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What do you consider to be a high rate? How long are your payment terms? How long to plan on keeping your car? Did you get new or used? These all factor in what you can do and what it is best to do.

But, if you are trying to raise your score, you don't want to close your car loan and open a new one, that will give you a double-whammy against your score, just as your existing car loan will start to really help. (New lines of credit take about 12 months of positive payments and activity to really start helping you).

What is your credit card utilization, both overall and on each card? You want to get your utilization down to under 30% on each and across the board. That will likely give you your biggest boost. Start with your highest interest rates and work from there.

Two things:

(1) Old credit lines were closed, so you are not continuing with a payment history (no new payments, old ones dropping off), your average age of credit likely decreased, and you have less of a mix of credit (installment vs. revolving). Though paying on debt is good, paying off debt tends to be bad for your score.

(2) A new credit card does not really help until it is at least a year old. It takes 12 months of usage and being in good standing. Additionally, the hard inquiry, the average age of open credit lines, etc, hurt your score.

The good news is, over time, the new card will help. The bad thing is, whenever someone has new debt, they typically take a hit. And, other bad news is that when you close any line of credit, even by paying it off, you take a hit.

$10k of identity theft insurance is barely any insurance at all. If you feel as if you actually need identity theft insurance, you'd want high six digits into seven digits of insurance. Once your identity is stolen, there is alot that can happen.

Is it worth having? It depends on you. If you are someone whose name may get into the spotlight in a positive fashion, someone with a high income, or anything else that may have people believe that you would be someone worth 'becoming,' then it may be worth it.

But, be careful of what you are paying for. The major credit (and debit) cards have 0 liability for identity/card theft. If a loan was taken out under your name and not properly authorized by you, then you do not have liability. It it only covers liability, you are typically covered. Good insurance would cover administrative and legal costs to recover your identity and credit. It would cover damage done to your credit. It would cover any additional costs that you may have (such as a credit rate increase).

Is the $5/month fee from your bank worth it? How much are your checks worth?

Any revolving credit account that is unused can count against you, as there is a lack of payments and usage on its history. However, it likely helps from a utilization point of view on your score. It doesn't hurt to periodically get something through it, even if it is a lamp, in fact, it would help.

For bad marks in your credit report (such as collections), the older the account, the less impact it has on your score.

Do you have any installment loans? A mixture of installment loans and revolving credit helps your score (there seems to be a reward for having a mix).

For the collections account, I'm not sure of a valid way to have those removed before the 7 year mark hits. Most places that offer 'credit repair' are scams. Others use questionable methods that can get potentially get you in legal trouble if they don't do things the right way.

You didn't give any information (such as your score), so no way to even make an educated guess.

Also, keep in mind that your debt-to-income ratio also comes into play, and can keep someone with an 800 score from getting a loan, whereas someone with a 680 can.

If he is a co-signer on the loan, it is reported on his credit report, so, it does affect his credit.

Is his name also on the title? Many loans require that all parties on the loan also be on the title. If his name is not on the title, depending on the terms of the loan and the state in which you live, he may be able to get relief. If so, he needs to make sure that it is retroactive to his name no longer being on the title, and then use that documentation to get his credit report updated/changed.

Your regular household bills (electric, phone, gas, etc) have nothing to do with your credit score, unless they go into collections.

Only debt has an impact on your credit score. As long as both of you are listed as being responsible for a debt, it goes on both of your credit reports. It doesn't matter whose name is first.

If you are looking at your regular household bills, there are other factors as to why his credit may have passed you that have nothing to do with paying your water or sewage bills.

If you have a long history of good credit and relations with the creditor, and you have an overall good credit score, do a little research and find out more about the different card types, etc, that the bank may offer, as well as the range of rates they offer for your type of card. It doesn't hurt to approach them and ask, but it definitely helps if you have done some research of your own to understand what rates and products they have. One solution may be to ask them to move your account (not close the current and open a new) to another type of card that may have a lower rate.

Bankruptcy stays on the report for 10 years.

After bankruptcy, you cannot get an FHA-backed mortgage for 2 years, and it is typically 4 years for a non-FHA-backed mortgage.

So, at this point, if you were to get an FHA mortgage, you can. Before applying to different banks, find out how they take both potential creditors into consideration. Some will mainly look at the spouse with the better combination of score and debt-to-income ration, where others use a formula that merges both. So, before applying and having any pull your scores, find out more about their revaluation process.

You would need to show proof (by the courts or other official documentation that someone is to take ownership of it) that it was not your responsibility to pay, and it was someone else's responsibility. Otherwise, you are stuck with it at this time.

With that said, if an insurance company has avoided paying for something that is clearly on them, then you can pursue legal recourse against them, not only for the amount, but also for the damage being done to your credit.

Banks report data to the credit agencies once per month. Depending on when they may have fully credited your accounts and closed them, it can take a couple of months from the time you make the payment until it is reflected on your credit report.

