NEED HELP -- Where do I begin?

Hello! I am new here. I have been reading as many posts as I can trying to see the different situations people have been in and what you all have done about them.

Here is my situation. Due to situations involving a serious accident that my son had, my own PTSD and severe depression and anxiety, I haven't been able to work steadily. I am in treatment now and have a new job. If this doesn't work out, I will be forced to get disability. I want to try to straighten out my credit.

I got a TrueCredit report that shows the 3 credit reports and it gave me a credit score for TU which is 498.

I filed BK back in 1996 so in 2006 that should be coming off of my reports.

I have 6 charge offs listed. One of them is a defaulted student loan that says I now owe them $43,000.

I have 20 accounts listed as derogatory. The majority of them are hospital bills that were not paid by insurance.

It seems like some of the accounts are listed more than once.

Will any of these come off my reports after 7 years. For example, one account was opened in 1998 and it was last reported 12/2003. It is a CO. So which date do they go by before it comes off? the 1998 or 2003?


There are two judgments which my stbx husband caused. One was a $200 tax bill and the other is where an apartment complex we lived in sued us for non payment. Both of those were paid in full but only 2 of the credit reporting bureaus show them and only one says judgment satisfied.

Questions: should I just start paying the things on my credit report? Should I write to them first before I attempt to pay and what should I say.

I am considering trying to get my student loan rehabilitated. Is that a good thing to do?

Thanks for your help!

Wilma

 

Thank you Butch! You are right! Things didn't get this way overnight and it will take time to make it better.

STBX means soon to be ex.

I have been reading as much as I can here and I am putting my debts on a spreadsheet so everything will be handy to refer to.

Yes I do have about $4,000 worth of hospital bills from August 2003 that are late. I have been talking to them on the phone occasionally.

The other hospital bills are amounts left over after the insurance paid all they were going to pay. I think my plan at the time was insurance would pay 80% of covered services and then I would be responsible for 20%.

Except for the students loans, it all adds up to about $8,000 total.

Oh I almost forgot. The BK is the traditional type Ch. 7 I believe. Not the kind where you set up payments etc.

The new job is going well. The hours and environment are good. Nice laid back environment which is good for someone with my problems.

Thanks again Butch!

 

Re: Re: NEED HELP -- Where do I begin?

Butch, thanks for your advice. I do feel better about all of this. I am glad this place exists to find info about solving these problems.

I haven't made payment arrangements for these new medical bills yet. I don't believe they have charged me any late fees on them yet. I will call them and set up a payment schedule with them so at least I will be actively paying them off. Then if I am able to pay them off sooner than the agreement, I will.

These medical bills were incurred after the bk so they couldn't be included.

My medical insurance paid 80% of covered services and I was responsible for the other 20% so there are all these small charges of say $50 $100 $200 and they add up. to around $2,000.

One charge off is $1,100 for a capital one credit card. They offered me that get a new credit card with a $500 limit by transferring the $1,100 to the new card and paying on it deal but I didn't take it and glad I didn't after reading here about it. They also offered me a 50% payoff and I might do that.

These new hospital bills are because I had no medical insurance at all because my husband took me off. I had to apply to state insurance and they are saying that the coverage began like 5 days after I had the services although I applied for the state aid on the same day of my services because they wouldn't see me unless I applied. So I think I will call them and tell them I have the state assistance and see if they will back the date up to cover those charges and then I would have to worry about those anymore.