How Can I Fix My Credit?

Question

Okay...
I recently signed up for an account through Identity Guard. I recently realized the importantce of having good credit and what not having good credit can do to you. Yes, call me young and dumb. I have always not paid my bills, etc. Now, I must face the facts.
I have a few credit card accounts from years ago that were never paid. My total debt is $4000. My three scores are as follows:

559 Equifax
509 Experian
535 Transunion
How can I fix this? I seriously have 3 accounts on my report that are all below $100! 1 is only $34.00. Pitiful!
They are all so old, so I am not sure as to what to do to fix my credit...
Any suggestions?

My husband and I want to buy the home we are living in within 1 year.
His scores are as follows:

545 Equifax
516 Experian
542 Transunion

Our monthly income: $6500
He works, I am a student with no student loans.
Any suggestions on how to fix this?

Answer 1

(1) Identity Guard is ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS! It doesn't "guard" anything. They just gather (regularly) all your personal information. You can monitor your own credit decently enough FOR FREE just by using www.annualcreditreport.com. If you actually want an ID theft protection that will DO something if your ID gets stolen, get Zander Insurance's ID theft program (link below). Honestly, though, I do not even buy that. I pull 1 of my 3 bureaus every 4 months, I regularly renew the fraud flags on my bureaus, I opted out of "preapproved" offers, & if I ever move to a state that will allow me to FREEZE my credit w/o having to be a victim of theft FIRST, then I will FREEZE the whole d****ed file!

(2) If you are serious about getting your financial act together, I recommend Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" book. Following it, we have paid off tons (I'm embarassed to say, but way more than $4k) of debt, paid cash for our cars, saved for emergencies, etc. You guys have relatively little debt & a decent income, you should be able to clean up what you have very easily & quickly following his plan. Once you are finished reading, you will also understand that you DO NOT NEED A CREDIT SCORE (not even to buy a house) & probably will decide (like me) that you don't even WANT one.

(3) It is VERY important for you guys to read that book & get "on the same page" when it comes to money. Fights over money lead to more divorces than ANYTHING else (even adultery).

Best wishes!

Answer 2

Pay off the most recent ones. The longer a bad mark sits on your credit, the less it affects your score. After seven years, most credit drops off of your credit reports.

You make 6,500 a month. I think that you can afford to at least make payments to these people. Four grand is not that bad of a debt.

Try to get a credit card, or something that you can pay on monthly. This will help your score, also.

Answer 3

What totally sucked was the fact that after college I had so much credit card debt that piled up and it was really affecting my credit score. I searched around and tried a few of those debt consolidation sites but found that nothing that I tried really worked. I found this kick *** site that helped me alleviate these problems and I want to share it with you.
I helped me out so much and I hope it helps you as well.
http://getoutofdebt.5gbfree.com/index.html

Answer 4

Try reading www.creditboards.com--lots of reading, but well worth the time. Has lots of useful information if you want to repair credit yourself--you have to be willing to put some time in to gain some knowledge.

Answer 5

You can start rebuilding and fixing them now!

I advise you to get bad credit loans or cards to start off..

Or read some informative bkurbs here..

http://www.squidoo.com/building-business-credit/

Answer 6

Pay 'em off and wait.

Answer 7

ve to wait for it