ladald

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?

look if it is showing up on your credit report (freecreditreport.com). If is is showing up and if by removing it your average age of credit goes way down then it wil hurt you. You could also try the credit karma simulator option to close oldest card to see the change. But the question is why bother to close it?

Dispute the collection with the bureau -- you may be able to get more information. If on the other hand, they jsut remove it, then keep your money and move on.

my magic ball says it is all fuzzy.   We need more information -- do you know your credit score, do you have any cards, delinquencies , debt, utlilization ratio?  Are you trying to rebuild, increase your credit lines, what?

You dispute the item with the credit bureau. They will have to verify it and when they fail it wil disappear

Keep pestering them.

Yes you shoudl take it. The ding fromt eh credit hit will pass in a few months, the extra credi availabel wil be good long term, and it will save you money on the existing debt.

It will impact your score positively, it would not affect her score. Unless you know you go on a spending spree....

The information is correct -- the settlements included a charge off. Having said that, pay off your JCP card or at least keep it below 30% util at all times. See what credit card your bank or credit union can offer you and if you have to get a secured card. In 6 months of paying it every time on time, and keepign everything under 30% util ask fro credit limit increase, in a year for it to be unsecured.

No, Smartypig is just a savings account. It would be good to show that you have savings account when you apply for credit, but it does not affect the credit score.

Again, 1 credit card is too little in general. Your best bet is to go find your local credit union  and talk to them. If you are not a member yet, become one. Credit unions are non profit unlike banks and also smaller. Thsi allows them to work better with the customers and be nicer. Starting witht hem may be the way to go.   Why aren;t you allowed to take student loans? Are you an international student? If yes, then other restrictions apply to you -- credit comapnies tend to be hesitant to extend credit when you can just charge it up and leave the country. Before I continue on this point though I will stop unless you tell me you are intl student.

Because credit scores are very quick to drop at the first sign of trouble and very slow to build back up. The idea is that if you have a problem once, then you are mroe likely to have problem again and you have to prove you are reliable all over again. IT is irrelevant that the "problem"  is created by stupid time difference in accounting. The good news is that when your current promotion expires you can do the reverse transfer and your score should go up. Also presumably you are getting out of debt faster. The bad news is that credit scores continue to suck since they are influenced by such vagarities..

Yes it will drop off in 7 years but if you still owe money then the debt will be sold and resold to collection companies and each of them can add a new delinquent line to your record. And every time you contact, talk to , accept certified mail from any of those companies it will reage the account.  Of course then you could try to negotiate a pay for delete. Something you may consider doing now anyways. In the end you can decide what course of action to take (provide shelter, food and then worry about credit score).
 

It can depend. First are you transfering toa new card or existing one? If new one then there is going to be a short term hit due to hard inquiry but ina few months you will recover. It also depends on when the two cards report. Say you have 5k on card A and you have card B. If card A reports, you transfer and then card B reports before card A reports again, it would look like now you have 10k debt (5 on A and 5 on B). Your score will drop. However, if card A reports, you  transfer and card A reports again before card B then it would like now you have 0k debt and your score will go up. It will then go a bit down once B reports but the net effect is possitive. So with that said, do the calculation: if it will reduce the debt you are in, then i'd do it (and have done it).

If you close them, your average account age will drop. Hence your score will drop. Try the credit simulator to see what effect closing your oldest account will most likely have. If it is acceptable cancel the other of the two cards. Keep that one card for a couple of months, see how your score is. Then you can see againw aht the effect is if you close your oldest account and this time if it is acceptable close that one.   How do you know if the drop would be acceptable? Well building credit takes time. If youa re considering pruchasing home/car applying for new rental apt (or whatever would require credit check) in the next few montsh then you should consider not cancelign them till you get the loan and cancel them later.  

If it is valid, you do not. If it is an error, then dispute with all three credit bureaus. Kep record of what you send them and when.

