So.. any real world experiece with credit repair?

As the title states, anyone have real experience with it? All kinds of opinions and theories on the interwebz, and we all know that if it's on the web it must be true. All the real nasty stuff has fallen off my credit record and now I'm just looking at some medical stuff I'm hoping to have handled in the next few months. After paying cash for everything for the last 10 years I find myself wanting to buy a home. Nothing outrageous, mostly looking sub 100k. Small in the city (or at least with high speed web access) with a garage, no kids, and no plans for em in the next 5-7 years. Starting with a low 500's score, should i be looking at secured credit card, my credit union has a program where you set a certain amount and they report it as a loan with monthly payments. You make the payments on time, they report it as such. When its said and done they hand you the amount you started the "loan" with. Heck I've even thought about a sub 5k motorcycle loan through my CU.

Something they didn't teach in school was credit management, and my parents never bothered talking about. I've watched my old man struggle with it for the last 15 years and to quote his exact words "I finlly got my credit score where i want it, now I don't want to use it"

Thanks for any light that can be shed on this

i'm kind of in the same boat.. cash only since '06.. i'm thinking i'll use the same strategy i used to get good credit in the mid 90's- take out a series of small ($1k or so) personal loans from local banks and pay them off on time while keeping a checking account with a positive balance..never any credit cards and only dealt with small local banks where the president had the office next to the front door and was the guy that approved the loans... i started this after getting out of school in '93 and i think my credit score was in the 770 range when i bought my house in the beginning of '02..

Yep I got smoked by a phantom medical bill. I waited it out then did the following.

I got a secured CC, max limit $500. This is what I used for all my online purchases, and I felt great knowing that if I got scammed the most it could be was $500.

A year later, I was put on my wife's CC as a cardholder.

6 months later, I applied for Amazon CC to buy a TV that I wanted ($1k).

6 months after that, I was approved on a $50k car through BMW FS. This is when I knew my credit was on-track.

The next year, we refinanced our house and I was approved to be on the loan. Yay.

It can be done, it's not a lot of work, but it does take time. I wouldn't wait, because in a couple of years you're bound to want something. I paid cash for a $8k kid-hauler last year, then decided I wanted something else. In that time, I learned that I'd rather have that $8k liquid and pay low-interest payments through my CU for my current car. Sometimes paying cash isn't the best option, even though you can afford it.

As mentioned, it can be quite scary to maintain though, as every medical bill could be a collections time-bomb because some $9 /hr data entry person couldn't be bothered to verify your contact information. That happened to me, and my insurance company got involved against the hospital and got it fixed.

Pay off credit, use credit card, pay off credit card, use credit card, pay off credit card, use credit card, pay off credit card. Do you see a pattern? This is why I can "afford" things I can't afford. Don't get in over your head.

Good luck.

novaderrik wrote: i'm kind of in the same boat.. cash only since '06.. i'm thinking i'll use the same strategy i used to get good credit in the mid 90's- take out a series of small ($1k or so) personal loans from local banks and pay them off on time while keeping a checking account with a positive balance..never any credit cards and only dealt with small local banks where the president had the office next to the front door and was the guy that approved the loans... i started this after getting out of school in '93 and i think my credit score was in the 770 range when i bought my house in the beginning of '02..

keep in mind that credit cards aren't, in and of themselves evil ... if you use them in a controlled fashion and pay them off each month, they will help with your credit score ( just don't EVER miss any payments )

Like I said, use that credit card. Use it abs pay it off every month. The credit card company will give positive reports and you can watch your credit soar. I had none. I'm doing well now. I'm not rich, but doing well.

Like I said, use that credit card. Use it abs pay it off every month. The credit card company will give positive reports and you can watch your credit soar. I had none. I'm doing well now. I'm not rich, but doing well.

I help people improve their credit scores so they can get a mortgage all the time so here's a quickie thumbnail of some of the major points. BTW having a positive balance in your checking account is good for you, but has zero influence on your credit score other than you'll have the capacity to pay your bills.

Creditors want to know if you also have the willingness to pay your bills.

First of all a credit score isn't a credit rating. Your credit rating is only about 1/3 of the score.

DON'T PAY OFF COLLECTIONS!! Paying it off starts the clock ticking again. It's as if the event happened when you paid the collection. The fact the collection happens is what drives your score down, not the fact there's a balance.

Have ACTIVITY UNITS. That means have payment activity on the credit bureau. Not all things report to the bureau so they don't count if they don't report.

The credit bureau doesn't know if you pay the minimum payment or pay it off, all they see is that you had activity. So charge your gas & meals and then pay it off or way down every month. Don't get in over your head. You can get a good credit score by having small accounts.

Since the credit score isn't a credit rating but rather a predictor of whether you'll use credit or not, it takes a certain number of open accounts to get & maintain a certain score. I've found it takes 3-4 pieces of open credit to get & maintain a 620 credit score. If you want a 700 score you'll need more pieces of credit.

No creditor reports to the credit bureau every month. They usually only report every 3-4 months although some only report every 6 months or once a year. This means the credit bureau is always behind and you need to plan ahead. It will take a while to make a difference in your credit scores.

Events such as paying off your car loan will temporarily raise your score, but long term the reduced credit footprint will lower your score.

Almost 35% of your score is your available credit. Keep your balances to 50% or less of your credit limits. But occasionally you will need to charge your card up in order to keep your credit limit. Under new credit card laws if you don't use it, you lose it. I recommend charging something you want to pay cash for and then paying it off a week or so later.

About 3 months before you want to buy a house call all your cards and tell them you will be buying a house and will need to buy a lot of stuff for it and you need to raise your credit limit. That's a free credit score boost.

