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I had some late payments on credit cards over a year ago but none since. How long does this hurt my credit score if I no longer have a late payment? And by how much? In other words, I've been on some sites that have a simulator that allows you to enter some changes to see what you can do to improve your credit score and by how much. One of those is to pay down your debt. My question is, what is my incentive to pay down debt - for the purpose of raising my credit score - if that late payment history will hold it down for 7 years (or whatever the period is)?

A year ago, I settled some credit card debt by agreeing to pay a lesser amount which resulted in those accounts being closed, of course. How long does this hurt my credit score? And by how much? In other words, I've been on some sites that have a simulator that allows you to enter some changes to see what you can do to improve your credit score and by how much. One of those is to pay down your debt. My question is, what is my incentive to pay down debt - for the purpose of raising my credit score - if the debt settlement will hold it down for 7 years (or whatever the period is)?

Long story short, I was doing a friend a favor and did a contract for deed (paperwork written up by a lawyer). Well, it ended up in foreclosure and listed on my CR in 2013. So now I'm trying to get a mortgage and was asked when the sheriff's sale date was. Honestly, I didn't have one because the bank or lawyer did not contact me by phone or mail. So I called the sheriff's office, nothing. Finally ended up at the circuit clerks office in which she said "Well that's weird". Your house didn't sell. There is a dismissal order without prejudice signed by the judge on Feb 19th, 2013. She said don't ask me what what it means because I honestly don't know. So my question is, is this too old to report to the CB's? Could it possibly improve my score hopefully?? Has anyone else experienced this? Thank you very much!, Wendy

Hello All, I am back. In Spring 2015, I happily bade my farewells to Courts and Collections and said "Hi" to clean credit reports and wise using credit. Until today, I had my TU (TransUnion) Credit Score 690-705 reported thru one of my credit cards. Today, I found my TU Credit Score as 602 and immediately requested my Free Annual Credit Reports after 1.5 years not worrying about this. My today's (11/12/2016) TU Credit Report show one deragatory item: MIDWEST RECOVERY SYSTEMS 2747 W CLAY STREET SUITE A ST CHARLES, MO 63301 (888) 253-3440 Placed for collection: 09/29/2016 Responsibility: Individual Account Account Type: Open Account Loan Type: COLLECTION AGENCY/ATTORNEY Balance: $720 Date Updated: 11/04/2016 Original Amount: $720 Original Creditor: VIN CAPITAL LLC <------------------------- I have no clue who are they (Financial) Past Due: >$720< Pay Status: >In Collection< Report Created On: 11/12/2016 Also I found that my old friends Midland and Navient (former Sallie Mae) recently pulled my Credit Report with TU: MIDLAND CREDIT MGMT INC 2365 NORTHSIDE DRIVE SUITE 300 SAN DIEGO, CA 92108 (844) 236-1959 Requested On: 08/19/2016 Permissible Purpose: COLLECTION NAVIENT SOLUTIONS INC PO BOX 9500 WILKES BARRE, PA 18773 (888) 272-5543 Requested On: 08/18/2016 Experian does not show anything, Equifax as usually denies my online requests and requires me send them by mail copies of my Driver License and SS Card. I opened my Dispute with TU and posted my Consumer Statement "Not my Account".

Hello. A few years ago, my student loan went into collections. I ended up getting sued, and made payment arrangements with the law firm representing the creditor. Since then, they have been faithfully deducting the payments from my bank account, and the change in total due is updated on my credit report every month. These payments have been happening for several years now. The trouble started last year. The account was removed from my report, and then reappeared a few weeks later under a new creditor. It appears the debt had been sold, and its reappearance had the effect of a new debt. My credit score took a real nose dive (dropped a hundred points.) I've finally gotten my credit to nearly what it was last year. When checking my credit report today, I see that the account was removed again back in May. I'm still making payments as the debt has not been fulfilled yet, but it has not reappeared on my report. I'm guessing it has been sold yet again, and I'm worried that my score will take another serious hit. I've looked up what I can, so I know this is legal but are there ways to avoid it? It just seems so unfair to be stuck in a perpetual circle of pulling myself from bad credit when I have been making these payments faithfully the last 4 years.

