Improving credit score faster

[Daneo]

Awesome sounds easy, how long would it take to go from 655 to like around 700?

 

[Giants83]

Awesome sounds easy, how long would it take to go from 655 to like around 700?

I stalled right around 690ish. I got there pretty quick but it took me a while to break 720. Build it up a little more then get another card. 2-3 max. After that it's just time. Age of credit history plays a role. When we started looking for a house I was trying to get my score up every point I could. Paid my debts down so I had a better debt to income ratio. My wife had a credit card since she was 16 so she added me as an authorized user. By doing that it showed up in my report as if I had that card for that long and brought my age of credit history right up and I got to 720. Sign up for credit karma and download the app. It's a great tool and they have some helpful articles. Plus it's free!!

 

[Daneo]

I use credit karma and have the app. Thankyou for all of your advice. I figure I would get another card in 5 months and get my credit limit increased on the one I have now

 

[Jefe]

Im getting a second card. One for my gym membership and one for cell phone. Both need p s id any way. Build credit while I'm at it.

 

[get it in ya]

I own 2 credit cards and have a car loan. every month I pay my cards off in full. most months I put 700-1200 a month on them and pay it every month so I have zero balance. my score has gone up a lot by having zero balance every month. score has gone up close to 70 points in a year by doing this

 

[Daneo]

I own 2 credit cards and have a car loan. every month I pay my cards off in full. most months I put 700-1200 a month on them and pay it every month so I have zero balance. my score has gone up a lot by having zero balance every month. score has gone up close to 70 points in a year by doing this

I thought it was better if you leave a small balance so that when they report you to the credit bureau, it shows you are using your credit

 

[Giants83]

I thought it was better if you leave a small balance so that when they report you to the credit bureau, it shows you are using your credit

When you look at a credit report where your credit card is listed it tells you current balance, high balance and credit limit. It also shows payment history and not much else. I definitely don't know everything about raising credit but I can share my experience and how I got mine out of the crapper to where I can almost anything on credit. I always had a small balance but if his experience is keeping no balance and it worked that's great. That just says either way will work.

 

[Jefe]

Found my judgement on the courthouses webpage. 2600. Way more than i thought.

Ill get two more cards and autopay little things like gym membership and cell phone on the.

Take care of the judgement when i can. Ill pay to get the files sent to me so i can try make a deal.

Thanks.

 

[Marvin Martian]

get on credit karma and see what your score is, its free!! A judgement from 6 yrs ago would have very little impact but if its not on you credit report, SO WHAT!! It doesnt count unless it reports for another creditor to see... Unless small chance they want to garnish wages or seize assets like a bank act.

Apply for a capital one junior card, not the platinum. They will bump your limit within 4 months. I got 3 of those cards with 4 months. Now total $7000 available credit, all unsecured, no annual fees, interest is 19.9% but I don`t care because I`m not using the cards for purchases, just credit building. I`m 655 on EQ and just got an auto loan for $10k at 4.65% :headbang:

Just know that Credit Karma is NOT the same as the big three - EQ -EX - TU

Unfortunately people come to me often and think their score is XXX and when we pull a tri-merge its YYY...
Judgment will not only impact - it will prevent a mortgage from happening. Its extremely easy to have a lien applied to property when you have a judgment - and that's just not good business for us.

 

[Marvin Martian]

Found my judgement on the courthouses webpage. 2600. Way more than i thought.

Ill get two more cards and autopay little things like gym membership and cell phone on the.

Take care of the judgement when i can. Ill pay to get the files sent to me so i can try make a deal.

Thanks.

When you are ready to negotiate the judgment - pm me and I can help you man. I deal with that all the time - including the IRS.
One thing many may not know is that you CAN negotiate with collection companies and have them remove ALL negative reporting history upon receipt of agreed upon settlement. You have to get that in writing BEFORE making that payment. In fact NEVER make any payment settling a debt until you have a settlement agreement in writing - indicating that at the very least the debt will be paid in full upon receipt of the agreed amount. Then you must overnight the payment and save proof of receipt. Not all collections will agree to remove negative reporting - but there are plenty that will.

 

[Jefe]

Awesome!! Thanks so much

 

[Giants83]

When you are ready to negotiate the judgment - pm me and I can help you man. I deal with that all the time - including the IRS.

