Credit Repair 101

NYSpeed Automotive NYSpeed Off Topic
1

Okay, ever since I posted the link to credit boards and got into some discussion regarding procedures and the possibilities of repairing near rock bottom credit, I’ve gotten a lot of PM’s and messages on AIM for help. I’d love to help everyone individually ( so if I don’t get back to you I’m sorry ) but I think it’d be better if I just posted some general information here that should get you/everyone on the right track.

1.) Sign up for your new best friend: [U]Credit Board

2.) Get copies of your credit reports from all 3 reporting agencies. These are the links you need:
Transunion.[/U]Click online, then if you’re new, click new, or returning, click returning. Log in. Then at the top, under the tabs, click ‘transunion credit report’. Then click order now.
Experian. Click the $10 link.
Equifax.Make sure you UNCHECK that ‘best deal’ crap to get your score included for $15.50, it’s pointless. The only score that matters is FICO…all the bureaus have are fake ones. Just get the $10 one.

pulling these reports will not negatively impact your credit score

3.) Once you are registered, print out this list, you’ll need it in the beginning to help your head from spinning. Credit Glossary

4.) Opt-out. There are a million benefits, and even if you don’t care about credit repair you should be option out. The explanation of what it is and why you should do… and how you should do it… are Here

5.) Read and Print out the PsychDoc Transcripts. He is very experienced in credit repair and almost all noobs are referred to his transcripts to help give insight and understanding. I read and re-read his instructions and discussions multiple times. After going through them I felt a lot better about fixing my credit… and felt like I had direction. You’ll feel the same. PsychDoc’s Transcripts.

That should keep you guys busy for awhile! Good luck, it’s a long journey… and just know ANYTHING is possible! Oh… one last link… if you need motivation… there is a success stories section of the forum that always inspires me to read more and work harder towards repairing my shit. You’ll read that your problems aren’t really that big of a deal… :slight_smile: SUCCESS!

You can always PM me or hit me up on aim or email if you really are still confused~!

~adam

THIS POST HAS LINKS TO CREDIT PRE SELECTOR WEBSITES: http://nyspeed.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1212844&postcount=94

edit:

Credit repair works!

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b78/adamEthan/OMFG.jpg
OMFG.jpg799×228

edit2:

Credit repair really works :smiley:

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b78/adamEthan/judgmapawned.jpg

2

Well done. A little knowledge goes a long way towards taking the mystery out of credit scores.

That’s some good reading for everyone. Knowing how to make bad credit good again can go a long way to knowing how to keep it from going bad in the first place. :tup:

3

Very good info. I finally decided to dish out the $ to obtain my credit score. After reviewing my credit history, there’s a couple questions i need to have answered, but it’s good to see.

current credit score: 819 on Transunion

4

Wow, 819 is outstanding. Last I checked mine was like 680. Since then I’ve had a decent chunk of CC debt removed and things are only getting better, so hopefully the next time I need a loan I’ll be well into the 700’s.

5

Man 819 is rediculous! Congradulations! My mother’s was 830 ( also on transunion ) but she has decades of perfect credit, and hadn’t applied for new credit in forever. :tup:

I’ll keep updating this thread with more relevant information. At one point or another everyone feels the need to review their credit ( hopefully sooner than later ) and maybe this thread will be able to give them some direction.

Also, if you intend on applying for a big loan… such as a mortgage, you should generally not apply for any credit in any form for 6 mos. prior, and should also have all your revolving debt paid down for those same 6 mos. This is the generally accepted time required to maximize your credit rating ( based off those 2 things. )

~adam

6

i have a question on this topic…it’s a very common quetsion that i’ve seen several different answers to…

credit card payments…

Does it look better to pay it all off the first month, pay the minimum monthly payments, or pay like double the minimum every month?

i have about $15 due every month on a few different cards…and usually pay like $40 or $50 on each one…and usually they’re paid off within 3 months or so…i’m just talking small time stuff, like clothing stores and such…

7

Doesn’t matter. Just make it on time.

8

[quote=“BikerFry,post:7,topic:26976"”]

Doesn’t matter. Just make it on time.

[/quote]

Easy grasshopper. :slight_smile: There are a couple factors that make a difference

9

[quote=“sureshot!,post:8,topic:26976"”]

Easy grasshopper. There are a couple factors that make a difference

[/quote]

:stuck_out_tongue: Dammit. Thought I had that one nailed!

My question:

I was just looking to get a car insurance quote online, and they wanted to pull a credit report. No surprise, as credit score is used as evidence to how responsible you are and aids in determining your insurance risk. But is this a hard pull of your score that will adversely affect your score, or is is just looking at what’s on your report without pulling the actual FICO score?

10

awesome post man

11

[quote=“90NA300ZX,post:6,topic:26976"”]

iDoes it look better to pay it all off the first month, pay the minimum monthly payments, or pay like double the minimum every month?

i have about $15 due every month on a few different cards…and usually pay like $40 or $50 on each one…and usually they’re paid off within 3 months or so…i’m just talking small time stuff, like clothing stores and such…

[/quote]

1.) You need to be looking at your credit reports, at least twice a year. I look monthly. You need to look because you want to be sure those revolving accounts ( the store cc’s ) are reporting your information correctly. They can report incorrectly at their benefit. It happens.

