Got Started Then Stopped (Long)

Discussion in 'Credit Talk' started by ifhn166, Nov 14, 2001.

  1. ifhn166

    ifhn166 Active Member

    I just found this site and must say I am very impress with the wealth of information available. I have often thought about signing up with a credit repair service but I always felt I could do this on my own. I started my credit recovery program back in 1996. At that time I had several collection accounts, charge offs and numerous past due accounts. I believe the only current accounts in good standing were my Penney's and Kay Jeweler accounts. I soon obtained a Providian account and shortly there after an Orchard and I believe in 1998 I got a Capital One account. Over the past 5 years I have gotten all of the past due accounts current, settled on a Circuit City account and a Greentree Financial motorcycle loan. I started making payments on my student loans with were severely past due. I'm making regular payments on a NCO collection account for MBNA. I consolidated my student loans this year. I still have a few accounts listed as charges offs as of Jan 01 (last time I checked my reports). I only applied for credit four times since getting the Capital One account. First with PrimeCo for a cell phone account that was denied and after a year changed to a credit account. Next with Sears which I was approved for in 2000 and with Compaq for a computer loan which was denied. I should have known better to read the fine print, MBNA was the bank. I recently got "denied" by Sprint although I'm not a prepay customer and they gave me a $250 credit limit for my cell account. I've gotten regular credit increases (and purchased a few from Providian) on all my accounts and have never been late. Early on I wasn't carring balances on any for extended periods of time but now have maxed out all my cards this year and am in the process of paying them off. Providian 5200/6000...Orchard 250/1100...Capital One 450/950. Okay enough history. A couple of questions...

    1) How do I get Providian, Capital One et al to lower my interest rate? get upgrades to their other cards?

    2) I notice several post referring to monitering their CRs daily. How does one do this? And doesn't this get expensive? Most sites I've seen charge. Recommendations?

    3) I'm planning to buy house soon and I'd like to evaluate my credit situation without having alot of inquiries but on my CRs. Suggestions?

    4) Also I noticed several accounts are supposed to fall off my CRs next year because of the 7 yr rule. Should I let them fall on their own or pursue validation on them?
     
  2. bauhaus

    bauhaus Well-Known Member

    For 2) check out http://www.creditexpert.com for your Experian report. Free month's trial. Also there is Privista.com for Equifax and Worthknowing.com for TU...but they're not as useful as the former in my opinion.

    For 3) any report you order through the CRA for yourself will not show as a hard inquiry. It's only listed as a consumer disclosure and is not released to anyone other than you.

    For 4) Only you can answer that one. How much time / effort do you want to spend on this project? If not much, and you're not going to get a house until after they would drop off...why bother yourself with it?
     
  3. ifhn166

    ifhn166 Active Member

    Thanks for the reply. How use is the dispute function on the creditexpert site for Experian? Also I noticed numerous inquiries into my CR I was unaware of and alot of the personal information is inaccurate. Can I fixed this from the site?
     
  4. Nave

    Nave Well-Known Member

    I have not used CreditExpert (CE) in a while, but if I remember correctly, you get a copy of your report online after logging in to CE. You then have a menu on the top with the different sections of the report (personal info, negative items, trade lines/positive items, inquiries etc). After selecting the section with the item you want to dispute, the top menu "changes" and has an option for disputing. Each item will have the option to submit a dispute, with drop down menus and text boxes if needed in order to explain the dispute reason.

    It has been a long time and I may be confusing things with the Eq and TU online reports but I think that is essentially it. If not it is similar and fairly intuitive. Yes, Inquiries can be disputed from within CE.

    Good luck.

    -Peace, Dave
     

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