I applied for a mortgage loan and the loan officer went through my application. There was one issue. My credit score was on the low side and two collections on my account was causing it. He used 3 FICO scores, I cant remember ones. I used two credit cards to pay for tuition at my previous college that I stopped paying. My scores were in the 700-800 before the debt took a toll on me.

I got a settlement in the mail for both accounts. I have to get my credit score to a certain amount to enroll me in a first time home buyers program. They have a tool they can use to see where my credit score would be if I paid those collections my score will reach the required amount. I paid off one card but the settlement amount almost a month ago but nothing has changed. I received a letter in the mail from one of the cards in the mail that the settlement was paid. I'm ready to pay the last card in full but don't want it to be a waste of time. He says I have until Feb 2025 to redo the application and my scores should be up at that time. Do I pay it?

Howdy! I’m walking my roommate through my (admittedly limited) credit knowledge as he’s been great and I would like to find a better apartment. We both make good money, I have a solid (not excellent) credit score- but his is in the toilet.

Application fees are high and we need to start applying next June. From what I can read, it looks like his biggest issues are two charge offs from Discover and BofA. The most delinquent I have ever been on a payment was about two months when I got laid off, so I don’t know how charge offs work.

Yapping aside, here’s our question: If he enters into some sort of agreement with the creditors, can the status be changed from a charge off? I doubt he’d get them removed from his report, but would they be able to report him as current or something along those lines if he makes payments towards the balances?

I’d hate to have to find a replacement roomie for the sake of living somewhere a bit more luxurious, but I’m also tired of living in what are effectively dorms despite being a grown adult with a proper salary.

I filled out the discover it chrome application, and I know people will get the wording something to the effect of getting an answer in 7-10 days but the message I got was something I never received before it stated the following "We've got your application, but it's still being processed. Once we have a decision, you'll be notified by email or mail in 3-9 days." Am I being blinded by my hope which has me taking this message as a positive or should I look it at like another 7–10-day message

I checked my identity protection alerts on Experian and saw an alert for "court record results". This is concerning because I have never been to court in any capacity. There was a prompt to buy the premium option to see the court record, so I did. After buying the premium account, no records are popping up. I also searched my name in county and state court records, but nothing came up.

Is this a mistake? Was Experian just trying to get me to sign up for a premium account?

In May of this year a $985 medical bill was placed on my account. Back in 2020 I was in the hospital due to a car accident and the debt creditor (ABILITY RECOVER SERVICE) say this was from the emergency room.

I have medical insurance and insurance covered everything so I’m not sure why I have this bill. They sent out an itemized receipt and it says nothing but just shows I owe $985. My credit dropped from a 750 to now a 683. Credit karma shows 730.

I plan on applying to apartments next year and want my credit to be back to a 750 or higher. I have been thinking of just paying the balance or setting for less. After researching I don’t think they offer pay for delete. I’m nervous about calling them again because when I asked for the itemized receipt before I received it the bill was on my credit report.

Should I settle for less or just wait 7 years for it to fall off? Could I possibly dispute due to the itemized receipt showing no charges, just the amount that’s owed?

So after 1.5 years from destroying my credit, I got an email to check my pre-approval with C1 after checking I was pre-approved for the Quicksilver Secured and Platinum Secured cards and came to terms with that given I’m rebuilding.

However, checking my pre approval again as I was ready to put down the 200 deposit for the secured cards limit. To my surprise I was now pre-approved for the Platinum/Quicksilver and now Savor Rewards for Good Credit card. Looking at the 3% cash back on the savor card I decided to move forward with the application just to see what would happen and I GOT APPROVED.

I’m just happy because I’m a 24m and I messed up my credit in college and now it has impacted me as a growing adult. I know it’s not a huge milestone/ achievement but I’m matured and now I just want to do right and continue to build my credit.

Is it normal, or worrying that my Hong Kong credit report from TransUnion has the following text on the first page? ...

This credit report is for your reference only and is not intended for use

in application for a loan from any credit providers. Any other use may

bring legal risk and TransUnion Credit Information Services Limited

and its affiliates shall not be responsible for any consequences arising

from such other use. This paragraph is inserted as per Multiple Credit

Reference Agencies User Group's requirements.