One thing many may not know is that you CAN negotiate with collection companies and have them remove ALL negative reporting history upon receipt of agreed upon settlement. You have to get that in writing BEFORE making that payment. In fact NEVER make any payment settling a debt until you have a settlement agreement in writing - indicating that at the very least the debt will be paid in full upon receipt of the agreed amount. Then you must overnight the payment and save proof of receipt. Not all collections will agree to remove negative reporting - but there are plenty that will.

I've been trying to tell guys that here in previous threads. Some didn't believe me that you could actually have the negative account completely removed. I did so much research back when I decided to clean my credit up. I had a ridiculous amount of collection accounts at the time. Embarrassing to say but my life was a mess then. I settled damn near every single one of them and had them removed. All but one that is. That one I just paid. I had no score back then and now I'm in the mid 700s. Oh and when I called the IRS to try and pay off what I owed them they told me the statue of limitations was up and the remaining debt was forgiven. It is possible to clean up your score. Just takes a little work.

 

[safe T steve]

When you look at a credit report where your credit card is listed it tells you current balance, high balance and credit limit. It also shows payment history and not much else. I definitely don't know everything about raising credit but I can share my experience and how I got mine out of the crapper to where I can almost anything on credit. I always had a small balance but if his experience is keeping no balance and it worked that's great. That just says either way will work.

they want to see credit utilization so they want statement balances of 30% of available credit

if you don't have 30% as your statement balance it still helps your credit but the 30% will maximize the benefit

also the 30% percent applies to all available credit
so if you add up all the credit you have total you want your total monthly statement balance to be at 30%

When you are ready to negotiate the judgment - pm me and I can help you man. I deal with that all the time - including the IRS.
One thing many may not know is that you CAN negotiate with collection companies and have them remove ALL negative reporting history upon receipt of agreed upon settlement. You have to get that in writing BEFORE making that payment. In fact NEVER make any payment settling a debt until you have a settlement agreement in writing - indicating that at the very least the debt will be paid in full upon receipt of the agreed amount. Then you must overnight the payment and save proof of receipt. Not all collections will agree to remove negative reporting - but there are plenty that will.

for sure
i have had lots of collections on my credit report
got most of them paid off for 50% and removed from the report (that is the key to get them removed because if its on your credit report whether its paid off or not it is a huge negative)

also i believe after 7 years with no judgment you can request for items to be removed from your credit report

 

[Jefe]

also i believe after 7 years with no judgment you can request for items to be removed from your credit report

I only found out about my judgement when i applied for a personal loan. Since the application and fredj address i got a letter from collectioms from ten years ago. Its not on my credit report so i didnt respond. They turnef a $0.28 overdraft into a $480 bill. Fuck those guys.

But yeah, more than seven and it's not showing

 

[Marvin Martian]

they want to see credit utilization so they want statement balances of 30% of available credit

if you don't have 30% as your statement balance it still helps your credit but the 30% will maximize the benefit

also the 30% percent applies to all available credit
so if you add up all the credit you have total you want your total monthly statement balance to be at 30%



for sure
i have had lots of collections on my credit report
got most of them paid off for 50% and removed from the report (that is the key to get them removed because if its on your credit report whether its paid off or not it is a huge negative)

also i believe after 7 years with no judgment you can request for items to be removed from your credit report

The thing to remember is that EVERY debt collector works on commission - so they NEED to settle. The companies that buy bad debt pay as low as $0.10 on the $1.00 - PLUS they buy the bad debt at the actually current balance and add all of the fees and penalties. So - if you can pay immediately (this is KEY when settling debt) and you wait until the right time of the month - you can save a TON.
You cannot trust what they tell you initially. You cant be afraid to walk away form settling. The key is to remember that the damage is done by the time it gets to this point so regardless of how they try to control the narrative - YOU have all of the power. What you cannot do is negotiate and then fail to make payment. I have my clients pay via overnight with a bank check usually. Only AFTER I have received SIGNED fax verification that the debt will not only be deemed paid in full AND in most instances - all negative reporting removed from the history.
If you are not careful you can really screw yourself. I have had clients that settled on their own. They negotiate a payoff and fail to get anything in writing. Make the agreed upon payment - and a month later are being pursued by either the same collection agency or another that purchased the balance. They are told that the payment simply paid the balance down - so absolutely NOTHING was accomplished.

