People with good credit - need help.

Alright, gonna be a long read.

When I turned 18, got into some financial trouble. Ended up a bank money for over-withdrawls, bunch of other ****.

Checked my credit score today, and wasn't too pleased at what I saw.

Now, what's the easiest way to start fixing my situation? I'll put it this way...my credit is bad enough that I can't get a credit card.

So how is one supposed to FIX his credit, if he cant get credit?

**** my life.

It will take a while by the sounds of it.

Make sure all your **** is payed off. Make sure you pay your car payment on time every month. Make sure you make more than your minimum credit card payment ever month.

I pay off my credit card every month in full, have all my cell phone payments automatically with drawn every month as to not miss a payment, and everything else is payed in full on time every time. I am 21 years old and have great credit for my age and signed up for my second credit car just recently after having my first one for 3 years. Got the new card with no problem. Was preapproved for a car loan as well with no issues.

My first credit limit when I got my card was like 500. Now it is up to like 5k or something lol. Pay off everything on time every month and you will have no problems. I am looking forward to my good intrest rating when I buy a house and an expensive ass car

*sigh*

That's the problem...I can't get a credit card because of my credit situation.

A small loan and paying ALL of the payments on time or ahead of time is a good start. If you have bad credit the interest rates may be higher, but you have to start somewhere to rebuild.

Where can I get a list of all the defaults that I have?

If I remember the law properly , if a credit card company denies you credit , If you ask they must furnish you with a copy of the credit report ...Then you can look at the listings to check if they are true or not

Anytime you are denied credit you have the option to request a free credit report from anyone of the credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, Transunion)

You can dispute any item on your credit report taht you believe it reported in some type of error. They credit bureaus will investigate the item, and fix it if needed.

They make a "credit card" for people in your situation. When you apply for the card you give them money. The amount of money you give them determines your limit (if you give them $1000 then it's just like a card with $1000). Then you use it like a credit card. Buy stuff and make monthly payments. The purpose of the initial payment is basically to protect the company if you default on the payments. Once you cancel the card, you get your initial money back if it's payed off.

^Where to obtain one of these cards?

Couple ways to start rebuilding:

Get on your parents credit cards. Only certain banks report this, so check with the bank first.

Also I believe you are a student, get a student card.

When you say bad credit, does that mean you have all your debt paid off finally? Because if you still owe someone money and you have bad credit, you need to pay off all debts first.

Another thing you can do is try to get a credit card from a department store or a gas station. Those are typically easier to get, and I notice you like clothes from your other threads, so maybe your favorite clothing store offers a credit card?

The last step you want is the way PwrRngr suggested. Google secured credit card for more info on that.

alienyoungjr wrote:

Anytime you are denied credit you have the option to request a free credit report from anyone of the credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, Transunion) You can dispute any item on your credit report taht you believe it reported in some type of error. They credit bureaus will investigate the item, and fix it if needed.

I know you started working for Experian.....

I had an issue a while back. I always paid my car loan through my car dealer and one month they forgot to send my payment in. I disputed it and they fixed it (as far as late payment), but my credit score didn't return to what it was. It dropped from 720 to 670 and now I am having a hard time getting financed for a house. (which is crap)

I've been slowly building back up... I HAD a 750, then Navy Fed screwed me over on my card. Long story short, they increased my limit, I used it (plane tickets and car repairs over a few weeks mandated so), and then they took it away - leaving me showing over-drawn by $1500, which isn't possible since when you're at the limit, it's denied. There is **** going over the limit over a period of weeks. Anyhow, they haven't budged, and because I can't afford to pay it all off at once it's been hitting my credit score every billing cycle. I'm not down around a 500 or so I believe. Can't get the car I've been saving a down payment for because of it... had a hell of a time getting approved to rent the current house I'm in, even getting small card to get a laptop for this deployment.

Basically you want to pay your bills on time, but earlier is better. Also, exceed the required payment, even if it's by $5. If you're in that bad of a crunch for credit, you can sacrifice a coffee or whatever a month.
Try to keep your credit-debt ratio low. For example, if you have a $1000 limit and your balance is $96.34, that looks and rates a HELL of a lot better than a balance of $982.
If you keep getting denied stuff, stop applying for a while. The number of times you apply for credit in a short amount of time can mess with you too.

That's pretty much it... I'm slowly making a comeback on my score. I've gotten to the point where I've started taking out $500 personal loans, then sticking it into a savings account. Then I use the loan money to make the payments every month, early and throw a few earned dollars in with the payment to exceed the required amount. It's working too, as the interest rates on these personal loans is dropping slowly, but steadily.

