I have systematically disputed all the baddies on both my and my husband's reports. All of them were out of the SOL to collect (4 years in this state, 7 to report though). The derogs just fell off the reports after I either disputed online or sent a CMRRR VOD letter; I had never received a response to confirm deletion. The last collection account I had was OSI and the 4 year SOL is either up this month or next month. I had disputed it online and it came back validated, so I sent a CMRRR VOD. I actually got a letter back from OSI saying, "This has been cancelled with all the credit bureaus and returned to the OC." As soon as I got the green card back I checked my CR's online and saw it'd been deleted. It was signed by the Compliance Manager =0). Thanks to AOC last year (mostly), our CR's are derog FREE, aside from BK I filed in 1999 after an XH left the country and left me with $45K in debt. Caveman has NO derogs and we both have 2 small accounts in good standing. Who could direct me to the best way to rebuild credit for someone who has no derogs but only has 2 small accounts (a jewelry store and Dell computers) in good standing? Caveman has a good job. I am not worried about applying in my name because I do temp work/PT and have no steady income. =0D Caveman's wife
Are your existing accounts being reported, and are they in good standing? Are you getting any credit offers?
DH gets multiple offers each month, but he says they all have HIGH (>$100 I think) annual fees so he just shreds them. Both of our good accounts are being reported, but they're "inactive" since they have been paid in full, as agreed.
Are your good accounts revolving or CC accounts? When was the last activity on them? The high annual fee accounts usually have other poor terms also. In addition, the companies seeking customers on these terms may not be willing to convert to more favorable terms. See if you can get SOME credit established, to start getting better offers. Even if the rate is, say, 20%, just don't carry a balance. You might want to consider joining a credit union, and opening a small limit CC account with them, even secured if that is the only way you can. That will start to establish a recent history of positive credit usage.