A secured credit card's minimum deposit is usually two or three hundred dollars. Is it better for your score if you buy yourself a limit of say $800.00 rather than getting the minimum of two or three hundred? Is having and responsibly using multiple secured cards better for your score?

I want to rebuild my credit so I'm looking at secured credit cards. I read a thread from 2011 about secured cards that don't report as secured. Which cards report to all 3 major credit bureaus and report as unsecured as of 2015?

We are residents of Orlando, FL and need help with medical debt for lab test. In summary - the test was performed in Nov 2012, and the insurer had pre-approved this out-of-network lab as in-network - the insurer and lab went back and forth over the bill and are still going back and forth over the bill, now with my employer’s HR involved - we never received a bill from the lab, despite us updating our address with them and USPS with our new address - On March 17, 2015, we received notice (dated March 10) from a collection agency for a $19K debt that includes $2600 of interest - The lab claims they cannot take it back from the collections agency - Lab has not responded to a request for the debt amount; instead, they sent a patient ledger dated Apr 8, 2015 that shows patient responsibility of zero for every test; note, they do not have a phone My questions: - Other than a request for debt verification to the collection agency, what should I do? - Who do I negotiate with, the lab or the collection agency? - Does the fact the insurer is still working on it (based on contacting the employer again) have any relevance? - Is there a risk they could damage my credit score? Details: On March 17, we received a letter from a collection agency, claiming medical debt of $ 19k, that is inclusive of an interest amount of $2,600. The lab is located in Atlanta, GA. We received their services (a series of lab tests) for our son in November 2012. I have a family health insurance plan that is self insured by my employer, which is a large corporation, and administered by a TPA insurance company. Although the lab was originally out-of-network for the insurance company, we managed to obtain pre-approval for these services to be given with in-network benefits. In fact, the lab only agreed to perform those lab tests that were preapproved. We were expecting to pay nothing more than any applicable copay, coinsurance, etc. The insurance company denied many of the claims from the lab. The lab ended up filing a large number of appeals to the insurance company, but the claims remained largely denied. In January 2015, the lab turned the account over to the collection agency. The collection agency made their first communication to us on March 17. Pertinently, the lab seems to have turned the account over to the collection agency without sending us any billing statement that indicated that we owed them the sum of money that the collection agency alleged. After getting the letter from the collection agency, we promptly wrote them back, disputing the debt, mentioning that no statement was sent to us, and asking the collection agency to validate the debt by providing relevant documents. We are still awaiting the validation documents from the collection agency. Then we contacted the lab by mail and email (they don’t accept phone calls), basically asking that we resolve the issue with them directly and not the collection agency. In reply, the lab alleged that they sent it to our address. We have a hard time believing that because we moved to a new address in June 2013 but updated both the lab with our new address and USPS. Furthermore, despite communicating them with E-mail frequently, they never replied that way (granted, billing is often handled by a third party company) or called us. The lab also mentioned that they cannot retract the account from the collection agency but can request them to not report my credit account as we work on resolving the issue. Pertinently, the lab did not send us a statement indicating the debt amount even as we emailed them with a request to send it to us. Instead, they sent us an itemized patient ledger dated April 8, 2015 showing every lab test that was done, along with the cost, amount paid by insurance and patient responsibility. Interestingly, the patient ledger shows zero amount in the patient responsibility field for each of the test and does not indicate any overall patient responsibility. In short, the patient ledger does not validate the debt amount being claimed. At this time, we are unable to decide in which direction to pursue the matter. What options do we have now? The collection agency has not reported to the credit bureau yet. I am willing to make a settlement for a fraction of the original debt, say up to 30% (give or take), with the collection agency. However, should I hold off because the debt may not be theres. Or should I negotiate with the lab? My fear is they already turned if over to the collection agency. And what if the insurance company does pay off the provider? I would appreciate any help

