Hi all, I'm new here. I have a very general question about my credit and repairing it. It all started about 5 years ago. I filed for divorce and instead of fighting to make him pay half of the credit card debt, I just told him I would take care of it all because I just wanted to get rid of him and never have to deal with him agian. Well, that part worked, I haven't heard from him in over 5 years. Problem is, that I had to live off of those cards for a little while because I didn't have any place to go. I couldn't live with family, they disowned me because of the divorce that I filed. Anyway, I ended up in a small amount of debt (under $5000.00) between 4 credit cards. I couldn't make the payments so they went to collections. I didn't wait long until I went to someone to help me fix my credit. It was a credit counselling service. I didn't have to pay them any fees, however, I didn't know at the time that this was going to look bad on my credit. What they did was call all of my 4 cards and work out a payment plan with them at a lower interest rate and they somehow got the amount I owed lowered. I didn't realize at this time that they were all being charged off. Well, I paid everything I was supposed to, made a deal and all of that, but fast forward to now, and they are still ruining my credit. I get my report every year and nothing is getting better. It isn't getting worse, but it isn't improving. I had a car loan which I never ever missed a payment on, and that didn't even help. I haven't had any credit cards since (except I was an authorized signer on my sister's and I know for a fact that is perfectly paid off because she is very anal). And I have another car loan now (but my husband is on it too, because with him as the main person on it we got a better interest rate) and I've never been late on that (actually, I pay early and a little extra every month). Anyway, my question is how can I get my credit score, or more importantly my FICO score up so we can buy a house next year. We got pre approved before with no problem because of my husbands credit being decent but I would still like to help mine out a little bit. I'm not sure if I can get a credit card, and I'm not sure which kind I should get or how I should deal with it. They scare me honestly. Thanks so much for any help you can provide. I really appreciate it.
I'm guessin you can get a secured card and start off that way... The last part about the cards scaring ya - then don't get one, cause I'd hate for ya to get something you're not comfy with... There's some CCS posts here, so fire up yer browser and start searchin Just read, and I'm sure you'll feel better about what ya can do. BUT - make sure ya don't do anything until you're sure of what you're gonna do....cause even though you think it's bad now - it can get worse if you make a mistake I gotta smile at how you said getting rid of yer husband worked..hehe