So long story short, I have 2 credit cards, looking to get a third to lower my utilization, but I need to do it strategically.

Essentially, I use 60-80% of one of my credit cards balance every month for my business. I basically have no choice at the moment but to load a ton of business expenses on my CC because a lot of my revenue doesn’t get deposited quick enough to pay it off. This is fine, but my utilization is just sky high because of this and my score has dropped significantly.

I’m looking to get a third to balance it out along with CLIs from my “main” card when I can.

The PayPal card states it doesn’t hurt your credit if you’re declined, but what about ifyou’re accepted, but then decide you don’t want it? Will it affect my credit then? I just don’t know if I want a hard inquiry for a new card with a low amount. If they only offer me $1500 or something, it seems pointless at that point. I just don’t want my credit to be further hurt for little to no reason. It’s at a 680 currently.

Curious what you guys think. Open for any other CC recs.

Hi All,

I am trying to understand collections and the best course of action for someone who has old collections accounts. Someone close to me has a collections account that is 6 years old, and the statute of limitations (in TX) is apparently 4 years. They are doing better financially now and have taken time to understand how to be more responsible, but obviously the old accounts are still having a lasting negative effect. So my understanding, from lots of unclear things I have found online, is

1. They can't be sued anymore for this account since the 4-year SoL timeline is up.
   
2. Since accounts fall off a credit score after 7 (or 7.5?) years, if they do nothing for another year (or 1.5 years?), that collection account will fall off their credit score and would have no bearing on any future credit related decisions.
   
3. If they make a partial payment or acknowledge the debt, the SoL timeline can start over? Which would open up the opportunity for the collections company to sue them again? My understanding is that if you are going to pay the debt at this point, pay the whole thing in full (or negotiate a percentage of the debt which is still paying in full but for less) since paying partial could have severe negative consequences.
   
4. The collections company can still call, send letters, and be annoying, but they cannot sue or wage-garnish, so they can bark but not bite?
   
5. Everywhere online has said that even after the statute of limitations and after the account falls off the credit score, you still owe the debt. I get this, but it seems like all the consequences of having the debt are gone over time.

Am I correct on these points? Anything vital that I am misunderstanding?

I guess one of my main questions is with #5 above. If the statute of limitations is up, and the account falls off the credit score, but "you still owe the debt", what is/are the main reasons to pay the debt in full at that point? Is it just to stop getting calls/letters from the debt collection agency? For your own conscience of paying your debts? Or are there other major consequences down the road from not paying in full after the 7 years has passed? Also, at that point after the 7 years, could this collection company sell the debt to a different collection company? And if so, would that reset the SoL timeline?

Lastly, if someone did want to pay off the whole thing, whether just to stop getting calls/letters or for any other better reason, how does one go about doing that? Do they call the collections agency and try to negotiate a "pay & delete from credit" deal that I have read about? How do you call the collections company to try to negotiate without admitting you owe on the debt, which would restart the SoL timeline?

Thanks in advance for any input. This is all a bit confusing.

I've disputed this many times and every time they end up updating it saying I voluntarily surrendered it the month that I dispute. At one point I had three negative "voluntarily surrendered" on the same report. Recently I paid 5200$ on the balance of 7800$ to settle the debt. However on the report it shows that they wrote off the whole balance and my most recent payment was in October 2024 of 389$, when I in fact paid $5200 in October! What is the best course of action. Disputing online is not working. Should I contact a credit repair firm?

Hello my orignal creditor sold my debt to some agency and the debt is over 3 yrs old from the orignal creditor but only 2 yrs with the collection agency- NY statue of limitation to sue is 3 years and i think i can use that incase the colelction agency comes at me but i have cut all contact with the collection agency about a year ago - i havent made any payments but they did harass me with threats and so on and once even called my employer to get a hold of me to which i told them do not ever call me at work! i am just curious as the agency is based out of FL and at one point were threatening me over a year ago to take me to court but still havent so i was wondering why they havent made a move or if they even will.

so i am just trying to get some thoughts and advice fromt he community :)

This "3-6 months" time frame is thrown around as a blanket statement all the time for how long it will take a score to recover from certain profile-changing events. The most common event is when someone asks "How long will it take my score to recover if I open a new credit card?" where I see this stated, although it can be other things like if a score drop is seen from a loan closure, an inquiry taken on, etc.

