I am a US citizen who has been living in Canada for the past 5 years w/ my Canadian husband. I have been maintaining my US credit by using my credit cards etc. My credit is great…all 3 agencies above 740. We are now moving back to the US to live. My question is twofold. First of all, will my husband’s good credit in Canada do anything for him in the US and second, will making him a joint account holder on my accounts immediately help his US credit rating? We’ve requested a letter from our mortgage holder stating that we have never missed a payment over the life of our loan. I figure it can’t hurt.

I’m so happy to have found your site. What an amazing source of information. Thank you so much!

Sus (more…)

I closed 3 credit card accounts about 2-3 months ago due to rediculous annual fees and high rates.  2 Accounts were 10-12 months, no lates.  1 was about 14 months no lates.  I noticed my score seemed to drop quite a bit when I closed these.  Can I re-open them and my score will go back up? 

Dustin (more…)

My credit report has several accounts listed as being managed by consumer credit counseling agencies.  This is not the case – how did that get on my credit report?  Is it hurting my score?  What can I do? 

Also, if my credit increases due to being added as an authorized user on someone’s credit card, how does the derogatory credit affect my score then?

Thanks for your help.

Christina (more…)

Thanks for this Blog.
 
Are they changing the FICO rules about paying off collections so it does not make everything seem new again?
I have about 20 of them and am confused.
I am a year away from Mortgage and want to see what the wizard says…………….

Scott (more…)

I have to wonder what correlation exists between closing a credit card account and your likelihood of repaying a debt. If there is no such correlation, then one would think that the credit scoring model should not be penalizing anyone merely for closing an account.

Is it just a myth?

Tina (more…)

First of all, great site.  I’ve learned alot in the last few days.  Im trying to purchase my first house (actually been in the process for the last year and a half) and I’m trying to get my credit up as high as possoble.  My mid score has fluxuated from 650 to 700 the past 6 months.  All current revolving accounts are 1-2 years old, no lates and low balances, 2 installments, no lates, and I’m on 3 accounts as an authorized user which are all very very good accounts.  The negatives are 3 collections, all 3-5 years old from when my father stold my identity.  I paid the collections, all accounts have been closed but are still on my report.
 
The questions I have are:     1.  Are these 3 collections hurting my credit that bad?  Should’nt I be at a higher score with the combination of no lates since these collections and 3 outstanding authorized user accounts?
                                         2.  Is the only way I can delete these collections from my report by disputing them to the CRAs?  Do I write the dispute saying my father had stolden my identity?  What if one of the collection agencies is out of business now, can it be deleted? 
                                         3.  One of the collections accounts is from an overdue, never returned library book.  Friggin rediculous, huh?  Can this seriously hurt me?  An overdue library book?
 
                                         4.  And finally, how much can inquiries really hurt your credit, that my be another reason my credit is not breaking through to the other side.
 
Thanxx Very much
Keep it real,
 
Dustin (more…)

what is the name of the company that help`s with credit scores ..by adding you to other people`s accunts and it boost your credit score up ..

Carlos (more…)

The Declaration of Independence was the document that announced to the world the American colonies status as free and independent states.  It was adopted in Congress on July 4, 1776.  The final sentence reads: “And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor”.

(pause) (more…)

I am currently trying to refinance my home.My credit score was 626 and I had a broker offering a 6.75 thirty year fixed, and was going to go with this. A week later, after not hearing from him, I finally got him and he said my credit score had gone down to below 620 in a week. He didnt know why but speculated it could be my current mortgage and I also thought it might be credit inquiries that weren’t authorized.

  Today, I got call from another broker who said he could beat the 6.75 rate because he could raise my credit score dramatically in 7 days by doing something that required my SS#. Now…he offered to do this magical thing for me if I would guarantee him my business, which of course I would not. My guess is that he is talking about the optout program. Am I correct in this assumption?..as I need to bring my score back up over 620 quickly.

Debbie (more…)

Giving someone the courage to press on despite credit reporting mayhem:  priceless.  Thank you, thanks, and ever thanks for your very informative insights and commentaries!  You basically helped jumpstart my repair that had been going so-so b4 I was lucky enough to come across your site, now it’s going great!

I’m actually already back in somewhat decent shape thanks to your sage advise CR wise except for some pesky little 120s, 90s, etc. (due to illness and ignorance) that appear on my report from an old student loan.  Despite this Experian currently notes my plus score 708=low medium risk because all of my accounts in the past several years are current, no charge offs, bankruptcies, etc. but my interest rates are still astronomical partly because high balances on cards and a mostly very young accounts except 1 which is 5 years old but things could be so much worse, even though my fico is only 617 I’m thankful…

Anyway, my school, gotta love ‘em, agreed to pull my loan from collections so i am in repayment now, (well almost, 1st payment due next month) they asked for 12 months consecutive timely payments to bring it current, however i read here that the NCLC revised its guidelines to 9 consecutive timely payments in ten months to rehab so i put in a request to see if they were willing to change the language of the executed rehab agt. to reflect this-haven’t heard back yet.  Do you think they will consider my request?

My other question is this:  since the loan was pulled from the CA the CA sent me a letter saying contritely ‘we’re not going contact you again, you won’t here from us again about this, peace out, we regret it-our bad’.  The problem is prior to saying sorry they played racquet ball with my inquiries leaving 4 hards in just over a year, yikes!  Do you think they’ll remove them or convert them to softs, which is what they really are anyway, just as a consumer courtesy (who am I kidding, right?) since they agreed to bounce and leave me alone in writing anyway?  I know technically they can leave hards but also should have verified upon request and they never did this and since they are not in the picture going forward why not take some baggage they doled out with them?  I’m curious what’s in it for them at this point to continue to falsely indicate on my report that I opened up a new account with them or their assignees as a new credit transaction by leaving a series of miscoded but unfortunately not illegal hards that will last two years each -revenge?  So I sent them a CMRRR  a polite letter saying look you placed these hards while completely ignoring my requests for verification please remove them (I sent several verification request letters but only 1 CMRRR and it was way after the 30 days rule.)  I didn’t know who they were collecting for because I couldn’t even get that far with them, they were real mean and condescending and they were bullying and menacing but never cooperative, funny thing is if they had said who they were collecting for I would have sent money so in a way I’m lucky they were so uncooperative…do I have any chance that they’ll remove the hards b4 my rehab work clears them automatically in the next year give or take?  I wondered also does it give me any leverage whatsoever with the CRA (who notes the inquiries as ‘valid’ even after I disputed them) that I have the letter from the CA saying they are sorry and will stop it and the CA has a deplorable record of consumer abuses and
an unsatisfactory record with the BBB as it turns out as well…
Now my student accounts office says all negative items will be stricken if I satisfactorily complete rehab but then that’s about another year of astronomical credit card interest rates(19 – 21% APR)if they won’t remove the inquiries.

I pay way above the minimum on CCs every month to try to bring them down to zero in say the next 6 – 12 months and without this one loan being reported as 3 separate derogatory marks against me, my CR would be virtually unblemished accept for card balances about 50%+ of the max limit on 3 cards which I’m paying down and  2 are newish cards … should I just be happy I’m in rehab and getting back on my feet and forego the urge to try cast off what i call the “bag of tricks” hard inquiries from the CA which they’ve left me as a nasty little gift?  I am still working on not being emotional with money/debt etc even writing this note I feel so muddled and unclear because the whole thing makes me feel so ashamed, inadequate etc. but I hope you were able to get the gist of it- 

Best regards,
Gorem (more…)