Advice for new comer.

I kinda hate to get blatently commercial, but I see that you said you had had your fill of credit repair companies having paid them $350 for nothing.

I'd like to ask you to look over some of the posts others have put up about me.

You might also want to look over my website.

 

I've never dealt personally with Bill, but from what I have read about him and seen of his credit knowledge, it would be a very good move for you to consult with him. Good luck in getting your credit back into shape!

 

I can tell u about building your wife's credit.

First you should add your wife as a joint account holder to your existing cards, but only those with perfect payment history. Failing that, make her an Authorized User on those accounts, though it is debatable if that does any good.

She should have at least 2 cards in her name to start with. From my experience, I recommend a Cap 1 secured card: It reports as unsecured, and within 3-6 months u can get the annual fee and security deposit back. U can also get her a retail card like a target or macy's card. I've heard macy's doesn't require a credit history in some cases, only proof of residence.

In 6 months, apply for citi AAdvantage cards (look up the countless threads that deal with that). She'll have her first platinum card then.

Don't forget to charge something every month on all her cards, and you should pay in full to avoid any finance charges.

Hope this helps,
-Roman

 

Your credit is far from the worst.

My mother has 17 derogs and 7 judgements and only 2 positives.

Trying to clean it up now. She paid them all eventually so leverage to delete is long gone.

I definitely advise secured cards. My personal story is that when I came here, I had 4-6 derogs on each report. Today I have 4 TU, 1 EX, and 4 EQ. Slowly rebuilding and I hired Bill Bauer to help get rid of those derogs. Luckily I only paid one of them.

I immediately got a Target, Orchard, and secured Sterling and bank accounts at Wachovia. The trick was putting everything into dispute so I would get approved for Target and Wachovia (Sterling is guaranteed and Orchard is pretty lax)

Two months later, in September, I went into dispute mode again and applied for a Citibank, got approved, then got approved for a second card, combined them into one, and then got another. I also have FCNB secured and 2 Capital One cards, and an AMEX LOC.

A lot of it has to do with the fact that my derogs are 3-5 years old and very small in amount ($28-400, most $28-100) I also am an advocate of Planet Feedback...it got me CapOne cards and a charge off mess straight (LONG story, search the old threads), it might get me less interest on Citi, it got me more credit on Orchard, and I am trying now to see if MBNA and Chase will reconsider me) AMEX will not budge on their card denials, but I will persevere one day soon.

A key is to NOT go blow a bunch of inquiries applying for cards you will very likely NOT get. Sam and I are the inquiry leaders I think (EQ?) and we can tell you what NOT to apply for.

Any questions, this is the best place to ask. First active and useful board I found, and believe me, I tried.

Welcome and good luck. A warning: it will likely become a day and night obsession

Steph

 

You would need at least 5 Years of established Revolving credit with Prime Credit cards. Before you would be able to get an approval from MBNA or Chase. A Sears Card would also help as that is considered a prime trade....

 

inquiry deletes

When I dispute the inquiries with the CB am I better off doing a few at a time or all at once?

 

I think the best approach in validation letters is to use the KISS principle.
Keep it simple, stupid.

I think that the less info you give them in a validation letter, the better. In fact, I overplay that just a bit on purpose. I don't even give them any info about the account or myself. I just say they have been trying to collect an account I am supposed to owe and I demand they validate it.

I keep the whole validation letter down to one full page. Then I sit back and watch the violations start rolling in.

 

First of all, Congrats on deciding to take charge. It's a big step. If you're anything like me, you'll knock off a lot of the low hanging fruit quickly, but then still have a bunch of stuff left. BTW, you thinks yours is bad? So far, on my own, I've removed over forty derogatories and twenty five inquiries between my wife's credit reports and my own. That was the low hanging fruit. They didn't put up any fight at all. But a bunch of them did. and that's where you have to make a choice. What happens when they push back? You'll find a number of theories here in this site, some of them reasonably well thought out, and which would no doubt work fine. But as you research it (and I would encourage you to do that) you might just come to the same conclusion I did. This Bill Bauer guy knows what he's talking about. He's not sending out false statements (which are against the law, BTW) to the CRA's saying, essentially, "Yuh, Uhhh!" which is what most of the other services I've run across are all about. He's got the next five or six steps planned out at any point in the game. And jeez, there's only so many hours in the day; how much time do I want to spend on this stuff anyway? I've got a wife, a kid, a boss, and a shih tzu to keep happy. For what it costs to engage Bill's services (which is really more of an assisted or directed self service mdel, BTW), well, I get that back just in the time saved (many times over), not to mention that I'm much more certain of success, and I'm still directly involved in the process. I haven't turned over my destiny to him.

As you no doubt have gathered, I signed up with Bill; just last week, in fact. We're off to a blazing start and I'm very optimistic of success. I'll keep posting as I see results.

Whatever you choose; Good Luck!

 

Quixote:

Thanks for your testimonial, but just since Sunday, I've added something that will knock your socks off.

I truly believe that this is the most potent weapon ever to emerge in the field of debt repair. And of course, if you fix the debt, the credit repair becomes easy for the simple reason that since the debt no longer exists, the credit bureaus have nothing to report against you.

Here it is. Under the law, the creditor is legally liable for the violations of the 3rd party debt collector who violates your rights!!!!

Once informed that the 3rd party debt collector has seriously violated FDCPA and your rights, you can bet he is going to be burning up the phone lines demanding that the debt collector get it fixed and get it fixed quick or else.

So now I can make the creditor help you beat the debt collector he hired to beat up on you.

The debtor has always been the "worm" in debt collections, but now the worm has turned and can bite back hard if his rights have been violated. Much harder than ever before.

Thanks again, Quixote

 

My validation letter is as follows:

This is a letter in reference to your recent reporting of a delinquent account on my credit report. I have never used your services, and therefore do not know anything about this account you say I am liable for. Please prove the account with something that shows my signature.

Thank you,

Erica


That is it. I never acknowledge the debt, yet I am asking for proof that it is mine. So far, an unpaid reposession has come off my Experian using this letter. We'll see about the other two reports.

 

No Problem OS1. Hope it works for you!