Hello everyone, I am just starting out to repair my credit and hope that I can get some advice. A bit of history, seven years ago I experienced a sudden and severe illness with a long recovery period that sidelined me for four years. I was unable to work during this time and to add to the issues my wife left me. My credit went completely to pot. With no income, I defaulted on loans and mortgages and in my condition at the time was unable to negotiate with the lenders to make a halfway decent settlement. I am working again, full time for a year and a half now and before that part-time for a year. I do not make the money I once did but the new girlfriend and I are not doing too badly. Actually, we will be attempting to repair her credit as well which stems from her previous marriage. I know that my first step will be to get my credit reports and I already know they will be terrible. To be honest, I almost fear getting them as I suspect that the score will be so low as to be discouraging. I do have a couple of questions on issues that I likely will need to address first. After my wife left me, but while still married, I know that she had a couple of credit issues that were entirely her own-over drafted checking accounts that she never cleared up, possibly even payday type loans, etc. Certainly, these will show up on my credit report, as we were still legally married. Can I do anything about these? There is another issue that I fear is about to become a big problem-we need a new car. Our car is 22 years old and, as might be expected, is beginning to experience problems. I do most of the repairs myself but because of its age, it is quickly reaching the point that this is no longer practical. Not to mention that at 48 years old myself I am not always up to performing repairs. Are there any lenders who a person with far less than stellar credit might be able to secure a loan? Depending on the interest rate, I am thinking something in the $7000-$10,000 dollar range and we would probably have a down payment of $2500-$3000. Any chance for a loan? I have many other questions and concerns but I think that those should wait until I get my reports and can be a bit more specific. Thanks to everyone for any help you can offer.
Another quick question that I thought I could incorporate into this thread. Should I get a PO Box to use for all of my credit related correspondence? Since my credit woes began I have moved a couple of times, have a new job, no utilities in my name, no open-ended accounts, no published phone number, apartment lease in girlfriendâ??s name, etc. It seems as if the CAâ??s might have just lost track of me. I am sure that could locate me if they made some effort but why make it easy for them?
That's what I've done. Due to an interesting set of life circumstances a few years ago I found out I was going to have to move (but I didn't know where at the time). I went and got a PO Box and had my credit card bills, cell phone, etc sent there since I was between addresses. I have since moved. So far this has seemed to work because I never updated my physical address with the creditors (except for one because it was tied into a checking account I had at the time) and as of my last set of credit reports that I obtained last month the only addresses on there were the PO Box and my former address. It's my understanding from everything I've researched that while it wouldn't be impossible for creditors to still find your physical address, it is much harder if you use a PO BOX exclusively. So far this has worked for me but we'll see what the future holds (there is one account that keeps getting passed off to different collection agencies every few months).
Have you changed address's on your drivers lic.A good skip tracer will find you in a heart beat.There's so many other people that are easy to find your on the bottom of the pile.One other point just don't piss any friends off that know about you,more people have been turned in by friends than foes.
No, I have not yet changed it. I figure they can find me easy enough, but, as I said, why make it easy. As I mentioned earlier, no utilities in my name, no open-ended accounts, no published phone number, apartment lease in girlfriendâ??s name and as it has been better than 5 years most old negatives will probably be falling off due to the SOL. Just as bad, I have no positive trade lines either and am starting to get a bit desperate for another car. I can likely keep the one I am driving going for the summer but do not want to try another winter with it. The girlfriend and I are both living well below our means now so we should be able to pay off some old debts and, I hope, obtain another car and at the same time build some positive credit lines back. Any thoughts? Thanks.
