After stumbling upon this site last week and scouring the newbie section as well as reading the success stories, I finally mustered up the courage to take the first steps in facing my credit situation. I have been hesitant i.e. scared to face the music becuase it has been a year or longer since I have made any payments on any debts. But I am tired of walking around with the feeling that I am trapped, and less of a person just because I made some mistakes as an idiot kid. I am 28 years old today and ready to start acting like it! The amount of info on the site is amazing, but a little overwhelming. So far the only step I have taken is to pull my credit from Annualcreditreport.com and viewed the Experian report. I also purchased the score, 504. I tried to get the other 2, TU and EQ, but it would not go thru because it said could not verify my identity. Problem is that I have moved around quite a bit in last few years(several different address files) as well as I am Junior, so my Dad has same name as I do. To make matters worse, I have used/lived at his address at various times thru out last few years. There are several items that I am positive are not mine. I got scared when trying to get the Tu score because it was asking me to essentially verify accounts in order to verify my identity by entering account #'s. Having read thru this site, it did not sound like I should do anything like that without first consulting this board. I do have the Experian, and showed15 potentially negative items (atleast 5 duplicate and 5 nthat are not mine). However, most were duplicate Student Loan entries. I consolidated several into 1 about 2.5 years ago. Also, there is a card that was mine that says included in ch. 13 Bk, even though I have never filed Bk!!! I hope there is hope!!
You will probably have to write to the bureaus to get your report. Send a copy of your drivers license. That is the first step--get all three credit reports directly from the bureaus. Then start going over them and identifying everything that is wrong. After that, post your findings here and we'll help you out.
Thank you for your response. I am in the process of getting the 3 reports directly from the 3 CRAs. In the meantime, I have the free report from Experian that indicates 15 potentially negative items and a 504 score. There are several items that I know for sure are not mine. They might be my fathers since he and I share the same name and I have lived with him a few different times over the years. There are 3 old Verizon collection/Charge offs, a Providian Financial that says Transferred,closed/Account charged off. $962 written off, and what appears to be a power bill for 80 bucks. My question is would it be better since I know theses are not mine, should I begin the process (validation letters?)now rather than waiting for the other reports to come via mail. If so, can anybody tell me what my first step should be?? Also, is it even worth it for me to apply for an Orchard Bank card to try and restablish some credit.Currently, the only thing I have that is not in collection or charged off is a cell phone bill since june(never been late). I again can't stress enough how grateful I am to have found this site. I thank you all in advance for any help.
Does the CC company know that? Are there any beasts on the report that might wake up if they suddenly realized you were poking around improving your rating?
