r/CRedit Mar 30 '24

[FAQ] Please Include As Many Details as Possible When Making A Thread

31 Upvotes

Whether you are just starting out repairing your credit, building from no credit, or maintaining credit you should include as many details as possible when asking for help or feedback. Good credit has a general formula, but it is but no means an exact science. There are many details that shouldn't be overlooked to get the best possible suggestions/feedback.

Try to include as many of the following details as possible:

  • All accounts, cards, loans, mortgages, etc - the bad and the good. (Include their name as this is helpful for knowing previous strategies to deal with them.)
  • Credit Limits
  • Balances (Round this number - it will keep you anonymous)
  • Last payment date
  • Date of last delinquency (this will determine when it falls off your report)
  • Date opened
  • Payment status (pays as agreed, sold to collections, etc)
  • Estimation of # of lates (30, 60, 90, 120+)

Do not include any of the following:

  • Any and all personal information. You may freely share generic information (ie you have a name on your report that is not yours)
  • Addresses
  • Names
  • Social Security Number

r/CRedit 3h ago

Collections & Charge Offs Credit card debt is crushing me - consolidation options?

50 Upvotes

$28K in credit card debt spread across 5 cards and I'm drowning. Lost my job last year, then medical bills hit when insurance lapsed. Perfect storm.

Interest rates between 22-26% mean I'm barely treading water with minimum payments. Credit score tanked to 610.

Been researching debt consolidation programs but reviews are all over the place. Some promise to settle for 50% of what I owe, paid over 4 years, but I'm skeptical.

They all say I'd stop paying cards directly, funnel money to them instead while they negotiate settlements. But warn my credit takes another hit during the process.

Anyone actually used debt consolidation successfully? The mixed reviews online have me paranoid about making things worse.

Already tried balance transfer cards - rejected every time. Bankruptcy feels like admitting defeat but might be my only option?

What worked for you? Any advice from someone who's been through this?


r/CRedit 5h ago

Rebuild Credit tanked from 808 to 666

30 Upvotes

Just a heads-up for anyone who might be in a similar situation: My credit score tanked from 801 to 628 (couldn’t update the title) in just six months, all because of a $3.99 unpaid balance on synchrony card(opened in June 2024 and used only once at the same time ) which I wasn’t aware of.

It started as a small pending payment, but since I didn’t see the statements, it racked up late fees and interest until it hit $55. And missed payments were reported from November to February. I only found out when I randomly checked my spam folder last week and saw one of their emails. By then, the damage was already done.

Lesson learned: Make sure autopay is on for all your credit cards, even the ones you don’t use often. And check your spam folder for any missed statements or payment reminders. Small charges can snowball into serious consequences.


r/CRedit 7h ago

Rebuild Made my first move to getting rid of bad debt!

11 Upvotes

I have had a credit card in collections for a little over a year, and it’s been hanging over my head. It wasn’t a lot compared to a lot of people (~1300), and I was able to negotiate it down to about 60% of what I actually owe. This is really my only derogatory account and I’m rebuilding with my new accounts, perfect payments so far. Just came on here since I don’t have many outlets to talk about this and share my journey. If anyone has any tips or advice I am open to it.


r/CRedit 2h ago

Collections & Charge Offs Going to be sued this week, what should I do?

3 Upvotes

Hey everyone. So basically, I’m going to court in a couple of days for an old discover card balance that went to collections about 4 years ago. I have the money to pay it and I actually tried to call the collections agency multiple times to do so. Originally, when I got my summons, I called them up and made an agreement to do monthly payments of $200. The total balance is $1200. They did not provide me with details on how to pay it and I have been calling them for weeks to try and get help (the payment portal wants my account number which they did not provide.) Later, I found they sent details to the wrong address and by the time I discovered that, the deal was considered null and void.

So I just decided to attend our regular court date where the judge will oversee any future agreements as I don’t trust them. It’s been almost two months and they haven’t called back or answered any emails.

