Credit Questions

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bobmaplethorp

< 25 Posts
I'm recently out of school and need to do some work reparing my credit.

Can anyone direct me to the best place to check on my credit and then give some advice on the best way to fix it? Are there services that can help you or is it best done on your own?

I am starting a good job with a good salary but was just lazy in college and was late on a bunch of bills and things like that.

thanks
 
Fixing your credit is something that you are going to have to do yourself. Get your credit reports and verify that they are accurate.
 
Buy a car. Not one that even comes close to stretching your income, one that is very very easy to pay on. Something that is like 10% of your take-home pay. Put a lot of money down on it, at least 25%. You're going to pay an *** load of dough on APR, but if your balance is small, the dollar amounts won't be huge, and you can always pay extra every month to pay it down sooner. If you are already completely satisfied with your current ride, and have no need whatsoever, then try to find something else that is an installment type of loan: jet-ski, a half acre somewhere, motorcycle, whatever. Something that when you pay it off, it's yours. Paid off installment loans carry a lot of weight on your credit report.

On CC: if you can get one, maintain a very small balance on it relative to your limit.

You can also take the steps you need to remove erroneous items on your report, or hire someone to do it for you. I used fixyourbadcredit.com and it was like $250 or so. I know me, and I know I just wasn't going to stay on top of it like I needed to, so it was worth it to me spend the dough.
 
I'm a big fan of Dave Ramsey. I'd suggest buying his book "Total Money Makeover". Get ready to have it be preachy, but your life will be SO MUCH EASIER if you listen to him!

Also, watch out for credit monitoring services. LHF68 and I were in the same position a couple years ago and got credit monitoring to help us dispute items and just generally watch our credit. We used True Credit. Anyway, when we started down the home buying road a couple months ago, we were told it would be a good idea for me to try to get a credit card increase b/c my credit score was still pretty low, considering I had no debt. Long story short, after getting easy approval and having my credit info pulled to pre-qualify for a loan, I found out my credit score was actually 100 points higher than True Credit was reporting it. The info I was paying 15 bucks a month to get from them was completely false.

So, The best advice I can give is to develop a good budget, and pay off all of your debt as quickly as possible. Don't cancel cards and stuff as you pay them off, though. and pay your bills on time! UFCU has a really good bill pay program that only costs like 5 bucks a month-- they compile all your bills and you just kinda click "pay them" when it's time!
 
myfico.com is the true FICO score. The scores on Truecredit are not accurate for FICO scores. However, Truecredit is a good site to be on, as it allows you to pull your credit daily and is only $14 a month.

also, check out creditboards.com . there is a wealth of information on that site. There are people there that have worked for years on their credit. Be prepared for a ton of reading. Good luck!
 
Homer-- My bank let me look at my credit report when I applied for a credit limit increase on my card. It was through Expirian I think, and was 100 points off what Trude Credit was showing for them. At first I thought they must be looking at the FICO score, too, but when I signed paperwork on the credit card, I talked to them about it and they showed me the report, so it was simply True Credit providing false info.
 
Experian can easily be 100 points off of Trans Union and Equifax. Equifax generally being the harshest and Experian generally being the most generous.
 
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