Credit

[Brandwin]

So, I have some bad credit and there are a few things I need to take care of from when I was younger (18, 19 years old) it's just credit card debt (nothing huge like 10k or anything), but not sure where to start. I guess I could get a free credit report and start there correct?

Anyone know of any good sites? I don't know how good certain sites are, but FreeCreditReport.com seems to be a good one.


Thanks in advance.

[GSW]

Re: Credit

well dook, im in the same boat...

i actually called up one of those debt relief places, i got them to get me the numbers to the places i owe money.

Then i called them and setup payment arrangements with them myslef.

If you go thru the debt releife place they take a huge % off your money...

I got about 6k in debt

As well as a school loan

[CM1847]

Re: Credit

freecreditreport.com is NOT a good site. They give you a "free" report after you sign up for their pay service. annualcreditreport.com allows you to access any of the three credit service's reports once a year for free, no strings attached, you can get them instantly online. If you want to see your actual credit score you will need a pay site of some sort, but there are better ones than FCR.com for that.

Getting your credit report is the right place to start, find out what you owe to who. Not sure how old you are now, but some of those younger mistakes will start to disappear from your report somewhere around 7 years after the fact. Sometimes paying off the debt is the best way to go, but it will usually hurt your credit in the near-term(what a great system, paying people hurts your credit?), but if there are some recent collections on there, you probably want to get them paid off and move on. If there are older collections, they may be removed soon or you may be able to bargin with the company you owe to pay a small fraction of the debt. If you want to bargin with a company you owe money to, always send them a letter by snail-mail, don't give any contact information and NEVER admit that the debt is properly yours. It's a touchy situation but if you do it right, you could end up paying pennies on the dollar for some of the debts to get them off of your record.

[GSW]

Re: Credit

freecreditreport.com is NOT a good site. They give you a "free" report after you sign up for their pay service. annualcreditreport.com allows you to access any of the three credit service's reports once a year for free, no strings attached, you can get them instantly online. If you want to see your actual credit score you will need a pay site of some sort, but there are better ones than FCR.com for that.

Getting your credit report is the right place to start, find out what you owe to who. Not sure how old you are now, but some of those younger mistakes will start to disappear from your report somewhere around 7 years after the fact. Sometimes paying off the debt is the best way to go, but it will usually hurt your credit in the near-term(what a great system, paying people hurts your credit?), but if there are some recent collections on there, you probably want to get them paid off and move on. If there are older collections, they may be removed soon or you may be able to bargin with the company you owe to pay a small fraction of the debt. If you want to bargin with a company you owe money to, always send them a letter by snail-mail, don't give any contact information and NEVER admit that the debt is properly yours. It's a touchy situation but if you do it right, you could end up paying pennies on the dollar for some of the debts to get them off of your record.

explain that last part a lil more... about snail mail blah blah.. i owe like 3k on a credit card but im not trying to pay that.

[ESPNdeportes]

Re: Credit

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

Thats what I use, its reccomended by the FTC. It gives you links to each of the three major bureaus (Transunion, Equifax, and Experian) and then you can individually see the reports from each company. I also pay to see the score on one of them each year.

I always check my credit the day after Christmas. Its my yearly tradition. Always gotta check to make sure there are no new lines of credit that are unauthorized, and double check to make sure all my payments are ontime.

Maybe its anal, but hey, its working out. I'm 25 with no debt other than educational and never had a late payment on anything. I'm pretty happy with my score.

[Brandwin]

Re: Credit

I don't know what to do really. I heard the debt relief funds were not that good?

My stuff is about 4 years old probably give or take.

[CM1847]

Re: Credit

explain that last part a lil more... about snail mail blah blah.. i owe like 3k on a credit card but im not trying to pay that.

I'm no expert on the subject, for good, detailed information there are forums with bigger user-bases than this site that are all about credit, so if you want really detailed info do some googling.