You need to have a variety of credit types. The credit scoring engines break it out this way - mortgage, revolving, installment, & other. Just having a mortgage will raise your scores, but if you don't have a mortgage you can still get & keep a high score if you have both installment & revolving credit. Other credit doesn't help as much. I just had a customer that had 12 reported Tote the Note cars on his report and still couldn't get a high enough score to buy a house.

Oh, and a high score won't guarantee you a mortgage loan, there are other factors at play there.

Rebuilding credit

How to get & keep high scores

J308 wrote: ...it can be quite scary to maintain though, as every medical bill could be a collections time-bomb because some $9 /hr data entry person couldn't be bothered to verify your contact information. That happened to me, and my insurance company got involved against the hospital and got it fixed.

Is it sad that I trust doctors and the medical "profession" in general less than lawyers and politicians at this point?

Carguy is on point. I was a tard in my freshman year of college and really fubared my credit. After a few years of being smart and sensible I now have it to where I'm getting the best APR rates credit cards and car loans have to offer.

I realized paying car loans doesn't really help either. I've seen a bigger boost in my credit score from paying utilities, paying off student loans, and getting a new credit card with a big limit.

Dispute collections as many time as you can until the credit bureau finally takes it off too. Equifax is the worst with those.

In reply to carguy123:

Is this actually you? I'm assuming so, due to the location in your profile, and the location of the company in the video. If so THANKS! That was easily understandable, I've had it going in the background at work now for the last half hour or so. I'll probably replay it a few more times. That puts things much more clearly than anywhere else I've seen/read about it.

Spinout007 wrote: In reply to carguy123: Is this actually you? I'm assuming so, due to the location in your profile, and the location of the company in the video. If so THANKS! That was easily understandable, I've had it going in the background at work now for the last half hour or so. I'll probably replay it a few more times. That puts things much more clearly than anywhere else I've seen/read about it.

Yes, that was me I'm ashamed to say.

The videos weren't really meant for the public at large, but for some of my realtor/builder customers so many little things were left out and the whole approach was a little heavy handed.

One day I hope to have a much better set of videos that are more comprehensive, but they were put together to fill a need I had at that time.

If you want to see a really long one I put together a 30 minute video that explains a loan application. It tells you WHY you need some of the items and gives you some options. I've found if I can tell people the rules they know their situation well enough to be able to help me do a better job for them.

That video is HERE.

Cool, I think I stumbled across that one earlier, it's on the list for tomorrow. And it's always good to be able to put a face and voice to something you're reading!

Spinout007 wrote: Cool, I think I stumbled across that one earlier, it's on the list for tomorrow. And it's always good to be able to put a face and voice to something you're reading!

i always picture everyone on this site looking at talking like Jeremy Clarkson..

carguy123 wrote: Yes, that was me I'm ashamed to say. The videos weren't really meant for the public at large, but for some of my realtor/builder customers so many little things were left out and the whole approach was a little heavy handed.

Dude, it's not like you're the 2nd coming of Joe Isuzu or anything. Rock on with the attempts to help!

Having been to the challenge for the last 5 years....has it really been that long? I digress... like I said, challenge, I feel fortunate to have met a good chunk of people on here. Even if they don't remember it.

Here I was, thinking that using the CC
(that my evil-corporate overlords were willing to give me)
for everything that I could, and paying it off in full every month
(for near on five year now) would be enough.
Yay learning!

novaderrik wrote:

Spinout007 wrote: Cool, I think I stumbled across that one earlier, it's on the list for tomorrow. And it's always good to be able to put a face and voice to something you're reading!

i always picture everyone on this site looking at talking like Jeremy Clarkson..

Now that's an idea!! I'll have to do one like Clarkson. I can be smug. I'd bet than no one except those on this list would get it tho.

Had someone shown me the videos I listened to today, (was working so I really couldn't watch) 15 years ago. I wouldn't be where I am today.

Spinout007 wrote: Had someone shown me the videos I listened to today, (was working so I really couldn't watch) 15 years ago. I wouldn't be where I am today.

Is that good or bad?

I watched them again myself last night & I'd forgotten that in one of those videos you could see my dental issues and my dress fetish. Oh well, the cat's out of the bag now!

Mid 30's and until recently clueless about credit and how it really works.

I'm 39 with a few lines of credit. My wife is 37 with a bankruptcy on her record. She was able to take us from mid-500s to almost 800.

Hire a credit repair person. They will muddle through all the BS stuff and dispute the negatives. Most of them will disappear. Then find someone with great credit who will add you to their accounts. You don't have to have access to those accounts and it won't bring them down. We were added to her father's accounts (his score was 850) and we just kept climbing and climbing. Our association with his accounts (even though we didn't have access to its spending) did wonders.

I think I'm 796 the last time I checked and my wife is 788. It was enough to qualify us for a home loan at 2.19%.

Spinout007 wrote: Mid 30's and until recently clueless about credit and how it really works.

Credit reporting is a huge mystery. I've been researching it for years and I still don't know all the facts, but here is what I was told:

Keep lines of credit under 30%. If you have a credit card with a $1000 limit, keep the balance under $300. Always pay on time. Paying on time doesn't help, but paying late can be very bad. Repos and bankruptcies are only supposed to be considered for 7 years, but they stay on your record for 10 years. Since credit/loans are subjective, a bank can deny your loan if its still on your report.

Part of your score is your total credit versus your debt. If you have 10 lines of credit totaling $10,000 and your total debt is under 30% of that 10k, you're golden. Keep paying the bills and your score will go up.

Except for the part about hiring a credit repair person you were right on.