Personal Finance

seanmick8 · Joined: 28 Jan 2008 Posts: 1

My first question is how do i find out what me credit score even is?????...and my second delemia is that about two years ago i got myself into debt with my wachovia bank card i ended up owing them a total of 1036.17 i have now totally paid them off my question is how do i rebuild my credit (cause im sure it has increased dresdically the past few years and will any credit card companies even accept me as a customer?

FinAdvisor41 · Joined: 29 Jan 2008 Posts: 1

Sean,

my first advice is to go to www.annualcreditreport.com Once a year, this site will let you download your credit report from all 3 agencies (Equifax, Transunions, and Experian).

I would go there and see what those reports have to say. From there, if you want to get an estimate of your credit score you can go to myfico.com and pay I think $8 for a FICO score (the real thing) or since you seem to be embarking on a credit repair journey, a good bet would be to sign up for a credit monitoring service. I pay $14/month to True Credit (sponsored by transunions) they give me updated credit reports from all 3 agencies every day, as well as an estimated FICO score (not the real thing, but close) from all three agencies.

Credit monitoring agencies also allow you easy access to view when someone has viewed your credit report, a company has posted a change, new acct, stuff like that

As far as your payment to Wachovia goes..if you didnt have a written agreement from them saying they would take it off of your credit report, then it may be hard for them to take it off if they havent already.

I would look at your credit reports and see what they say. As far as credit rebuilding goes (your one deliquency shouldnt make too much of a dent) I would apply for a credit card from your bank of get one through your credit union. Secured cards are easy to get if you have bad credit (a secured card is where you give them a deposit of $xxx and that $xxx is your credit limit). Those report to the credit agencies just like regular cards do and are a good way to help rebuild credit.

Theres plenty more where that came from, but the first step should be annualcreditreport.com and getting your reports and seeing how bad they really are.

Hope that helped!

David

ustanut · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 3

you received some great advice from David, we signed up for a full blown protection service too "trustedid" so we can monitor our credit. there are several "out of the box" solutions now... even one from Suze Orman.

One last comment though - shopping for credit cards, make sure you get a good deal, there are so many avaiablle. try a comparison site like credcards.com to uncover the best "current" credit offers. And then don't be reluctant to switch down the road if the rate isn't right for you.

good luck
Steph

Rook · Joined: 06 Apr 2008 Posts: 4

I signed up with MyFICO to monitor my credit a couple of years ago and have been happy with it.

You also might want to check this link on my blog, where I am giving away a limited number of free books about how to improve your credit score. Before you pay for anything regarding your credit, please take a copy of the book:

http://rookandpawnshop.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/heres-a-free-book-on-credit-repair-for-now/

great_man · Joined: 01 May 2008 Posts: 1

Also do not forget about your customer right to get a free credit report about your current financial situation as well credit score.
Everyone has the right to request for a free report online from official government site once a year.

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