I've been reading for about a week and am trying to wrap my mind around all of this credit repair stuff. I read PsychDoc's primer suggesting that I post to say hello and fess up to being a damn fool, so here I am. I understand the frustrations of being a long-time member of an online community and having newbies come in asking ridiculous, redundant questions that can easily be answered by using the search function, so I promise to TRY not to do that. But in the event that I do ask something that makes you want to punch me in the face, please refrain from doing so.
Welcome, and rest assured that there are no "stupid questions". You've made the first important step, and that is great. We all understand how confusing the process can be, and in time you will almost feel like a legal expert in these matters. I will advise reading the "stickies" for the intro to the process. Start by pulling all of your credit reports, if you have not done so yet, and perhaps your FICO scores. Take your time reviewing them, and read all of the legends to understand what information is reported, and how. Most likely, whatever issue you have, there is a post on this forum for the same problem. But if you have any confusion, or uncertainty, please post your problem and question. Prudence is a great virtue in credit repair, you can read the posts regarding "costly mistakes" by jumping in too quickly. So again, welcome, and we look forward to helping you.
Welcome. What might seem as a "stupid" question might generate a "smart" answer and that's how we all learn.
I agree there is no stupid question, I give you credit for asking, many people dont want to tackle their credit because it is not easy, but you seem to want to learn and do something about it. As Miz mentioned the biggest mistake in credit repair is people jumping the gun and making a mistake they cannot fix later. Go slow and learn, tackle only a few things at a time and ask questions. Read the stickies allot. Get your reports and read until you understand what is on your report and what everything on the report stands for. Look for errors that we can help you get fixed first and then once you have read the stickies and have some understanding of credit repair, you can tackle a few at a time. We are all here to help each other, and there are some super people on this board who are willing to help you if your willing to put out the effort.
Thanks everyone! I know that repairing my credit is going to be a labor of love (errr...maybe not LOVE), and am ready to do the work. I read the thread about the biggest mistakes people have made and learned a TON, thank god! Right now, the issue I'm grappling with is that I have old debts (charge-offs) that are scheduled to fall of my reports over the next few months. Several already have, actually. I pretty much never hear from CAs, so based on what I've read so far, I think it'd be in my best interest to NOT contact them about validation or anything else and just wait for them to exit stage left. However, at least two have recently been re-aged, so perhaps I should write to each of the CRAs that are still reporting them about the date of original delinquency and the statute of limitations? Any thoughts?
Dispute the "re-aged" accounts, especially if you have older credit reports to evidence this. Dispute that account is "Past Reporting SOL, and Date of First Major Deliquency is inaccurate".
