I have been lurking for the past few weeks trying to get the feel of you all and reading up on credit repair on a variety of sites but decided to make this my home as far as learning and communicating with other folks for advice and such. My credit is horrible and most of the damge I did was during my college years about 5 years ago. I am married now and buying a home, having children ectect our some of my goals in the next 5 years or so. I took a look at my credit report and almost had a heart attack.. its very poor.. some bad marks are my fault.. some I have no idea where they come from... OH well.. I hope to get as much info and help as possible from here and hopefully be able to help other people as well.... I only know one of my scores for now it it is a dismal 585 from EX... although I recently just recieved a secured CC from CapOne as an attempt to get my credit rating higher... any advice on that would be great..
Welcome to the board. The first step to getting your credit rating higher isn't seeing what you'll get approved for. First make sure you're living within your means, then get all your reports & dispute incorrect information. If you have specific questions, ask away!
thanks for the reply... our lifestyle right now is pretty good. we save tons of money and really don't buy lots of things.... Over the years I have become a penny pincher which I am proud of but I am totally not proud of my credit report..... Anyhow I am confused about the idea of "getting your credit report" from what I understand there is getting your report directly from the CRA and also getting reports froma third party like qspace.com ... question is does it matter where I get a report from? qspace.com didn't provide my my full account number... they used abbreviated account numbers that looks like this (635657681xxxx).... in order for me to dispute an account it would seem that I would need the full account number.. so ... here is the question should a one time credit report from all three CRAs be enough to start the whole disputing thing or should I get some sort of monitor subscription? also where would you recommend for me to go to get my report? or subscription...... thanks
I would recommend Equifax Credit Watch and Experian's Credit Expert. I think they are each in the $60-70 range now for a one year subscription, but we're 6 months into our credit repair journey and they have been a huge help to us since we monitor almost daily and have done several online disputes as well. It's interesting with frequent monitoring to see which changes have what kind of impact to plan your strategy to maximize your scores when you really need to. Transunion doesn't have a similar service, so we tried a monitoring service for Transunion, but they were so slow at providing info about changes that it was of little or no value. All the best!
Some thoughts... My first advice: READ and re-READ the discussions under the library section (upper right on the screen next to the discussions tab) before you contact a CRA or Creditor about anything. Read it all. Then wait a while, and read it again. And, if you are like me, and need to read with a highlighter in your hand for it to sink in, you may even want to print out some of the verbiage. DO NOT start sending disputes or requests for validation until you read the library discussions on where to start, how to set up your methods to the madness, and when to do what. Get a file cabinet, set up a tracking system, folders, etc. You really need a printer. You can do incalculable harm to your attempt to straighten out the inaccuracies on your credit reports if you just start disputing without a plan. Second, my advice would be to go ahead and join the credit monitoring services offered by Equifax and Experian. You can join for a yearly fee and it will be well worth it to monitor the changes (or lack of changes) on your Credit Reports.Get the reports from those services, as your starting point (always print out and have a hard copy ) . Also, maybe start by ordering a credit report from TU < just so you have their actual report in hand. If you've been denied a loan, or had to pay high insurance or whatever due to the TU report, you can get a copy free by calling their 800 number. Third, FOLLOW THE POSTED ADVICE on how to do what & when. Some of us <<< me, me, me >>have been through the school of hard knocks and made some mistakes. You can learn from that. And others have been very very successful in their endeavors. Why reinvent the wheel? Just do what has been shown to be successful as a place to start. Fourth, continue to read the daily postings just to get a sense of the different issues. Even if something doesn't apply to you right now, it may apply later, and familiarity with the concepts may help steer you to a more positive result. And last, when you don't know something, or think that you do, but you're not sure...ASK BEFORE you send that letter, converse on the phone, mail a check, etc. etc. I've only been watching and reading for a short while, but I am totally blown away by the concern, the expertise, and the willingness to assist from the members that post on the board. You couldn't have come to a better resource, Good luck with your efforts.
Thanx Maggie, Fabulous advice, I might also recommend reading every single word of the FCRA and FDCPA, with a highlighter. BEFORE one even starts.
