Fixing Credit

[trapperj86]

Hi, I am new here my name is Matt and I am 23. I'm trying to fix my credit so here is what happened.

When I was 20-21 I got a personal loan for a car. I have been paying it since and have not missed a payment at all. Before I got the loan I had a chase credit card once again never missed a payment most of the time. I payed my balance in full or would let a little roll over.

When I got the loan from citi they offered me one of there credit cards and I took it and did the same thing as I did with the chase never missed a payment. When I got the loan my credit score was mid to high 700's. A year later I had to put a bunch on the credit card almost to my credit limit of $4k on the citi and about $1k on the chase with $1500 limit because the engine went in my car. Then about a year ago I get a letter from both the chase and citi with in a week of each other that they are going to raise my interest "To better serve there customers" :confused: or something along those lines. They wanted to raise my my interest to about three times what it was. So i closed both of them and have continued to pay.

Now here is what I think may have killed my credit about September of last year I got a call from collections saying I owed about $400 from a medical bill from about 5 years earlier that was supposed to be covered by insurance. To make a long story short the hospital had no record of it and I was no longer on that insurance so I gave up and payed it off.

I also have some student loans but I am still a student and will be graduating next May. I used creditKarma.com and that website said I have a score of 610 which is at least 150 points lower then when I got the original car loan. I want to fix my credit before I graduate if that is possible. As of today I have one open credit card that I pay off or let a little roll over sometimes. I have not missed any payments ever on anything. I still have balances on both the canceled cards but am paying that as quick as possible. So I'm just really trying to get some advice on how to fix my credit score in about a year if that is possible. Sorry for the long post I just wanted to make sure I covered everything.

Thanks for any help, Matt

[chane]

You shouldn't have closed the accounts until you had them paid off. That looks bad. Closing your accounts and paying the collection is probably what hurt your credit scores. You should probably try to dispute that and get it removed. Pull all 3 of your credit reports and make sure there are no other negatives. If there are, dispute them.

Once you get them removed, you may want to open up another account or 2 to start building more positive credit history. One account is probably not enough.

[trapperj86]

Originally Posted by chane

You shouldn't have closed the accounts until you had them paid off. That looks bad. Closing your accounts and paying the collection is probably what hurt your credit scores. You should probably try to dispute that and get it removed. Pull all 3 of your credit reports and make sure there are no other negatives. If there are, dispute them.

Once you get them removed, you may want to open up another account or 2 to start building more positive credit history. One account is probably not enough.

Thanks alot for the reply. How would I go about disputing them?

[chane]

Start here:

Basic Step by Step Beginner's Guide to Credit Repair

Go thru all the steps.

[trapperj86]

OK will do. Thanks

[trapperj86]

I am doing the stuff in the link you gave me. I got all my credit reports. I am trying to dispute the closed credit cards and medic bill. I'm not sure what box i should click. None of the one under the "ownership" category fit. Neither does anything under the "verify account info". Would it be better to call ?

[chane]

Wait, are you disputing online? Don't do that! Do it in writing. Send a dispute letter.

[trapperj86]

OK I will write letters. Thanks

[creditrepairmom]

Chane is so right on. You should never have closed those accounts, it actually drops your credit score because you lost all the history you built up.

I just wrote a page about closing accounts. It explains how it affects your score.

[trapperj86]

Originally Posted by creditrepairmom

Chane is so right on. You should never have closed those accounts, it actually drops your credit score because you lost all the history you built up.

I just wrote a page about closing accounts. It explains how it affects your score.

Yea it dropped my score by well over 100 points. I wish I had known that but I had just started college and money was tight so all i was thinking abut was the extra monthly payments.Live and learn I guess, I'll just have to work on fixing it now.Thanks for the info.