Looking for some more sound advice. I read and read but still confused. :(

[Whatamess]

Hello thanks to all who have posted on this great site. I have purchased the book awhile back and now have read it a few times, now im starting to try to get my credit history going.

A little about me:

I have never had a CREDIT CARD NEVER

I got a cosigned loan for a truck and got hurt and was late on payments. I ended up selling the truck but had like 8 late pays. I did not notice them on my credit report tonight from Equifax but a year or so ago it was on there.

I did a current credit report on equifax on 1-27-07. Some if it was different from my last report i pulled alittle over a year ago for FREE. I am sending out requests for my other reports from the other big 2 on monday.

I was 18, when i should of started out good with credit, and instead i chose to incurr bad credit. I have $1,921 non hospital on my credit that has all been turned into a collection agency. Maybe a few more on the way. I had a roomate a year ago and he didnt pay half the bills like he was suppose to my fault, he is slowly starting to pay me back now but i got behind on things especially the gas bill of $829.00 which is from last year.

Then to the bad part my hospital bills are $9,202 i had some health problems, no insurance and didnt work. This is all that was on the report quite a bit must of dropped off. I have yet to get the other 2 reports to compare so this could be alot worst than this.

I thought about filing bankruptcy but then i figured that $11,123.00 isnt really all that bad considering 80% is hopspital bills.

My first goal is to get the non hospital bills taken off my report or paid. I have one utility bill on my report that says PAID but that is it i never negotiated to get it off.

Im confused on some of this stuff and i been reading for two days now and i read the book.

On the equifax credit report i did online. I have a couple bills on there twice different collection agency. One of my bills clearly is listed twice once in the beginning of the report and one at the end. It says by the one agency Receivables Management SVCS that the Date Reported was 6/2002 and Date Assigned was 05/2001 now on the other report the agency is AR Rescources and the Date Reported is 01/2007 and the Date Assigned 03/2003 totally different dates. What would be my first steps to disupte this as they obviously have this wrong or have sold the account.

And where can i start with the hospital bills? Do i send out the letter to the Credit Bureua or the Original Creditor contact to see if they still have the Case. Im wondering cause i will put the time in this that is not a problem, i work now, i have insurance now and im gettin older now and i want to buy a house within the next 3 years. This is holding me up, my income is satisfactory at this point, my car is paid off. I have a girlfriend and were gonna eventually get married, but her credit with my bad credit isnt good enough for a house.

They told me before that i have a 0 credit history cause i have never paid on any of the bills once turned into collection. I want to fix that now and move forward with my life. The place that i went to see if i could get approved for a house loan said that if i pay the non hospital that the hospital bills would not effect my approval as much but i want to whipe most of them out.

I have a couple bills that are threatening to turn me into collections now and i just started paying on them.

One of the mci phone bills i have im not really sure i did. So i need to validate that for sure. One is a Charge off. I have 4 at the very begginning of my report.

Then all together i have on my report 37 items including the 4 at the beginning. I can pay some of these each month some even weekly as there small.

Sorry this is so long but someone guide me in the right direction and i can start by sending out letters. I have went out today and got everything i needed highlighters, pens, notepad, envelopes, book of stamps and my credit report to take that First Big Step to financial freedom.

Alittle help is all i ask.

[Whatamess]

nobody

[divemedic]

You posted at 230 am, and then you posted a bump at 430 am. Give it some time.

[Whatamess]

sorry

[Whatamess]

Can anybody help shed some light?

[willingtocope]

You've got a pretty long post there with a bunch of things going on at the same time...you might want to chop it up a bit, and ask specific questions about each.

What I was able to follow says you have some unpaid medical bills. I'd suggest you contact the original providers and see what you can work out. Dealing with collection agencies is almost never a good idea.

[Whatamess]

thanks for the reply, so your saying my best bet is not to talk to the CA's but to go straight to the OC's and talk to them about paying and gettin this in writing that the report will be taken off my CR???

let me know if this is the way to go about it as all these have been turned into a collection agency and some are old as 5 + years and some about 6+ now.

I might let them the 6 year old ones fall off and work on the other ones.

But do you think that this is alot better than filing for bankruptcy i mean lets say im in the hole 12,000 that isnt to bad to overcome is it?

thanks for all help

[willingtocope]

12 large is probably not enough to do a BK these days. The laws have changed.

I think the first thing you need to do is establish whether the original creditor still owns the debt, of if its been sold to a junk debt buyer. You can tell from your credit reports...if the OC says "sold to another lender", then a JDB has it now.

If the OC still owns it, call them and see what you can work out. They probably won't remove their tradelines, but, at least the debt will be settled.

If its now owned by a JDB, then use the "hey, I found you on my credit reports, WTH? I never had an account with you" kind of debt validation approach.

[lyle7289]

First of all dispute. Second, DV the accounts that comeback verified. Once that is complete, start the repair process. Read the "primer" at the top of this forum. This should clear things up for you and set you on the right path. This journey is a long one my friend and can be quite trying at times. Stick with it though.....it is all worth it in the end...