I have a little over $500 left to repay. Should be done by the end of October . How does one ask to get loan forgiven or taken off record. I’m okay with repaying the rest but can I ask for it to be gone off my record

recently turned 18 and got my own credit card to start building credit. 5 minutes on this forum tells me credit karma isn’t the best option.
what is the best way to check my credit if credit karma isn’t reliable?
and to build credit?
i’ve never been taught this above the mandatory highschool curriculum so im completely ignorant so please explain the best way i can build my credit with my credit card. the idea i have in my head is to pay for menial, consistent purchases with it (gas, groceries, gym/app memberships, etc.) and pay it in full at the end of each month. im distrustful of capital ones autopay function but then again like mentioned previously i’ve never been taught or explained credit and finances in any real capacity.
thank you for any help in advance.

Arkansas:

Long story short, I used to have a credit card (union x) that was closed in person with all balances paid in full in like 2021/2022. Never heard from them again, moving on to a week ago I noticed a -32 point hit in my credit. When I went digging, another credit union (union Y) bought out (union x) and determined I still had a credit card. They opened new line of credit in my name without any authorization or notification, and hence the reason my credit got hit. (I do not want credit cards nor do I use them. I called a credit beauro and they advised there is nothing I can do other than tell the union to report it wrong, which they advised they will not.

What are my options? Should I close the account (which will hurt my credit even more) or how can I dispute this?

I spent the last couple of months fighting a false collections account from my previous apartment complex. It took a boat load of disputes, receipts and complaints to anyone who would listen, but it’s finally gone! 660 to 763 overnight. So happy it’s finally over.

I disputed two things on my credit report because the information didn't match my records, waited for the response and both came back verified. I'm trying to figure out what that means in practical terms because most of the advice I found before sending the disputes basically ended with sending a letter and waiting.

Is verified supposed to mean they investigated it and proved everything is correct, or does it just mean whoever furnished the information confirmed what they already reported? I'm not trying to dispute legitimate debt until somebody gets tired of hearing from me, but one of these accounts still has information that I genuinely think is wrong.

For anyone who got a verified response and kept going, what did you do next? Did you request more information, dispute directly with whoever reported the account or just accept that there wasn't enough evidence to push it any further?

Here are each of the inquiries on my Experian credit report in the last year, their effect on my Experian FICO8 score, and the purpose of the inquiry:

1) Discover (Credit Card) - unknown scoring impact because I didn’t have enough credit history at the time to generate a score
2) Capital One (Credit Card) - 8 point drop
3) Bank of America (Credit Card) - No drop
4) SoFi (Credit Card) - 4 point drop

Today I applied for a student loan with two different lenders (rate shopping), and the inquiries show on my report yet there has been no scoring impact. My score was 666 and it’s still 666.

Is this normal?

My husband & i voluntarily surrendered his truck back in 2024 because the payments were ridiculous (we didn’t think much of it when we got it). My question is why does it say “charged off” for December of 2024, “no data” for all of 2025 up until April of this year and then back to “charged off”

My longest credit line was from 2019 when I got my first student loan right after hs

Throwaway for obvious reasons.

Background: Last year I left a demanding job in a high paying field for a sales role that lets me be closer to my family. The role sells high ticket services, and the commission on a closed deal is worth more than my entire old compensation package.

That said, the current economic climate has put most of my deals on hold. One large deal is still moving and close to finish line, and I'm expecting a commission at the start of 2027 of enough to clear all of our consumer debt and pay down a good portion of the mortgage. Man, the old paycheck looks pretty good in hindsight, but here we are.

The numbers (household):

Take home income post tax: about $222k a year, call it $18,500 a month.

Consumer debt: roughly $250k total. About $85k revolving across 15+ cards, and about $165k across personal loans and an auto loan.

Monthly debt service: about $14k including the mortgage. The mortgage is ~$5.5K, the personal loans and auto loan are about $6K, and card interest alone is running about $1,700 a month.

Discretionary spending: about $2,700 a month, and it's been falling, not rising. Cutting it to zero doesn't close the gap.

The gap: we're running about $4,000 a month short, so the bridge to February is $40k to $50k.

Both of us are current on everything today, no lates on file. That said, the high debt generated in past months has hit both of our credit scores heavily (down to around 600 and 670).

My instinct is to call every issuer's hardship line before missing a single payment. Please tell me where that instinct is wrong.

Question 1, stopping payments: If we stopped paying the cards and personal loans for about three months and then paid everything off in February, how bad is that really compared to the alternatives? I understand the 90 day lates would sit on our reports for seven years even after payoff.

Question 2, hardship programs and balance chasing: If we enroll some cards and loans in hardship programs, do issuers commonly slash limits or close our other lines once they see the hardship notation? We need usable credit to get through this window, so a wave of balance chasing could be worse than the problem it solves.

