How do I fix my credit score when I have bad things in my credit history?

Question

I am trying to improve my credit score and have been looking for companies to take charge of this effort. But I found them to all be shady at best so I have taken the task upon myself.

I have not yet checked my credit report, and a few years back I was aware there were a couple of things on my credit report about unpaid bills for minor amounts like $100 and $200. I don't know what these are about. (Also I am sure my ex-wife was nice enough to help add to the bad.)

Anyway, I am better financially and ready to settle these issues to have my credit score reflect my current status. I am well employed and make good money, but my credit score is anything but. I suspect its about 525 and I want to get it to 750+ zone.

The big whammies on my credit are a charge off from an old credit card my ex-wife had to the tune of $10,000. I am about to pay off a collection agency and want to get the item of my report history once settled, and then remove the minor items. With a clean slate I want to grow my score as fast as I can.

• Where can I get a good run down of my credit stats?
• Are there reputable companies that can help or should I go it alone?
  • If its doable, how do I take this effort on by myself?

I am looking to get started rebuilding

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NOTES:

• I don't have a credit card, just an ATM card linked to my checking account that holds loads of my cash.
• I saw posts that said to fix existing problems, but don't detail how. This is what I am after.
• I live within my means and want to know how to clear up past blunders ASAP and build the current situation into a healthy score.
• I have been living like this for 4 years so my score has been the same poor number for a while. Its time to change all that!

UPDATE within about 3 months I have closed any bad items on the credit report i ran 1st from the link below. in a few weeks i got a second report ran for free, same link and see my report was at least clean of any bad items. called a credit card and got approved with a limit of 500. i called capital one, so after 5 months of paying on time i can get a credit increase. I may sign up for a few of these to get better credit sooner.

Answer 1

Yes you can do this yourself. I cannot speak for all the credit repair companies, but generally they are not reputable. Even if they are trustworthy, they cannot do anything you cannot do yourself.

1. Freeze your credit. Lock it down and prevent any new activity. This is for safety and I want you to do it so you know where you stand.

2. Get a copy of your free copies of the three credit reports from https://www.annualcreditreport.com/ (this is the only free, official place to get your reports)

3. Sign up for a free credit score estimation site like http://www.CreditKarma.com or http://www.CreditSesame.com (These sites make money by selling affiliate offers, but you can easily ignore them) You can't get your exact FICO score, but they letter grades they provide help you understand where you stand.

4. Dispute anything that is not accurate. Get wrong items corrected with the credit agency.

5. Ignore collectors who are not showing up on your report. If they aren't reporting you, so what? Let your own moral compass be your guide if you pay those debts or not.

6. Negotiate a payment amount with the debtors you owe. If you are dealing with a debt collector, there isn't any point in paying the full amount. You owed the money to somebody else, and they sold it to the debt collector, therefore in my mind they are as whole as they feel like being. It is up to you how much you pay, but you are already going to suffer (and have suffered) the credit ramifications. No sense in wasting money when they will very likely settle for dimes on the dollar. Don't let them bully you around. I suggest understand your rights and protections as offered by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

7. Before you pay anybody anything, get it IN WRITING

   • The payment amount constitutes payment in full and satisfies the debt
   • That they will remove the negative marks from your report.
   • An address you mail the payment to. YOU ONLY PAY BY CASHIERS CHECK. Never ever give a debt collector your account numbers for anything, for any reason.
   • Pay via certified mail so you have proof you paid.
   • You will keep the documentation that you paid, that they accepted the payment, and they agreed to consider the matter closed forever. You might need it later for disputes.

8. Wait and follow up. Make sure they report it correctly.

I would probably tackle them in order of age, newest first.

Don't bother with debts that are more than, or nearly seven years old. Anything that old is or will fall off of the credit report soon, and your score will start to rise. Paying on those debts will refresh them and they will harm you longer. We can debate the ethics of that advice in the comments, but if you want your score to raise, I suggest just waiting about anything over six years old while you tackle the newer ones.

This is a SLOW process. Your credit score will still take a couple years to heal once you fix your report. But that is the point of the score after all. It is a history of how you handle money and debt.

Answer 2

Why do you want to improve your credit score? Did you want to buy something? If not, I don't see the point in improving it. If you want to buy something, you can work towards long-term solutions like others have mentioned. In the short term, you can dispute the accuracy of all the negative line items in your report. This will give you a short boost in your credit report while the line items are being investigated as they will be taken off your credit report in the mean time. If you're looking to get a car or mortgage a home, you could time your dispute with purchasing the high dollar assets. This is a trick that does work, but you have to make your move while your credit score is the best it can be.

Answer 3

Don't do debt. After a few years (I forget how many) the bad history will have rolled off, but by then you will probably have no desire to go back into debt again. If you do want to build up a credit score, then at that point it's essentially the same as starting from scratch. However, from personal experience, once you've lived debt free for a few years you never want to get back on the debt wheel again.

A credit score is the output of a behavioral model that indicates the chances that a bank will earn money from your business. Do things that earn the banks money and you will have a high credit score.

Answer 4

There are services that deal specifically with these situations, boostcredit101.com is one I've personally had a good experience with though there are plenty out there. What they do is add you as an authorized user to a credit card with a high limit, low balance, and perfect payment history. This "boosts" for about 30 days while you remain listed as a user on that account, which allows you to qualify for your own card or other kind of loan in that time and helps you start rebuilding your credit. I've even heard of people doing this to qualify for a home loan, though the home loan industry is typically aware of this "trick".