What I do know is that everyone I've known with issues and everything I've read about issues says that if you want to bargin over debt you have to make sure to never give out contact information(mainly phone number) and never admit fault(sort of like when you get in a car accident). The contact information is simple, don't give them any way to bother you about it, nobody want's dozens of calls a week, or e-mail. Send a letter by snail-mail, calling will automatically give them your e-mail and calling will give your phone number. If you use regular mail and insist that all correspondences between you and them be by mail you will avoid giving them spam-prone contact information and you will get hard copies of everything they send you, so you will have signed paper copies of any agreement you might reach.

The second part is to never admit debt, don't say it is all lies, but also don't admit that the debt is yours. If you send them a letter saying the debt is rightfully yours you will lose your bargining leverage.

Again, I'm a novice at best on this subject, there are much more detailed, reliable sources out there for information like this.

[fistofrage]

Re: Credit

I don't know what to do really. I heard the debt relief funds were not that good?

My stuff is about 4 years old probably give or take.

DO NOT do debt relief. If you owe the money, get it paid. Make some sacrifices and get that debt widdled down. You'll be thankful when its time to purchase your first/next home. With the impending credit crunch that has already started, you will want to preserve your credit score and Debt Relief will thrash it. If you were talking alot of money, you need to seek different avenues. If you are talking about a few grand, just sacrifice and get rid of it.

[NoleFan]

Re: Credit

So, I've got some Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart card debt that I intend to pay off within the next couple months. Am I to understand that by paying these off I can actually be hurting my credit in the short term? Am I to also understand that it's better to just simply make sure that you make payments on time and regardless of the amount you owe you'll have a good credit history?

[jdros13]

Re: Credit

As someone who ran up some bad debt in college, my best advice would be to pay it off, and make sure you still have a credit card account active that you use and pay off monthly. Not only do you have to clean up your bad credit, you need to build some good credit as well.

I had a hard time getting a credit card when I was 24. I bought my first house when I was 29 and had a score in the 700's (and was approved for houses way out of my price range). A couple of thousand dollars in debt is really not a big deal, just take care of it and build the credit back up. Makes buying cars, houses, other big ticket items much easier.

[NoleFan]

Re: Credit

Sounds good! I only have a couple grand in card debt so maybe if I pay that off, get a 'real' credit card, start making minor-mid level purchases and paying those off in a timely manner will help build some stellar credit. Student loans are only about 8 grand so I'm okay there. I just really wanna get ride of this credit card debt and I'm tempted to knock it out with a portion of my relocation allowance.

[Nivek]

Re: Credit

I use equifax.com

[fistofrage]

Re: Credit

So, I've got some Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart card debt that I intend to pay off within the next couple months. Am I to understand that by paying these off I can actually be hurting my credit in the short term? Am I to also understand that it's better to just simply make sure that you make payments on time and regardless of the amount you owe you'll have a good credit history?

No, pay that stuff off. What you don't want to do is close the cards down once the bill is paid off. If a card is closed for any reason, it hurts your credit. Paying off a bill will never hurt your credit.

[jdros13]

Re: Credit

So, I've got some Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart card debt that I intend to pay off within the next couple months. Am I to understand that by paying these off I can actually be hurting my credit in the short term? Am I to also understand that it's better to just simply make sure you that you make payments on time and regardless of the amount you owe you'll have a good credit history?

You actually get a higher credit score apparently by keeping a balance on the card (so the credit card company is getting interest income on the card). That is foolish however, don't do that.

The only time I carry a balance on a card is if I bought something interest free for a certain amount of time. I pay it off in equal installments over the life of the interest free timeframe though (example, bought furniture when I moved into the new house and opened an account at the furniture store interest free for 24 months....divided the total I spent by 22 and set up my online bank account to pay off the amount in 22 months so I wouldn't have to pay the interest).

Credit cards are not bad...they are much more convenient than carrying around large amounts of cash. The problems only arise when you spend on credit what you can't back up with cash. Personally I buy everything I can on my Disney Visa, to get points to get a discount for a vacation with the kids...but I never spend more than I can afford to pay off that month.

I got in trouble in college because I was using a credit card to maintain a lifestyle my part time job couldn't cover. That is how most people get in trouble.

[NoleFan]

Re: Credit

I got in trouble by wanting what I want when I want it. I'm more wise now though.