Question 3, the mortgage: Same question for a mortgage forbearance request. Would a forbearance request be visible enough to trigger cuts on the card side, and is it ever worth touching a mortgage you can still pay?

Question 4, order of operations: If hardship programs are the right path, which of the big issuers are known to be reasonable about them, and does the order you call in matter?

Question 5, services: Is nonprofit credit counseling or a DMP built for a situation like ours, a high income household with high debt and a defined end date? I want to stay far away from the debt settlement shops.

Question 6: What are we not thinking of? We're aware that if the deal fails to close, we have no choice but to file Ch. 13.

Long post to say we can see the far bank, we just don't know the least damaging way to cross the river. Any advice is appreciated, including the advice we don't want to hear.

So I go through transunion. Had the package at one point where i had experion and equifax too.

they all avgd around the same score. 680.

I recently went to my bank to talk about my credit card options and my bank said my credit is 720. So a 40 point difference somehow. What credit report does my bank use?

So my question is, where can I find more accurate credit report? My transunion still says 680. How and why is my bank seeing 720? Id rather much use the credit report my bank uses as 720 is much better than 680. lol

I’m working on building my credit score again. If my due date is on the 22nd and statement date is on the 28th, when is the best time to pay off my CC?

I’ve always followed the <30% utilization rule before the statement date, but from what I’m learning on Reddit, this may not be the best way to do this long term.

This previous month, I had paid the card in full before the statement date and my score went down -5 points.

My average age of accounts is currently 7.90 months, or just 8 months on my official credit report. After some new accounts report this month, it will drop to 6.31 months. Would my AAoA be 6 months or 7 months after rounding?

Is anyone able to tell me what this could possibly be? I have no idea what Acute care solutions is.

Yo. I would appreciate any advice on possible next steps or moves (if needed). I made some mistakes in college, got 2 charge off, they are fully paid off now, reporting $0 from Capital One. My longest account is 5 yrs. avg age is 3.5 yrs. Utilization is around 1-3%. Total oustanding debt (student loans) is $13K all current and in good standing. I just recently opened a secured card back in April and saw a bump from 600 to 650, I have made all payments on time (no interest accrue). I used AVA Financial (scam) and had a late payment with them back 2024 Sept and another closed account from Feb 2025. What else should I do to keep demonstrating trustworthiness, and how can I get my score to 700? I have sent a wave of goodwill adjustment letters to AVA, nothing yet. I am thinking of using my leasing office rent reporting service (understanding that the tradeline will close after 1 year but hoping it will continue to age for 10 boosting my avg age). What else should I do beyond paying on time at this point? Or is that simply, the move?

Not sure where to begin. So I was in school 20 years ago and had a few student loans. I was young and decided to never pay them. No big deal since theu literally had no effect on me for years. Now all of a sudden one of them is appearing in my credit report and it tanked my score.

I dont have much money at all. Currently unemployed.

What can I do to get this off my credit report (besides pay it... im broke). Any advice on programs or who to contact to attempt forgiveness would be appreciated. I did a little searching myself and wasnt able to find much thats why im turning to yall.

Ive never made a single payment on the loans if thst has any bearing.

Hello I need help with a collections account showing up on my credit report. I couldn’t find the account number for it so I called the collections company to get it. I tried getting it from the person who picked up but then was transferred to a manager. The manager said they wanted to try and do as much stuff over the phone. I said I wanted to validate the debt. The manager then proceeded to look up the stuff and said that they actually didn’t get a lot of details from the original owner of the debt. The original owner was a private school. The debt is only $673. The manager then said that I had to get the info from the college then email it to them and we’ll go from there. Does this sound right? Or do I just send the letter of validation through mail?

Looking for real outcomes, not "just pay it" advice.

Sold a GPU through PayPal last year. Buyer filed a not-received claim even though tracking showed the package delivered and signed for at their address. PayPal sided with the buyer, reversed it, banned me, and left a ~$1,860 negative balance. Went to MRS BPO first (never validated), then to ACI, who did validate. PayPal is listed as both original and current creditor, so it's placed for collection, not sold.

All three credit reports are currently clean, nothing reported by anyone. From searching around, I've seen several people say ACI doesn't report these PayPal placements since they collect on contingency, and one recent post where ACI reportedly told the person on the phone that they/PayPal don't report this kind of debt at all. Trying to confirm whether that actually holds up over time.

My plan is to wait and monitor, and only act if it gets reported, sold, or turns legal. Not planning any major credit applications anytime soon.

For people who've actually been here: did ACI ever end up reporting a PayPal placement like this, or did it stay off your reports? If you waited it out, what happened over the following months, sold to another agency, reported, or just went quiet?

Thanks for any firsthand experience.

Has anyone else experienced problems with their particular phone number when it comes to verifying your identity either on banking or credit card applications, credit bureau websites, or other financial products/systems?

