"As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me."

[deltadawn]

I have learned so much from this forum.......unfortunately, it appears that I have done everything wrong in trying to repair my credit by myself. It never occured to me that I needed to take control of my credit repair. I just assumed that if you started paying your bills on time, your credit would take care of themselves with time.

I will be working on repairing not only my credit, but my husbands credit as well; however, this thread will relate only to me.

Credit Score (from WAMU) Jul 2008 694 (was 713 in Oct 2007)

Primary Reason (from WAMU)

1 You have a Derogatory public record or collection item on your credit file

2 There is a lack of recent (non-mortgage) installment loan information

being reported on your credit file

I requested my credit reports from all 3 bureaus through Annual Credit Report

Negative Iems Reported

Capital One - 30 days late Jun 05 (reported on all 3 reports - but only EQ

and TU show it as a negative account)

Collections - Express Recovery Services (creditor classification - medical

shows on EQ. TU and EX just show doctor's name) $122 paid

Express Recovery Services (same as above, except amount

177 paid

IHC Health Services (reported only to EX) 57.00 (this

account is scheduled to continue on record until Jul 2012)

Public Records - Chapter 13 BK filed on 2,2000 and dismissed on 10, 2000

(only on EQ)

I disputed Express Covery online as paid for delete. The response came back as verified. I disputed IHC Recovery Services and it also came back as verified.

Revolving Accounts

Capital One (Individual Account) CL 2,000 Date Opened 11/2004

Recent Bal 0 (pd as of 6/2008)

Last activity on card 12/2007

1 30 day late Jun 05

Capital One (Individual Account) CL 2,650 Date Opened 8/2003

Recent Bal 0 (pd as of 6/2008)

Last activity on card 1/2007)

Never Late

Chase (Authorized User) CL 3,700 Date Opened 6/2006

Recent Bal 2,966

Last activity on card 5/2008

(Outstanding balance today 1982.01)

Never Late

HSBC Bank (Individual Account) CL 5,000 Date Opened 11/2006

Recent Bal 0 (pd as of 5/2008)

Last activity on card 11/2007

Never Late

WAMU/Prov (Authorized User) CL 4,000 Date Opened 4/2006

Recent Bal 1,614

Last activity on card 6/2008

(Outstanding balance today 0)

Never Late

WAMU/Prov (Individual Account CL 1,750 Date Opened 8/2001

Recent Bal 0 (pd as of 6/2008)

Last activity on card 11/2006

Never Late

In May, I received 2 letters from Cap One, basically stating that they noticed that I had not been using my account and to call them to see what they could do to retain my business. I trashed the letter. BIG MISTAKE! They are 2 of my longest accounts. I had not been using them because the interest was too high.

In July I received offers from AX, Barclays (?), CitiFinancial, BOFA, and Discover. I normally throw away offers I receive in the mail; but decided to apply with Discover for a 0 percent interest until Sep 2009. I transferred my WAMU balance. STUPID ME! The reason I transferred the WAMU balance was because i was paying 11.99% interest. Well, Discover gave me a card with a CL 3000 and with the gas and grocery charges that I have placed on the card, I have a balance of 2668.86. EEKS! I should be getting my first bill shortly, and plan on paying 854.00 (I normally do not have that much to pay; but I usually don't charge groceries or gas. They have that 5% back on charges made for those items and I thought I would take advantage of it.) ANOTHER BOO BOO,

Other Mistakes I have made......

Closing Accounts

AX Opened 6,1990 Status: Paid, Closed, Never Late

HSBC Opened 1,2006 Status: Paid, Closed, Never Late

GEMB/Dillards Opened 9,1997 Status: Paid, Closed, Never Late

GEMB/Mervyns Opened 3,2005 Status: Paid, Closed, Never Late

So basically, I closed accounts that have the longest credit history.

Today, I have stopped procrastinating and mimicking Scarlett O'hara, "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow."

I am going to be proactive. "As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me."

My First Steps

1 Reduce Discover and Chase below the 50% line of credit by Sep 2008.

2 Then work on reducing it below the 30% mark. I would love to set the

goal for Dec 2008; but, to be realistic, it probably would be more like

Mar, 2009.

3 Checking my medical statements (which for 2005, my file is

approximately 3 inches thick due to a heart operation, thyroid

and husband's kidneys were operating at about 37%) to verify that I

actually owe the bill. Everything that I have read indicates that if the

collections is over 2 year old, it's not as critical.

