Surprise: I have bad credit. I need to get some quasi-private student loans (possibly the new Grad PLUS loans) to start grad school in Aug. I have three really bad TL's: 1 from a charged off credit card I later settled and fully paid, one from a really late (120+) card I paid off over time, and a 60 day late on my undergrad loan. All of these are well over a year old and I since have a history of timely payements on a credit card and the student loan. Question: what can I do to improve my credit in anticipation of a loan application? I have thought about disputing the TL's on my credit report (which has me in the 500's!) but the problem is I paid the accounts. I probably have no leverage with the creditors. Is there anything else I should be thinking about? Please help, I haven't gotten any sleep since I got accepted to grad school because I think I'll never get the loans! Brendan
If you have been reading creditnet for awhile you probably already know this but if not this might help. -Any Credit card pay the balance down and keep it under 30% utilization or better yet 0% till the loan get approved.(Including check overdaft protection,works just like a credit card if you are using it pay it down) -Also dont apply for credit inquires usually hurt your score. Those two things are the only other things in your control that i can think of. Good luck Lucas
Thanks for the response. Some other people suggested looking into gaining AU stauts on family members' cards. My only concern there is that I'll bring their scores down!