When going to rent, one of the items that they may look at is your debt to income ratio. The mortgages will likely make a huge chunk of the debt piece of the ratio, so it will be good to have any correspondence that shows that they are paid off as proof that your debt to income ratio is better than your credit report.

If the reason why your home was going to auction is reflected in a negative light on your credit report, that, not necessarily whether or not the loans are paid off, can be as much of an impediment to being accepted as a renter as your debt-to-income ratio.

It also depends on the quality of place, amount of your rent, etc, for the likelihood of being accepted or rejected.

It depends on your situation as to when you will start seeing good improvement. It also depends on whether those accounts are closed and in collections or whether they are still open and you are catching up.

If open and catching up, it takes 4 years for old payments to start dropping off your report (credit reports track the last 48 months of payments).

How fast your credit recovers depends on all factors of your credit. You might start seeing improvement within a month, or it could take a year or more before you start seeing much improvement.

An equity loan is a set amount that you are given, and you make standard payments until it is paid off. You cannot pull more money from it. It is a loan.

A line of credit is similar to a credit card in that you can borrow money against it, pay it back, and borrow again. The difference between it and a credit card is that the equity in your home is typically collateral.

An equity loan is an installment loan. An equity line of credit is a revolving loan.

To get your score up, you need a mix of active installment and revolving credit accounts. With your car paid off, that actually hurts you on some components.

Not having many credit lines on your report also hurts.

A credit score measures how you manage your credit. It 'rewards' people who have more lines of credit, especially with active lines of credit.

There are two components of your average age of credit. One is for all accounts (open and closed) and one is for only open credit lines. They both come into play.

When those closed and paid off loans drop off, it they will likely negatively impact the average age of all credit.

When did the delinquency first appear on his card, before or after you were removed as a signer? If before, you were responsible for the debt at that time, and as such, it cannot be removed.

If after, I'm not sure what steps really need to be taken.

You can pull your own report as often as you would like without any impact to your report or score. When you pull your own report, it is considered a soft inquiry and does not report into your credit report.

Were there any additional hard inquiries on your account? What changes did you have to your revolving credit utilization? Did you close any older debts recently, their monthly payments are expiring off your credit report (payment history tends to be for 48 months), and maybe dropped the average age of open credit lines?

There are a number of factors. You need to look at some of the details and figure out what changed. Any number of factors could be in play.

I am a bit leery of ARMs. You may be good for the first five years of it, but in five years, what will the rate be? One of the things that led to many foreclosures and bankruptcies a couple years ago was a huge increase in mortgage payments due to the change in mortgage rates for those who took an ARM.

You also want to consider impact to your credit. How much longer do you have on your current mortgage? Mortgages are good for your credit score, what other mix of credit do you have after 5 years?

You also want to consider what happens if your financial situation changes, and you aren't able to pay more than the minimum and get it paid off in five years. Instead, I'd maybe look at 15 year fixed mortgages. You might not give up much for APR and you have the lower payments built in if you need to go past five years (or maybe you decide that having the mortgage around for another 10 years is not so bad).

Is this site having problems with your account when it accesses transunion? If so, you want to get hold of support. But, never send your SSN or other personally identifiable information in email.

If you keep those cards open and once you have established a credit history with the new installment loan (and keep the cards both active and with low utilization), your score will likely go up. However, if you close cards or run them up, your score can drop.

Yes, a creditor can cancel or reduce a line of credit at any time. Whether they can without notice depends on the state in which you live.

It is also possible that there is an error in the bank's system that gave you that information on their web site. You should call, confirm, and find the details if they did cancel your line of credit.

Bankruptcy is on your report for 10 years. Even if you file and it is not granted, because you requested it, it is on your report that long.

There is no way to get it off your report until those 10 years pass.

These types of scams are becoming more and more common. There is another where they call and claim that they can help you reduce your credit card interest and lower your payments, and are associated with Visa and Mastercard, but when pressed, they will not give any specifics that do not sound as if they are making it up.

It is unlikely that they actually have your information. Instead, they will likely be asking you to 'verify' your information with them, which would then give them your information. Instead of asking for more information on their office first, ask them to verify your SSN back to you. This will let you know if they actually have the information and if you need to take further action to protect yourself.

The first key to knowing if someone has your information and trying to use it is if your hard inquiries are incrementing when you have not applied for any cards, etc.

You can put a 'lock' on your credit reports with each of the agencies, but this would also prevent you from being able to get additional credit, as well.

Actually, they do need your permission to run a credit report that would be considered a hard inquiry. A company that has a relationship with you (handling a line of credit) can pull a report on you as it relates to that account, but should pull it as a soft inquiry.

You should write the credit collection agencies and have them explain why they pulled your credit report, and why it was pulled as a hard inquiry without your permission to do so.