offer my 2 cents
Mortgage Consultant
kingston111@netzero.net
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Sun Mar 13, 2005 11:37 pm |
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Rolo
Yo' Daddy
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Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Location: Colorado/Florida
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If/when you pay a bad debt off, ask them to re-age your account to show that it was paid in full.
Read the sites that explain how a credit score is computed; they will also explain what you can do to restore it. Worst case is that you will have to wait seven years for everyting to "fall off", except for judgements, they last forever and therefore you want to handle those first.
Having two to four credit cards with minimal usage (don't carry a balance) is ideal; that will help add to your score. Use them for your day-to-day expenses and pay them in full when they are due.
Good luck.
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Mon Mar 14, 2005 12:33 am |
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chiron
Contributing Member
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quote:
My credit score is horrible - high 400s to low 500s...a from old, negative TLs and judgements. Many paid already. What can I do to fix my credit?
I always hesitate to respond to this sort of post, given my extreme bias in favor of credit repair, but with that disclosure fully stated, here is my take, and I will leave the credit repair firms out of the equation just to be as unbiased as possible.
Presuming you have less than seven years to wait for things to fall off, I highly recommend that you try some dispute letters to the three credit bureaus (sample letters are available on a good Google search - FTC and About.com have some decent ones).
You said many are already paid off. If you can, presuming these are legitimate bills you really owe, then advice is to pay off the rest when you can, and see if you can negotiate a deletion letter from the creditor/collections as part of your payment accord. Including a deletion letter with your dispute letter usually makes bad things go away.
As for the older, settled problems, a dispute letter can in theory remove a tax lien or judgment from your reports. You'll want to write one letter per tradeline (negative item) per bureau showing that item. Keep the letter short and sweet, and I wouldn't work to hard to "prove" things in your first round. Also send only 2-3 letters per bureau in a given 30-day reporting cycle, or you risk having everything tossed by the bureaus as frivolous spam.
It can be successfully argued that attempting to remove what may be "accurate" info from your reports is unethical, etc, and my only response to that is the choice is yours to make, and it is a bit of a gray area. Is a bad credit decision you made (or in many cases, didn't make at all, since the majority of reports contain errors?) intended to punish you with 7 years of probation? Or should your proactive disputation of negative items get off for good behavior, and with a clean slate?
To my knowledge, no official release has been made on this general theme from anybody who matters [for the record, I don't matter], so it's up in the air and a charged political topic on top of everything else. But to play devil's advocate and retort to that "unethical" concept... American consumers have massive amounts of data on their lives (financial and otherwise) collected without their express permission by a non-governmental set of entities, which then sells that info on you to third parties without royalties or consultation to the human behind the numbers. And for icing, sometimes (see: recent ChoicePoint nightmare in news) they fumble and sell your info (without your permission) to identity thieves and other unsavories.
So I mostly ignore arguments on the ethics of such things, it's all a sham from all sides. But if the CRAs are going to collect and sell info on you, they sure ought to support correction requests from the people whose lives their profitable data-vending affects in the end. Thus in your case, it would be my opinion that you may wish to consider leveraging your legal rights as a consumer to dispute information you feel may be in any way inaccurate, invalid, or otherwise unverifiable. It's legal to do so, and the law is in your favor - the bureaus must respond by law, and in 30-45 days, usually 30. If the credit bureaus can't verify the info they've got on your reports in a month, info they've been selling for tidy profit, then IMHO it's their problem if the negative items drop off due to their unwillingness to verify your credit profile on a per-item basis, "accurate" or not.
Note that again I am biased towards credit repair firms because the above is complex to say - leave alone to do properly... BUT, all Americans with credit reports on file can do ALL of the above at little or no cost to themselves, without the help of a lawyer or credit repair company or anyone else. The best, most legitimate repair firms will quickly agree that they merely exchange their experience, process, and time for your payment of that service you could have done on your own... so the choice is yours.
