is there a type of credit counselor that deals solely with repairing credit scores? I'm 23 and I have horrible credit and I'd like to be able to build up my credit before it really matters.
Credit counseling is about controlling and paying debt. they help you analyze your budget an show you what needs to change to pay off your debt. This is not a legal requirement for a person is allowed to file bankruptcy.
there are a lot of Credit Repair places out there that will try and sell you scheme to clean your credit and improve your score, but they are mostly scams. even when they are not an outright scam, they are not worth paying.
Save your money for postage.
have your pulled hard copies of your credit? why don't you talk about the problems
By saving money and not going directly to a credit counselor, how do you handle repairing credit yourself? I experience repression, check system, and late credit card payments. What should I do. Without filing bankruptcy?
If you have late payments on accounts that are still open, you can try to write a letter to the creditor acknowledging that you made a mistake missing payments, but if you have caught up current on these accounts point that out, ask if they can reconsider reporting the late listings, ask if they will remove these instances off of your credit report.
If they say no, wait another 6 months and ask again, keep at them, eventually they may remove the late, if you can't get them removed, know this - that the late listings hurt the score less and less the older it gets, and when you go for new credit - new lenders are more concerned with the recent two year late listings and not really beyond that.
There is a new credit card now, that after March, if you were late, and it resulted in a raised interest rate - then after 6 months of on time payment the creditor has to lower the interest rate back to what it was before the late happened. Also before lowering the late they are required to send you notice of the change and allow you the option to opt-out close the account and retain the current interest rate.
When did the late listings occur?
What are the other credit problems you are dealing with?
Thanks!!! I had my card for about a year. The account is still open. I didn't start missing payments until after the 8th month. Now I'm finally catching up on all my payments.
other credit problems: Car repossession, and check system with chase bank for 2,000.
I am not up on repos, but it is my understanding, that if they take back the car themselves it is a repo, if you gave them the car back and surrendered it then it should be listed as a surrender on the credit report.
Once the lender takes that car back they can sell it and then charge you the remaining balance of what they failed to make when they sold the car. Which is BS because they always under sell the car then what it is worth.
They can come back after you for the remaining balance. I have read that auto loans are contracts, which in quite a few states has a statute of limitations for 10 years, not all of them, but anyway, I have also heard some people say that auto loans fall under the UCC Lending rules, and thus expire statute of limitations after 4 years. I don't know on this which way it is. You would need to do some research for your state.
Now the checking account has a separate credit reporting agency, like chex system, you should be able to do a google search and locate them to order a copy of your credit report. Unlike a regular credit report that reports negative data for 7 years. A bank credit report only reports negative data for 5 years.
Sometimes people who have bad listing with chex system, will resort to using non-chex system banks to open up new checking / savings accounts. But if you owe a company especially a bank, I would advise against opening any checking account - they might try to get a judgment and further garnish any funds you have in a new account. Just get use to paying everything by money order for a while.
Your first priority is to pay the open accounts and bring them current ASAP, to stop any further over the limit fees, late fees, and incurred interest rates cause by the late. You want to look at your billing statement and see what they raised your interest rate by, usually once defaulted they can go up to 30% interest rate - then you are running up hill never making a dent in the balance.
If you are unable to catch the accounts up that are open, within 180 days they can charge the account off and throw them over to a collection agency. That will result in double reporting and double damage to the credit score. It is all a matter of damage control if you can manage it.
I know a site that talks more about repo, but I don't think I can post it here, I found it sometime back, and I can research more and come back and report what else I find out on that subject. Thanks
Rather than going in for credit counseling, you can yourself try repairing your credit. First pull a copy of your credit report, and check the status of all your accounts on it. If there are any wrong listings on on the report like wrong due amount, account belonging to somebody else, you can dispute those with the credit bureaus.
However, if there are any negative listings on the report, you should try paying those off. Along with that you should try to request the creditors and collection agencies to agree to a "Pay for delete" (PFD) agreement. With the PFD your account will get reported as "Paid". Other than this you should also try to maintain the on-time payments.
NIGHTSTAR....what does it matter whether or not you 'surrender' the vehicle? It STILL has a 'negative impact' on your credit. Would it be a 'less' impact (if you're understanding my question). OP.................if you listen to what the Experts, on the Forum tell you, you can improve your credit yourself. yes..it does take some time. However...it's free!!! That's one (of many) great things about this Forum!! I've improved my credit, quite abit, with the Forum's help!!YEAH!!
this is help with budgeting and understanding the reasons that people get into debt. True credit counseling is NOT about repairing your credit report. I think this is a good thing. I believe that if people don't take a balanced view and get their spending under control, then all the credit repair in the world won't help.
There are a lot of scammers out there that tell people they cut their credit card debt in half and pretend that it is credit counseling. The truth is that you are just as likely to be able settle an account for less as any agency ( for zero fee).
Oh..yes.. the "scammers" you really need to look at for. I've called a few 'counslers', in the past. At first they said nothing about a fee. However.....when paperwork was sent to me, a section of it had stated writing down a bank account number. I called them back (credit counslers) and they said they DID need a "start up cost". I never went through with them. I'm sure their are legit places out there,...you just have to do some research.
yep most of the replies to the OP are correct. Credit counseling isn't really going to help you with your credit scores specifically unless you have a ton of credit card debt.
Credit counseling is traditionally for people with a ton of debt (more specifically credit card debt) and are looking for a seasoned negotiator to negotiate better terms with the creditors and eventually eliminate the debt entirely.
Not true credit counseling.
