Smart brehs, is there anything else I can do to improve my credit?

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I went up 150 points in 2020, I was at 530 due to not using credit, having mad collections, credit card debt and not giving a single fuk about it.

Now I'm at 700 after the pandemic had me on chill and super caked up - - so I went over my finances and here's what I did to better my credit:

1) Download Credit Karma to see your FAKO score and note importantly see what's fukkin up your credit so you know what to focus on. I had like 6 collections and my credit utilization was super high. One account had 19 charge offs.

2) Pay $25 for credit versio membership. They go through your account and auto dispute everything negative for you with the right verbiage and put it into a letter you can print and mail to the collection agencies.

That $25 got a collection removed that was a $1.5k and one that was $99 because the collectors didn't respond in time.

3) Download experian app or go to the website, they allow you to see your REAL credit score (Fico) once a month for free from all the agencies when you sign up. You can also pay $30 to see your updated score anytime you want.

4) Most people don't know this but.. most collection agencies now allow you to pay 40-50% of your collection amount to have it removed from your report. This takes about 30-45 days and is on certain collection agencies websites. There's a few, but the only ones I can remember right now is LVNV, and whoever progressive and Comcast uses for collections.

5) The myfico forums are clutch. They teach you everything you need to know to get shyt off your report. For starters Google "myfico" and "collection agencies that allow pay for delete" together to see the huge thread of all the collection agencies that allow you to pay to remove from your report.

6) Once you see your score up, apply for a Discover IT secured card (after pre-qualification) . They are the absolute best. Capital one, TD, whoever are all meh. Discover is the best because they give you your deposit back in eight months and allow you to add more money to your limit easily. I opened my account with $200, now it's at $2500 in a two months.

7) Thicken your file. I also have a capital one secured card, an Amazon prime card, and a credit card from Navy Fed (they gave me 5k even when my score was meh, they the GOAT)

8) Any collections you can't remove, settle so it doesn't report late payment every month, unless it's close to falling off your report at the seven year mark.

9) Clear all debts and throw a cheap bill like Netflix/Spotify etc on your cards to keep your cards active and under 10% of your limits.

10) Finally, keep disputing when you can, don't use cards on BS, keep debt low, keep inquiries low(garden) and you'll be good in no time brehs

These are nothing but GEMS :wow:

Does credit versio really work tho?
 

Kenyan West

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These are nothing but GEMS :wow:

Does credit versio really work tho?

I had small success with it. I paid $25 for one month and I lucked up with the two collections deletions. I had a friend who wasn't so lucky, but it's still worth a shot.

I like it way better than disputing electronically. I like how the letters have "please provide proof that I owe this debt" in the printed form to make the collectors do a bit of research.

They have a certain amount of time to do this before they have to remove the collections from your report. So you know that in the middle of the pandemic I was mailing letters and disputing like a mf :shaq:

Here's the receipts for my post, this was from May 2020 to 2021.
fQqZTXR
fQqZTXR
The dips are from where I opened new accounts (and added inquiries) charged some business expenses to my credit card or both.


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BucciMane

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Mine went down recently and I had no idea why. I looked into it, and it was because my utilization percentage was high as I opened up two credit cards in the past five months and pretty much maxed them out. I paid them off the other day and will keep my utilization lower.
 

Sohh_lifted

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Get a secured CC.

Sign up for Experian, and use their tool to dispute everything.

Some of your disputes will result in the the file falling off of your report. For the ones that's left, work out a payment plan/get the principal reduced.

Once you're in 700s get 3-4 more CC and make sure you pay them off each month and always keep your usage under 30%.

Breh, could I dispute late payments? How successful is disputing late payments?
 

Geek Nasty

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The clock starts at 7 years every time you screw up your credit, so remember that. Pay a bill too late? That shows up for 7 years. You can dispute claims older than that.

I used to have TERRIBLE credit now it's high 700s low 800s depending on what I've got loans on.

* Never pay bills late
* Never cancel credit cards. Lenders want to see you have a lot of credit, but don't use it. It's better to have $5K in credit card debt on $100K in limits than $500 on a $1K limit
* Don't apply for a lot of credit, and if you do do it all at one time. They know if say you're shopping for car loans.
* Rotate credit cards. Use all of them enough that they won't be cancelled. I've got 6+.
* Make a budget and balance your checkbook to make sure you don't miss payments.
* Get a free credit report every year from each credit bureau. Dispute any old or incorrect negative items. You can even ask bureaus to add your good credit items (I haven't personally done that).
* I signed up for Experians app which is good to keep track of records. I need to do it for the other 2 bureaus.
 

Daniel.

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More shorter term approaches -

As your salary changes/circumstances change, check to see if you can increase your limit. An indirect way to lower your credit usage while you're working on things.

Consider personal loans to consolidate - less of a credit hit, fixed payments with lower interest that allow for an immediate credit boost.
 
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