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My wife has a bumpy credit history, but we are trying to get a handle on it. At this point most of the negative things on her report have been resolved, but there are a few that are confusing us. For example, using Equifax's reports, there are items under the heading Negative Accounts which have a status of closed, and an amount due of zero, so why would that item still be under negative accounts, and when will it leave? There are cases where one credit agency will have an open status for a negative account and other agencies will consider it closed.

How do we figure out what on her credit report still needs to be addressed? Are there advisors out there that will help us resolve these things? Is this something that a financial advisor will help with?

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    Accounts that have been settled for less than the full amount owed are something that is of interest to future lenders. Thus, closed accounts with zero balances tend to stay on the credit report for some time to come. As far as different status for the same account on the different agencies can be a matter of some lender not sending a report to all three, or someone at the agency misfiling a report sent in under a different SSN (e.g. with two digits transposed, easy to do). Have you noticed that many spell-checkers correct "hte" to "the" automatically? You can request a correction if you like. May 22, 2012 at 0:46

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A good resource for this type of help is the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC). They provide free and low-cost credit counselors who can...

  • Advise you on managing your money
  • Offer solutions to your current financial problems
  • Develop a personalized plan to help you prevent future difficulties.

Most importantly, avoid those for-profit debt consolidation companies. They are ripoffs.

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