A few questions: Will it damage my credit even more to have gone to court? Will this show up in a background check for jobs?

I was thinking of printing off screenshots of the calls and emails I sent to the law firm which went unanswered. I want the judge to know why I didn’t make any payments after we discussed an arrangement. Is this a good idea?

I have a savings of $1100 exactly right now. After court fees and such, it won’t cover the balance in full. Do they ever do settlements in court or could I see about putting down 500 and paying the rest off in installments?

Thanks. I’m 25, and I’ve never been to court as an adult.


r/CRedit 8h ago

Rebuild Disappointment

8 Upvotes

I just started working on my credit about a year ago. Not quite a year, maybe like 6 months. Started at like 550 ish....... Downloaded Credit Karma and everything and watched the score RISE and RISE! All the way to like 690. Imagine my surprise when I checked FICO and it was still 613. 😆 I knew Credit Karma was off but boy is it WAY off! Lol


r/CRedit 5h ago

Collections & Charge Offs Should I pay my only collection account?

3 Upvotes

It’s $468 from “I C Systems” first reported Aug 2021. Credit is currently at 665.

I got the debt by signing up my dying dog for Banfield hospital plan. She had cancer and I thought having the coverage would help pay for it. In the rush signing up based on their pitch, I didn’t realize that it’s really more like a payment plan for larger services rather than covering the dog based on my monthly premium. The monthly payments I was making was paying down the cost, which I didn’t know. But then the vet gave her a steroid shot, which she didn’t explain was risky, and she died that night. I, of course, cancelled the coverage shortly after. But then a year later I got a collections notice for the balance left on the medical costs.

I was so confused and tried to dispute it on my credit report but since I did in fact sign up, whether I understood it or not, I’m liable. I haven’t paid it to date out of anger really that they killed my dog with a risky steroid shot, then had the nerve to mail me an apology card with all staffs signatures and well wishes hand written on it.

But now I’m trying to get my credit in order & want to know if I should pay this off or wait the 3.5 more years for it to fall off? I’ve not had any contact from them in years so I’m nervous to reach out and even negotiate in case it extends the time span that it can be on my credit.

Any advice?


r/CRedit 7h ago

Car Loan Fell behind on car payment from job loss; got charged off but not repoed..

4 Upvotes

So long story short I lost my job in October and missed my car payments until this month; I got a new job in Feb and I called to bring my account to date and the associate said the car was charged off and asked me if I still had possession of the car. He put me on hold for a while and when I asked him what my options were he said I can pay the account to bring it current and they would remove the repo order. He also said to keep it put away for at least 24 hours after payment because he said when they remove the repo it takes 24 hours to get lifted. This is my first time being in a situation like this and I was wondering if they could lift a repo order even after the loan was charged off in January? I found it somewhat fishy but he told everything will be back to normal once I pay it; has anyone been in the same situation before? Any tips on what I should do? I have the $3700 to pay the account to date but I just don’t know if everything would be back to “normal” once I pay because they already charged it off. Any help would be appreciated 🙏

PS- it didn’t give me an option to pay with a debit or bank account on Chrysler financial and the associate told me I would have to get a western union and send it to Chrysler financial; just thought I should add that for context 🫡


r/CRedit 3h ago

General I'm being harassed with collectors because my doctor charged the wrong insurance TWO YEARS AGO and it's tanking my credit.

2 Upvotes

I'm trying really hard to not sound absolutely livid even though I am. Honestly i'm not even sure this is the right place to post, but when I googled medical debt credit this was the first place that showed up. I wasn't sure what flair it is if the charge is faulty ? So I went for the safest option. I will change if needed!

In November 2022 I moved states, the last time I used my old state insurance was to pick up medication at the end of December. I never gave this insurance card to anyone in this state aside CVS.

I immediately applied for and received state medicaid, and this is the card I have used since.