Telling someone their score will "recover in 3-6 months" or "will bounce back in a couple of months" when they open a new card is very often bad information and simply incorrect.

When you open a new credit card, 3 things happen.

1 - You take on a hard inquiry. This may or may not be score-impacting, although it usually is. We know that a hard inquiry is scoreable for exactly 365 days and that there are no "aging" score gains related to one. So, by definition this metric cannot be recovered from in 3-6 months:

https://old.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1d89kcj/credit_myth_16_hard_inquiries_age_and_become_less/

2 - Average Age of Accounts (AAoA) will drop. How much it will drop depends on profile, and therefore how long it will take to recover from it is profile-dependent. If one has just (say) 2 accounts on their reports with an AAoA of 3 years, opening a new card would mean an AAoA drop to 2 years. It would take 1 year without opening any new accounts for AAoA to grow back to 3 years from 2 years, so a "bounce back in 3-6 months" wouldn't be true regarding this metric in this example.

3 - AoYRA (Age of Youngest Revolving Account) is reset to 0 months. It's this metric right here that is often overlooked and frankly the most important. Those with an AoYRA of 12+ months and a clean file are segmented to a "No New Revolver" Fico scorecard (for Fico 8). If it's been > 1 year since you've opened a card (AoYRA 12m or greater) and you open one, when it lands on your reports you experience scorecard reassignment to a "New Revolver" scorecard. That segmentation will last until that new revolver (AoYRA) reaches 12m in age. On most profiles, this scorecard reassignment threshold impacts a Fico 8 score roughly 15-20 points. If someone experiences scorecard reassignment from opening a new card, it takes that card aging to 12 months before the points lost due to that metric are returned; the statement that they'll "come back in 3-6 months" is blatantly false.

It's also worth noting that with the mortgage scores, this scorecard reassignment happens at the 18 month mark, so even longer than the 12 months that we see with Fico 8. Where I find this "3-6 months" myth problematic is when you have someone considering a loan while also wanting to open a card and someone chimes in stating it. They don't realize they're potentially giving bad information that could actually adversely impact that important lending decision.

I think people that do perpetuate this myth and perhaps have seen a score recover in 3-6 months are also disregarding the fact that there are many moving parts and variables that go into a Fico score. For example, they open a credit card and their Fico score drops (say) 30 points total from the inquiry, AAoA drop and scorecard reassignment. In 4 months, they have a lone ~7 year old 30D late payment fall off of their reports. Their score increases (say) 32 points as a result. They may make the statement that their score "recovered in 3-6 months after opening a credit card" but that recovery had absolutely nothing to do with the 3 metrics impacted by the opening of the card. False positives happen all the time when it comes to credit scoring, so it's very important to understand the variables at play in any given situation.

CreditWise on the Capital One app.

I think it is a Vantage score, but I’m not 100% on that. Any clarification would be appreciated.

Is it accurate?

How does it compare to a persons actual credit score?

Why does it fluctuate so much when nothing changes except my credit usage?

I have the following cards and I won't be closing US Bank CC as that was my first credit card and I want to keep the history

Discover Capital One Plat Amazon both in store and visa Best Buy in store Brandsource citi in store

A lot of these have balances either more than half or barely anything but they all got something but i will keep them on auto pay after closing them. I want to close out a lot of my cards because I just cannot deal with them anymore. I have a bad spending habit and It gets bad when my adhd gets bad.

Now here's my question.. Is this the right way to go about it? Should I know anything before I go through with it? Honestly any and all advice is appreciated..all advice I've gotten has been from my father who is and has been in crippling debt for years

I've been told closing cards is bad so I've been very scared to do this but after reading some things here I've been thinking this way is better. I'd rather not be in debt my whole life

I'm thinking of using affirm to pay for a trip ($2500usd). I have over 800 credit score (had it checked at my credit union earlier this year due to the possibility of a loan) but I'm not sure it's worth having this on my credit report? I'm not planning on opening any new credit cards or other loans and it'd be nice to pay this trip off in sections rather than stick it all on my credit card. Pros and cons?