Credit counseling is about controlling and paying debt. they help you analyze your budget an show you what needs to change to pay off your debt. This is not a legal requirement for a person is allowed to file bankruptcy.
there are a lot of Credit Repair places out there that will try and sell you scheme to clean your credit and improve your score, but they are mostly scams. even when they are not an outright scam, they are not worth paying.
Save your money for postage.
have your pulled hard copies of your credit? why don't you talk about the problems
By saving money and not going directly to a credit counselor, how do you handle repairing credit yourself? I experience repression, check system, and late credit card payments. What should I do. Without filing bankruptcy?
If you have late payments on accounts that are still open, you can try to write a letter to the creditor acknowledging that you made a mistake missing payments, but if you have caught up current on these accounts point that out, ask if they can reconsider reporting the late listings, ask if they will remove these instances off of your credit report.
If they say no, wait another 6 months and ask again, keep at them, eventually they may remove the late, if you can't get them removed, know this - that the late listings hurt the score less and less the older it gets, and when you go for new credit - new lenders are more concerned with the recent two year late listings and not really beyond that.
There is a new credit card now, that after March, if you were late, and it resulted in a raised interest rate - then after 6 months of on time payment the creditor has to lower the interest rate back to what it was before the late happened. Also before lowering the late they are required to send you notice of the change and allow you the option to opt-out close the account and retain the current interest rate.
When did the late listings occur?
What are the other credit problems you are dealing with?
Thanks!!! I had my card for about a year. The account is still open. I didn't start missing payments until after the 8th month. Now I'm finally catching up on all my payments.
other credit problems: Car repossession, and check system with chase bank for 2,000.
I am not up on repos, but it is my understanding, that if they take back the car themselves it is a repo, if you gave them the car back and surrendered it then it should be listed as a surrender on the credit report.
Once the lender takes that car back they can sell it and then charge you the remaining balance of what they failed to make when they sold the car. Which is BS because they always under sell the car then what it is worth.
They can come back after you for the remaining balance. I have read that auto loans are contracts, which in quite a few states has a statute of limitations for 10 years, not all of them, but anyway, I have also heard some people say that auto loans fall under the UCC Lending rules, and thus expire statute of limitations after 4 years. I don't know on this which way it is. You would need to do some research for your state.
Now the checking account has a separate credit reporting agency, like chex system, you should be able to do a google search and locate them to order a copy of your credit report. Unlike a regular credit report that reports negative data for 7 years. A bank credit report only reports negative data for 5 years.
Sometimes people who have bad listing with chex system, will resort to using non-chex system banks to open up new checking / savings accounts. But if you owe a company especially a bank, I would advise against opening any checking account - they might try to get a judgment and further garnish any funds you have in a new account. Just get use to paying everything by money order for a while.
Your first priority is to pay the open accounts and bring them current ASAP, to stop any further over the limit fees, late fees, and incurred interest rates cause by the late. You want to look at your billing statement and see what they raised your interest rate by, usually once defaulted they can go up to 30% interest rate - then you are running up hill never making a dent in the balance.
If you are unable to catch the accounts up that are open, within 180 days they can charge the account off and throw them over to a collection agency. That will result in double reporting and double damage to the credit score. It is all a matter of damage control if you can manage it.
I know a site that talks more about repo, but I don't think I can post it here, I found it sometime back, and I can research more and come back and report what else I find out on that subject. Thanks
credit repair
Hi Liz and Juan,
Rather than going in for credit counseling, you can yourself try repairing your credit. First pull a copy of your credit report, and check the status of all your accounts on it. If there are any wrong listings on on the report like wrong due amount, account belonging to somebody else, you can dispute those with the credit bureaus.
However, if there are any negative listings on the report, you should try paying those off. Along with that you should try to request the creditors and collection agencies to agree to a "Pay for delete" (PFD) agreement. With the PFD your account will get reported as "Paid". Other than this you should also try to maintain the on-time payments.
For more details on how to repair credit you can check out http://www.creditmagic.org/report/repair-lowscore.html .
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Aaron
Thanks NightStar and Aaron
credit
NIGHTSTAR....what does it matter whether or not you 'surrender' the vehicle? It STILL has a 'negative impact' on your credit. Would it be a 'less' impact (if you're understanding my question). OP.................if you listen to what the Experts, on the Forum tell you, you can improve your credit yourself. yes..it does take some time. However...it's free!!! That's one (of many) great things about this Forum!! I've improved my credit, quite abit, with the Forum's help!!YEAH!!
For the record, There are non profit credit counselors that help you deal with debt for free.
http://www.nfcc.org/
this is help with budgeting and understanding the reasons that people get into debt. True credit counseling is NOT about repairing your credit report. I think this is a good thing. I believe that if people don't take a balanced view and get their spending under control, then all the credit repair in the world won't help.
There are a lot of scammers out there that tell people they cut their credit card debt in half and pretend that it is credit counseling. The truth is that you are just as likely to be able settle an account for less as any agency ( for zero fee).
credit
Oh..yes.. the "scammers" you really need to look at for. I've called a few 'counslers', in the past. At first they said nothing about a fee. However.....when paperwork was sent to me, a section of it had stated writing down a bank account number. I called them back (credit counslers) and they said they DID need a "start up cost". I never went through with them. I'm sure their are legit places out there,...you just have to do some research.
yep most of the replies to the OP are correct. Credit counseling isn't really going to help you with your credit scores specifically unless you have a ton of credit card debt.
Credit counseling is traditionally for people with a ton of debt (more specifically credit card debt) and are looking for a seasoned negotiator to negotiate better terms with the creditors and eventually eliminate the debt entirely.