Hey guys, first time poster. I am in the process of repairing my credit. i checked my credit about a month ago, and it was 555. I saw on my report that my capitol one account was charged off. So i disputed it with trans union, and about a week later i got a response from tansunion via email, saying the investigation was complete. i looked at a revised copy of my credit report but it didnt look like anything changed. I logged on to Credit Karma, and it shows me my score has jumped to a 668, and that the capitol one account was removed from my report. im confused! That is the currently the only thing that was negative on my report. (im 21 years old) I have a $8,500 school loan that is in good standing(private lender genesis lending services), paying all the payments on time, and also a $3,000 federal school loan that is also in good standing. The federal loan is on my credit report, but the private lender is not showing on there. (but they tell me they report to the bureaus) I also have 8 hard inquires on my report. I have been trying to contact the the businesses that have done the hard inquires, but they tell me they will not remove them. I am going to write letters to each of them, hoping they will remove them. I also have 2 things in collections. one of them is wellsfargo for $221. and the other is Century link that im currently disputing with IC systems. (i had 30 days to cancel with century link, i cancelled in 2 weeks, but something somehow got messed up, and then i got a bill in the mail for 250$ saying i was 3 months past due, but never got a monthly bill in between those 3 months) Are these items in collections currently hurting my score? Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. I have a baby on the way, and would sometime in the next year or two be able to buy a house to start my wonderful family. Thank you all very much in advance!
These days it's not so easy to get inquiries removed, and just asking for them to do it 'just because' won't fly. If you want the removal, you will need to start with a dispute with the creditor as Never Applied for Credit. This will usually launch an investigation on their part in retrieving the application and depending on the company may ask you to verify some data all the way to pulling the IP address from where the app was submitted from. Any of these inquiries that are past the 12 month mark don't worry so much about as far as them affecting your score. It would be more of an applying for new credit with a manual pull that you would need to be concerned with, with a high number of inquiries. I realize it can be hard sometimes, but it's best just to not apply for a while. Are the collection accounts reporting? Above you said C1 was currently the only thing that was negative on your report, but now it seems you may be saying there are two collection accounts. IF the CA's are NOT reporting, then the answer to your question is no. IF they are, then yes. Any collection account, open or closed, new or old, hurts your score in some way. As it gets older and ages on your report the impact is less and less, but still drives your score down up to 150+ points. Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on the baby.
Thanks for that info. I just pulled my experian report. It now shows 4 items in collections. (3 hospital bills and a $221 wellsfargo account) Why didn't that show up on my Transunion report? by the way, the century link account is currently not reporting, i think its because i am in dispute with them, so IC systems is calling it "pre collections"... Another thing i am confused about, how is my transunion score showing a 668 but my experian and Fico is reporting a 515? i didn't think that was possible. thank you again very much for the help. If i pay off all the hospital bills, will that remove them from my report? or stay on there for 7 years?
Not every creditor or CA reports to all 3 bureaus. Some one, some two, some all. Part of it has to do with the region of the country you live in where the CRA is more prominent. Scoring is very complicated. There's FICO, and there's the 'rest'. Each bureau has their own score calculation which differs somewhat from your true FICO. However, setting that aside for a moment, the answer to your question as to why your scores are over 150 points apart most likely has to do with those collection accounts not reporting on TU. You will find that your scores will never match across the board. Just paying them, no. No collection agency will ever just delete because the consumer paid them. There is a method though in removing paid medical collections. Google 'whychat method', I believe. Kam and jmc both used it if I am recalling correctly and found success. The 7 years is from the DOFD so if by chance these bills were late from 1/2007 and you paid them off today they'd still fall off automatically 1/2014. If the OC still has them (only assigned to a CA) TRY to work with the OC first. If you have the ability to pay off the balance in one shot that is a good card to bring to the table with them in getting the account recalled and removed.
Hi Damonk, Welcome to the board! and Congrats on the baby. As someone new i would suggest that you start "sectioning" things. Grab Pen and paper or make and excel sheet. One column for each of the 3 CRA's (experian, Equifax, Trans Union) Get a copy of your report DIRECTLY from them (you get 1 free per year https://www.annualcreditreport.com) - I don't know where you got your credit from. Direct is most accurate. Under each column list the score, under that list all negative accounts and their DOFD (date of first delinquency), this will give you a easy place to see what your targeting. For example for maximum impact i would target account that affect all 3 CRA's & that is also fairly recent. Deleting that particular account or if it comes down to marking it off as "paid in full" will raise your scores the most overall. Most recent accounts will be more troublesome and less likely to negotiate because they may still be within the SOL for your state to sue you or still have 3-4-5 more years to go before falling off your credit report. I'd check with your state to know what the SOL for the creditor to sue you, stay silent or away from them until that time passes then attack. however if your goal is 1-2 years you may have to take the hit and pay them if you can and get the account marked as "paid in full" because you do not want to be sued and a judgement placed on you credit report. Thread lightly and be smart about your approach (read as: dont bug anyone that is within your SOL your not willing to fully pay) On the other hand accounts that are closer to being on your report for the 7 years allowed maybe willing to negotiate. The goal with those is to be absolutely deleted (stay hard on getting that and don't be afraid to let them know that their time is running out - as long as your state doesn't allow for them to still sue you) Keep in mind so may still be hard BUT if your SOL has already past and they can't sue you, keep on the offensive and be VERY aggressive. Again your 1-2 year time frame needs to be looked at. Because at this point your in a better position to pay less than the full amount and still get the account marked as "paid in full" which is always better than "settled in Full" As you can see there are many many many ways you can go. Again i suggest you get your reports ASAP. get organize, buy a desktop calender, folders etc.. READ READ READ READ (especially the stickies & FAQ) - I spent the first month or 2 reading and planning and at first i felt like i was not getting anything done. But i'd absolutely glad i did sit plan and strategically plan. And honestly that's what is boils down to , once you have an idea of the outcome you want it becomes a chess game, you'll send out a Letter and you'll already know what your going to get back and you'll probably be preparing you next letter before you get a response back. Thats how i gauge how "on track" i am. Of course there will be suprises and things you did not expect BUT .. my friend..... THATS WHAT WE'RE HERE FOR! Credit repair has been going on for a very very long time. So don't think your doomed when you run into an issue, post and WHILE WAITING for a response. Run searches through this forum and google and other forums.... That is exactly how i found Why Chat's Method for medical account disputes. He live on another Forum and is an amazing help. He will walk you through the steps which is outlined here. Warning, he has little patience for those who do not read through the steps, and i don't blame him one bit since he response to dozens of posts per day. Read Why Chat's Credit Confusion & visit : Medical Billing & Medical Collections - CreditBoards Lastly, I personally do not pay as close attention to scores because they vary so much AND even if you got them directly from the CRA the lender who pulls your credit may not use a direct score but a variant of it. I'll give you and example. I have Credit Karma. and for my first rounds of dispute my score did jump up as well but that was because the accounts being "investigated" with Trans Union were maybe tagged in such a way that the Credit karma software/coding thought it did not exist anymore. After about 3 months later the Credit Karma score dropped right back down. I suspect this is what is happening with you. After all Trans Union is already telling you the account is still there. Credit Karma pulls info from TU, hence my suspicion. Good luck, read, learn, post for help when needed , we'll be here.
