Bo,

We have several credit cards that are charging a very high interest rate. We had some financial difficulties and were late on some of them. We refinanced and paid off 3 of them but have some we are working on to get paid down. I have called some of them but they say they will not lower the interest rate until we have 6 months of on time payments. We are trying really hard to make payments to get the balance down but the interest is so high it is hard to get the balance down. How can we get them to lower the interest rate by even just 5%.
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The only thing you can do is swap cards.
I know I've done the same things. They never lower interest. They only raise it.
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Some of the things that will change your scores are:
1.Late payments
2.Recent credit inquiries
3.Higher balances on your credit cards
4.Higher balance on your Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC)
5.Closing revolving accounts
6.Credit limits increased/lowered
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I have a question about the reporting agencies:

1 By law are they required to notify you when they place a negative mark on your account or is it the creditor supposed to do that prior to sending the agencies the negative mark?

2 Are the agencies required to get proof before they place a negative mark on your credit or do they just believe the creditor?

My situation is interesting: Transunion score is 612, Equifax is 601 and Experian is 785. I have 2 chargeoffs (settled for less) these are credit cards which bring my score down and they are about 3 years old.

Thank you
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Bureaus have a legal agreement with creditors. The creditors are indeed legitimate. The creditors are accountable. The creditors have regualation of how they can conduct themselves.

With this agreement bureaus take what creditors send them and adjust credit reports accordingly.

No one has to contact a consumer for negative or positive makrs although creditors usually do on negatives because they want you to pay them. This is why it is important to check your credit report.

Sounds tome like tansunion doesn't have some accounts on your report. those issing creditors probably do not report to tansunion.
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In September my credit score was 602 and look at my credit score on Monday and my score has drop to 592 and i have no late payments nothing new on my account. Please help me find an way to retrieved my points back and credit score.
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http://www.oskie.com/raise_credit_score_fast_quickly_free.htm
check the 80% rule.
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Me and my wife want to get a home and have bad credit... We both have about 5,OOO.oo in debt. I have nt paid my credit card accounts in 2yrs .. I think i want to settle my acounts will that repair my credit ? my credit score is about 580 and i need to raise it up alot to get a good apr on the home loan.. what should i do?
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You need to pay the debts for sure.
I doubt you will be able to secure LOW interest in the near future. That is the choice you made by not paying your debts.

Look for owner financing and learn from your mistakes.
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inquiries. I know they remain on your credit file for 2 years

Hi Bo,

Excellent site... I have a question regarding inquiries. I know they remain on your credit file for 2 years, but is there any way to dispute those and get them removed, paticularly ones from collection agencies?

Thanks!
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Collection agency's do not have authrization to make inquiries since you have not given them consent. I would confront the agency in question and suggest they remove not only the inquiry but the account also or face sanctions by the FTC. Make a copy of your report so the incedent will be recorded.
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creditors when they are responsible for reporting my bankruptcy information

Quick question for you: I filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy last October 2005, Bank of America is just now updating my bankruptcy records and just submitted my charge-offs to the credit reporting agencies. I was in the process of purchasing a home and now my credit score dropped 25 points because of the delay in reporting my charge-offs from Bank of America now my score is too low to qualify for a decent mortgage loan. Therefore, my question is do I have any control of the creditors when they are responsible for reporting my bankruptcy information and can The three credit bureaus change my score because the charge-offs were suppose to be discharged a year ago?

Thanks for your time.
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I would try to have the report show the discharge as accurate and the date of last activity to match the dicharge date. Use my free dispute form.
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then they sold it again and a balance is showing $4,408 again

Good afternoon,

I have a question about my credit report. The last time I received my report was back in March and my credit score was 523 and now it's 573 because I have been slowly paying off a few things. It's concerning a car loan account that I had back in 1999 which I have now made arrangements to pay on. When I got this report it shows the amount of the loan which was $10,900 which shows it still open with this balance, but it was sent to collection which they lowered the amount to $4,408 which is open, then they sold it again and a balance is showing $4,408 again. Is this hurting my score since it is showing that I owe so much money, but actually all three are the same? Should I dispute that? Also do the creditors or the collection department report the payments that you are making after 6 months of paying them? If they do does this help your score to go up?. Thanks for your help.
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Dispute the 10900 as paid in full since it was sent to collections. Send documents where you have been contacted or something that can trace the origin. Then do the same with the first collection. Pay the last if possible asking for totall removal if you pay in full. Get something in writing.
Yes it is all hurting your score and these steps will help if you are able to complete them.
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This is great. Thank you so much for your prompt response. I will get right on it.
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Home refinance paid 30 days late by new mortgage lender.