4. Sign up for a credit monitoring system. There are so many of them, it's

a tough decision for me. The charts provided in this forum are great;

however, I haven't decided which one would fit my needs. I get my

TU score with WAMU (don't know how accurate it is); so, I think I have

narrowed it down to either EQ, EX, Credit Keepe from HSBC Costco

Identiy Guard, or Chase Identity Protector. Also, since I am also working

on hubby's credit, would it be best to use a separate credit monitoring

system for him? Any imput is appreciated.

5 Already have my files set up, as was suggested in this forum.

Basically, I'm taking baby steps.....I need to know that I am going in the right direction and what giant steps I can take. Should I charge something on the cards that I have not used in awhile, just so that the credit card company won't close the accounts? Should I apply for different type cards once my balance goes down?

The negative items will be retained on my credit report until 2012, so buying a house is out of the picture for a few years.

Any help or suggestions is appreciated.

[LeslieR]

Honestly, your 694 is a fine credit score. If you work on those items you mentioned, you will be back in the 700s in no time. You have some nice TLs with good CLs and good payment habits. Just keep up the good work and get down those balances. Time will take care of the rest for you.

[deltadawn]

My thread was a long and I appreciate you viewing it.

The interest rate on some of these TL's are terrible. (I refer to it as legal loan sharking)

The reason I have not used some of these credit cards in a while is because of the interest rate.

Today I received an offer from WAMU. This offer was for 0% interest for so many months and then an interest rate (for life) lower than what I was paying on one of my WAMU cards. I called WAMU and advised them of the offer and requested that my interest rate be matched. They said the offer was not offered on the card I had; but only for new accounts. I advised the representative that I was disappointed that they would not even consider taking care of their existing customers. I was told that my record would be documented for the next time it came up for review. UGH!

I can understand a higher interest rate when you are starting to rebuild your credit; however, I do feel that as one rebuilds their credit, the creditors need to adjust their interest rates to match the market for those who have proven that they are handling their credit responsibly.

[lovebug5]

"As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me."

Did anyone else start reinacting the scene from the movie "Shag" when they read this? LMAO!!

[LeslieR]

[Donna47129]

"As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me."

Did anyone else start reinacting the scene from the movie "Shag" when they read this? LMAO!!

I read this post BECAUSE of the heading...too funny!

[deltadawn]

Must be a generation gap ...... I was thinking more of Scarlet O'hara in "Gone With the Wind" when I wrote it

[LeslieR]

Dawn...LOL...that, too. True.

No one gets to see that anymore unless they want to. I grew up being subjected to it, whether I liked it or not, every year, when it came on network TV. Now that we have all these cable and classic movie channels, the networks don't do their annual airing of each of those classics. Sound of Music, Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind...

And remember miniseries? Four nights of suspense that everyone talked about at work or school the next day!

Ah nostalgia...all gone the way of Reality TV.

[deltadawn]

Still trying to determine the best way to procede to clear up my credit reports.

Capital One - 30 days late Jun 05 (reported on all 3 reports - but only EQ

and TU show it as a negative account)

I had 2 accounts with Capital One and my bank statements just show online payment without an account number.

3-15 Capital One online payment 1280.65

4-14 Capital One online payment 75.00

5-18 Capital One online payment 100.00

6-18 Capital One online payment 100.00 and 123.00

After reading whychat on MEDFICO, I'm more concerned about deleting my negative medical accounts.

Collections - Express Recovery Services (creditor classification - medical

shows on EQ. TU and EX just show doctor's name) $122 paid

This was my account and denied by insurance. I did try PFD online, which came back verified. Whychat suggest to send a letter to the CA a DV letter then a dispute letter to the CRA's. Since I have researched my records, and know that this account was valid, is this still the process I need to go with?

Collections - Express Recovery Services (creditor classification - medical

shows on EQ. TU and EX just show doctor's name) $177 paid

I have started a letter to the CA because this shows as a joint account. This account is not mine and did not sign anything that showed responsibility of payment. Is there anything other than this that I should include in my DV letter?

IHC Health Services (reported only to EX) 57.00 (this account is scheduled to continue on record until Jul 2012)

I have gone through my records, and it looks as though this was a co-pay that I did not pay. My banking records do show a 50.00 for Jun to IHC, but the date is earlier than the bill in question. I definitely want to clear this up and want it removed from my credit report. From reading the forums, it is my understanding that this request should be done in writing. I'm not sure on the wording I should use without stirring things up. Any suggestions?