please tell how you got your scores from 400's to almost 700's? i am open to all responses. thank you. and please no name calling or flame throwing, i for one am curious.
This excellent question was split from an off-topic thread. I hope it attracts answers from more experienced Creditnet members, since quite a few here have achieved exactly what louey mentions. CCN steve
Louey, I'm not in the 700's yet, but have moved mine up quite a bit since dipping my toe in, in November. You need to pull your credit reports from all three bureaus, and find out whats on it first. There are probably errors, and there are probably other things you can get off thru negotiation and such. I would suggest you read the INTRO posts at the top of this board a few times, that will give you some ideas. It takes patience and persistance.
How do you raise scores from 400s t My FICO score was in the low 400's for years. The problem began when I was in college and a "friend" helped me get a unsecured CC. I was young and immature and knew zero, zilch about credit. So I happily maxed out that card as well as other CC's that companies were nice enough to send me Soon I graduated from college and with a couple of paychecks in hand, I attempted to buy a car. Over the coming years, I was told time and time again that my "credit" was "bad." What is this "credit" I thought. I had never even looked at a credit report. When I finally did look at one, I was in my early 30's. Once I realized what I had done wrong all my life, I set about to fix it. I found this board through a link from another board and I read as much as I could. First thing I did was call the CRA's to ask them to delete some accounts that were not mine. Sure I was lying, but so what? 4 negative accounts were deleted that way and 2 others fell off due to they were near the end of 7 years (I was lucky). That left me with a report as new as a baby's bottom. I then bought a car at a whopping 21% interest (due to my having no credit history). I pledged to make all my payments on time. 6 months later, my credit climbed into the low 500's. 6 months after that, I qualified for a secured Capital One card with a $500 cl and $99 down. That was a year ago. Now my FICO is in the low 700's. The key is to try to make all your payments on time. Try to keep a $5-10 balance on all your credit cards and never max them out.
How do you raise scores from 400s t louey, I did the same charging thing as SoParkDiva at 19 years old. Eight years later I was in the hole for around $40,000. I didn't care about even attempting to fix my credit after 25 bad accounts and 4 judgements and a garnishment. I couldn't write a check because I would just wonder if the money would be seized from an account from the judgements. Anyways I took my head out of the sand and filed Bankruptcy. After I got my discharge papers I tried getting a newer car, you get flooded with offers for car loans with the Bankruptcy being public information. The "finance department" ran my report and told me that there was NO way I could get any kind of loan for the car I wanted even if I had 90% down and was willing to pay the max A.P.R allowed by law. My FICO score was in the low 400's 13 months ago. Today I am in the high 600's and will be in the low 700's by summer. This can be done without disputing false info to the CRA(S) like not mine even though it is yours "the truth". Unfortunately posts will come after this with insults, and Defamatory comments and I am an idiot for claiming a debt was mine to begin with. There are SEVERAL ways to go about this and others will disagree with me and say I disrupt the flow of things because I am a "troll". Then others will bash each other and this thread will be gone. louey I will not call you names or throw flames, if your in the 400's I've been there and remember it well. Would you like to know how I did it? Or how I could help one do it? If you start with the age of your credit like how many years ago did it start or your current credit situation I could be of help.
How do you raise scores from 400s t Hey Jason, why don't you tell us all how to do it. This now the 6th request.
How do you raise scores from 400s t Do what??? LKH, I don't know what you want me to tell you personally that could help yourself. I am very open to this though
Re: How do you raise scores from 400s t You keep saying our methods are outdated and won't work. I'm asking what methods will work?
Re: How do you raise scores from 400s t LKH, O.K then you disagree with me. Lets just agree to disagree and move on from here, I have no need to spend time arguing with you. Anyone can see what you are trying to start here. Good luck, and by the way I do respect your knowledge and time at this site.
