So, I screwed my credit up... Fixed it (somewhat)... screwed up again... Now, I'm working on fixing it again and rebuilding. So, my Experian is pretty clean (1 baddie), the others are still pretty bad. But, a few questions: 1. Dept. of Education has a collection, paid (Equifax & Transunion). It was mine, but I paid it before I knew it was in collections. It still went to collections, was paid to the OC, though, who forwarded it (I guess) to the DoE. I've disputed it, but it still remains... Any way to get that off? 2. I'm working on rebuilding. I have a 3 month old Best Buy Mastercard with $300 limit and a new Macy's with $100 limit. I pay them off before the due date, in full, and before grace period ends. How will these help my scores with small limits? All my baddies are ~3 years old and older. 3. Would adding a secured card ($500 limit) help in addition to the 2 accounts I have right now? 4. Most of my baddies are to fall off within 2 years, which is my end goal date. Within now and then, I want to rebuild my credit so that it is perfect in 2 years. Is this an acheivable goal with what I have so far? I have several good accounts (closed, but all good) and 2 good student loans. I'm still disputing some of the 3 year old ones so hopefully they will drop off, too. Thanks!
1) Student loans are likely the most difficult thing to delete or have updated to an accurate status. Your odds are not very good. Frankly, our deletion rates are not that high with them either. It helps to contact them directly and move up the food chain. 2) They won't increase your scores at all or only to a marginal extent until they reach at least six months of age. The limits are not material unless you are using them for the purpose of adding avaliable credit. In other words, if you don't have a large amount of delinquent debt that you are trying to offset, the limits don't matter. Every so often, call Macy's and ask for a "guideline" increase. They will give you credit line increases. 3) Not really. Again, it wouldn't help much or at all until aquiring some age. 4) Yes, your scores will increase with time and two years gives you plenty of it.
I had a student loan issue, I defaulted and they placed it on my credit report. It sunk like a ton of bricks that was the bad news. The good news is that if you pay it, they remove it and it is like it never happened. My account was directly with the federal government and I don't know if that was why it was resolved so quickly once I took care of it. Student Loans can get hairy and I was cautioned to take care of it quickly by many on this board a while back, thank goodness for the people here When I was rebuilding my credit I used orchard bank and I found them to be the best out of all the sub-prime predatory credit card people out there. There is a thread on Orchard Bank so I would check it out if you get a chance or do search because I found a lot when i was looking into them a few years back on this board. Some of the second chance/sub prime cards out there charge you for breathing, Others like capital one I found out on Clark howard.com can decrease your credit score because they don't reflect your credit limit. Capital one I found out from researching is not as good with credit limit increases as well. What ever you do make sure to read the fine print, because the predatory cards have some doozies in the fine print. I just wanted to share my experience with you, because lord knows plenty of people here did with me. Good Luck
