What shoud I do to fix my credit?
A little background info:
I am in my early 20s. I’m a recent college grad with a fairly secure job.
I have never had a credit card, so no credit card debt. I do have poor credit. In college, I had lousy health insurance, thus I have a few medical debts from like 5 years ago. I just finished paying off my car, and I have student loans that I’ve done extremely well on (paid extra every month). The only bad thing on there is the old medical bills, which has brought my score to like 500.
How do I fix my credit? I want to buy a house.
Tagged with: background info • college grad • credit card debt • health insurance • how do i fix my credit • insurance • job • medical bills • medical debts • poor credit • score • student loans
Filed under: "How to fix Bad credit so I can buy a house"
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You probably won’t be able to buy a house at this time. Keep doing what you’re doing and in time your score will improve. Having a credit card will actually improve your credit provided you use it responsibly and pay more than the minimum each month.
Also, the larger the percentage you can put down on a house the lower the interest rates and the more likely you are to qualify for a loan. You shouldn’t be looking to buy unless you have at least 20% down, more in your current situation. I’ve been told that at about 40% down, it’s very easy to qualify for a home loan.
paying off debt is the only way to make any impact
Those medical scores wont come off entirely until it has been 7 yrs. Those can really hurt your credit, especially if it’s been 60/90 days late, or worse, gone to collections.
I had pretty outstanding credit until I got a judgment put on there.
The only way I found to help me was to get a credit attorney. They charge a lot sometimes, but if you get the right one it can be quite worth it. They really know how to negotiate with the bureaus to take some lates or collections off.
Two, get some credit going, get a credit line and use only when you can pay it right off. Get some credit cards and use them only when you have the money to pay them right off. Getting a cell phone helps.
When I opened up a credit card at my bank while I had bad credit it was only for a five hundred dollar limit (mostly because I had really no credit actually) and I kept it at that limit to this day to keep me from ever spending on it.
Good luck!
You should try settling with the companies and in return get in writing from them stating they will delete items off your credit report. Go on creditboards.com. There is a wealth of info on the forums there. Go luck and happy hunting!