That's the thing with credit, you can ruin it in 1 month but it takes years to build it up. If you cannot get a small personal loan, I would suggest saving some money and opening a secured credit card. You back it with your own money, yet it still builds your credit. Personally, I would not do a unsecured credit card to start because if you keep your balance on the card over 20% of the limit your not really going to help anything. Personal loan would be my choice. You get one, pay it off. You don't have to worry about yourself adding the amount back to it by buying something else. Also, like everyone else is saying...pay off any debt that is already showing on your credit report and make sure to make your payments on time. It's going to take time. I used to work for a bank doing loans and these were things I would suggest to people to build their credit. It's not what they want to hear but it's really all you can do.

Hope this helps.

www.visa.com www.mastercard.com www.givemeacreditcardbitch.com

Most credit card company's offer low spending limit cards for those in financial trouble. Personal loans are NOT the way to repair your credit score as the interest rates are crazy compared to credit cards or used auto loans.

My credit score is 748, I'm 24. Only thing hurting my score is the amount of hits against it for mortgage loans and auto loan inquiries in the last few months. I should be at a 760 by the end of the year. Hoping to reach 825 by the time I'm 32

pOrk wrote:

Personal loans are NOT the way to repair your credit score as the interest rates are crazy compared to credit cards or used auto loans.

All banks near me including the one I used to work for had better rates on personal loans than credit cards...must all be in location. Also wanted to mention that it takes a LOT of inquiries on your credit report for it to really drop, if i'm not mistaken, for every 1 inquiry it only drops a fraction of 1 point.

^ Thats odd, personal loans are at minimum 18.75 % here.

And I have had over 100 hits on my credit score due to inquiries in the last 2 months alone.

jol102001 wrote:

alienyoungjr wrote: Anytime you are denied credit you have the option to request a free credit report from anyone of the credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, Transunion) You can dispute any item on your credit report taht you believe it reported in some type of error. They credit bureaus will investigate the item, and fix it if needed. I know you started working for Experian..... I had an issue a while back. I always paid my car loan through my car dealer and one month they forgot to send my payment in. I disputed it and they fixed it (as far as late payment), but my credit score didn't return to what it was. It dropped from 720 to 670 and now I am having a hard time getting financed for a house. (which is crap)

yep.

The thing about credit scores is there is over 50+ scores available out there, and even most credit grantors make their own too. There is no way to figure out exactly how something will affect your score. I don't even understand it. The only person that probably does is the person that created the algorithym.

The best thing to do is pay your bills on time, don't open too many lines of credit, and pay over the minimum. Everyone will give you their own advice, but no one has a full proof method except for pay your ****!

Yeah, mine isn't high b/c I have so many open..... I make all payments, including some money over, on time. The thing that stuck it to me is my student loans ($30,000) Ouch. My debt ratio is still only 22 percent. They are only doing 34/36 percent for mortgage loans around here.

pOrk wrote:

^ Thats odd, personal loans are at minimum 18.75 % here. And I have had over 100 hits on my credit score due to inquiries in the last 2 months alone.

That IS odd, my credit card through USAA is 18.xx%, whereas my last personal loan through them was 12%. When my score was better, I would use personal loans to get stuff for the bike or Jeep when I was to impatient to save... those rates were 10% and below.

However, that may be due to it being a military-oriented facility... Still, prior-Navy, I used a personal loan to get my first bike ever for $2k, and the interest was still only 10.5%, through WellsFargo

Toastr wrote:

pOrk wrote: ^ Thats odd, personal loans are at minimum 18.75 % here. And I have had over 100 hits on my credit score due to inquiries in the last 2 months alone. That IS odd, my credit card through USAA is 18.xx%, whereas my last personal loan through them was 12%. When my score was better, I would use personal loans to get stuff for the bike or Jeep when I was to impatient to save... those rates were 10% and below. However, that may be due to it being a military-oriented facility... Still, prior-Navy, I used a personal loan to get my first bike ever for $2k, and the interest was still only 10.5%, through WellsFargo

If you pay off the credit card at the end of the month the interest rate is 0%. Since the OP has **** credit, he shouldn't be making big purchases on a credit card. Anything he buys during the month needs to be payed off when the bill comes.

Even w/ a **** credit card he will only pay what he buys/uses. With a loan, he's going to lose money. Taking out a loan for the purpose of building credit is a GREAT way to waste money.

pOrk wrote:

www.visa.com www.mastercard.com www.givemeacreditcardbitch.com Most credit card company's offer low spending limit cards for those in financial trouble. Personal loans are NOT the way to repair your credit score as the interest rates are crazy compared to credit cards or used auto loans. My credit score is 748, I'm 24. Only thing hurting my score is the amount of hits against it for mortgage loans and auto loan inquiries in the last few months. I should be at a 760 by the end of the year. Hoping to reach 825 by the time I'm 32

Having a hard time finding these low-spending limit cards.