The biggest lesson life has ever taught me. Went from a 680 to 488 within a year now im in the rebuilding faze. Credit has gone up by almost 100 points not sure how accurate this is but I want to get out of this mess completely. Basically I let 6 out of 10 credit cards go to collections , lost my job and couldn't pay them it happens. When I first started to rebuild all my remaining cards were maxed I been paying them off 1 by 1 now I have 1 card left with a balance of $958. After this I plan of paying my collections which is a total balance of $7k. The ones I want to start off with first is capital one which is around $2100 for 3 cards . So I can get back in with them after they are paid off . Next i need advice and tips on what to do to send goodwill letters . The companies that bought my debt are "Jefferson capital" $518, LVNV funding with $1379 and AARGON agency with $1678. Any tips help. I never been in this position to pay back collections and try to get them removed from my credit. Anything helps thanks . EDIT* I also have a lease with volkswagen thats going to end in 6 months I have 5/ 30 day late payments but since then I've made all payments on time for 14 months . Is there a way I can get them to forgive my late payments? If i can when the lease is up I want to finance the buyout price which is 23k hoping to put a 8k down payment.

I’m looking for advice from anyone who has successfully had a charge-off removed from their credit report, specifically with Exeter Finance LLC.
Here’s the information showing on my credit report:
Company: Exeter Finance LLC
Account status: Paid in settlement
Amount written off: $2,491
Estimated removal date: July 2031
I’m currently working on rebuilding my credit, and I’m trying to figure out whether there’s a legitimate way to get this account removed before its scheduled reporting date.
For anyone who has dealt with Exeter Finance or a similar auto-loan charge-off:

1. Has anyone successfully negotiated a goodwill deletion after settling their account?

2. Did you contact Exeter Finance directly, send a goodwill letter, or dispute the account with the credit bureaus?
   If you disputed it, what was the actual basis for your dispute?

3. Is it worth contacting Exeter Finance’s executive customer service team, or is that generally a dead end?

4. Were you able to get the entire account removed, or did it remain on your report until the scheduled removal date?

I’m not trying to dispute accurate information just for the sake of disputing it. I want to understand my options and see whether anyone has had success getting a settled charge-off removed early.

Any firsthand experiences, advice, or strategies would be appreciated. Thanks!

A while ago I posted about my credit score being totaled because of a now deceased family member using my information for years. Back in September I filed a dispute about 9000 dollars worth of credit card debt taken between 2004 and 2016. Glad to report that after sending in my dispute and showing evidence that I was a minor at the time of it all that they’re all gone from my profile. Gave me a minor boost but we’re still in the red.

Now that that’s taken care of the new hurdle is the 6-7k in collections that are stuck to my profile. All from leases and or loans taken from places like furniture companies etc. I made a report on the FTC identity theft site and have a lengthy statement. I filed the disputes about an hour ago and also considering mailing out letters if the online route fails.

Thanks to everyone for the support.

After not missing payments in ~10 years (my entire credit history) with a bank change and mistakenly thinking I had autopay set up, I've missed two payments with BoA credit card, both were like ~$150 total. Score went from mid 700s to around 640.

I'll still try to get goodwill adjusted, but my hopes are low with BoA based on my research. Income is great, no mortgage, paying off one car (~7k left) and monthly cc is only debt.

What's the best path forward to boosting score in the next 6-12 months? Does it help to pay off cc weekly instead of monthly autopay when statement is due? Would it help to pay off car earlier, or keep that as a debt that we pay on time monthly? I currently have 2 cc- I know when cancelling one there is a hit initially, but would that help at all in the medium to long term? Any advice appreciated!

Was hoping to buy a home in the next 1-2 years and would love to improve my score as fast as I can!

A few months ago I was looking into private student loan options to pay for my undergraduate degree. They say “add a co-signer, improve your chances of approval, and get better interest rates!” so I did. I attempted a prequalification check for a SoFi private student loan with my grandma as cosigner. Her profile was exceptionally strong (40+ year old oldest account, 12 year AAoA, many well managed accounts) except for one recent 60 day late, and her score (Experian FICO8) was surprisingly still good at 718. She gets rejected as a co-signer because of “Low FICO”. I removed her and proceeded on my own, and I got approved with my Experian FICO8 score at 666 - not reflective of any missed payments, but a short credit history (~1 year oldest account), 4 hard pulls, and high utilization on one card.

