Where should i start.

My suggestion is to go to MyFICO.com and order all 3 of your credit reports. You should start by going through the very carefully and disputing everything that is negative whether it is ligitimate or not.

Also, are you out of school and that is why you are paying your student loans? I would highly suggest getting a deferrment from the student loan lender, which will mean you would have extra money to pay off the cc's if you have others. Student loans are considered "good debt", you just need to make sure you never default on them.

So, to warp it up for you: step 1- order all 3 of your credit reports. step 2- dispute all negative items, step 3- contact the number to OPT OUT of cc offers, step 5- get inquiries deleted. Ok, this should be enough for you for now lol.

thanks for the info pageantgirl. i hav all three credit report. should i sent validation letters to all of them or should i start by calling the CA and working something out with them. Sorry, i am trying to understand are the "lingo". how do i go about disputing them?

yes, i am out of school.

No, dispute each and every negative items whether it is legitimate or not. That is the first step. Send a short letter to the Big 3 (Transunion, Experian, and Equifax) and say something like this: Dear Equifax, I am disputing the following items because they are not mine. The list all of the items in bullet format with the name of the collection agency, amount, and account number. The last paragraph say: I understand that pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you have 30 days update my credit report and send me a copy of the corrected credit report.

Do that first, then we can go from there. This whole credit thing has to be done in baby steps, so do one thing at a time.

But the 3 CRA's cannot validate accounts, peasant, they can only verify them. You can't ask them for proof of the debt, they don't have it. Only the collection agencies do. When I first tried credit report cleanup, about a year ago... I also thought I could just "dispute" items with the CRA's...not true. I mean, you CAN dispute them, but all they will do is verify that the account is yours. That usually tips off those CA's that you are alive and well, and they will start calling you all over again! This happened to me.

And you shouldn't try to validate something you know is legit. That's basically like stealing. I do think it is wrong for a snake collection agency to try to wrangle you out of WAAAAY more money than you owe... but I believe in at least paying back the original creditor. They essentially trusted me with those credit cards, and I couldn't pay them. Whether or not my reason for delinquency was a crisis... I still wouldn't feel right about not paying them back just because they couldn't adequately "validate" the account.

Sorry... that's just my conscience talking.

thanks seeing the light. i feel the same way as you. can you give me some advice to where you started and what you did first? i really want to begin and i want to do it right.

Ummmmm Seeing The Light...There is no need for you to call me a peasant, excuse you. Everyone here has their own "opinions" and what has worked for them and the things I post have worked for me. To the original poster, I suggest taking the information you receive here and making it your own. There is no one sure-fire way to clean up your credit report. A lot of it is trial and error. Everyone has their own way that works for them. I hope everything works out for you.

i'm sure that was a typo pageant.

It was... I thought it said Peasantgirl, not Pageantgirl... I do apologize.

I was only trying to avoid some trouble for the original poster... as I would hate for any advice she/he receives here to lead to judgments or lawsuits filed against them for not paying legitimate debts.

I understand we all have our opinions, but yours are not opinions, they are advice. We have to be careful what we tell people, because in their dire situations, they will take what we say as gospel.

Again, I apologize if you were offended, that was not my intention.

Thanks.

Ok, that's cool. Everyone has their own opinions, advice, etc. So, to the original poster, good luck with everything. I hope it works out for you as it has for me.

thanks everyone for their input.

I'm sorry, changetodebtfree, I never really told you all that I've done to correct my CR...

I started last year, before I found this, and another forum, to just pay off smaller collections, little by little. I found out that you should actually send in a letter called a "pay for deletion" letter to the collection agencies, or Original Creditors, in which you agree to pay the items, and they agree to delete completely within 10 days of receiving the payment in full. Now, you can google or search on here "PFD letter" and probably find some good examples. This is perfectly legal, and a good way to bargain with the creditor/CA's to get these items removed if you pay. It doesn't work with every company though, so don't get your hopes up... but do stay positive.

Second... if there are any negative items showing, such as paid collections, or late payments on paid/good accounts, try the goodwill letter. Again search "goodwill letter" and you'll find some good examples.

This letter basically asks the CA's/OC's to do a favor for you by deleting those negative items because you've either 1) been a good customer on a current account, or 2) paid off the accounts that are now closed.

Hope this helps...

Seeing the light, if you are involved in debt settlement. Would a "pay for deletion" letter be part of your settlement? or does that come after you have already settled your accounts and are working on cleaning up your credit reports?

The pay for delete should actually be sent prior to any settlement arrangements being made.

Basically, you tell them you'll pay, in exchange for them removing the account from your CR completely.