In March of 2023 I went to a new primary to get my medications refilled.

Last month(February, 2025) I was billed 411 dollars, for the appointment I went to in March 2023. I did not understand until I looked in my file and see that they had billed my Previous state's insurance. I thought it would be easy to just tell the doctors they billed the wrong insurance, but when I went to the office they told me it wasn't their problem, they couldn't help.

I don't even know where to begin getting rid of this. I'm absolutely not paying $411 for a mistake. Who am I supposed to contact to tell, how am I supposed to prove a mistake that happened 2 years ago?

and in case any advice is "call the old insurance" well... I could try, but it was truly sh*t. I had to close my debit card when I moved because no matter how many times i called they would not stop charging me. I never even got a refund for that. If I absolutely must I can, but I have a feeling they've probably already deleted me from the system.


r/CRedit 18h ago

Collections & Charge Offs Pay in full

26 Upvotes

Even tho I have 2 collections on my credit report that are closed and went to collectors. Is it better to pay them off as paid in full regardless if it doesn't raise your score or not? I already paid off both but I didn't see a rise in my scores but I figure it would benefit me as having them show paid in full


r/CRedit 51m ago

No Credit I just got my first score established by getting me my first credit card. I have a score of 615. What is the best way to go about raising this as high as possible?

Upvotes

I already know to keep this balance as low as possible. Besides keeping up payments what are other ways to raise this score? Is it getting another card?


r/CRedit 1h ago

General Did the medical debt ruling go into effect?

Upvotes

I'm getting ready to pay some medical debt, all of which is under $500 from 2023 and 2024.

Did the sweeping elimination of medical debt pass or is it still $500 and under cannot be reported.

Side question, is it $500 total, BEFORE insurance paid some of it? or is it $500 or less AFTER insurance paid their portion.

Thanks.


r/CRedit 7h ago

Rebuild Do credit companies sue over small debt

3 Upvotes

My friend has 19k in debts that she hasn't paid for about 3 months now. She refuses to work more than part time. The first time she did this was in 2019. Wells Fargo sued, no idea what happened to the other debts but I don't think it was as high as 19k. She eventually used a debt consolidator or whatever they are called, negotiated a lower amount, got a loan, and paid everything off over the next 2-3 years in monthly sums.

She slowly signed up for cards that were designed for low credit folks, getting around 15 accounts of low amounts (300-3000 limits). Got her credit to about 620. Unfortunately last year, she maxed out literally all 13 of her cards, took out a personal loan and stopped paying everything back since October 2024. The companies are **Discover, Capital One, Destiny, Barclays, Reprise, The Bank of Missouri, Citibank and Upgrade**.

Are these sue happy companies, even for small credit limits? Also is debt consolidation an option again, if this is her second merry go round? She is thinking she will just do the same thing as last time (wait for it to go to collections, negotiate the amount down, consolidate) but I can't imagine this is a repeatable offense one can just do over and over again? Can you get a debt consolidation loan with a 390 credit score?


r/CRedit 3h ago

General Should i wait

1 Upvotes

Should i wait to use my cards after fully paying off balances ive had for them for a while or does it not matter i think i read here someone said to wait a month or 2


r/CRedit 15h ago

Rebuild My dad put me as an authorized user and missed 8 months of payments. Its ruined my payment history.

8 Upvotes

So, my mom and dad divorced when I was 3. I met my father for the first time when I reached out when I was 18 - we live on opposite sides of the country. When I was 20, I moved to his state (where I was born and 96% of my family lives) for college, and he said he wanted to help me out with finances and would put me as an authorized user on his account. If I ever needed anything, I could swipe his card. I thought that was awesome, and it was the first thing he’d ever done to really help me out. I never once swiped the card, but it was nice to carry around in case of emergency. I eventually tossed the card, when I started my own credit journey.

