Rebuilding My Credit

[Dr. Matt]

Hello all, I have just starting rebuilding my credit from when I was 18 and destroyed it. I am currently 23 years old. I have just bought a new car 2011 VW GTI with a co signer (My Father) and opened 2 new lines of credit on top of it (Not very good credit cards but all I could get) Any tips? My current scores are in the 609 area due to Hard hits for the cards. My goal is to be in the mid 700's by 2015. I have been paying on my car for almost a year now and just got my credit cards this month. I have not used one and already paid on the other. The credit game is a fun one to play, however it was only my fault why my credit score was destroyed, at least I started rebuilding it now and not later. I also would like to buy a house in the next 5 years and I have a very good job right now. How did some of you repair your credit? Always looking for advice from people with great credit. Thank you!

[chane]

Welcome Dr. Matt!

It's great to see people thinking ahead like you are. Most people think about repairing their credit AFTER they've been denied for a home loan, not 3 years before. So congrats on that!

That should be plenty of time to get your scores where they need to be. As far as rebuilding credit, it sounds like you're on the right track with 2 credit cards and a car loan. Obviously, do not miss 1 single payment. Don't even come close, but you already know that, right? One missed payment completely sabotages what you're doing.

What is hurting your scores? What kind of negatives do you have on your report? Have you disputed any of them? What does your debt to available credit ratio look like?

[Dr. Matt]

Originally Posted by chane

Welcome Dr. Matt!

It's great to see people thinking ahead like you are. Most people think about repairing their credit AFTER they've been denied for a home loan, not 3 years before. So congrats on that!

That should be plenty of time to get your scores where they need to be. As far as rebuilding credit, it sounds like you're on the right track with 2 credit cards and a car loan. Obviously, do not miss 1 single payment. Don't even come close, but you already know that, right? One missed payment completely sabotages what you're doing.

What is hurting your scores? What kind of negatives do you have on your report? Have you disputed any of them? What does your debt to available credit ratio look like?

Thank you. Yes, I have disputed a few. I had charge off's for 2007 I ran up alot of debt I could not repay and it destoyed my credit. I was too immature for a card, Now I am feeling the affects. My debt to credit is pretty decent I still have about 14k on my car as I put a huge downpayment of around 10k down. I have been paying on it for almost a year. I am hoping in the next 2 years to be able to get better credit cards, it just takes time.

[Lian]

Major derogs, such as a charge-off, are huge score-killers. Until they are gone, it will be difficult to rise into the 700's.
I would concentrate on attempting to get them removed prior to their normal credit report expiration date.

Charge-offs have a credit report exclusion date based on the date of first delinquency (DOFD) on the OC account, not the date of the charge-off. Do you know the DOFD for the accounts charged-off? It is the date prior to the charge-off that began the last chain of delinquencies on the account. If the COs were in 2007, chances are the DOFDs are sometime in 2006. The exclusion period for COs is 7 years plus 180 days from the DOFD. So it looks like they have a couple of years to run.

To get earlier deletion, presuming the COs were accurate and thus cant be removed by way of dispute, I suggest you begin a campaign of good-will letters to the creditor.