Can someone help me with information on the best and quickest way to fix a badly damaged credit report, and sc?
October 9th, 2009
Can someone tell me that knows or has experience with fixing a credit report with a lot of old negative account reports, like 7-10 years old, and the quickest way to raise your score from a 515 to 650 or higher? I am in college now (33 years old) finally, and trying to fix my life. And this subject is an important fix to me as well as my education. Thank You
Derogatory items age off your credit report 7-1/2 years from date of first deficiency. If any of the items are your credit report are beyond the reporting period, dispute them with the credit bureau.
Do not waste your time disputing legitimate items. Even if something should happen to slip thru the cracks and get removed, chances are it will reappear the next time the creditor updates to the credit bureau. Also, repeatedly disputing everything is likely to get you tagged by the credit bureau and you will have trouble gettting errrors removed in the future.
Since a lot of the negatives are so old, they really are not impacting your score that much. The older an item, the less the impact. If any of the derogatories are single entry items like medical or utility bills, you can try to negotiate a pay for delete — you pay $x and they remove the item from your file. This would help your score. But it doesn’t work for regularly reported items like credit cards and installment loans. Collection agencies can only remove what they report. The original creditor’s charge off would remain.
What you really need is a new credit line that shows good payment history. You may have to get a secured credit card — you pay $x which is held as collateral against the credit line. Use the card and pay it in full every month. After a year, you may be able to convert to a regular credit card or apply for a new account.
You will really need at least 24 months of consistent, on time payment history to see improvement in your score. It will probably take even longer to get your score above 650.
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Posted in How to fix my credit
You may well know that you can receive your three major credit reports for free, once a year. When you do that, contest everything on them. The creditor has I think 30 days to respond. If they do not, it gets dropped off your report. I cleared a lot that way. Another thing you may consider if you’re getting better with money…
Find one of those small loan places, make sure they report, take out a 300 dollar or so loan, put it in the bank and make payments on it faithfully. The interest on it can be painful but it can really help ugly credit. Be prepared to pay the fees on top of the base loan.
References :
There is no real quick way to increase your credit score – it is a semi-slow, time-based process.
First, you need to get a copy of your three credit reports (go to http://www.annualcreditreport.com). Read them carefully. Look first for any account which has a last activity date of 7 years ago or older. These should not be on your report (all negative reports should fall off after 7 years and 180 days). If there are any older, go to the credit bureau’s dispute page and follow the instructions on disputing the reports – cite the time frame as your dispute reason.
Next, re-read the report looking for anything that might be wrong (for example, dual reporting of a past-due account, paid accounts listed as being in collections or whatever). Use the dispute resolution process to get these taken care of.
Next, make sure that any bills you have that are paid and up-to-date are reported. If not, call the company and ask why they are not being reported (some companies do not belong to credit bureaus, you’ll just have to live with that). If the company normally reports to the credit bureaus, ask them to please report these accounts, since the history will help.
From here on out, make sure that you pay all your bills on time. The only way to really increase your score is through paying bill on time and getting balances down as low as you can. If you are paying on time, do not close accounts – open accounts with zero balances actually help your score.
Each year, grab your free credit report and do this again. Remember, it probably took you a little while to mess up yoru credit, it will take a little time to fix it.
References :
Derogatory items age off your credit report 7-1/2 years from date of first deficiency. If any of the items are your credit report are beyond the reporting period, dispute them with the credit bureau.
Do not waste your time disputing legitimate items. Even if something should happen to slip thru the cracks and get removed, chances are it will reappear the next time the creditor updates to the credit bureau. Also, repeatedly disputing everything is likely to get you tagged by the credit bureau and you will have trouble gettting errrors removed in the future.
Since a lot of the negatives are so old, they really are not impacting your score that much. The older an item, the less the impact. If any of the derogatories are single entry items like medical or utility bills, you can try to negotiate a pay for delete — you pay $x and they remove the item from your file. This would help your score. But it doesn’t work for regularly reported items like credit cards and installment loans. Collection agencies can only remove what they report. The original creditor’s charge off would remain.
What you really need is a new credit line that shows good payment history. You may have to get a secured credit card — you pay $x which is held as collateral against the credit line. Use the card and pay it in full every month. After a year, you may be able to convert to a regular credit card or apply for a new account.
You will really need at least 24 months of consistent, on time payment history to see improvement in your score. It will probably take even longer to get your score above 650.
References :