I am having a problem with my credit report, and the dealings with a certain creditor. It is my hope that you can help. Here is my story.

The first part of August this year, I was finishing the refinancing of my home through another bank. The current mortgage was through HSBC. Toward the end of my refinance, I telephoned HSBC to make them aware that the refinance was about complete, and they will receive payment in full soon after. I also made known to HSBC that the money from the refinance will most likely be in their hands AFTER the 30 day mark, and I asked if they please do not report me as delinquent. The Customer Service Representative from HSBC told me that since the loan would be paid off, the fact that it will be after 30 days it will not show up on my credit report as being late, since the loan would be paid off in full. The refinance was completed, and HSBC was paid off. Unfortunately, it showed up on my credit report as being 30 days past due. I contacted HSBC directly to have them address this situation, and I asked them to please remove the negative item on my credit report. They were very nasty to deal with, and I was told that the item would not be removed from my credit report, and will remain there for 7 years. I then explained to HSBC what their Customer Service Representative told me, and I was told that they do not remove anything from credit reports. I was basically called a liar.
I then disputed all 3 credit reporting agencies to no avail. I have since taken this a few steps further. I contacted the Ohio Attorney General, The Florida Attorney General, The Illinois Attorney General, and The BBB asking for assitance in getting this matter resolved. I was basically called a liar by HSBC, and I will not stand for it.

My question is, am I doing this the right way? and if not, what do you suggest that I do to get this information removed from my credit report?? I had "PERFECT" credit, but it is now ruined by the lie that was told to me by HSBC.
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I had the same thing happen to me on a re fi.
Turns out the ONE 30 day late mark had no "real" net effect after about 6 months.
Sounds to me like you done eveything one can do. I would let it go.

One thing you can do is write a 50 word max statement and send to the bureaus. Have it attached to your credit report as explanation. It will not help your score but will help potential creditors read your report.

How will using low rate credit cards affect my credit score/

Hi Bo,

Quick question for you. I'm wondering how much the following scenario would affect my credit score...

I'm an MBA grad with a great paying job (six figures) but I still have lots of student loans (38k in stafford at 4% and 15k at 8.5%). I just bought a house so I have those loans as well (225k at 6% and 57k at 8.5%). I also have a car loan (18k at 6.5%).

I'm pretty interested in getting rid of my high interest loans - especially my 8.5% student loan.

I have the opportunity to do a free balance transfer with AMEX blue for $20k for 3.99% for the life of the balance. I want to transfer my big student loan to the card at the lower rate, but didn't know how much that would affect my credit score if I decide I'd like to refinance my house, etc.

I know they're all loans and all I'm doing is just transferring to a lower interest rate, but I also thought that student loans don't count against your credit score like consumer debt and credit cards do. So basically, where I have never had any credit card debt, I'm taking on like $20k (even though they're loans I already had).

What are your thoughts on how that would affect my score? and how drastic the change would be?

I could also do a balance transfer from my 6.5% car loan to the 3.99% if that would be better on my score.

My current score - the last time I checked - was around 780.

Thanks for your thoughts Bo!

Cheers,
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The fine print says 3.99 on balance transfers only and all payments go toward balance transfer balances not any charges. So if you make charges you will be chraged regualr interest until you pay of the entire balance tranfer amount. So the catch on the balance transfers is that the card is shackled to the transfer until the balnce is paid off and you might make ONE late payment and bam your interest goes up.

Student loans do count as regualr debt. Who ever told you that is somewhat mistaken. If its on your report its on your report and counts in your score.

You score will be negatively affected IF you get up to 80% agaisnt high credit limit. That is all you need to worry about.

780????
You are a mega star. No worries here.
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got the AMEX Blue as a separate credit card for this exact purpose. I don't intend to make any purchases on the card, only to have the balance transfers (i.e., a 3.99% loan). I have a separate AMEX I use for everything else.

