I pulled my credit reports today. None of them show a score, but it's pretty bad. I have several charge offs and a LOT of pulls. I have a few questions. 1-If I am disputing name and address information, what information should I include in my letter? 2-I have several very small amounts that have been turned over to collections. Some recent and some not so recent. How bad will it *hurt* my score to go ahead and pay those amounts. By small amounts I mean $150 or less. 3-Which pulls are considered soft pulls? Several say "utilities and fuel". Do they qualify as soft? How can I get those pulls to fall off faster? 4-Where can I find my actual SCORES and do I really want to KNOW at this point? Thanks in advance for all of your help. Susan
www.myfico.com you can get your scores also you can get them from each of the CRA themselves when you purchase your reports from them. Mods If Im not allowed to put that site, please remove and Im so sorry
For any disputes, you'll probably need to purchase a current report from each of the credit bureaus and then use the report number as a reference. I'd start with an on-line dispute for those. They'll either be very easy or very stubborn. With some CRAs you might also be able to resolve these over the phone. A paid collection is almost as bad score-wise as an unpaid one. Your best bet is to either try and dispute them so they'll go away or negotiate a pay-for-deletion: i.e. you'll pay, if they'll take it off. See this site for how to do that (and how not to do that). These should be called out separately in the credit report. "soft ones" don't count towards (or against) your score. Hard ones that are permissible, will be there for a year or two so you just have to wait. www.myfico.com seems to have the closest scores to what they pull when applying for a loan. All the others use some other scoring system so the actual point values won't agree, but if you're looking for movement in the score, the "off-brand" scores should give you some idea. If you look up your score (for a fee, of course) it won't count as a "hard pull." If a creditor does in the context of a credit application, it will. You have some homework ahead of you. Read this site and don't be in a big hurry. These things take time.
