How can I straighten out my credit?
Answers:
You are entitled to a free credit report from each credit bureau each year. Get your free one from each agency. Check it over to see if you have any late payments or written off debt. Dispute anything that is not accurate or has been paid. Usually, if you pay on time for at least six months that is favorable. If you were turned down for an apartment, chances are you won't qualify for a credit card. Just make sure you pay your bills on time. If you are having difficulty paying your student loans contact the student loan lender and work out a hardship payment plan. It's not hard to qualify for one. Most of them you can apply online.
The worst thing you can do is get into more debt by applying for a credit card. Just try to pay off the debt you have and work with your lenders so you can pay on time.
good luck
First get a credit score see why they rejected you
Second pay off the bills that you can afford
try a consolidation at the bank. It will be a lower payment spread out over a period of time and will help improve your credit and free up some funds. good luck.
You need to get some positive credit going. Apply for a couple of credit cards. Depending on how much the hospital bill is, you may be able to use one of your new credit cards to pay it off. Not only will you be getting rid of a collection account you will have established some new positive credit the credit card. Just make sure you don't max out the limits on them.
Just pay your bills on time. You should be able to rent an apartment they just might charge more for the deposit.
Try going online to receive a credit card. You can find a lot of credit card companies online that only work with people that have a few rough spots in the past. Use the card to buy gas and pay it off every month! That will sky rocket your credit score quickly!
There has to be more than hospital and student loans on your report for it to be that bad. Hospital bills do not drop your score very low, it is the credit cards and utility bills that usually do that.
Get your credit report and see what's on it, then dispute things that are fishy.
Try to pay the student loan on time if you are unable to so contact your student loan lender and they can get you a forbearance or deferment. As for the hospital bill contact them ask if you could set up a payment plan or if they have some type of financial assistant program. You will not know about these things unless you ask. Companies will not volunteer this information. If these are the only two thing you have on your credit it may be you don't have enough credit and may need a cosigner. Good luck
Make all your payments on time and do not be more than 30 days late for any of them. Get a copy of your credit report and dispute what you believe to be wrong to start an investigation, or take care of the "bad" things. You might want to consider a roommate situation till you get things together. www.roommates.com
I trashed my credit in my mid-20s and spent my late 20s trying to get it fixed.
First off, sounds like you need a credit report. Might as well go to someplace like truecredit.com or freecreditreport.com and get a full report (all 3 agencies including your credit scores). That should help in several areas ... you'll know what your score is, what's on report and how much that medical bill is.
Once you do that, look at the bottom of the page. Those sites tell you things that help and hurt your credit score. Try to follow them.
I'm guessing one thing you need to do is pay off the hospital bill if it's showing as a delinquent loan. Even if it means moving that balance to a credit card.
If you can get credit cards, get a few (2 or 3) and use them. The trick (which is stupid but still) is to use them each month for a few small purchases but pay them off completely each month. That helps your score. Also, if you need to get a card with a small annual fee because of a low credit score, than that's something you need to do.
Another thing I did was got a small signature loan from my bank under the condition of payment straight from my paycheck. They got a loan that was in good standing on my account to show that I could be responsible. In reality, I just took that money and put it straight into my bank account and didn't touch it.
All this said, I think you should have gotten your apartment approved as long as you have a steady source of income. Maybe offer them paying for the first month or even two up front (if you can) and see if you can work something out.
Best of luck.
hey, I'm in the same boat you are. I have had to move back home with my parent because i can't find any were to live. Everyone i have talk to told my to file a chapter 13 bankruptcy it is were you are on a budget for 3-5 years and you are paying off all your debits. Or you can got to consumer debt counseling. it is a non profit organization and the put you in a budget and they talk to the companies you owe money to and see how much they will settle for and you give them money and they pay you debts off and if you are on time you can see a difference in about 6 months. I was young and stupid when i turned 18 i got credit card after credit card maxed them all out then i quit going to college and after all the i had a heart attack at the age of 20 with no hospital insurance. I'm not 22 and paying for it all. I'm going have to file bankruptcy.
