I'm sitting here with my credit report and its big bad and ugly. I'm having trouble understanding what it all means. Example: there are accts marked closed and cancelled by the creditor just this month, so when will they not show up on my report, can I start requesting to have them removed, and one of them was closed back in 2002 and yet it is still on my report and still being reported as of 01/08---what does this all mean? Also there are 4 charges on there from credit cards I never used and closed--yet there they are with what must be service charges because the amount owed is around 300.00 on those and they are 6 yrs old, and also said to be closed===I'm just completely confused at where to start first digging myself out of this mess. Oh and it seems that USA Funds is just reporting several accts over and over again some which I will dispute because the date opened I was not taking classes in fact I hadn't been in school for 2 years and yet there are a couple of student loans opened. links to informative sites or advice would be great I am feeling completely overwhelmed and mad at myself for the stupidity I suffered from in my 20's. Also what are reposession trade lines because I have had to give one car up but the trade line says way more than that..
Forums
For questions regarding student loans, click the "debt forums" link at the top of the page, register on that forum (if you want...guest posting is permitted), and post questions in the Student Loans forum. There is a poster named, "Soaplady" who is very knowledgeable in that field.
As to credit cards...
Length of time on credit report:
Lates (30, 60, 90...) - 7 years from date of delinquency
Charge/Write Off - 7 years from date of charge/write off
Repo - 7 years
If you signed a credit agreement, you are liable for "service" charges per the terms of the credit agreement.
You can attempt to dispute anything for any reason. If not successful, dispute for another reason. If any debts are in the hands of collection agencies, send letters demanding validation of the debts. If validation is not given, send the CA a letter demanding removal of tradeline from credit report.
First of all, welcome to the forum, good to have you here.
If you never used the cards, you should dispute this activity, anything that is on that report is disputeable. stick around, I am sure some more people will come along and help with this subject.
as morningstar said, please go post this scenario on the debt forum there are alot of folks there with credit issues and that are used to dealing with this. goodluck, hope you get this all straightened out soon.
Welcome to the forums and I like your username!
First off, take a deep breath and FORGIVE yourself - right now for all the past mistakes. Yes, you made some bad decisions, but we have a saying in my office "As long as no one died, we can fix it" (not talking credit reports, just problems in general).
Next understand that this is a long process - your credit didn't go bad overnight, and it's not going to get better overnight either. While cleaning up inaccurate entries can be done in a month or so, rebuilding and maintaining your credit is the rest of your life. If you are serious about doing this, you have to look at yourself honestly and ask if you are ready to give up extra spending money to clean up old debts and ready to commit to your financial health. Your credit report is indicative of your overall financial picture. Are you someone that earns $100 and spends $90? or earns $100 and spends $105?
Once you have realistic expectations then you can revive your credit and will get a thrill each time you see your score rise a few points, or a debt fall off, or a new line reporting with all happy green checkmarks.
Keep in mind what a credit report IS - it's a history of your credit use over the past 7+ years, so while you can take actions to correct things that are wrong, accounts don't disappear simply because they are closed or paid off.
Do your homework by reading through these forums and any others. There is a TON of good information in these posts.
Above all - Don't Give Up! You are NOT alone - many people have turned it around from a worse start.
Good Luck and we are here for you!!
First off check out your state SOL. If those credit cards are your by any chance and you contact them and make payments you may end up starting the statues all over again. You said they were 6 years old, if they can only report them for 7 they should clear themselves. If they weren't yours you need to definately dispute them. Credit is very important and you are to be commended for starting to clear up this mess. Like ISM said they didn't get there overnight and won't leave that way either. Tackle them 1 by 1 and soon they will be gone. Good Luck.
Hello Hindsight,
Welcome to the forums. Dispute the items that you think does not belong to you. Richard had written a removal of unauthorized inquiry letter which I had used as well, this might help you.
Look at each item and understand which you should be disputing. Make sure you check your credit report from all the three bureaus. If you are disputing with one that does not mean that you are disputing with the other two as well. Items reported might be different as well. This is not to scare you but to keep you on the safer side. Keep us informed.
Sorry i missed out the link
http://www.creditmagic.org/letters/credit-inquiry.html
I thought you could only get 1 credit report for free. Can you get one from each of the credit bureaus/ This is probaly a topic to ask under questions in case anyone else needs to know. I may do that later but if you know could you post an answer here for me?
Can you get one from each of the credit bureaus
Yes. Even though each report is likely to have different information, you could pull a different one every 4 months.
Also, if you apply for a job or credit and are turned down as a result of information on your report, be sure to take advantage of the free copy you are entitled to by law (only pertains to the credit bureau that provided the report to the employer/creditor, not to all three). You will be sent a letter through the mail with instructions on how to obtain this copy.
Hi Fireyone,
You are entitled to one free credit report annually from each of the three credit bureaus. Some states offer even more than one but I have to look for the details.
Well that clarifies things for me. I thought you could chose a free report from just one agency and once you got that you could no longer get another for a year. I have had n o turn down letters, my credit isn't really bad at all. Just one account due to fall of soon. Thanks for the info.
Fireyone,
What I do is get them like 3-4 months apart so that i can see if things have dropped off or accounts have been updated. If you get them all at once you are getting all the same information or very close.
Every four months sounds reasonable because it divides it out so you can keep a good eye on y.our report. I don't even know the first one I Used earlier this year. I also hear that when you check your crdit report the collection agencies somehow find this out and see that your interested in your crdit and they start calling. Did you ever hear of this?
I also hear that when you check your crdit report the collection agencies somehow find this out and see that your interested in your crdit and they start calling. Did you ever hear of this?
I have heard that too, but I don't know how that would work. What I think is more likely is that if they have a relationship with you they have limited access to your report, and maybe they are seeing new inquiries or changes in other debts?
I live in Georiga, and Georgia law requires the CRA to give 2 free credit reports a year, so check the guidelines for your state.
I also have a credit service for $14 a month or so that allows me to repull my own credit every 24 hours if I want. It's nice to have that at my fingertips, but it's also driving me crazy. I paid down a significant portion of debt last month and waiting not so patiently for the balances to update to see my score rise! (I went from 70% usage to just under 40%!)
What I think is more likely is that if they have a relationship with you they have limited access to your report, and maybe they are seeing new inquiries or changes in other debts?
According to member CreditGrantor, CAs can pay for the service of being alerted to certain activity on your credit report (inquiries, possibly large payoffs). Only a company collecting on a debt that stems from a credit transaction is currently allowed to view your report.
That would make sense. I wondered how they figured this out. If a debt is so old it is past SOL why would they want to invest any more into it?
There are many people unaware of the SOL. They bank on these uninformed people. Once you make even a single transaction the SOL starts ticking. So now you know about one reason why they take interest in investing here?
Yes the does make sense. The only reason I knew anything about SOL was because I looked up creditor harassment on the net. Hubby died and I couldn't keep up with the payment and the kept calling so I got on just to look and see what rights I had. Glad I did cause if not I could have been in a worse mess.
Unfortunately a lot of people do not educate themselves and the collection agencies take advantage of this.
scumsuckers is a better word for jun debt buyers.
Best thing to do is to be one step a head of them, get the knowledge before hand.
Best advice I ever heard.