So in short, to do this yourself, get a copy of your three reports (now free to most western USA consumers), get some good sample dispute letters (free on many legitimate web sites), fill in the blanks with short info, grab a stamp or two, and you're good to go - you ought to hear back from the bureaus by post mail in 30-60 days at most.
Take care, and good luck. If you do choose to dispute some things, please let this forum know how things go for you? I am sure many people would like to hear the real-world experience a consumer has with the dispute process.
Business Web Site Design | Credit Report Repair
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Thu Mar 24, 2005 12:11 pm |
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CashMoney1
Contributing Member
Cash: $ 6.52
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Location: House
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Well i know here in Montreal Canada you can get a lower and he can erase ur bad credit within 30-60 days.It does cost in the 4 figures but its worth it i guess for those who have extremely bad credit 
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Mon May 23, 2005 12:34 am |
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networking101
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Location: US
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No way to raise your credit score real quick. If you have balances that have been turned into a credit bureau I suggest trying to get a loan if possible to pay those balances first and to get them repaired. Small credit card accounts in good standing can help. Time and of coarse making payments on time is key.
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Fri Jun 03, 2005 2:46 am |
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Busyman
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Joined: 06 Jul 2005
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Stay out of debt as much as possible, don't have an excessive number of credit cards, this will work against you. Pay your bills on time, especially your rent, mortgage and car bills. Never default on a mortgage.
Personal Loans and Payday Loans
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Wed Jul 06, 2005 1:27 pm |
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freshstart
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How about a situation in which you negotiate a reduce settlement with a cc company. Say you owe $10,000, and they agreed to reduce your total by 30% to $7000. Once the reduced amt is paid, doesn't it say on the credit rpt something to the effect that balance has been, but not in full? Isn't this a bad mark on you report as well? Wouldn't you be better off taking the time to payoff the full amt rather than have that comment in your rpt?
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Sun Aug 07, 2005 5:51 am |
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Randyd
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The first step i would take is to Review your credit report. Check it for any mistakes, old accounts that you have paid off and are still showing a balance, accounts that are over 7 years old and have not been removed, ect... and then dispute the accounts with the Credit reporting agency.
The Creditor has to respond with proof of the accuracy of the information within 30 days or it will be removed from the report. Some people say to dispute everything even if you know it is accurate and hope that the account is so old that they cannot provide proof in time.
Make sure that you Get copies of your report from all 3 credit reporting agencies, you are entitled to a free report once every 12 months you can go here to get your report https://www.annualcreditreport.com
The next step i would take is to open a secured or prepaid credit card, and make sure that you make payments on time. Be aware that some secured cards have pretty high Fees, but if you shop around you can find a good deal. If you decide to go with a prepaid card make sure you choose one that reports to all 3 credit reporting companies, not all of them do.
After the secured or prepaid credit card, you should take a look at your credit report again (they all should send you a revised copy detailing the results of your disputes) and start to pay off the remaining debts. Pay off the most recent first, as the older the debt the less they effect your credit score. (you usually can negotiate with those companies to have the amount Reduced, just make sure you get the offer in writing and keep it for your records)
keep paying your bills on time and you should begin seeing an improvement in you credit score, 3-6 months after you have paid off all your past debts, and have paid your bills on time your credit card company may have raised your limit a little, some cards review your account every 3, 6, or 12 months and increase your limit. If they haven't raised your limit yet, and you have some extra money you can make an additional deposit into the secured account and your limit should be raised by at least that amount.
now you may want to consider a store credit card, like target or sears. They are easier to get than unsecured credit cards, just be careful the number of inquires for new credit is part of your credit score, so if you are not approved for one card, applying for others that you are unlikely to get is only going to hurt your credit rebuilding plan.
There is no quick fix to credit rebuilding, but it can be done. Like anything else, just make a plan and stick to it. Eventually, your credit score will improve as old charge offs and judgements fall off your report, you show good payment history on those new accounts and your credit limits increase.
http://www.cardratesonline.com
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Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:14 am |
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