Try to repair or just wait?

[gdean]

Ok, I read everyone's stroy, here is mine. Same old story, life was good, Credit was great got marrige living life to the fullest. Three years left till I got my BS, everthing was looking great. One year after we got married my wife lost her job, things got tight but we managed. Kids came, had to drop out of school. School loans due, CC bills piled up and doctor bills arrived. Life was not fun anymore. I still remember the first time I went 30 days past due. I thought it was the end of the world. Well it got worse as it always does. Working two jobs just trying to get by, I was about 30K in CC debt and another 30K in student loans. By now I was talking to my OC on a day to day basis. Best thing I did is went get a book on how to file for BK . But in it, it talked about debt reduction first. It talked about who should you pay and who can wait if you have money. Food, home, ele/gas, Car, doctor, student loans, and CC was the order I think. They also said to try and keep one CC if you could up to date. I did not know why back then but for two years I sent Sears and Visa $2 and $8 a month. Slowly everything was stating to get better I thought, Car was paid off doctor bills were payed off, I was back in school part time so my SL were defered. I still owed 30K in CC but in my mind I thought I do not have anything they can take. 4 years later and 3 days after I gaduated with a BS in ME and took a great paying Job that tripled my income I got summons. That was it, I was ready to file BK, because if they did it now the 7 OC's left would soon follow. I called up a lawer and went on file BK. He then explained to me that this was going to be very complicated to file a chapter 7. Since my income increased so much, but with planning, he said we could do it. So I moved took the job and life went on. We begain to plan for BK. One and half years go by and we are still planing. In the mean time I needed to purcahse a Van, another kid was on the way. Well I bit the bullet and thought what the heck. Two phone calls and a 30 minute test drive and paper siging and my wife and I were in a 99 dodge mini van. Remember those two CC and student loans. Even though I had 7 charge offs and 1 judgment those 3 things shot my score up a bunch. I have waited two years to file Bk and now I am very glad that I did. I staed to wonder how bad was my credit. I mean if I could get a loan to by a car. It can't be all that bad. All of my debt is 6 years old or older from charge off. So I then started to look for a house. I have settled my judgement and settled a joint CC this year. The SOL is up on all of my CC. My wife and I just bought a Home. All of my debt is older the December 29, 1997, so my seven years starts for the date of charge of not 180 days. My question is should I just ride it out for another 6 to 12 months of should I fight to get all charge offs removed. Last I checked my score was EQU 625, I have 7 accounts with 24 months of no late payments and 3 accounts with 7 years with no late payments. when they fall off I should be good to go. If any my judgment will be the one I have to fight. It still has 4 years. Part of me want to keep on fighting and part of me feels like I just been through a war. By the way I am not filing for BK now. So there it is my story thanks for having a great site like this.

[md]

If they are very negative marks then you really have nothing to lose by trying to fight to get them deleted (except for your time and a little money). Unless, of course, by them being there they are giving you a long history of credit and thus helping your score. They are going to drop off soon anyway, so if they are helping you (which is unlikely if they are charge-offs) then they won't be much longer.

It sounds like you have some good installment loans going for you. They are probably helping your credit the most.

It really depends on whether or not you plan on applying for credit in the near furture and what type of credit. If you don't need to apply for credit before they drop off then just ride it out.

Your credit history and score mean nothing until you need them to apply for credit.