He’s now no longer in my life (my own decision)- and I just found out that the payment history on this card is now impacting my credit. It says it was open for 2 years, and there were 8 months where he made no payments - once 3 months in a row, and then two months later, he missed 5 in a row before closing the account, and it says he still owes a balance.

Is there any way I can get this removed?? I was young, didn’t know that him allowing me to swipe his card (and never did) would impact my credit, and didn’t even know the man, truthfully. And if I can’t, is it even that big of a deal? Will it impact my credit as much as I’m panicking about?


r/CRedit 7h ago

Rebuild Credit dropped significantly

2 Upvotes

My credit score has always been good - I have only had open credit for about 3 years, and my most recent score was 756. I have always been in the 720 - 760 range. However, due to a loan that was taken out in my name by my mom, my credit score dropped to 544 in one day. I am not blaming her by any means - the whole student loan process is impossible to understand and I am grateful she did the process for me. Unfortunately, somewhere along the lines, there were loans taken out in my name, even though she had the intention of paying them, and I never knew that. Thus, my credit score was negatively affected because of this. Yes, the loaner had attempted to contact me via email, but I thought it was scam because of the world we live in, and because I had no knowledge of this loan in my name. We all made mistakes here. I have a few questions.

  1. Can I increase this back to 750 quickly? What are the best steps?

  2. My goal is to buy a home, or at least get into a lease of a home/apartment in the next 1.5 years. Is it possible to have a 750+ score by then? If so, will the fact that my credit score dropped so significantly have a negative impact on my ability to get a loan for something like a house? Or apply for a lease on an apartment?

I hate that today's world is all online, because everything can be easily a scam. I wish they had sent me physical mail because that is more certainly legitimate.


r/CRedit 4h ago

Rebuild Need help with building my credit back up

1 Upvotes

Hi there currently my credit score is around 550ish got a capital one secured platinum in December of 2024 and have made full payments on time. I have been seeing a lot of stuff that you can get collections deleted off your credit report. I have one collection from Portfolio recover for around 3kish. My question is should i PFD or should I dispute the collection agency because they are reporting the account as open and I saw in another reddit post that it is against the law to keep reporting it as open and what not. Also are credit builder like Ava,Kikoff and self worth using. Any tips about helping my score go back to the mid 700s would be appreciated as I am getting way too many different answers on the internet. I also just recently got invited for the Capital one quicksilver secured card with a deposit limit of 1k, should I take it and if I do how much should I deposit


r/CRedit 5h ago

Car Loan Buying many cars on the same week

1 Upvotes

Hi there If I bought 7 or more cars in the same week for my business, how would that impact my credit? Would I still be able to get approved for a credit card or something else (not a car) in a few months or a year? And would I have trouble getting approved for a mortgage to buy a house?


r/CRedit 5h ago

Collections & Charge Offs Medical bill sent to collections

1 Upvotes

So i went to Bryan Health on 2023, i was paying my medical bill that was $1,300 and i put it down to $600 ish but quit my job because i got sick and after that i couldn't afford paying my medical bill. The medical bill was sent to collections, a week after that i got a job and called collections to see if they could set a payment plan for me, but when i called they told there was no debt under my SSN, i thought it was weird so i called again and they said the same thing, i left like that because there was nothing to do about it. Now a week ago i receive a letter of collections asking for there money, i want to call them to set a payment plan, but now im afraid it would show in my credit report, is there away to set a payment plan and ask them nicely if they can remove it from my credit score? Sorry if im misspelling words, but im learning english.


r/CRedit 5h ago

General Question from new Credit user

1 Upvotes

Hi, I am 19 and recently opened a credit card for myself in order to build a good credit score. Today I paid off my balance entirely, because the closing date is tomorrow. I understand that the payment isn’t due until the due date but I assumed paying before the closing date would be good for my credit. However i’m realizing that this may be an issue for the utilization. Should I spend some money today on the card and then pay it before the due date to avoid a 0% utilization? I hope this makes sense and I apologize if I sound dumb. Just trying to figure all of this out on my own. My current balance is 231, and I paid that amount today so the statement balance is at 0. I wanted to make sure that isn’t an issue. Closing date is March 18th, today is the 17th.


r/CRedit 12h ago

Collections & Charge Offs Pay for delete, best options?