We are residents of Orlando, FL and need help with medical debt for lab test. In summary - the test was performed in Nov 2012, and the insurer had pre-approved this out-of-network lab as in-network - the insurer and lab went back and forth over the bill and are still going back and forth over the bill, now with my employer’s HR involved - we never received a bill from the lab, despite us updating our address with them and USPS with our new address - On March 17, 2015, we received notice (dated March 10) from a collection agency for a $19K debt that includes $2600 of interest - The lab claims they cannot take it back from the collections agency - Lab has not responded to a request for the debt amount; instead, they sent a patient ledger dated Apr 8, 2015 that shows patient responsibility of zero for every test; note, they do not have a phone My questions: - Other than a request for debt verification to the collection agency, what should I do? - Who do I negotiate with, the lab or the collection agency? - Does the fact the insurer is still working on it (based on contacting the employer again) have any relevance? - Is there a risk they could damage my credit score? Details: On March 17, we received a letter from a collection agency, claiming medical debt of $ 19k, that is inclusive of an interest amount of $2,600. The lab is located in Atlanta, GA. We received their services (a series of lab tests) for our son in November 2012. I have a family health insurance plan that is self insured by my employer, which is a large corporation, and administered by a TPA insurance company. Although the lab was originally out-of-network for the insurance company, we managed to obtain pre-approval for these services to be given with in-network benefits. In fact, the lab only agreed to perform those lab tests that were preapproved. We were expecting to pay nothing more than any applicable copay, coinsurance, etc. The insurance company denied many of the claims from the lab. The lab ended up filing a large number of appeals to the insurance company, but the claims remained largely denied. In January 2015, the lab turned the account over to the collection agency. The collection agency made their first communication to us on March 17. Pertinently, the lab seems to have turned the account over to the collection agency without sending us any billing statement that indicated that we owed them the sum of money that the collection agency alleged. After getting the letter from the collection agency, we promptly wrote them back, disputing the debt, mentioning that no statement was sent to us, and asking the collection agency to validate the debt by providing relevant documents. We are still awaiting the validation documents from the collection agency. Then we contacted the lab by mail and email (they don’t accept phone calls), basically asking that we resolve the issue with them directly and not the collection agency. In reply, the lab alleged that they sent it to our address. We have a hard time believing that because we moved to a new address in June 2013 but updated both the lab with our new address and USPS. Furthermore, despite communicating them with E-mail frequently, they never replied that way (granted, billing is often handled by a third party company) or called us. The lab also mentioned that they cannot retract the account from the collection agency but can request them to not report my credit account as we work on resolving the issue. Pertinently, the lab did not send us a statement indicating the debt amount even as we emailed them with a request to send it to us. Instead, they sent us an itemized patient ledger dated April 8, 2015 showing every lab test that was done, along with the cost, amount paid by insurance and patient responsibility. Interestingly, the patient ledger shows zero amount in the patient responsibility field for each of the test and does not indicate any overall patient responsibility. In short, the patient ledger does not validate the debt amount being claimed. At this time, we are unable to decide in which direction to pursue the matter. What options do we have now? The collection agency has not reported to the credit bureau yet. I am willing to make a settlement for a fraction of the original debt, say up to 30% (give or take), with the collection agency. However, should I hold off because the debt may not be theres. Or should I negotiate with the lab? My fear is they already turned if over to the collection agency. And what if the insurance company does pay off the provider? I would appreciate any help

Hello everyone! Thank you for the help in advance. I'm going to try and not draw this out for everyone, so lets get to it. Here's my current status and situation: Recently I moved to MI and obtained a job that brings in about $1600 monthly after taxes. My bank account has a balance of around $2k at any given time. I'm currently lucky enough to live with family until my finances are straightened out enough to get back to my own place. My GOAL by February 2016 is to have a 650-700 credit score so I can move down south. I'm hoping to be able to boost my credit score while maintaining a stable work/housing history to purchase my first house. First things first though, repairing my credit. Current credit score: 568 'Open Collections Balance' of $1,095. Two accounts are reflected in this: 1- ER visit $748 OPENED 01/2014 REPORT DATE 04/2015 2- Verizon $347 OPENED 12/2013 REPORT DATE 03/2015 Should I pay these off? *I am able to pay them off now if need be*Would they help my credit or am I just paying into nothing?'Past Due' 1- Credit Card $5,569- OPENED 08/2011 REPORT DATE 02/2013 *Account status for this is still OPEN. This is actually a car that I have given back to the credit union once my ex went to jail. They have not contacted me to let me know how much was needed to be paid on it after they came, got it and put it up for auction. Should I contact the credit union regarding this?Should I pay it?Would it help my credit score?'Student Loans' 1- $3,914 *Making $100 monthly payments on it. I believe this is my only account in good standings/no late payments. Do student loans reflect on your credit rating?No revolving credit or credit cards at this point. No bills in my name, but I will be obtaining a secured credit card this month. What, if anything, could I do to raise my credit score? Once again, thank you for the help.