Well, the first thing you should definitely do is go to http://www.annualcreditreport.com... and get a copy of all 3 reports. Make sure that what's yours is what's yours, and dispute the rest. From what it seems is that your student loan may not be in default. Are you still in school, then it should be in default. I'd contact the lender just to make sure. As far as the hospital bill, that isn't that big a deal, I'd make arrangements to pay it. When you're ready to pay it, try to negotiate that they remove it from your report if you pay it. This may or may not work, but it's still worth a shot.
Next, it would help to have some positive credit working for you. Like one of the other posters said, Orchard Bank's a good credit card to start out with if you're trying to build credit. And if some reason you don't qualify for one of their regular cards, you can still get a secured card, which is another good, if not better option. Reason I say that is that although you would have to put a deposit upfront, which would equal the line of credit you'd get, it also allows you to actually "build" the card from the ground up. by increasing the limit ever so often which you wouldn't be able to do with a regular card and also the deposit gains interest while you're building credit, so the more that you deposit, the more interest you'd get once you get the deposit back. And as long as you pay on time, don't max out the card by keeping the balance low, usually after a year you get the deposit back. Not only you would've found a way to save money regularly, but also you're building credit while you're at it. Then you might want to try for a department store or gas credit card after you've had the secured card for at least a year.
These are just a few things that you can do right away to help. I wouldn't get no more than 2 major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard) a department store, or gas card, making 3 cards in total. The easiest way to do it would be to open up 2 secured ones. Not necessarily at the same time, if you can, that's great. Build the limits on them up while they're secured, so that once they become unsecured, they will reflect high limits on your reports. The higher the better. You won't get any other chance with a regular card. You'd be at the mercy of your credit score. But that's the ideal situation. As long as you can build up one, let it convert then do another that's fine as well.
I hope this answer helps you out,
Good Luck!
get a copy of your credit report and pay all of your debt and try to get an apartment in 6 months
You can submit a statement to the credit agencies that your credit has been adversely affected by medical bills but you are paying them now. This statement will be inserted in your file and read to anyone inquiring. Since you were turned down you are entitled to a free report if you don't have one and be sure there are no other negative reports and request that it be eliminated if it is in error. If would help if you had a savings and checking account and one credit card (maybe a secured card--you put up a certain amount of money and pay all your charges off in one month and at the end of the year your card is no longer secured and you are granted a regular card.) Get one with no interest or APR or low APR. By the way, not all rental agencies check credit for apartments.
Also there are nice apartments that don't require a credit score, find those in your area so at least you can have your own place in the meantime!!
Also, my finace's credit wasn't bad, jus didn't have a lot of it, which sounds like that might be your case, the mortgage person we were working with suggested getting a secured credit card (I think that is what it was called) rather than just a credit card as this will improve your credit score faster. You get them from a bank and what it is is a credit card, but you give them the money towards it first, so say you give them $500., then you have a $500. credit line, and then you use it and pay it off right away, so like for gas a few times a month or whatever. These really boost your credit score!! Good luck to you and hope this helped some!!
debts aren't the only reason why your credit score is low; it's the way you pay your bills/pay off your debts. of course you should pay higher than minimum and on time but the key is to pay half of what you owe every month. that's how you could raise your credit score. be sure you pay 10 days prior to the due date, just to be safe and always keep track of your finances online. be sure you don't overspend. only buy necessities. when you know you have debts, don't go shopping, don't go out to eat, spend money only on transportation and groceries. don't rely on people for money. don't nag. don't annoy. don't spoil yourself. be sure to pay back whatever you borrowed (not just money from credit card companies), or no one will be there for you and you end up turning to strangers on Banswer.com at the end (and god knows how many actual smart people are on here). but thank goodness, there's ALWAYS some sort of help nowadays. but only you could help yourself at the end. remember that. it doesn't matter how old you are, your race, background, your looks or how well you did in high school or college. always be responsible and be the person anyone could trust and rely on. be the person you could be proud of. good luck.
Better take a look at the balance and age of your unpaid bills.
The answers post by the user, for information only, BAnswer.com does not guarantee the right.
More Related Questions and Answers...