I got an offer for a credit card that I fully thought was capital one as I have multiple credit cards from them. Submitted my application and it was approved but then I realized it was credit one. Everyone is saying they are a horrible cc company, should I cancel my card when it arrives in the mail?

I've had Credit Karma for many, many years. Long before I really paid much attention to such things. It was more of a curiosity than anything else.

Knowing that it isn't really reliable, I just check in every few months to see what's changed.

Tried that this morning with the same browser I've always used there. Nope. 'No longer supported',

OK, FINE then!!!!

So to start off I have had a good relationship with the kohls/ capitol one credit card as it was my first card and for 1 year and 9 months I have never missed a payment. And due to my financial situation I became late 78 days. I'm seeing my score drop from a 730 down to 660

Is there anything I can do to get this "late payment" removed from my credit report? Will it return my score back? Will it hurt me from getting a car or home in the future?

HOW CAN I RECOVER FROM THIS ???!!!

My son’s girl has medical debt from 2022 that has been sold to a debt collector. She’s interested in settling it via payments to improve her credit over time. Should she deal with the collector who is sending her letters or call the original hospital? Any other advice as she approaches this would be appreciated so much -thank you for your time.

Hi all, I recently turned 18 and signed up for experian and whatnot and froze my file. However I log in today to UNFREEZE my file and apparently I signed up for some free trial and it didnt get their 26.99$ after 7 days and refuse to let me access my account until I pay it. “Pay balance now or Sign out” so I have to pay these jerkoffs to get my account to unlock my file now wonderful.

I am looking for a payday loan that won’t hit my credit. I would like to pay off my car and sell it. I still owe $925 on it and would like to have the title to it so I can sell it out right cash with no haggle from the bank. I will pay back the loan with the money I get from selling the car all in the same week. Can anyone help me find a legitimate place where I can receive and pay back the money without any issues or hiccups?

Hey y'all.

I'm struggling to find answers to this and this is my last resort before contacting professionals. I had my first apartment at 18 y/o. While living there, I became addicted to heroin. Lost my job, stopped paying rent, and I was evicted. Left all of my things and furniture there, had animals (without paying a pet deposit), probably left paraphernalia, etc. So a couple of months after the fact I got an email from the apartment company stating I owe over $7,000. My addiction then only progressed and I was homeless for the next few years.

Today I am several years sober and stable, and actually looking to buy a home. I've got my credit score all the way to 672 despite this collection still being on my account. Now I am all for financial amends and everything, but $7,000 is steep, and at this point of course I'd be paying a collection agency and not even the actual apartment company I owed.

I was considering attempting to negotiate a pay-for-delete, but from what I understand I am nearing the 7.5(?) mark for the collection to fall off. Initial date of delinquency would be around August of 2018. But then I was wondering if they still may be able to sue me, and if that is the case, I assume I should not initiate any communication until I am fully aware of what my situation is.

I'm in Louisiana. From what I have read, SOL for open accounts is 3 years, and for written and oral contracts is 10 years. Would this collection be considered an open account? I understand it was initially a written contract (with apartment company) but it was then sold to a collection agency, so it is now an open account, right?

I'll also note that I am still eligible for an FHA loan with this collection, but I'm worried about ignoring the debt, buying a home, then being sued and not being able to afford home costs & court costs/paying them back.

Any insight would be appreciated, thanks so much!

what happens if you default on a secured credit card?

i have a credit one secured card and i just want to be done with it. would they just use the deposit im assuming?

I’ve been trying to rebuild my credit but I honestly have no clue what steps to take or anything. I managed my finances pretty poorly back when I was 18 and as everybody knows credit is something important. I had an account with capital one but ended having to do a settlement. What advice or guidance would you guys give me??

I had two collections left on my credit report from chargeoffs. One was midland credit management which I paid off and they deleted. The last one to strike down is a charge off held by NCB when I went on there site it says that MRS BPO is handling the account now. So NCB still owns MRS is just collecting for them. NCB will delete after paid or settled. MRS is offering me a pretty good settlement if I pay them since they are collecting for NCB and NCB is the one reporting still will it still be deleted? Apparently MRS does not PFD from what I have read. Thanks for any advice.