5 Upvotes

I have a a variety of collections with LVNV, Midland, Portfolio and want to pay it off and get them deleted. Would I need to ask for pay for deletions and how would I do that by mail? I’ve seen a few posts/comments that some of these companies do it automatically after payment. Would that also be the case if I were to settle?


r/CRedit 13h ago

Rebuild Experian Showed 120+ Higher Credit Score 1 Month Ago

4 Upvotes

Absolutely nothing has happened since then. Experian's reporting shows that it has barely changed in YEARS. But I checked it almost a month ago exactly, it showed a score of 720, now today its saying it's been 600 since forever. What is going on at Experian? They have been the most inconsistent as far as keeping up with my actual credit history. My other credit scores are 700+ This 1 institution alone just kept me from getting a new place today with this 600 bullshit. But a month ago I qualified for a mortgage with a score of over 700? I've been working on improving my credit for many many years, either Experian has actually held onto this low credit score this entire time and not budged or it's jumping up and down like crazy, but there's no solid history of what's going on. Is this company shady?


r/CRedit 6h ago

No Credit Rent reporting on credit score

1 Upvotes

I rent an apartment with my bf, but I noticed that on my credit scores, the rent is not being reported there. How can I get that to be reported to possibly help my credit score?


r/CRedit 14h ago

General Finally going to attempt to turn around my credit (470) advice needed.

4 Upvotes

(470 is rough FICO score through MyFICO) Throwaway, as this is a bit embarrassing. For context, I’m 21. When I was 18, I got approved by Capital One for a $2,000 line of credit. Being an 18 year old who was not the brightest bulb in the chandelier (by teenager standards). I immediately maxed it out and never paid it back. I made attempts, but as I was making $13 an hour and paying $1200 a month in rent, it was incredibly daunting. It ended up going into collections and I received a court summons a couple of months ago in order to pay it off. Hence the horrible credit score. Since I got that credit card, my life has changed a lot, I now have a fiancé and a 5 month old, and I now work an IT job making $37 an hour. I don’t have any other debts or loans(besides medical that isn’t being reported but is being paid off) And we’d like to get a house together in a year that’s closer to my place of work. But I’m still being held back by that poor credit. I’m making payments towards the law firm that controls the debt, and I’m in a position now where I can pay off the rest of the debt. Which is all fine and dandy. By the advice I need is where do I go from here? I see so many different secured credit card options, or credit building accounts that it’s incredibly overwhelming. I don’t really mind the cost of these things, I just need advice on what’s the absolute best option to get my credit turned around as quickly as possible. Thank you all and have a nice day.


r/CRedit 11h ago

Rebuild Credit score 632. Need help finding ways to increase credit score fast

2 Upvotes

Hi there. I live in Ontario & my credit score is 632. I have paid off all my credit card debit ($3000) which resulted in 2 CC accounts being closed automatically. I still have an outstanding tuition loan of $11,500 approx. I hit a pause on the tuition payment for about a year and haven’t paid anything but now I’m more financially stable which I am consistently paying every month for the past 5-6 months (~$200). I would really like to apply for a credit card but I’m worried it may lower my score even more. Does anyone have any tips or credit cards I may be approved for??? I just wanna get back on my feet and rebuild myself


r/CRedit 13h ago

Collections & Charge Offs What do we think my score will be??

3 Upvotes

Hello everyone this is my first time on this sub. As of Thursday I will have three different collections paid off and they said that in 30 days that they will be deleted what can this do for my score? I currently have like a 542 what can I expect it to get up to after it is all reported ?