2.) You have a 4k limit at bestbuy. That 4k is a great number if it’s reported. The more potential credit available to you, the better, ( as already stated ) right? Well often agencies will only report the max you’ve spent. So of that 4k, you’ve spent 400 on an xbox, your limit might be reporting at only 400, and if you are only making small payments, it may look as though you are utilizing a large majority of your credit… which will undoubtedly hurt your scores. it could look like= $350/400 is in use… instead of $350/4000. You see the difference?

This leads to…

3.) Making consistent payments is your absolute number 1 priority, which it looks like you have been doing. this is great and your credit thanks you. but if you can afford to pay it down to $0 right away, you definitely should. The agency ( bestbuy ) will continually report on time payments ( or current ) if it’s at $0, and you will be eligible for a credit increase sooner, and for a larger amount. You always should increase your potential credit limit, as long as its not within 6 mos. of a major purchase, as the more credit available to you, the better your utilization. In fact many people with 800+ scores have 8+ credit cards just so their utilization % can be as close to 0 as possible. Don’t take my word on it, look it up yourself!

Anyways the cliff notes is that it really doesn’t matter, but paying to zero and checking your credit report for accurate reporting is the best scenario, as it leads to ( marginally ) better credit down the road

12

[quote=“BikerFry,post:9,topic:26976"”]

:stuck_out_tongue: Dammit. Thought I had that one nailed!

My question:

I was just looking to get a car insurance quote online, and they wanted to pull a credit report. No surprise, as credit score is used as evidence to how responsible you are and aids in determining your insurance risk. But is this a hard pull of your score that will adversely affect your score, or is is just looking at what’s on your report without pulling the actual FICO score?

[/quote]

It’s a hard pull that’ll have a negative impact on your FICO. If you are going to look for new insurance get as many quotes as you can in one day. The basic idea is that only one hard pull a day can adversely effect your credit, so if it has to get done, get as many as possible done within 24hrs so that you are limiting the hit.

There is a technique called “bumping” which some people who are really serious about their credit try and preform. Essentially each report only has a specific amount of lines that can hold “extra” or “erroneous” data ( where hard and soft pulls are stored. ) since soft pulls ( where you pull your own information ) don’t hurt your score, and are tracked, people will pull their score every single day. the newest pulls go on the top, and everything gets moved down a slot. after long enough, the hard pulls just get ‘bumped’ off the list :slight_smile:

13

i’ve had the same balance since i got the cards years ago, probably only lke $500 so i’m not worried about my limit being reported…

now you say you check your credit score regularly…i’ve also heard rumors that every time you pull your credit report, the score goes down…sounds lke BS to me, but worth asking.

14

[quote=“90NA300ZX,post:13,topic:26976"”]

i’ve had the same balance since i got the cards years ago, probably only lke $500 so i’m not worried about my limit being reported…

now you say you check your credit score regularly…i’ve also heard rumors that every time you pull your credit report, the score goes down…sounds lke BS to me, but worth asking.

[/quote]

read the first post man

15

806 last time i ran it http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/87FOXGT/thankya.gif

Good informative post :tup:

16

[quote=“90NA300ZX,post:13,topic:26976"”]

now you say you check your credit score regularly…i’ve also heard rumors that every time you pull your credit report, the score goes down…sounds lke BS to me, but worth asking.

[/quote]

hard pulls = hurt your score = done by someone other than you

soft pulls = dont hurt your score = done by you, or done by those stupid ‘pre-screened’ offers everyone gets stating you are ‘pre-approved’

17

how bad is taking settlement offers for credit card debt??? is it worst than over a longer period of time paying off the full amount??? I know they report back to CRA’s that the debt is paid off less than full or something.

18

good post.

19

[quote=“dreid,post:17,topic:26976"”]

how bad is taking settlement offers for credit card debt??? is it worst than over a longer period of time paying off the full amount??? I know they report back to CRA’s that the debt is paid off less than full or something.

[/quote]

you are talking about charge offs. the only thing worse are judgments. the worst things on your credit report, in order of least worst to most is:

  1. 30 day late -> 150 day late
  2. OC ( original creditor ) collections
  3. CA - collection agency ( secondary collection agency, like when best buy sells your unpaid account to an agency )
  4. charge-offs ( when you settle on a lesser amount )
  5. judgments ( when it goes to attorney general )

things are less damaging the longer it’s been since the problem occurred… BUT all these agencies will ‘refresh’ the situation with the credit reporting agencies, especially anytime you ‘dispute.’ that’s why you have to go into these situations with a lot of knowledge and preparation. with that said though, everything but judgments are easy to remove with time and commitment. if you care enough to fix it, follow the steps i listed in the first post.

good luck

~adam

20

I pull my reports quarterly, rotating which reports Im pulling so each bureau gets pulled every 6 months, with a bi-annual score check.

By just being as kickass as I am every day, my score exceeds 97% of the populations.

Credit isn’t magic, it’s just bein responsible. Hopefully young people that see threads about people who want to fix their credit will realize that modding /etc on credit isn’t the smartest idea out there, and will avoid it.