Hi everyone, I want to introduce myself. I've only been looking at these threads for a few days, but I can tell that a lot of you have been where I am today and hopefully I can better my situation along with you. In the future maybe I can help someone else who made the same mistakes I did. I am not going to lie, I am horrible at paying my bills on time. In the past I was selfish with my money and did not want to pay my bills at all. I have overextended myself resulting in reposessions, collections, and judgements. My credit score reflects all that now, and I was recently laughed at when I applied for a loan. Now that I am a responsible upstanding member of society who really is willing and able to pay bills on time, I can't get a bill to pay! I can't imagine what I'm going to going to go through when I try to buy a house (in the near future-I've got a baby on the way!) Even with an A-1 credit co-signer I still couldn't get a loan to replace my car. Talk about depressing...... Anyway, I look forward to meeting all of you, learning and teaching along the way. Hopefully this can turn into something positive. By the way I ordered my credit scores today.... 530 Experian 555 Equifax 469 Transunion - Ouch Jake
Read a lot here and in other places on the net. Learn what goes into a credit report. For example, your length of credit histroy is the largest percentage of your score. You need positives and you need them to add up over time. For example, a credit this year, a loan 2 yrs later, add another credit card the following year, etc. Show a trend and a history that grows in positives. Learn about SOL (statute of limitations). If you have negatives that are past the SOL, you may have success getting them removed with a dispute. Be aware when you dispute, you now have a credit file that has activity and other creditors may pop up and look for their share. Choose that timing carefully. This may help get you started. This is for SOL, but save this site, and look around at other info there. Great stuff. http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/statuteLimitations.shtml Read the "sticky's" at the top of the forum page. There is so much good stuff and it will take a long time. just keep coming back to it a little at a time. Read the top mistakes people make when they start to clean up their credit, and try to learn from that as you start out. Until you learn more, don't talk to a CA (collection agency). Hope that helps get you to a good start.