Re: How do you raise scores from 400s t How do you raise your scores from 400's to 700's? Do what I did in March, 2001. Decide you are going to do it, and that nothing is going to get in your way, come up with a measurable goal, and then listen to the LKHs of the world who post here. In March 2001, I decided I wanted to buy a house in 2002. I ordered a tri-merge credit report (these days, I probably would have ordered online copies directly from the big 3, but only Experian offered online access back then), and I started reading every single message on this board. In the meantime, I hired a credit repair firm to start the disputing process but quickly realized I could do better on my own and stopped using their service soon after. After you finish reading, DISPUTE! Dispute with the CRAs before you start working on individual creditors. After you've disputed every negative item on your reports at least once, maybe twice, gather as much information as you can find on the specific items that remain and start calling, writing, faxing, emailing the individual creditors. You will get more deletions. THEN, take the remaining negative items, and start getting serious. Use the BBB, your state's AG office, the FTC, etc. There are many examples here of creative ways to get people's attention that work well. I started this in March, 2001 and in February 2002 qualified for the mortgage on my new home. I moved into it in August 2002. I have two clean reports and am down to two old negatives on one (one of which will fall off early next year). I have achieved my goal (the mortgage) and have obtained more credit than I had ever imagined possible. My way took time. Almost a year. There are some here who have used the courts to achieve in weeks what it took me that year to do. If you are talented in that arena, you might look there for your success. My way (learned from the many here who went before me and those who were in the same stages of repair that I was) worked just fine. Just don't give up, don't get overwhelmed. You will have your successes and failures. But believe me, if I could do it, there's nothing to stop you from doing the same.
Re: How do you raise scores from 400s t Jason, no offense, but I'm itching to hear an answer to LKH's logical question as well. Would you be kind enough to detail your techniques for improving your credit scores? Thanks! Doc P.S. I appreciate the kind remarks you made to LKH in your last post. However, I seriously would like to hear your techniques -- I'm somebody who loves to learn new stuff.
Re: How do you raise scores from 400s t Or you could not worry about courts, endless letters and phone calls and move on quickly like I did. The time needed to be put into that for myself was not worth it. There is a growing percentage of people having problems getting rid of items that are truly their items. The post above is right though, decide you will do it. Run the FICO simulator and set that goal. When you achieve it then run it again and set another realistic goal, keep going until you have more credit then you could ever need. Or the score you are happy with. If you want it bad enough like anything else in life you can achieve it.
Re: Re: How do you raise scores from 400s t That is in no way an answer to the question. You continue to dodge the question. It is obvious that you have no answer. If you do, then one last time, for Docs sake as well, IF OUR METHODS DON'T WORK AS YOU SAY, WHAT METHODS WILL? CAN YOU GIVE US ONE IDEA? Thank you.
Re: Re: How do you raise scores from 400s t Right, but specifically, what did you do to raise your scores? Doc
Re: How do you raise scores from 400s t Ok, you are killing us! Are you talking bankruptcy? I have been following this thread and am never a basher , but of course am interested. I have only 2 bad items on my reports and am not getting far in 2 years. It seems to get better, then chod made my score go down???? We're all here to share info or learn . Even if someone doesn't agree with you, if it worked for you, then alright! Share it if possible.
Re: How do you raise scores from 400s t One more thing to add... GEORGE had a great point up above. When I ruined my credit it was because I didn't have enough money to pay all of the bills I ran up. When I DID have the money to begin paying, I kept up with the bad habits I developed about paying things and dug a deeper hole for myself. When I could have paid every bill I would receive on time, I would procrastinate. I would get statements and put them in a drawer or throw them away. I'd pay things when I got around to paying them instead of before they were due -- just because I was lazy and didn't think it was important. I was always about a month behind on car payments, utilities, charged-off creditors I was still paying -- you name it, I was late paying it. THIS HAS TO CHANGE. You might be in the same boat, and you might have bad payment habits but you have to make up your mind that you've made your last late payment. Do whatever it takes to make your payments to anything you are still paying on time. Even things where you know you can slide on and that won't report (like paying the phone bill a day or two late) are important. When you are caught up and paying everything on time, you will feel better about yourself. You will also be developing good habits for when you have repaired your credit and need to manage what you've earned.
Re: How do you raise scores from 400s t PsychDoc, I know the time you have spent here and on other sites and so respect your knowledge and hours of help to others. I just feel from LKH by looking at the past 3 years of his comments to others that LKH is just sharpening the knife to cut me so LKH can go out of his way to bash my words, and try to make myself look like an idiot. I feel I'm in a tough spot and do not want this subject closed. If LKH disagrees with me that's fine but I don't need this. LKH obviously knows his or her stuff and others have taken your steps and have had success doing it. PsychDoc, I have seen your work and will never take offense from you.
Re: How do you raise scores from 400s t LKH, Am I saying your methods don't work? Are you saying your methods work 100% of the time? Are you saying it is just as easy now to use your methods as it was in the past? Here we go again?
