Missed credit card payments?

Question

I know I'm dead my credit score was about 780 or something which is pretty good for a 20 year old however in the last few months somethings happen to me pesonally and I missed alot of payments. However if I start paying all of my credit card debt now how long would it take to get my score back up ? I missed payments for more then 90 days I believe I know im dead like i said before..

i just checked my intereste rate some cards is up to 29.99% ??? HOLY COW!

Answer 1

The thing is, pay them all off. The only way to restore your good name is to pay off the debt as soon as possible and then keep paying your bills on time. Your score will start to recover and within 6 months will be well on the way back up.

That said, you probably have other problems to deal with. When you pay late, or skip the minimum payment, they could charge you huge penalty fees and raise the interest rate to way up there, I think the current max is something like 28%!!! So, if you HAD a 9% card before, your rates went up, a LOT, maybe to 3 times what it was. Check your credit card agreements for what they can do if you are even so much as a day late or a dollar short. Check the back side of the statements as they sometimes put the terms there as well as mail them separately. Dump the credit cards, all but 1 which has the lowest rate of interest and the highest limit, which you keep for the proverbial rainy day emergency, and never, NEVER use unless it is a dire emergency. Pay off the debt as fast as you can. The sooner you are out of debt, the sooner your credit recovers. Do NOT buy into any "credit rebuilding service". None of these repair credit and they will charge you a fee for what you can get for free elsewhere. Consolidating is a different matter entirely. In consolodation, you are taking out a single loan to pay off all of your various debts, which makes it easier on you since you only have one point of contact. Credit Unions are more likely to offer this kind of loan than a commercial bank. There are a number of non-profit organizations which provide consolodation loans.

Answer 2

Same thing just happened to me. Call them and explain your circumstances. Ask to be put on a 12 month program where they get your interest rate down to 0 and there are no late fees. You will need an active checking account as the payments will be automatically taken out the same time every month. My payments on a $3000 debt will be $35 per month with no penalty, no interest and no fees. At the end of the 12 months, you would go back to your regular payments.
Hope this helps.......it helped me!

Answer 3

Unfortunately, that's the thing about credit that absolutely stinks: it takes quite a while to build your credit, but it only takes a matter of a couple months (or less!) to destroy it.
Those late payments will stay on your report for seven years. (You know how there's a section on your report where the accounts are listed...and they have the 30/60/90 category? That's where it will be listed). But most lenders are really only concerned about the past 24 months when they look at that section.
Just keep paying your bills on time. It might take you a year or two for you to see a significant improvement in your score.
Good luck!

Answer 4

It's really not as severe as that, You can contact equifax and experian to let them know these arrears have been settled, and this will improve your credit score slightly. In addition, when applying for credit, lenders look at several factors when deciding to continue - generally, the bigger the loan, the greater the risk, so the less likely they are to accept your application. you will still be able to get things like mobile phones, Car insurance and small unsecured loans, but wait another year and try again for a mortgage application, and you will probably be in with a better chance.

Answer 5

For certain you messed up your credit, and it will take time (as much as 7 years) to bring it completely back to where it was. But you are far from dead, and you did not mention any of the far more serious credit no-no's: collection, default, liens, judgements, or worst of all: bankrupcy. Stay away from those and you will more quickly recover.

You never said what your current financial situation is: are you capable of bringing all of your accounts current? If you can, do so immediately. If not, get them all as close to current as possible. Then, AFTER you paid as much as you can for now, call each creditor and explain the situation to them.

If you are able to resume normal payments, tell them so. If not, explain why, and what you ARE capable of paying. You can ask for reduced payments, waiving of late fees and penalties, and temorarily reduced or suspended interest rate. (The worse they can do is say no, right?) It is in their interest for you to get the account back in good standing and paid; they want their money back! The fact that you had just recently made the 1st payment in at least 90 days will show them good faith; your calling them, being honest, and sticking to the agreement made will show more.

For each month you are able to meet the agreed-to payments, your credit score will slowly rise. If you can make more than the minimum payment on any of them, do so with the card with the highest interest rate to reduce your interest costs as quickly as possible. You sould notice a significant increase in credit score each time a credit card balance drops below 50% of the line of credit, and another each time one is paid off in full.

It's almost certain that they increased your interest rate to as much as 29.9%; that will make it harder to get back on your feet. After your initial request to reduce the interest as much as possible, call and ask again every six months or so. Persistance will eventually get the rates back down, decreasing your interest costs and increasing your ability to pay off principle.

Obviously, this will work best if future use of the credit cards for more purchases is kept to as close to Zero as possible. Live within your means; if you must change your lifestyle to live for an extended time on your income minus your credit card payments, so be it. You got yourself into this hole; you will have to work hard and make sacrifices to dig yourself out of it.

Stick to all of the above, and in a maximum of 7 years (everything except bankrupcy drops off the credit report after 7 years; bankrupcy lasts for ten years.) and probably a lot less your credit score will be back to where it was.

Answer 6

yep, it will take a little while but just monitor your credit report to see whats going on. It takes a lifetime to build up and have anything and a day to loose it all.

Answer 7

Hi,
I get your point
I think you should try http://www.subscriberpoint.com/search/index.htm?q=credit+card&sa=Search&client=pub-4633310462021467&forid=1&channel=9170675625&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23FFFFFF%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A11&hl=en
There are some links that may help you
I hope that helps
Regards
Abhinav