How to repair my terrible credit

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 05/21/2010 - 05:24
Forums

I have terrible credit. When I was younger, I was very irresponsible with my credit. I did not pay my bills on time, so my credit went downhill fast. I have a copy of my credit report and my score is a 565. There is a judgment on my credit report. But I have paid this off already so it should be coming off.

There are 8 other medical collections, and 2 from a cell phone company. Where do I begin as far as repairing my credit? Which ones should I take care of first? When I do pay off things on my credit, do they immediately come off?

As of now I have only one credit card and that too secured. I make on-time payments on that, and will be able to pay down all other debts. SO please help me.

Hi Perez,

Can you tell as to when was the judgment entered on your credit? As for the medical collections, if you have money, you can start paying these off. Before you make the payments, request the collection agencies to agree to a "Pay for delete" (PFD) agreement. With PFD all the negatives will get removed from your report, and the account status will be reported as "Paid". However, if these are old collections, your credit score can drop by a few points when you make the payments.

This is because when you pay, the old account becomes active and the past delinquency is seen as present. However, your credit will improve in the long run, if you pay off all these collection accounts.

Thanks,

Aaron

Fri, 05/21/2010 - 08:13 Permalink