If so, can you give details? You can PM me if you like. I don't want to have to pay a company to do what I hear I can accomplish alone. Need to up my scores to get a home. Thanks, all!

Check out http://www.creditboards.com/forums/

Great site with lots of helpful people. I didn't have anything bad on my credit report but I still found lots of helpful information to raise my score even more. It's now as high as I can get it (was around 720 last I checked), until I get debt paid off, when I get that paid off I hshould be in the high 700's.

There's so much information, , you could spend days or weeks reading and still not get through it all. I was surprised what some of the people there were able to do. It'll take a lot of time and work (and postage, you'll see what I mean when you start reading) but it can be done.

I tried to pm you, but my message is too long do you have e-mail addy you can post? I e-mailed it to the link that came up under your board name hope is right?

What a great site whether you have good or bad credit.

Thank you so much, I will check this out too. I am going to work on my credit this year as well. I've had lots of bad stuff on it in the past 2 years and want to try to mend it to buy a new car this year and possibly a house by the end of this year or next year. Thanks!

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Well, the easiest way is to only have a balance on credit cards of no more than half of your credit limit. They like to see open accounts, so leave a couple of dollars on older credit cards DO NOT CLOSE THEM the longer you have the account revolving and in good standing the better your score will get. If you have collection accounts pull your credit, call the companies and offer 1/2 the balance. If they tell you they won't settle keep pushing til you get a good response tell them you have this amount of money and you are willing to take care of the account, if they still say no tell them you can afford to send them a minimal amount of money per month ($5) till the account is paid. As for what they said above the cost of postage Make sure you get reciepts if you have collection accounts because they are quick to report them unpaid but not as quick to report paid. So you will have to send each reciept seperately to each of the 3 credit bureaus.It will take a couple of months to up your scores if you have collection accounts

Never call a collection agency! Don't talk to them if they call you do everything in writing. One letter to the collection agency will stop the phone calls, if it doesn't they could end up paying you! And never ever offer to pay (you owe the original creditor not the collection agency). Paying on it will also reset the 7 years that it will be reported on your credit report(weather you pay the original creditor or collection agency unless you work out deal with them in writing). If you make payments they will continue to report it on your credit report for 7 year after the last payment. Many collection agencies don't even have the legal right to collect the debt.

Collection agencies pay pennies on the dollar for debt and use all kinds of tactics to try and collect the debt plus the outrageous fees they added on. The postage I mentioned, is referring to all the letters sent certified mail return receipt to collection agencies requesting documentation you actually own what they say and proof they have the legal right to collect it. Many can not show you this and there for can not collect it and must remove it from your credit report. If you pay a collection agency without this proof and they were not the ones who have the legal right to collect it, the company that has the legal right to collect could still go after you for it. Debt is sold and resold several times, each collection agency adding their fees to the balance. So the $500 you owed on your Visa (which has long since be written off by Visa as a loss) that the first collection agency paid $5 for is now $5,000. Sometimes each collection agency would of reported it on your credit report but never removed it after they sold it so one account could be listed on your report a few times under different companies (each a different amount because of the fees they added). When you request proof they must provide the contract with the original creditor and an itemized statement showing each purchase and payment you made on that account. Since they can very rarely provide this, they can't collect. Collection agencies also try to collect in states they can not legally collect in.


Then there is Statue of Limitations (varies by state). They only have so many years to collect the debt, after that it can no longer be collected. Reporting it on your credit report is a form of collection,, there for they can't report it and it must be removed.

I gave a very limited explanation, each account is different and needs to be handled differently so there's a lot of research to do.

The best book I found on how to fix your credit is Your Credit Score by Liz Pulliam Weston. I had hired a lawyer to assist us with this effort a few years ago and he took no action. I found this book, it was easy, concise, and full of how to's. I would also recommend finding a Financial Peace class in your area or reading Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey. We had much success and just purchased a new home. We are debt free and it is a wonderful feeling.

Best Wishes

Just a little FYI I am a mortgage banker and this is what we have our clients do to increase there scores. If you have collection accounts they are only allowed to collect the money for up to 7 yrs. But a lot of times what you see happen is that they will just keep on transferring these accounts to different collection agencies and your score with decline with every one, collection accounts stay on your credit report the same way that a bankruptcy would for 7 years even if it is paid! And alot of the time the company whom you originally owed the debt will not even talk to you because you no longer have an open "active" account.

Did any of the posts help you? How are you doing? I know doing credit repair yourself can be overwhelming.

Can you elaborate? We want to refinace the ARM part of our mortage before it "expires" or whatever it is the ARM does... So what is it you have your clients do to increase their score?
TIA
Billie

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Have you gotten your FICO score??? Also, every year you can get one free credit report from each of the agencies.

The FICO scores run about $14.95 or so. Sometimes you can find a code for 10% off.

HTH.

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I second the advice of going to www.creditboards.com.

I'm a member there and have already had MANY things fall off of my report that shouldn't have even been there!!! There is a WEALTH of information there. I joined in July of 2006, and my FICO's have gone up pretty good since then. One score went up 55 points. I still have work to do, but I'm up for the challenge.

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