ladald

you can try to negotiate with them for a pay for deletion. Effectively you offer to pay off some amount and they have to promise you IN WRITING to contact the credit bureaus and delete the entry.

To do that you need to know who has the final debt -- th eoriginal creditor did not sell your debt twice -- they sold it to one collector and that collector sold it to the second one.

Don;t give out your SS number next time.

First off your available unsecured debt increased which will initially decrease your credit score until you prove with time that you can manage the extra available credit. Second, each of those credit cards probably also hit your report with a hard credit inquiry which temperarily also decreases the credit score.

Bottom line: this is normal, and if you use your new credit cards responsbily (keeping them at <30% utlilization, paying on time) it will bound back in a few months

First off, CK score is not a fico score -- it is a transunion score. Secondly, even if it were the same score, it could vary by a few points on daily basis.

That said, congratulation on raising your score by over 100 pts :D

First off, remember that you will be paying a fee for the transfer. So it is not entirely free to do this shifting. If your current debt is at a low interest rate (<5%) it may not be worth it. However, if it is higher then you coudl save some money. After the 0% rate expires, the rate will go back up and will probably be high; that said, it is a good idea to do it especially if you are using the money you would be using on interest to pay down the debt. Just remember to shop around a month or so before the 0% interest expires to park your debt at the best place you can find.

I disagree. First pay yourself first -- make sure you are saving in your rainy day fund, and in your 401k. Make a budget, see what you can afford to pay and pay that assuming it is mroe than the minimum payment. If you haven;t paid of the debt for a while, maybe call the lender and try to work out a payment plan.

You said you stopped making payments to force the bank to accept your short sale. You were late on your payments. So the bank is correct to put that on your credit report.

You really want to keep your utlization rate below 30%. You could call the credit card company and ask for a credit line increase.

Well it is never a good idea to go into debt; however, sometimes bad ideas are the only thing left.

The improtant thing to ask is if you need the car to get to work and get food: i.e. could you walk or bike to work? is there public transportation to work? do you have a really good friend who drives to work and can drop you off? If there is any way to get to work without your car then you should instead save your money and pay for the repairs later on. If on the other hand you need to have a car to go to work, then you should go the credit card route. (If you need car for say shopping, you could rent a car cheaply for one day and do a bunch of food shopping for example)

Note that when you get your credit card, your credit score will go down for a few months. Also make a budget and know exactly how much you can pay off each month so you know how long it will take you to pay off and how much the credit will cost you.

yes with some work on your part. I mean you cangive specifics and we can give you advice. It will take a few years of course

If you are not paying all your bills in full i.e. jsut paying more than the minimum payment, then your debt is increasing. that would lead to lwoeringof score. But in reality w3e cannot tell you  -- you can, hwoever, by examinining the changes since the last time you looked at your score.

Not exactly true -- i have credit cards that are not AmEx that have balance (and sadly rpetty high) but sinc emy sredit score ius greater than 700, I pay my AmEx cards in full, they are happy. The problem is that the large charge dropped your score.

Contact yur bank or better yet your local union and see what they have to offer you for a secured card.

First, creditsesame is Experian This uses Transunion. Secondly, the scores are not true fico scores eitehr  -- they are other models. The reality is that there are many many many scoring models and it is unclear which one a lender will use. So use this for educational purposes mostly, to monitor how yoau re doing and togehter witht eh annualcreditreport.com free reports to montior the whole situation.

Only you can tell: were you late ona  bill. did you increse your utilization? Did you get new credit?

Do you use mroe than 30% on each? If yes, there goes your culprit. Also yeah 4 months is not that long. At 6 months you could ask for credit limit increase. At about 12 months is when you see meaningful change. Also check your credit report for any current negatives that may have shown up.

It is not good idea. Teh damage to your credit (the hard pull, the lowering of your average lines of credit) is done. May as well keep it for the few benefits it does have (extra card, increased credit limit).

The way to get good history is to charge no more than 30% on the credit cards and to pay them in full by due date. That means using no more than 66 on the 200.00 one and 90 on the other. In 6 months ask for a credit limit increase.

You could always close the card after you are done paying it off. Then logn term you would be fine too.

I mean yes MasterCard and Visa have a deeper market penetration in the US -- they are everywhere, while American Express and Discover less so. However, plenty of places do take american express and i use it predominantly. I do have one of each cards for just in case, but 90% of everything i pay is done through the AmExpress. So that particular reasoning is BS.

Also contact social services -- they could help you with heat or groceries or what not.

your local credti union is yoour best bet. However, the most likely scenario is that you take teh debt and co-own the car ...or at -least cosign the loan. 18 yr old is too young to be trusted from credit company perspective usually

pull your credit report and see what the negatives are (you get 1 of each bureaus for free every 12 months at annualcreditreport.com)

Worry first about your financial well being then about the credit scores. That siad consider your credit score -- what is it right now? Because if it is too low you will not get approved for a new card and you won't be able to transfer balances.

You need to get control of your finances. That means making a budget (includign emergency fund) of essentials and attack the debt. To improve your credit score you need to get your utilization on each card to below 50% then below 30%. To improve your finances though you would make min payments on all cards and anything else you can ont he highest interestt rate card. Then when that one is paid off do not cancel it -- keep it around, but roll all that you were paying on that card as payment to the next highest interest rate card etc.

Of course if those debts are close to their 7 yr mark you may choose to ignore them. But then colectors will come after you if they haven;t already and you ahev to deal with that.

Oh and mean to say sorry to hear all thsi bad stuff ahs been happening.

Well are you in debt, what kind of debt and can you keep up with it?

Start by making a budget -- things you have to get are house, food, heat in winter.  Very modest budget for entertaining -- maybe internet only? Health stuff.  Think of what you can cut out -- go on a prepaid phone for emergencies only. The left is your income that you should spend on building up emergency fund and your debts. When you have done that and if you find you cannot keep up, call up the lenders and negotiate. I'd start with the secured debts first -- like house and car. I'd put unsecured debt last cause well if you ahve to default on it then you don;t loose the roof over your head or the movbility to function in this society. Explain to them the situation  -- they'd want to settle rather than you default. Yes sttlements will hurt your score. But it is not like you would be making major purchases without income anyways, right?