[Stevesgrl]

Let me start off by saying Hello, and that I am very grateful when people submit wonderful/helpful answers to my questions. Since this is my first post I am going to be going into some detail. So please beware this is going to be a long post.

My name is Vicky, I am happily married on most days, my husband, Steve and I have 2 children, and only my husband works, and I am only 22 years old. Both my husband and I attend college, and we have two vehicle loans (which are all positives on our credit).

My husband and I both have crappy credit, my husband has a great length of credit history cause he is 6 years older than I am. But he has a bankruptcy (Ch-7) that was filed on Jan 1st 2003 .. and shows that it was Discharged. This happened the year I met my husband, but we married the year after.

He had a repossession before we met, and one after (only he was on the car loan), I disputed the one from before we met cause it was supposed to be included in the BK, but it wasn't, in Maryland there is a SOL of 3 years on unpaid debts. Since it had been repossessed in 2003, I disputed it on his credit report only one time and it was removed!!!! He was so excited, and in that dispute letter I had 8 other things removed from his credit report on Experian (I have yet to try any of the others, but I will!).

With me, I have several unpaid debts because I was unable to work during the last half of my 1st pregnancy and I couldn't work at all during my second pregnancy. I have an immunity problem and it gets even worse during pregnancy, I spent 3 weeks in the hospital during my 1st pregnancy due to MONO (yes the kissing disease). With my second pregnancy, I was on bed rest, and had a Potassium Deficiency so bad that I could barely walk unless I had pumped myself with massive amounts of potassium (my muscles ceased to function to where I couldn't even hold my head up, I was rushed to the hospital and spent a day there getting pumped with potassium pills and potassium filled drinks). So Its not like I didn't want to work, I worked from the time my first child was 3 months old (august 2004) until I got pregnant with my second child in May 2006. I have not worked since May 2006, because my second child had and still has medical issues, and both my children get sick easily, therefore they cannot attend a daycare facility.

My husband and I are trying to buy our first home this year, but we cannot get a home loan, so we are looking in to the lease to purchase option, and have found a house that we fell in love with, and now we have to work on getting our credit score up in just a year, during the 1 year lease.

I have figured that we can dedicate $400 a month, to getting out of debt, But we have quite a large amount ...$5,000 for my husband and only $2,000 for me.
So a total of $7,000 that we have to pay in order to get back in good standing.

Does anyone have any tips on other ways of getting our credit back on track in just a years time?

Thanks in advance. I do greatly appreciate all answers. But please don't come here to slam me, I am doing everything in my power to correct the problem, before things get worse, and being that I am trying to correct it should show you that I am mature, and want to do whats right. We are not deadbeats, we pay our bills but at times are late cause we were paying for medical bills for our daughter.

Vicky

[jlynn]

Originally Posted by Stevesgrl

Does anyone have any tips on other ways of getting our credit back on track in just a years time?

Thanks in advance. I do greatly appreciate all answers. But please don't come here to slam me, I am doing everything in my power to correct the problem, before things get worse, and being that I am trying to correct it should show you that I am mature, and want to do whats right. We are not deadbeats, we pay our bills but at times are late cause we were paying for medical bills for our daughter.

Vicky

A year is a good amount of time. From this point forward you must pay everything on time...no more negs.

Pull all 3 of each of your reports, and start tackling. What negatives you cannot get deleted, you can make sure they are reporting accurately to lessen the FICO affects of the negatives.

This may not make sense to you, but you must also start reestablishing credit. The car loans are a good start, but you also need to establish revolving credit.

The debts that are yours and unpaid from the pregnancy can be tricky. Looks like they occurred sometime from 04 to after 06? They may still be in statute in your state.

[drivel]

This would also be helpful

SNL skit featuring Steve Martin "Dont buy stuff you cannot afford."

[hannah]

Disclaimer about drivel: He is a collector. We like having him around as he amuses us and occassionally imparts some enlightening advice. Don't pay any mind to his little digs, he is essentially harmless and is slowly working his way to yet another time-out.

[drivel]

Originally Posted by hannah

Disclaimer about drivel: He is a collector. We like having him around as he amuses us and occassionally imparts some enlightening advice. Don't pay any mind to his little digs, he is essentially harmless and is slowly working his way to yet another time-out.