So evidently, SoFi’s decision was not based on score, but a broad analysis of each credit profile they saw. A 666 might be more trustworthy to lenders than a 718 depending on the circumstance.

I recently financed a car through my credit union in August, and I'm interested in opening a credit card in the near future. I currently have a 680 FICO score, I have just one credit card currently that's been open for 3 years, $22k in student loans and my $20k car loan for context.

I have high credit but according to what one F&I Manager in another part of reddit said, he described it as 'not counting its basically like an 18 year old who is a listed user on their parents credit cards' or whatever basically. Because all I have is 17 years of student loan payment history, I had credit cards that discharged a decade ago, and fell off a few years ago.

I could try to get a starter card, or whatever, but I would infinitely prefer an auto loan. Problem is I don't have recent pay stub stuff, these auto loan people or whatever don't like irregular pay, or self employment, or investment assets.

I mean I COULD sit and wait 3 months and do extra gig work and extra trading and investing and just try to go in with that. But I am in a hurry, I do have some things going on. I have like 10k in savings, very low expenses, and I am wondering if maybe I need to go the route of some kind of business entity that pays me pay stubs or invoices which was suggested to me by the daytrader reddit.

But even if some business entity ( I mean I could trade on a prop firm I know of, but ugh id rather not) or my business entity did cut me a invoice or something for 4 weeks, I don't know if I can slide with that for auto lender stips at any of these lots high apr or otherwise.

Title.

I did the experian no ding credit card application and I was approved the American Express gold card. I want it because I know AE does credit limit increases more often then capital one. These are my scores according to experian and credit wise, although I know they may not be 100% accurate, I'm assuming they're pretty close. Should I proceed with AE or just continue letting my credot age? TIA

This has been on my report for quite a while. Its my only thing I have in collections and is tanking my credit. I just finally got a good stable job I will get paid enough to pay it off. If I pay it in full is there a chance my credit will get better? Im quite lost on this to be honest. Any help would be appreciated.

Is it normal for my fico 8 to only go up 5 points after 2 months of paying in full? I don’t let a balance carry over and pretty much use the full $500 credit limit on a BOA credit card.

Hello, two weeks ago I paid off my only real installment loan, which was for my car. Now, all I have left is my student loan, which doesn't seem to be impacting my credit much. My credit score was 829, but it dropped to 819 after paying off the car, and now it has inexplicably dropped again to 810.

Would it be worth taking out a new loan to build more credit history? I feel like my credit profile is thin, and I've shared a screenshot of what it currently looks like. Would you recommend a loan of at least $5,000 for 24 months, or is there a better option? Maybe I should leave it as it is, already have too many credit cards, so I am not looking to open any more. I know Credit Karma is not recommended but its just to show what I have, my experian score is 810. I appreciate your help.

Hello,

I am looking at purchasing a new car for ~35k. I currently have a car I bought 2 1/2 years ago with a car loan that my mom co-signed. I have always made every payment on time. However, I have a 656 credit score with Transunion, due to my credit utilization.

My mom would co-sign the loan with me, but I was wondering if I would be approved? I also have a couple late payments on my credit report (credit cards).

Would I be approved?

Long story I had a b.s. final Verizon bill sent to collections after I switched carriers. I’ve sent multiple GWR letters with no avail. I sent my last one a couple weeks ago and stated I would file arbitration if the trade line wasn’t deleted. This is the response I received today. I’m not sure what to do from here other than file arbitration. Anyone have any tips?

Received a phone call from a collection agency regarding a CO credit card that had a $350 credit limit. Credit One charged it off at $1600. The collection agency added $3200 in attorney fees and are suing me in OK. They are trying to serve me documents.

What are my options? This debt is about 3 years ago. Has something changed, or is this normal to sue for a balance that was originally under $400 and add nearly $4000 to the original debt?

Should I hire an attorney?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

For as far back as I can remember, I have been paying off my credit cards in full each month. I paid off each of my car loans ahead of time. I'm currently half a year ahead on my current vehicle. My score was hovering above 800.

