How to build good credit with a BAD history?

Question

From the age of 18 to 24 I wracked up a heaping pile of late fees on my credit cards, and have finally paid everything off last month which took a huge load off my back.

I worry most that the man I love will be devistated when we marry, and we cannot buy a house together because of my awful credit history!

How can I now start to build good credit and leave this all behind me so that I have a chance at owning a house?

(to add more details, I had 4 cards--capital one, a paypal buyer credit card, a comp usa card, and a bloomingdales card...all with continuous late fees)

Answer 1

If your credit cards are paid off and in good standing you have taken the biggest step already. Congratulations.

Now, choose the card you have had the longest and close the rest. The amount of credit available affects your rating. Do not use credit, or pay off your balance each month from now on. After a year of continuous good behavior your score will come up.

When you go to get a home loan all your mistakes will show up on your history, but a solid year of making on time payments and not using all of your credit will demonstrate that those mistakes were things that you have learned from and grown out of.

Good luck.

Answer 2

If you've paid off everything your score will start to go up month after month. As far as buying a house with your spouse, if his credit is fine it shouldn't matter all that much. Mortgage companies will take the middle score of one or the other borrowers. If your husband has a middle score of 600 & yours is only 400, the lender will use the 600 & your husband will be named as the primary borrower. You will get a good rate. Your name is only required on the mortgage if you want to show your income.

Answer 3

Well what you can do is to have a couple of good tradelines for the next 2 years to help out with your past bad history. After 2 years all those "bad" credit lines wont affect your credit as much as they are today. Those closed accounts will drop off in 7 years but if you want to remove them before that you can try a credit repair service. They charge from $500+ to remove those bad credit lines from your history. I have seen the credit repair service that my company works with do some amazing things. So I know those companies work.

Answer 4

Well, you should open new accounts (if you closed the old ones) and be responsible with them.

The easiest types of accounts to get are the Orchard Bank cards, department or retail store cards or gas cards.

If the old accounts are still open simply keep using them for small purchases (stay well below the credit limit) and be very very careful about getting payments in on time.

Rebuilding credit takes time. Your credit is like gaining and losing weight. Gaining (or racking up bad credit) can be done relatively quickly while losing weight (fixing your bad credit) takes significantly more time.

Answer 5

If every thing is paid- CONGRATS!!!!! warning- DO NOT EVER GET A CAPITAL ONE CARD- it ruins your credit forever ---well almost---and they keep you locked into them because they only allow a 0 balance every month- thus charging you constantly high interest. Creditors look at this credit card as being bad news for you and your future credit.

Answer 6

buy a cheap car and inhouse finance it, then make the payments on time. Also call up the credit bureaus and dispute some of the credit history.

Good Luck

Answer 7

if you payed them off..then you are fine.
whatever you do >>>DONT go to one of those credit helping things. They really screw up your credit.
Just keep paying off your bills now.
every time you keep it paid you will improve your score.
Good luck

Answer 8

go to this website and read this article http://www.hotloansources.com/info/Education-Loans/Bad-Credit-is-not-the-end-of-the-World.html