I want to buy a house in the next year or two and need to clean up my credit history. I already found out I would get approved by just paying off a few collections and paying off my auto loans but I would like to clean up my credit to get a better rate. My story; bankruptcy (chp7) five years ago that included several credit cards, a couple of charge-offs (should have been part of bankruptcy), and a few small collections, and even a few positive accounts! Before I get started on the cleanup I have some questons I hope someone here can answer. 1) Do the credit cards accounts that were part of the bankruptcy count againsed me individually or is it the bankruptcy itself that counts? 2) Same accounts as above; some show as included in bankruptcy and some show as charged-off. Should I try to get the status of the charged-off ones changed to bankruptcy or does it really matter? 3) Same accounts as above; some show no payment history and zero balance while others show a balance due and late payments. Many of the late payments where during the time the bankruptcy was in the courts and we were not supposed to make payments. Should/could I try to get the late payments and balances removed? 4) I know that if I dispute an account and the creditor does not verify in 30 days the CRA has to take it off. BUT, if they later verify can't they just put it back on? I have many more questions but that will have to do for now Thanks in advance for your help. Tbird EX = 582 EQ = ??? TU = ???
tbird, Welcome to the board! I don't know the answers to your questions, but there are people here who do. Hang in there someone will answer these questions.
I don't know either...but someone will. You will get GREAT information here and your score will jump before you know it.
Your credit history is exactly like mine, I screwed up doing a few things so don't follow in my footsteps. What you need to do is get as many of those bankruptcy accounts off as possible. Like a dumbass I had a lot of mine updated to show as a bk, when they probably would have been deleted, now they are harder than hell to get off. Do two rounds of disputes as "not mine" you will get many deletions, for the stubborn accounts such as the chargeoffs start sending validation letters, that will be a good start for you.
Thanks. I just started my first dispute online with Experian. Although I have looked at my TU report and should recieve my EQ in the mail any day, I don't have scores for them yet. If I can't get them deleted should I go ahead and try to get the charge-offs changed to bankruptcy? Tbird EX = 582 TU = ??? EQ = ???
I don't really know on that one, a bankruptcy account should show as "unrated", whether or not that hurts your score, I do not know. Possibly is neither hurts nor helps? Just about anything is better than a chargeoff though, if there are late payments on the chargeoffs just start disputing the lates as "never late" and see how that works for you.
OOOOOOO, I know this one! I just helped a lady to get closed two weeks ago. She had a few collections that held her back from closing. I got those removed and boosted her score. The bks were so old that it didn't really hurt her. So that is definitely a factor. If I were you, do a search here for BK removal letter...I used this for her and it dropped off of all her reports. Now she filed 3 times..1 read pending...2 read filed..they were all 13s...I would suggest that you get rid of the bankruptcy and then get rid of those accounts...It takes time, but be patient and things will happen before you know it. I do know a little about the mtg as I work on the side (if you will) with a three loan officers.
