What is a good way to improve credit for a 19 year old with bad credi and a 584 credit score?

Question

The reason why my score is so low is when i was 17 i signed up for a website from 1and1 internet for a project when i was done i forgot to cancel and i kept getting billed for $30 a month for 7 months now i have NCO on my reporting as a paid debt but its still just as bad and even though i paid $250 in debt it shows up on my report 7 times $30 each or so. Right now i have a bank of america $300 secured card every month i use about $280 on it and when its due i pay the whole $280 each time ive had it since may 07

Answer 1

Updated:

Based on your details, it sounds like your focus should be on the bad marks on your account. If you're sure that the company shows the account as paid and closed, you can simply contest the entries with the three credit bureaus and see what happens. Often, the company that posted those bad marks won't respond and they will be removed. This might also remove that entire account from your credit report, which probably won't hurt you.

You might also try begging and pleading with the company that left the bad marks. Explain that it was a mistake, that you did the right thing and paid in full, and that this is hurting you financially now. You may have to go through several people there before you find one who can or will help you.

Worst case might be that you keep the bad marks but put a statement on each of your credit reports explaining them. The Nolo page in the URL below explains all of this.

Answer 2

Try to get a credit card. If you can't, get a secured credit card. That is one that has a limit equal to the amount of money you give the credit card company. It is not really a credit card because they are holding your money. But then you could buy stuff that YOU KNOW YOU CAN PAY FOR WHEN THE STATEMENT COMES. Buy only $10 or $15 a month if that is all you are sure you can repay at statement time. After several months of doing this, you will have established a good pattern of payment. Eventually this pattern will look good on your credit record.

Contact any creditors that have reported you to the credit bureaus. Try to buy them off. Offer 25 to 50 percent of what you owe for them to mark you as 'paid in full' or 'debt settled' to the credit reporting bureaus. You might be surprised if they accept. They probably average less that 25% in collecting bad debts, so your offer might be attractive. An acquantence of mine lost his house to the bank and they asked him to make an offer on it! They were ready to forgive $40,000 of the principal if he would just continue to make payments and continue to own it!

It will take 2 or 3 years and there is no easy way. Just get a credit card and ritually use it every month, but only what you can repay, and you will establish good credit.

Answer 3

Start by paying back what you owe, that got you the bad credit in the first place.

Second you can buy a CD at any bank and use it for colateral on a loan for the amount of the CD.

You then make the loan payments on time and in full. Once the loan is paid off you can cash in the CD and get your money back.

This is what the bank recommended that I do when I moved here a few years ago from another country. I think the lowest priced CD that they would do that on was 3000.00

I bought the CD for 3000.00 then got the loan. I then paid 2000.00 of the loan back with in a couple of months to lower the amount of interest that I would pay on it, then just made the monthly payments until the last 1000.00 was paid off.

Answer 4

You seem to be doing the right sort of things. Your age doesnt affect your score, but might affect whether you get credit (if that makes sense). Just don't get behind on any payments, close down accounts that you no longer use to make they dont go bad, and dont go around applying for lots of credit. Having credit cards that you dont pay off in full every month actually makes you more attractive to loaners, as they make money from you. Number of accounts isn't bad, but closing an account that you've always kept up payment on is good. That's one of the few things that will increase your score.

Answer 5

Dispute those duplicate bad debt entries. There should only be the original one. NCO is notorious for re-aging bad debt.

Continue to pay your credit card in full and on time every month. Your score will get better as the negatives get older.

Answer 6

How to improve my credit score? To find out specifically what you must do to raise your score, you can order your score report from all three national credit bureaus. In addition to your scoreyou still have to pay to find out your credit score, the three-digit number ranging from 300 to 850 that is the key to your borrowing costs.

Answer 7

another way is to open a acct then take out a secured loan using that account as collateral pay on time for 3 mo the pay it off that will reflect on your credit history

Answer 8

Improving means paying everything you owe. Creditors would rather see the money late than never.

Pay all bills on time, and pay at least the minimum.

Answer 9

Last year I had credit score of 540. I researched a lot of companies because my friends told me there were a lot of scams out there. I found a great site and they offer many solutions ( http://www.your-credit-solution.com/creditsolutions.htm ) and now my credit score is 746. I was able to accomplish this for less than $100

Answer 10

pay off all debt and try to get a credit card with a low limit and try one from Orchard bank