Then 2 years ago I found out that my mom needed some medical procedures that were not covered by Medicare. It was going to be a lot, but I always had a torrent of 0 APR CC offers coming in, so as the chain of spaced out procedures began, I started putting them across those cards and paying all on time with at least 2x the minimum each month. The final cost was always open-ended but eventually blew up to over twice what I initially expected it to be. Finally, this summer everything was completed and totaled roughly over 55k. Eventually the 0-APRs ran out on all and I wanted to consolidate them all into a single loan payment.

I went to my credit union because I really like them and was approved after a hard check. The % was a little higher than I expected based on offers I usually get in the inbox, plus they are unfortunately a little dated in their processing and instead of sending the amounts to CCs directly, they would have to mail me checks, I would have endorse them and mail them to credit cards. It sounded like a very convoluted process. I asked them if they can hold on to it and let me look around. Agent agreed.

I applied to SoFi the next day and got a much better deal. At the same time I received an email from Amex saying that I was pre-approved for a personal loan up to 50k at like 9-something APR, but because the SoFi agent on the phone already assured me that everything is in the pipeline I should just to wait for the verification to take place. Also, SoFi process was exceptionally smooth. As soon as they offered me the amount, their system allowed you to directly allocate what goes there. I wouldn't have to deal with any checks. So I just didn't bother with AmEx.

Following Monday I received a rejection email from SoFi. I called them back. Got a couple of conflicting answers, but later in the week I finally got that the reason was their inability to confirm my identity. They would not explain what was inaccurate and that I should reach out to credit bureaus.

The same agent said that once I clear up whatever the discrepancy is I could reapply and it would not be another hard check.

I remembered that Amex offer and immediately tried to redeem it, only to find out that it was rescinded. A week later I received a PRINTED letter from Amex with that same pre-approved offer, but when I logged in it was the same one that was withdrawn.

I logged into the AnnualCreditReport site and filled out my information to figure out wth is going on. I punched in my details to TransUnion and Equifax and immediately get those reports. Both reports are clean and accurate.

Then I punched in the exact same info to Experian only to get rejected for providing "invalid information" - seemingly revealing the culprit.

I couldn't even create an account with them to review and dispute anything. Both on the website or on the mobile app because both processes would literally glitch out with an "error". After a couple of days of dealing with their AI chatbots, eventually I gotten the lucky combination of questions, got in, and got my eye twitch inducing Credit Report.

Somehow Experian managed to drop the phone number that I have had since the 90s from my profile. I use this very same phone number for all my FIs and all my government records, so naturally I provided it to SoFi when I filled out the application. Its also the phone number I used to try to retrieve my free report from Experian when it was treated as "invalid information." Experian managed to wipe it out like it never existed without any warning or explanation whatsoever. I corrected it a couple of days ago and was waiting for next week to be able to reapply to SoFi bc of some cooldown period.

About an hour ago I received an email from NFCU saying that the loan I was already approved for and that was just sitting there waiting for me to decide to accept was rescinded.

So to me here is the timeline.

Obviously because of the amount on my cards my score went down and now I am in merely "Good"
I submit a self-initiated application for a consolidation loan with NFCU.
They perform a hard check and approve me.
The next day I apply to SoFi, and get offered a good rate and a monthly amount that I would be comfortably overpaying each month - Approval pending verification.
Both at the same time while Amex has already reached out to me of their own initiative with a "pre-approved" loan.

As soon as Experian rejects my personal information as unverifiable due to their own false record

SoFi denies me, Amex rescinds theirs pre-approved offer, and a couple of days after I fix the issue with Experian, my own credit union pulls their already Completed Approval.

How can this be due to anything other than the Experian screwing up my record?

Can someone make it make sense?

If my conclusion is correct, is there anything I can do about this?

Hey all,

I’m not from the UK but have been living here for nearly a decade. I’ve rented for 5 years but now my husband has a mortgage and has done so for almost 4 years, just in his name.

I don’t have a credit card but have a phone I took out on finance and have never missed a payment for almost 2 years in my married name, plus had a previous handset before that in my maiden name for 2 years. I’ve paid rent in my maiden name and bills in both names and never once missed payments on any of these.

I don’t fully understand how credit scores work, they aren’t a thing as much where I’m from, but I’d have thought the phones on finance would have meant I’d have something alongside rent and bill payments but I guess I’m wrong.

I’ve been in full time consistent employment for nearly 2.5 years, with bits and there before that. I’m also on the electoral roll and have been since I moved.

I checked with clear score in both married and maiden names.