[roybean]

Originally Posted by hannah

Disclaimer about drivel: He is a collector. We like having him around as he amuses us and occassionally imparts some enlightening advice. Don't pay any mind to his little digs, he is essentially harmless and is slowly working his way to yet another time-out.

Thank you Hannah.....think he misses the time out corner?

[Hedwig]

He hasn't been there for a while. Probably forgets what it looks like!

[drivel]

It has been a while hasn't it.

[Hedwig]

Do you want to go back to the corner?

[drivel]

for what?

[jlynn]

The innocent look isn't going to work for you Drivel.

[Aftermath]

Welcome Vicky aka Stevesgrl!

I just wanted to add the simple advice of read read read all the information available to you right here in the forums.
Don't forget the Archives!
You will no doubt find ways to dispute negative entries which you may be overlooking as a way to get rid of them.
Or, You will at least learn how to avoid mistakes which can hurt you and which take the same kind of power which can for example: control the weather, to undo.

Good luck!
Aftermath

[Hedwig]

Originally Posted by drivel

for what?

I'm sure you can think of something you've done. You just sounded so much like you missed time out that I thought maybe you wanted to go there.

[drivel]

Originally Posted by Hedwig

I'm sure you can think of something you've done. You just sounded so much like you missed time out that I thought maybe you wanted to go there.

don't worry, when i go to time out, everyone will know why.

[Stevesgrl]

I totally don't mind ... he's fine...

But to answer your question, no my 1st pregnancy was in 2003/2004 ... And the debt that was incurred during that pregnancy was 1 cellphone bill and something else,for a grand total of just under $2,000, the cellphone company is charging me over $1,200 for 2 months of service!!!! It was shut off in August/ September 2003. Which is almost 5 years ago. And as far as I know in the state of MD the SOL is 3 years on an unpaid debt (if I am wrong someone please tell me what the actual SOL in Maryland is, thanks)!

I've had several other things taken off of mine and my husbands report but it seems that every time they go to "verify" the debt they make it look as if its a "current/new" debt. I guess the only other thing to do is try to convince the credit bureau that they are still reporting this debt after all this time. I will have to do that the next time I dispute my report which will be in another 45 days ... I tend to do it only once every 6 months but this time, since my husband and I are working on buying a house (hopefully 2009 will be our year), but we are trying to get the best rates possible.

[hannah]

Some states consider a cell phone contract to be a written contract. In Maryland, the statute of limitations requires that a law suit be filed within 3 years for written contracts, and 3 years for open accounts, such as credit cards so you are probably safe from suit. The overage on your credit report is probably what was left on the contracted amount plus interest. It can report on your credit for 7 years from the date of last payment. I expect you will have to let it age off if it's a major cell phone company. You can continue to dispute it on your reports but I bet they continue to verify. As long as it's reporting correctly, you have no ammo to get it removed.

[Stevesgrl]

Originally Posted by hannah

Some states consider a cell phone contract to be a written contract. In Maryland, the statute of limitations requires that a law suit be filed within 3 years for written contracts, and 3 years for open accounts, such as credit cards so you are probably safe from suit. The overage on your credit report is probably what was left on the contracted amount plus interest. It can report on your credit for 7 years from the date of last payment. I expect you will have to let it age off if it's a major cell phone company. You can continue to dispute it on your reports but I bet they continue to verify. As long as it's reporting correctly, you have no ammo to get it removed.

Thanks for the info...
Well from whats reporting on my credit report it says I owe over $1200 and the last time I received anything from them was in 2004, they wanted only $943 ... But nothing on the bill said anything about a settlement amount.

I guess two more years for it to fall off won't be too bad ... But the company was bought out by a different company. So ... hmmm ... Wonder if I try disputing that if it will make a difference?

[hannah]

Originally Posted by Stevesgrl

Thanks for the info...
Well from whats reporting on my credit report it says I owe over $1200 and the last time I received anything from them was in 2004, they wanted only $943 ... But nothing on the bill said anything about a settlement amount.

I guess two more years for it to fall off won't be too bad ... But the company was bought out by a different company. So ... hmmm ... Wonder if I try disputing that if it will make a difference?

Is the new company the name reporting on your CR? If so, dispute in writing and say you have never had an account with that cell phone company. It is not a lie as you did not.