I financed a computer for my aunt. She made my credit go from excellent to fair. What can I do to fix it?

Question

I have an aunt with an inability to handle money. My credit was excellent (score around 760). My aunt's husband had a business he ran out of their home and their computer died, so they needed a new one. They asked me to finance one for them and they would make the payments. Against my better judgment, I did it. That was November 2004. Earlier this year I got a call asking why my payment was late. I called my aunt and she insisted it wouldn't happen again. Then just recently, I found out they were FOUR payments behind, the balance was 3 dollars and some change less than the original balance was two years earlier, her last check of $25 bounced, and the account was closed and sent to collections. My credit has dropped over 100 points and gone from excellent to fair. I have transferred the balance to one of my own credit cards and am handling it myself, and hopefully my aunt will pay me. Is there anything I can do to get my excellent credit back?

Answer 1

Mistake #1. Co-signing for someone and not keeping track to make sure they were keeping up payments.

Mistake #2. Paying off the debt by transferring it to another card. Now that they have their money, you are going to find it extremely difficult to get them to help fix your credit.

The only way to remove the negative item from your credit report is for the creditor to do it. The only option you now have is call them up and explain what happened, and ask if they will remove the negative item from you history. Very little chance of that happening, but it's your only hope.

The only other thing to do is keep up your good credit habits. Eventually it will improve, but it will be a few years.

Answer 2

well it will take time for your credit to improve and you will have to keep making sure your payment are made monthly and ontime. try making more than the minimum payment and keep the balances under half of the actual credit limit.