Credit Repair

Looking to repair bad credit so I can start up my own business.?

I have a terrible credit score. I owe money to 3 companies, but 2 of them are not even in existence anymore. The last is an old credit card bill. Now, I realize i need to pay these things off to help with my credit. After I do that though, how do I get my credit up? Obviously I'm not going to be able to get a credit card, so how else can I quickly start to repair my credit?

Public Comments

1. You need to pull all 3 credit reports and see exactly what you have to work with. Find out your scores and just how many negative listings you have. Start by disputing all the negatives on your report. Those 2 companies that are no longer in business obviously will not reply to a dispute investigation so they will be removed automatically. Then you can work out pay to delete agreements with the rest. After that, time to start adding new credit. Check out this link below, as it has lots of good information that you can use. Note that I am not affiliated with this site, just passing along good information. http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/ Kat - Again, it is perfectly legal to dispute anything on your credit report, even if you know it is legitimate.
2. this is something that isn't easy, but it is possible. for someone who's been there, this is what i could say. start out by getting the info on those creditors you owe. it should be on your credit report. even if they are not in business some collector has to have it. again your credit report will have all the info. give the people you owe a call. talk about a payment arrangment and set one up. weather you pay them $10 a week or $100 - they will take this option, trust me, they want thier money. while doing that ask if they could send you a letter saying that you have set up a payment arrangment. showing this to the bank or loan officer can show them that you are doing something good and getting on the right track. it's like a letter of recommnedation. on the turn of starting out getting new credit, grab a couple hundred bucks you have saved up, or if you don't have a savings try to spare some of your paycheck. you can use this and get a great secured credit card from Bank of America or USbank. they are perfect for anyone trying to get on the right track. after a year most likely you will get a real credit card you can balance out and get your deposit back WITH interest. which is a big plus. you can get more info on a secured card at www.wikipedia.com there are plenty of ways to get your credit up, you just gotta manage your money well.
3. You need to get copies of your credit report from all three credit bureaus (transunion, experian, and equifax) . You are entitled to one free copy per year from each of one them, so do not waste money paying some company to do it and don't sign up for any free trials. I've pulled my report before online for free, just google the bureaus. Then see what's on there and start calling, emailing, and faxing the bureaus requests to clean up your credit. Tell them that two of the companies no longer exist. All of this will take a long time, but it will be worth it, so don't give up.
4. Do not use “credit repair” tactics such as dispute letters. Knowingly disputing a negative item that is accurate is fraud. Doing this by mail is punishable by imprisonment and fines under federal statute. These will do more damage then good and create a more difficult situation for yourself. If they verify the derogatory item, then it is really hard to get off. I do not recomend this prictice. I work for a credit attorney and we do a legal demand that wipes out all the bad credit in one clean sweep. Any Comsumer Credit Attorney can help you with that and it is not that expensive, about $800. As for building new credit, I did this with my mom and in 6 months she hade great scores. We put money into a savings account $900. Then took out a loan from the bank using the savings account as colateral. Check with the bank first to see if they do that. We were paid 1% on the savings and charged 4% for the credit line. We put the new $900 into the sayings accounts and the had thme automatically take the payment out of the savings so that we would not missa payment. Ask if they report to all three bureaus before you do this. By the way, do not pay old collections that jsut lowers your score because chance are those old account are not effecting your score that much. Most mortgage lenders ignore anything that is over 24 mo. When you pay an old collection, you bring it current showing paid in full and starts the time clock all over again. Depending on what state you are in, there is a statue timeframe that they cannot collect anymore. Here in California it is 4 years. After that they cannot collect. Well I suppose Fahim is an attorney. Are you kidding me!!! $1675 is outrageous!!. We do it usually in less than 60 days and only cost $800 retainer good for 3 years in case something new comes up later. No extra fee even if it is your fault or your become a victim of Identy theft.
5. I would suggest looking at http://www.elijahjacobsllc.com/pricing.html and http://level2.drcredithelp.com - they have services that can wipe information off of your credit report. DrCreditHelp.com is the cheapest I've found. P.S. Kat is wrong about the 'fraud' stuff but you don't need to do that anyway. Good luck!