Everyone should take a few minutes to read the FDCPA 1996. I have had dozens of debts totally forgiven with absolutely no payment. Car loans forgiven (and not just by small lenders - Toyota Motor - GMAC - Ford Credit) all because provisions of the FDCPA were violated. In fact its rare that a collector DOESNT violate the Act. When they do you simply note the date and time. Speak to a supervisor and explain the situation - give them the exact date and time and ask them to please review the taped conversation (you ALWAYS have them call you so that the call is recorded). In most cases they will make you an offer. Worst case is that you tell them you would like a copy of the call or will have your attorney request a subpoena.

 

[Bob Dole]

When you are ready to negotiate the judgment - pm me and I can help you man. I deal with that all the time - including the IRS. One thing many may not know is that you CAN negotiate with collection companies and have them remove ALL negative reporting history upon receipt of agreed upon settlement. You have to get that in writing BEFORE making that payment. In fact NEVER make any payment settling a debt until you have a settlement agreement in writing - indicating that at the very least the debt will be paid in full upon receipt of the agreed amount. Then you must overnight the payment and save proof of receipt. Not all collections will agree to remove negative reporting - but there are plenty that will.

I have done this and it worked out well, my question is if you write something like this on the check "Cashing this check is agreement that this judgment will be removed from all credit reporting companies" does it work? I know it did once for me, but I have always wondered if I just got lucky.

 

[Marvin Martian]

I have done this and it worked out well, my question is if you write something like this on the check "Cashing this check is agreement that this judgment will be removed from all credit reporting companies" does it work? I know it did once for me, but I have always wondered if I just got lucky.

That is definitely a good idea even if they give you a written guarantee - but I would still push for the written guarantee. You want as much assurance as you can get and they could easily say that the person that processed the payment didn't have the authority to honor any agreement made with the collector. If you have it in writing - they are not going to screw around and put themselves at risk.

I had a debt for a client that we negotiated for a few weeks on - and after they agreed to an amount I told them that we would need the negative removed so that their scores would increase (they were getting a mortgage and rates are best when score is above 720). The bitch on the other end said "sure we will do that" but when I asked her to give me a written guarantee she said she couldn't - so I told her that the loan was already approved as their credit stood so it wouldn't help the borrower and didn't affect me either way and thanked her and hung up. She called back later that day and I avoided her. Then the next day called a few times and left a message saying they would do it. It was about the 25th of the month so I told her I didn't think it was going to help after all. SO - on the 28th or so she called and basically begged me to settle and I got her to cut the payoff even more !! They are commission based and evidently this item was going to push her over a pay tier. Just goes to show you the power the debtor has.

For anyone that might think its "unethical" to settle debt or not pay debt back - let me tell you my take on that. When a credit card is issued they push like hell to persuade the client to charge as much as possible. The place that takes the card pays (and believe me that adds up to billions in revenue a year for the card issuer) so the banks NEVER lose money. As far as any business loan goes - when a loan is made to a business risk is incurred. If the business fails the bank loses JUST LIKE the business owner loses. Both parties stood to gain and the bank had a fiduciary responsibility to assess risk - so in NO WAY should the bank be shielded from loss.

Sorry for the diatribe - I am kind of passionate about this - lol

 

[Bob Dole]

Great info, thanks. I have always tried to think when dealing with the collection agencies that like you said we have the upper hand and are in a better bargaining position. What you said about them willing to remove the dispute from a credit report based on a verbal conversation won't end well as they can just deny it or say the person didn't have that authority. Again thanks for some great info.

 

[61cuhoquy24]

Theres many tricks as mentioned here, bit your best bet is to be patient and use your cc responsibly and pay it down properly.

Trying to hard to game the system can lead to biting off more than you can chew and losing points

 

[PayNXT360]

prepaid cards & prepaid gift cards are also good option

I have a judgement from six years ago. $1000. Found out when i applied for a loan. I have one secured CC.

Im sure the judgement will be renewed. Its not on any of the credit reports just in the court.

Would my score go up faster by getting more secured cards or paying the judgements first. Im going to do both eventually. Not sure which first.

Thanks in advance

You can also use the prepaid cards & prepaid gift cards

**broken link removed**