overwhelmed newbie seeks advice

[tjcredit]

Hello, I found your boards a couple of months ago and have been reading them intermitently ever since. My credit is not awful, at least not the ammount of debt i have, yet i still feel horribly overwhelmed, i tend to be much more creative than analytical, and what to do with such and such scenario seems daunting to me. My goal is to get a fico score decent enough to qualify for a house as i have some money saved. I'm hoping some veteran here wouldn't mind answering my newbie questions.

All my current credit card accounts are in good standing and paid monthly, what is screwing my score is charge offs and old bills from 2000.

My fico scores are as follows:

trans 595

equifax 514

exp 588

some of my questions are:

How long is new credit considered new? i opened 3 credit cards to reestablish credit after not having credit for years?

I have 2 charge offs, still with the o/c first premier for small amounts, 400, 200, should i attempt to pay, is there any chance of getting a removal?

I also have a providian 1999 co i believe this will be easy to remove.

Is there an exception for utilities bills, that they can stay on file longer than 7 years? I have a gas and electric bill listed from 1999

I have a phone bill that was listed in 2002 should i just wait till next year for it to clear up on its own?

Student loans i have loans that are showing up on my report from 99/2000 can i get these removed?

I had a car that i sold to a friend who never transferred the title, I had a written agreement with him and their were witnesses, I had never sold a car before this, so didn't know about release of liablity form, the car was towed months later, i didn't know about this, nor was i contacted. Suddenly the tow company has sold my debt to a collector and its now on my report. Any ideas or suggestions?

I know this is a lot of info, and I appreciate any responses or sugestions.

[swirlgirl]

How long is new credit considered new? i opened 3 credit cards to reestablish credit after not having credit for years? I've heard up to 60 months

I have 2 charge offs, still with the o/c first premier for small amounts, 400, 200, should i attempt to pay, is there any chance of getting a removal? Dispute with the CRAs, send 623 letter to OC. Then, if they remain, offer a PFD.

I also have a providian 1999 co i believe this will be easy to remove. Same as above.

Is there an exception for utilities bills, that they can stay on file longer than 7 years? I have a gas and electric bill listed from 1999. The reporting period is based on the Date of First Deliquency (DOFD). If the account went deliquent in 1999 and you haven't paid anything on it since, then dispute with the CRAs as "obsolete."

I have a phone bill that was listed in 2002 should i just wait till next year for it to clear up on its own? Dispute with the CRAs. If it comes back verified, try a PFD.

Student loans i have loans that are showing up on my report from 99/2000 can i get these removed? If they are in good standing, just leave them alone. If they are in default, try rehabbing.

I had a car that i sold to a friend who never transferred the title, I had a written agreement with him and their were witnesses, I had never sold a car before this, so didn't know about release of liablity form, the car was towed months later, i didn't know about this, nor was i contacted. Suddenly the tow company has sold my debt to a collector and its now on my report. Any ideas or suggestions. You can try to get your friend to pay this, but I doubt that would work. And that won't hep your credit report. Basically, you're on the hook for this since you didn't transfer the title. Is it a large amount? Again, dispute with the CRAs, send a DV to the CA. You may have to do a couple of rounds of letters. You can also offer a PFD.

[ShortBus]

Before you run headlong into the fire, make sure you know your state's SOL and the DOLA of the tradelines you want to work on. Disputing them might cause the OC/JDB to dust off an old file and have a fresh look at it. If the amount is large enough and the SOL is soon to be up, you might find yourself *really* regretting that dispute/DV.

[swirlgirl]

Point taken Shortbus. But SOL does not make the debts go away. They can still report for the full 7 years and the CAs can collect on the debts indefinitely. If these are valid debts, then why not take the bull by the horns and deal with them. From what the OP mentioned, the debts are fairly small.

[tjcredit]

Thanks so much for the information and taking time to respond.

I think i'm going to leave the phone bill alone for now, the ammount was higher than my other bills which if i can get a pfd i'd be happy to pay, though from what I read, sounds challenging.

I'm in CA so i thought it was 7 years but i'll check to make sure.

[Ravenous Wolf]

I have 2 charge offs, still with the o/c first premier for small amounts, 400, 200, should i attempt to pay, is there any chance of getting a removal?

Those are very small amounts. How old are they?

The reason I ask is suppose that you cannot get them removed or that they remain as outstanding charge-offs for years, then why would want to allow them to continue screwing up your credit? For lenders that seek consumers with good credit, that is a deal breaker and you will never get credit from them. As a result, only the high interest sub prime outfits will lend you money.