Wow... overwhelmed and an intro

[brick911]

Hello. I have run the gauntlet of financial woes the last few years. To make a long story short. I once owned 7 pieces of real estate, but am now bankrupt and have a few foreclosures on my report. With this fall from grace, I basically took a "screw the world" approach and have a number of other blemishes on my reports. Well, as in most cases, life has opened new doors and I now have reasons to live for, and subsequently clean up my credit. Here's what I have done so far:

1. Opted out (yesterday).

2. Obtained three reports (through the free method ): I can basically look to all the negative info on the reports, and I'm guessing this is where I should start. I have about four public records, and 20-something negatives on each report.

I read that I should first shoot to delete any accounts that were discharged through bankruptcy, so I'm guessing I shouldn't even worry about that yet.

So my question: Where do I go from here? Should I write a letter to each credit bureau disputing the validity of all the negatives? Should the list of all 20ish negatives be included in one letter???

If so, should I follow an example dispute letter claiming "not mine" or some other dispute?

Thanks for any responses. I'm trying to work my way through the info on this site. My report is much more complex too, as I currently am in default student loans and technically still own one of the houses that have been sitting vacant for a few years. ...I have a lot of work to do. But those actions will be saved for another thread unless someone reading wants to help!

Sincerely,
Bob

[brick911]

Ugh... The more I read, the more confused I get. In the beginner stickies, it says to order a report from each individual credit bureau. But from what I understand, that won't give me a Fico score. So should I go to myfico.com for that? I don't want to use these free reports. I was thinking I'd dispute stuff online first, then start writing letters. So where do I go from here?

[Hal Jordan]

You can obtain free reports once per year at annualcreditreport.com. You can get one just because you want one once per year from all three.. Or you can get one for free if you have recently been denied credit because of a report furnished by that particular credit bureau. One updated report per denial.

The law states we have to be provided with one free report per year or a free report when we're denied credit but we have to pay for our real fico scores. And they are only offered through myfico.com at $20 a piece. (All but experian, they are not part of Fico anymore and you can only get an experian score if you're part of some credit union in the midwest somewhere unless your lender).

There are what's called "FAKO" scores that are offered for free through the credit bureaus that can give you an idea... but they're not always accurate. sometimes they're close but sometimes they're off by as much as 80 points!

Free FAKO scores available through site sign up are
TRANSUNION = creditkarma.com
Experian = quizzle.com

Any site that offers credit monitoring service will also provide a fako score (if you pay) for all three bureaus.

freecreditreport.com offers a full accurate credit report updated daily and for an additional fee you can get all three Fako scores (which again, may or may not be accurate)

truecredit.com offers the same thing with daily updates to your credit reports and fako scores from all three.

Equifax complete monitoring (same thing as the other two.

All three of those run like $15-$17 per month and for an additional $5 per fako you can get fako scores. So if you want all three you're looking at about $30 per month.

Personaly, if you're doing credit repair I would recommend getting one of these monitoring services that allow you pull every day or atleast once per week. This way you can see what's coming and going on your report.

WRT to what you said about disputing online. I prefer online disputes also although some of the other folks here say always do snail mail.. but I disagree. I've had a 200 point positive swing using online disputes pretty much exclussively.

[Lian]

Disputes are directed at items of information that are considered to have been inaccurately reported. In making a dispute, you must identify the basis for the dispute, and provide some documentation so that its accuracy can be investigated. Just disputing any negative item will lack these items unless you have some basis for contesting its accuracy. So, no, I would not just dispute everything.

As a start, I would first look at your CR in terms of each derog and delinquency. List each derog by its date of occurrence and its type. Focusing on any one derog, first determine whether it is accurate. That identifies items that will become the basis for a dispute. Disputes are "farmed out" to the individual creditor/debt collector who reported the disputed information, if you dispute through a CRA, or are sent directly to the creditor/debt collector if you use the alternate direct dispute process. Thus, I don't recommend lumping separate disputes in one letter. Each item has its own investigation requirements and associated verification of the disputed information.

For those items that are considered accurately reported, I would group them into categories of major and minor derogs. Major derogs are charge-offs, collections, and monthly delinquencies that are more than 30-days late. Those are hurting your score the most, particularly if fairly recent, and thus would be a primary focus. Identify how old the derog is. The age tells you two things. First, are you still under legal obligation to repay the debt (your state statute of limitations tell you that), and second, how long will that item remain in your CR based on its CR deletion date as controlled by FCRA 605(a)? Normal CR exclusion periods are 7 years for monthly delinquencies on an OC account, and 7 years plus 180-days from DOFD for any collection or charge-off. The age of the debt also gives some feel for how much it is impacting your score, with older derogs having a declining effect.

So line up each derog and delinquency, and its relevant information, and then come back on and ask for advice on how to address each. There are different strategies for dealing with each type of derog or delinquency, based on its individual circumstances.