So if I don't use the AMEX Blue for anything else except the balance transfer, should I transfer the 8.5% student loan onto the card (there are no fees either).

Again, thanks for your help.
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Oh yea fees. They usually do make one pay 3% balance transfer unless you do it as you apply. So if there are no fees and your not going over 80% and the rate is lower. Sounds all good
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Recently my credit union offered me a reverse loan, to help rebuild my credit,

My name is REAL PERSON and after being a single mom at age 17, i have managed to distroy my credit.
Here i am at age 30 trying to get back on my feet. When my husband and i had our daughter two months premature, we accumulated over $200,000 of medical bills, (she was in the NICU for almost two months, we had issues with our hmo) we filed for chapter 7. Currently, I have 6 collection agency account with balances of zero, and two auto loans that we surrendered the vehicles to when we filed bankruptcy as zero as well.
I havent applied for credit with the fear of being rejected and having another ding on my credit report.
Recently my credit union offered me a reverse loan, to help rebuild my credit, they put $5000 in my savings, and report im paying on time, and i make payments to my bank.
A friend of mine who is in the real estate business introduced me to the DELETION LETTER and recommended i try to use it.
My question to you is, should i contact the 6 collection agencys and the two auto loan companies to pay them the $1500 total i owe to them (even though they have zero'd out my balance because of the bankruptcy) and ask for them to delete the file. and if i do this will it help my credit score? or am i better off, using that $1500 to establish new credit? which will benefit me more.
I have tried to get a credit card and have been denied...they offer me a secured credit card....should i do that until i can raise my score enough?
My second question is on your website you mention in #7 that creditors may get nervous and pull you credit to see what they have done. That this is illegal. Im curious why this is illegal. I had a creditor to this to me and want to find out how to rectify it.
Anyway....thanks for your website, it has helped me alot... thanks for any response.
REAL PERSON
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1. The reverse loan sounds like a GRReat idea. Do that for sure.
2. I would suggest you use my free dispute form without making contact before. Hope something falls off. No collection or creditor is going to help you this far down the road on deleting credit files but they might not verify your dispute. Dispute 2 at a time and cross your fingers.
3. Get a secured card if they report to all 3 bureaus. Better yet get a unsecured card by sending a cashiers check in with you application.
4. Creditors can pull your credit if you authorize. If not they are in legal trouble.

Can I write to the collection agencies after an account has been paid and ask them to remove the account

First I would like to thank you for putting together your website. It has been very informative and helpful. Second, I do not understand one of your answers and I was hoping you might be able to clear that up. Ca I write to the collection agencies after an account has been paid and ask them to remove the account? This is in regards to:

What am I trying to get from the creditor when I ask them to remove a file?
I try as hard as I can to get a letter saying account is paid in full, paid on time and in good standing. I use this letter to follow up on the creditors’ decision to remove inaccurate and error riddled credit reports. Many collections are improperly reported or a consumer will not been properly informed collection processes have be allocated. With late payments I look for dated checks to support my "paid on time" claim or merged, fraud, duplicate or re dated files. Report these to the FTC and BBB

I had a very old credit card account and paid it off in February of this year.
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You can write. I would call though.
You have more bargaining power before you pay.
If the account is really old (more than 2 years) it is pobably not hurting you much.
On credit card accounts I suggest trying to re open that same account with a down payment and a phone call. If you can re open the account that is good.

My question would be what is your score?
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collection agency said they would delete the collection completely OFF my 3 credit reports, providing I paid in full

Your site is so interesting, thank u for sharing, I dont even know where to begin but with your site, i know how to get started. I have a few debts to pay not many, but I live from check to check right now, I have 7 accounts in great standing/never late, Im trying to keep those up, the other debts r from the past. One is 89.00 (very affordable) but the others r so high!! they are like 2000.00 and 800.00. What do u suggest?
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Hi, Im sorry, I threw so much at you at once yesterday ! , I do want to say this, I took one of your many great suggestions and put it to work yesterday, the collection agency said they would delete the collection completely OFF my 3 credit reports, providing I paid in full, ! YIPPIE,. Im so glad I stumbled across your site.
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