Question by joegats916: How do I start repairing a lifetime of misdeeds to my credit?
I’m 27, and I spent the better part of mylife screwing up my credit in one way or anouther. I got married and help my wife screw up her credit even worst then she had it when we got together. A few years ago, I started talking to a creditor and made arrangements to western union them some money. I never heard from them again and more to the point anouther company rose in there place collecting for the same bill and stateing that they never even heard of my payment. This made me scared to pay anyone. I concitered doing backrupsy but was talk out of it. Now I want to make a real effort to fix my credit and buy a house. How do I get started. Is there some group or orginization that can help me concolidate my bills or at the very least tell me who I owe and the best way to pay them?
What do I do?
Fast Credit Repair
Best answer:
Answer by Katherine W
Wow. OK, first, get a copy of your credit report. It’s free at www.annualcreditreport.com. Get just one copy from one of the companies, you don’t need all three. The Western Union thing was a scam, you can report it to the police, but there’s nothing they can do, really. You will need to show the company that you did report it, though, so that’s worth doing. So, look at your report and figure out who you owe money to and how much. Call them up and tell them that you will start paying it down immediately. Ask them to work with you: can they reduce the interest rate while you make payments. If they won’t work with you, go to a nonprofit organization that will make calls to get the rate reduced, because you don’t want the amount climbing so high while you’re trying to pay it down. Then, make more than the minimum payments on everything, work two jobs or whatever you have to do. Also freeze all your cards in the freezer so it’s a pain to use them unless you have to. Find a card with a low interest rate and see if you can move the balances there. Then, pick the card with either the highest rate or the lowest balance, and put most of your payments to that, so that you reduce your costs (if high interest) or see the best results (if it’s the lowest amount). After four months of this, get a credit report from one of the other two companies (still free because you didn’t ask that company this year), and see how you’re doing. Keep checking every four months. You’ll see progress! Good luck to you!
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