You should have a Wells Fargo account that shows paid as agreed  or transfered in full, and should be a closed account. This should age as any closed account i.e. stay around for 7 years. You should also have a new bank account (wherever your morgage is now). This should be revolving/open and show your payments. I'd give credit bureaus 30-60 day after the morgage was transfered for them to update it. In the mean time call Wells Fargo and ask them to update that the Wells Fargo account was closed/transfered in good standing. After that 30-60 day time I'd dispute with all credit bureaus.

remember you can get one of each of the reports every 12 months for free at annualcreditreport.com

Ok you imply you have one credit card. Call them and ask them to report to the other credit beureaus. Having said that 1 credit card does not make a thin file better. You wouldn't want to bet on me just because once in high school I made a basket from the opposite half of the basketball court, woudl you? Work on getting more credit lines. Use them only up to 30% and pay them on time but not before your statement is due (this is so that the credit card has something to report at the end of each billing cycle when you statement comes out). Expect taht each time you ask for credit your score will temporarily dip and think of this as a long trm project. Realise that rent, electric, phone, ethernet, grabage, water, sewage and whatever bills are not reported unless they are reported for non payment. In other words, not paying them can hurt you , but you get no more benefit to your credit score for paying them.   as for more infomration -- number of credit cards, their limis, how much is the max you use them, any car loans, home loans, student debts, personal line of credit etc? Also what was the message when transunion and equifax couldn't pull out your information?

First do remove yourself as authorised user. I think they will stay but I do not know honestly. Hwoever, then you can start working on your credit history without being saddled withyour parents debt problems.   Next go to your local credit union or bank and see if they'd give you a credit card. It may have to be a secured card -- against a deposit-- but that is a good start. Use no more than 30% of it and pay it off on time every month. In 6 or so month you should ask them to switch it to unsecured. If yuo bank/credit union refuses (btw credit unions are nicer than banks) then people around here seem to recommend orchard bank for a secured card.

See http://www.creditkarma.com/question/your-advice-made-my-score-drop-whats-up as to why what happened happened. Briefly -- a score will temprorarily drop with a new credit line due to the hard inquiry but within a few months the new credit line more than makes up for the difference. That is assuming you do not have much more than 10 cards already and that you are responsible with them.

The hard pull "cost" to your credit report will very quickly age -- 3 months it will be small, 6 months it will be even smaller and soon it won;t matter. The value of the  increased credit lines and total available credit will only increase with time. The advice is sound -- just don't think of credit as an instant gratification. It takes time to build it up (and minutes to destroy).  Think of it as excercise -- the first day you exercise your body is in pain. The next day you are probably feeling worse than yesterday but the day after that you are better off.   It can take 30-60 days for your credit card to report to the credit bureaus. Use your credit cards wisely, including the new one, and watch for long term tends not minute differences from day to day or week to week. There is a way to use those variations to leverage a slightly better score sometimes but only once you have mastered the long term trends.

The score is not based on the grades you get. Think fo the grades as guidelines to help you improve. For example say you and I both have two credit cards, 1K limit per card, same interest rate and we both carry the same 600 dollars in debt. But say I have 300 on each card and you have 600 on one card and 0 on the other. Each of our total debt utlilization ratio is 600/2000=30%. However on each of my cards the utilization ratio is 300./1000=30% and on one of your cards util ratio is 600/1000=60%. So my score will be higher even though we really do have the same situation in aggregate.  And if you make more moeny you would be better off but that is not part of the score. The credit score does not measure credit worthiness, your financial well being or anything like that. The credit score is meant to help the credit company optimize its money making ability. People who balance their debt low as above are considered better with their money (for some infernal statistical or who knows what reasons).  People with variety of credit products are also considered better credit risk even if the loans are for the same amount or even more. I am sure there are many other examples.

You could try asking -- I mean the worst they can do is say no which leaves you exactly where you are. However, the chances you will get that are slimmer than slim.