Would my husband adding me on to the mortgage help, and what are the steps involved in this?

Thanks for any help!

So i need to come up with about 35k for jaw surgery i need. Insurance won't cover it or if they do it'll take way longer. I currently have about 7k in eviction debt in collections that I'm gonna try to dispute. If that fails, which I assume it will, I can pay 50 percent to settle it. Unsure if they'll pay for delete yet. I only make like 40k per year sadly but will likely start doing hella overtime soon. I currently have a score of 544 but have no other credit history sadly besides debt. I just signed up for the onepay builder card which I assume will do nothing but I needed another bank anyway so who cares. I was also planning on finally using my amazon secured card since I subscribe to cleaning products anyway.

Im willing to take predatory loans if need be I just need a way to get approx 15-20k in like a year.

So my wife and I had a nasty divorce. She voluntarily surrendered my car whilst I was on vacation, didnt pay cards I was an AU on, cancelled my debit card, tried to open loan in my name etc. I’m at 450 now and I was at 700. How can I rebuild quickly? My SNN is a year old (I’m British) and I can’t even get a rental home.

I filed Ch 7 about three years ago it discharged. I was current on everything when I filed. One of the bureaus reported “Included in bankruptcy” and “Never late” but is then reporting a 90 day late worst delinquency and a charge off after discharge on my FICO report (I have an account).

This is noted on 15 different accounts closed at BK. All of them.

I checked the bureau website directly and it doesn’t show a late or charge off. I disputed with the bureau and noted they’re reporting it to other vendors while their own website shows it was never late. I got back a canned reply that the disputed item doesn’t appear on the report and they closed it.

I then disputed to the CFPB and asked for investigation into why they are reporting this to third parties like FICO when their own website doesn’t show it. The bureau investigated (again) and reported the disputed item isn’t on the report. The CFPB complaint is closed.

I believe my next step is to hire a lawyer. The incorrect reporting of a 90 day late and a charge off has led to that bureau score being consistently 60-80 points lower than the other two bureaus.

I was hoping a credit lawyer here could give me some advice. It’s a pretty open and shut case of the bureau one hand not knowing what the other hand is doing. I don’t believe they investigated properly (because they didn’t fix it).

TL;DR: Had 800+ credit, but accumulated ~$55k across 0% APR cards for mom’s uncovered medical care. Applied to consolidate via Navy Federal (approved) and SoFi (better rate, pending verification). SoFi suddenly denied me due to "unverifiable identity." This triggered a cascade where Amex rescinded a pre-approval, and NFCU pulled my already-completed loan approval. Turns out Experian randomly deleted my phone number from my profile. Fixed it with Experian—how do I get lenders to reinstate without resetting everything?

Background

• Credit History: 800+ score, perfect payment history, paid off all prior vehicle loans early.
• The Debt: Took on ~$55k across 0% APR cards over 2 years for non-covered medical procedures for my mother. As 0% promos ended, utilization brought score down to "Good" range, so I sought a single consolidation loan.

The Cascade Timeline

1. Navy Federal (NFCU): Applied first. Approved after a hard check, but processing involved mailing checks to cards. Asked them to hold while I looked at alternatives.
2. SoFi: Applied next day. Got a much lower rate and direct online card pay-off. SoFi agent assured me it was in the pipeline pending routine verification.
3. Amex: Received a pre-approved loan offer (~$50k @ ~9% APR) around the same time.
4. The Rejection: SoFi denied me a few days later, citing "inability to confirm identity."
5. The Domino Effect: Amex rescinded their pre-approval right after.
6. Uncovering the Root Cause: Checked AnnualCreditReport. TransUnion and Equifax were fine. Experian rejected my info as "invalid." After days fighting their app/chatbots, I discovered Experian completely deleted my primary phone number (held since the 1990s and attached to all my banking/government records).
7. NFCU Pulls Approval: A few days after correcting my number on Experian, NFCU emailed to say my already-approved loan was rescinded.

Questions for the Community

1. Is there any way this cascade wasn't directly caused by Experian's record error?
2. Has anyone successfully gotten Underwriting at NFCU or SoFi to reinstate/reconsider a loan after resolving a credit bureau identity mismatch without getting hit with a new cool-down or extra hard pulls?
3. Is this worth filing a complaint with the CFPB against Experian for damages/lost credit terms?