embarrassed to admit but my credit is really bad

[bambii]

a couple of years ago we paid a deposit to file for bankrupt. and never went threw with it.. and now im would like to get my credit in order by paying some of them down when i get my income tax. cause i really want a house.


how do i start?? i need to find out who i owe money to??

and i lost my job in dec i worked there for two years.... every where i go i put in applications.

 

[bumbershoot]

First off,

www.creditboards.com has good info and good forums. They'll point you in the right direction. I believe your first step will be requesting your credit reports.

 

[Cindyluwho]

You are allowed one free credit report a year from the top three credit reporting agencies. Look them over and it will show you everything that you owe outstanding and how many late payments you have. It will also show if you have any collections.
-First, contact the collection agencies and see if they will make a deal. Get it in writing and pay them off. Do NOT make a deal if you're not going to follow through, because then they'll really go after you!
-Pay every bill so that it's current. Mortgage, rent, every single credit card, etc.
-If you have 30, 60 or 90 day lates showing on any of your accounts; write to the credit agency and ask to have them removed. They then contact the creditor and the company has only a certain amount of days to respond. If they don't respond back to the credit reporting agency in time - the lates are removed.
-Set up a time frame to get all your credit cleaned up. About 15 years ago we set our minds to be debt free except for house and cars and to completely clean up our credit. It took us 1 year and it was the best thing we ever did!

 

[Shmily1]

Go over to the budget boards here on the Dis and there are lots of people there that can help you. Making a budget and commiting to it would be a great start. For motivation, you may want to try youneedabudget dot com and daveramsey dot com.

 

[Boston Tea Party]

I second creditboards.com. There is a TON of advice over there, much of it very reliable. I started lurking over there when we began getting things in order to buy a house. They are lifesavers.

 

[preshi]

Did you watch Oprah today? If you go to her site you can download Suze Ormans new book for free. She had A ton of really good advice! I am in your shoes too and I feel ya!

 

[Planogirl]

If you haven't yet, go to annualcreditreport.com and get your free credit reports. You can get a good idea of who all you owe and how to contact them. You can certainly dispute the accounts for lates and for not being yours if you believe that is the case. The creditors do usually respond though particularly if there's a balance from what I understand.

FYI: there will at least be addresses for the companies on the credit reports. The credit bureaus do not have phone numbers but most of them should be easy to look up on the Internet.

 

[DMickey28]

We have been where you are and are crawling out of it because we too want a house. Our goal is to buy this summer. We are focusing on DH's credit right now since he is the income provider and I have no problem buying the house in his name only.

www.creditboards.com and also www.FICO.com has a good board, especially for mortages. I just found them today.

Be strong and believe in what your are doing. Trust me, it is much easier to live with your head in the sand because honestly it makes you uncomfortable to face what you have done with your credit. It's hard to go to the boards and see what you have done wrong, but it's also very empowering to know you can fix it and it really doesn't have too take forever. I went to those boards so many times, convinced I was going to take control and never did. We finally got serious about it a year ago and it makes a huge difference. We are just finishing up paying off DH's cards and his score is going up by leaps and bounds every month. Next we are going to tackle mine.

Good Luck

 

[Golf4food]

Another thing to do: stop getting a tax refund. If you get money back you are paying too much each paycheck into your taxes and are just wasting that money all year. Lower your deduction each paycheck by changing your W-4 so that you get all that money in your pocket each paycheck and then use it to pay down debt that much faster (don't spend it at Target or Starbucks, put it towards paying down your debt). If you get back $2,000 a year on average from your tax refund that is roughly $166 per month more that you could be paying towards your credit cards or other debt. You pay interest on debt = you lose more money. You get no interest from a tax refund = you lose money. Either way you are losing money. Get it up front and pay down those debts faster.