Hi Friends, I had taken an AMEX credit card from Selfscore.com which basically acts as the primary card holder and issues addon cards for international students without credit score. And since our SSN's are linked to the credit card the whole account affects our Credit Report. But unfortunately this card which I have taken in January has been affecting my credit report very badly as all the other addon holders are using it to the maximum limit. Would closing this card help me repair my credit score ? I'm worried because it has been only 3 months since I opened the card and I'm not sure how it would affect my report. Just FYI I have a discover card which is solely on my name and always used 30% or less and is active since November 2014. Your advice is greatly appreciated. ThanksAJ

I'm wondering if there is a way to predetermine (ballpark) what sort of APR you would qualify for on a used auto loan based on your credit score? I went to my bank, Chase, and was told there is a range on used auto loans between 3.09% to 8+% based on your credit score, however the worker bee there wasn't able to be any more specific than that. I would like to have at least a general idea, before I have my credit pulled only to find out they (or anyone else) can't offer me what I'm looking for. I'm not interested in paying more than 5.5%. MAX. I know they can't tell me definitively before they pull my credit but they should be able to say, with a credit score of X you qualify for this percentage rate. Am I going about this the wrong way? Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks!

Hello, I'm in the process of cleaning up my credit and it is going well but I will soon need to begin the next phase which is to build credit. I'm already aware of a few ways to build credit fast but can anyone offer further ways to be credit fast? I know about... Being an authorized user Secured loans Secured credit cards

Hi! I am not sure if I am posting this in the correct place or not. I am new to this site and hope someone can give me a little guidance. When I was in high school my step sister who was 17 at the time was approved for a credit card through Capital One. I thought wow, if they gave her one maybe they will give me one! Dumb...very dumb I know but at the time I was 16 and was not thinking towards the future. Sure enough I filled out the application online and even filled it in correctly with my real SS# and everything, the only thing I did was change the year of my birth so at the time it would've made me 18. About two weeks later I received my credit card in the mail, with a $550 limit...it took me about two weeks and I maxed it out and never thought twice about it. Now that I am older I realize how much my credit is actually needed. Aside from school loans Capital One is the major thing on my credit report, with a nice total around $2,500 now I'm assuming because of interest fees and such. My fiance and I recently just purchased our first home and I am in the market to be buying a new car. Everywhere I go denies me because of my credit. I have fixed everything with my school loans and have worked a deal out with the Department of Education now it's just trying to clean up the rest. Basically what I am asking is, can I be held accountable for the debt, being that I was a minor and only 16 at the time when they approved me for the card. I do know that it was my own fault for applying and receiving but, shouldn't they have done some more research on me before they approved me? I mean they did have my social so they could have checked my age and everything. Any help would be appreciated and thanks for your time in advance! -Paula

There is some good news believe it or not regarding how credit scores are calculated. Vantage score which is the new score created by the 3 major credit bureaus has made some adjustments in their model which will help many who have paid off old debt or been victims of natural disasters. You can read the article here: http://tinyurl.com/a29uvh4 This may help many of you in terms of raising your score which is always a big issue in this forum.

Good afternoon Please let me know if if am posting this in the wrong location. I started the refinance process January 15th. Chase pulled my credit and score to start the process. My score was different from what I saw from the Equifax triple score report ( I have an account with them). Today Feb 6th, I spoke with the bank and they said I had to restart the process because I was late January and February 2011.. I does not show in the credit report, but she insists that I need to start the process again which would require them to pull the credit again. My score for Equifax dropped 8 POINTS that day from 711 to 703, and I am affraid another pull would pull me below 700 which would be unacceptable at least for me. Additionally, The other scores were way off to what I had pulled, How is that possible. My question is, Would my credit go even lower if CHASE pulls my credit within 30 days? I called Equifax and their response was to referred me to a 3rd party Advisor company. Arent they (Equifax) the company that keeps scores? This is ridiculous? My score according to CHASE: Equifax 695 Trans Union 683 Experian 711 My report from Experian: Equifax 699 Trans Union 716 Equifax 711 / now 703 after pull. Thank you Daniel