Breh. You're giving a lot of slightly bad advice in here. Specifically points 1,2,4,5
1) Credit Karma is cool for people with decent to good credit . But if you're serious about fixing you need to see what people who pull your report actually see. And need to know exactly where you are at. Not with a fake CreditKarma score (FAKO) and half assed tradelines. But the real deal. To do that subscribe to MyFico. You'll get the real deal score and reports that most creditors pull and see. No guesstimations needed. You'll also get the name and contact info of all your debt holders. Credit Karma hides that shyt sometimes or its incomplete. Forcing/enticing you to pay them for a full report.
2) Contest EVERYTHING. PERIOD. Send debt validation letters to all of them. It's the debt holders responsibility to prove that you owe the debt. You'd be surprised by how many can't after the debt has been sold a few times. This is usually a slam dunk with cell phone providers who can never find the signed contract. These are the rules. Play by them.
4) This is not true. ALWAYS confirm a 'Pay for Delete' BEFORE making any payment. GET IT IN WRITING. Whoever is reporting the negative tradeline on your credit report will have the ability to remove it (3rd party or original). Some will. Some won't. Some take convincing.
It's super easy for them. All they have to is literally contact the credit reporting agencies and have them remove the tradeline. That's it. But it usually comes down to policy of that particular company or the deal they made with the original creditor. Usually if you just Google the name of the debt collector along with "Pay for Delete" you can tell which are willing to play ball and which aren't.
If you were dumb enough to pay off the debt without getting a pay for delete in writing you can pretty much forget about that idea. Your next step should be to send a Goodwill letter or email and ask nicely.
Also 9 times out of 10 the original creditor will just point you to the new debt holder anyway and will refuse to accept payment from you. But it's always good to ask both and see if any will put in writing that they will delete BEFORE payment. So again, it doesn't matter who you pay...just get them to agree prior that they'll remove it with payment.
5) Debt consolidation isn't trash. It's just that most services are trash. Debt consolidation stops late payments and fees from stacking up. Also in a lot of cases companies that buy debt want payment in full or a partial settlement lump sum payment that most people can't afford. Debt consolidation will pay that off for you. Allowing you to get things under control. Paying a minimum on one debt consolidation loan is better than not paying at all because you can't afford it.
The key is going with a reputable company. OR going to a credit union and establishing a relationship with them. Especially one attached to a workers union. Go there and open up a small savings account and talk to someone.
7) it's very important to understand that paying in full is for your own good to make sure you don't get in over your head. NOT for the health of your credit. your credit score is representative of your credit usage. if you have no usage being posted to your tradelines than you have no credit. as 99% of credit card companies report 1 time a month. not rolling. So the key is keeping whatever posts to your report to around 10% of total credit limit. Then pay to avoid interest AFTER it's posted.
you could also figure out when your credit card company reports balance (another reason to get myfico) and pay after that. never carry a balance and never let more than 10% of your credit limit post.
Of course the rules are changing everyday. My wife has a nearly perfect 820 and hasn't had a balance post in years.
8) that's not the golden rule. The 5/24 thing is LITERALLY Chase's rule. They made it up. Mostly because they wanted to stop churners aka bonus chasers. People who are getting rejected because of Chase's 5/24 rule are still getting accepted other places.
The key thing to remember about hard pulls on your credit report is if you're going to go on a card application spree, or a mortgage or car application fee....do it all together within 14 days. Inquiries of the same kind will be grouped and won't effect your score. BIG CAVEAT to this rule though. If your application ever requires a manual review the creditors will see all of those hard pulls on there and may question why you were so desperate for credit.
Also I'll just add that if you have a debt thats close to 7 years old. LET IT BURN. DO NOT USE THE ADVICE IN THIS THREAD ON ANY DEBT CLOSE TO 7 YEARS OLD (Even 5 or 6). BECAUSE It will fall off your report. If you contact the creditors and admit to owing the debt you may restart the clock all over again!!!!