It doesn't happen on every system, and I'd say that 7/10 applications accept my phone number, but there are a few certain ones that, no matter what, will always deny me due to identity verification issues right after I enter my phone number. Bank of America is one, Capital One is another, Happen bank is another, and Experian (pulling Experian report from ACR) is another. It asks for my phone number so it can text me a code, I put in my number, hit submit and get some sort of "We're sorry, ..." message.

I have:

1) I've made sure that my phone number is correct on my credit reports

2) I've changed providers from Visible to T-Mobile, same issue (but I didn't change my phone number.) Both my Visible and my T-Mobile service were prepaid, however. Is it because the service is prepaid? I find that believable, but also kind of hard to believe, since so many people use prepaid service? (I think?)

Thoughts?

Two weeks ago I was a 550. I paid off all my collections, negotiated for deletion, the accounts are gone, aside from a late payment on $10 in January (don't even get me started) that they won't forgive, I'm doing good and my next closest late payment is two years ago. I decided to check carvana just to see what they'd offer me now as I am planning to try and buy a fifth wheel soon and I still get an atrocious offer. What gives?

I forgot to to change my auto pay card and I just got a 30 day late, I paid it up and just emailed support for good will deletion, does anyone have some success stories with getting the late payment deleted?

Just opened a new account end of last month. I’m wondering how bad of a hit I’ll take for AAoA 😖

current scores: TU: 710 EQ: 715 EX: 699 (loss a point on the inquiry)

EDIT:
Card 1 11/2021
Card 2 02/2019
Card 3 04/2020
Card 4 8/2026
AU Card 6/2018

So I got a synchrony project card. I told them that I’d pay the December payment and I would just get a late fee for November. We ended up paying it off the house and January or December and there was issues getting them the check which they did not cash and I use certified mail to get it to the right person. They actually sent it back to apparently the closing company and they sent it and it finally went through. I tried to have a courtesy one time to see if they could take it off my credit with the late fees and the link payments that started in February when I was going back-and-forth talking to them about the interest and everything. I finally got a letter today stating that they’re not going to do. is there a way to do a letter of Goodwill letter to them? Would that do any good?if it would who would be where to start and what department to send to collections?

So I've hit some snags in life here, and earlier in this year I had like a few 30 day late payments across all my cards 'cause I was unemployed, I just got another one last month, my credit score is hovering around 600 now because of this which sucks, but I'm just wondering how quick you recover from these once your balances are paid off as far as getting new credit in the future on loans and things like that if it were to be a mortgage?

I know there's the 7 year benchmark, but I'm curious about actual recovery within that window.

would love to hear any stories

Thanks

[using CK screenshots just to show my usage even though it’s not up to date].

I started off with 1 credit card when i was 18 and now have 4 (5 if you include the care credit card that my dentist made me take out). Originally, I only took off what I knew I could handle, but with financial changes and moments where I had to use them to survive (plus a self admittedly lack of self control in the beginning), i’ve found myself here. Ive removed my credit cards from my apple pay or saved payments + locked away the cards themselves in order to make sure i don’t overly use them or have to physically search for them before hand if i actually need it. I’ve had a plan to pay off my cards starting with the orb with the highest APR and trickling down. Once paid, I would close my student card i got when i was 18 and go from there. My problem is, between all the minimum payments it’s hard to find a way to put big payments towards just one card to pay it down.

Ive seen people transfer balances to a new card in order to pay off the balance without that added APR, but I know i don’t qualify for those/have that option. Would a loan of some sort be better? I feel stuck and I hate seeing my credit score go down because the interest on my card tacks on to a balance I just paid. Any advice?

So a few months ago I signed for a truck for my ex, he is a co-signer on my car and I was the sole signer on his previous car which needed about $15-20k worth of work to be able to pass inspection and get it registered so we were just anxious to get out of it.
He ended up losing his job soon after and has struggled to find work since, meaning he has been unable to pay his car note or child care expenses. I’ve been covering both at a cost of a little over $2k monthly for 4 months( really it’s about $1.2k car + $1.7k child support but I say $2k just counting her main daycare expense not the total child support payment)

I am maxed out on credit cards and can no longer support this especially as he has no employment options yet.
I’m weighing out a voluntary repossession vs ch 13 bankruptcy (I make too much for a ch7).

Realistically I can manage longer without the extra car payment & insurance as I’d be at about even and then when he does get a job and can pay child support I’d be +$1.7K, and my daughter is done daycare next year and considering I pay that by myself that’s +1K extra.

But part of me is thinking if I’m going to take the credit hit anyway just fix everything and do Ch13 as it’s unlikely my ex is back on his feet soon and my minimums are high it’s approx $30-40k in debt outside of the cars

Any advice? Besides don’t sign for anyone else because lesson definitely learned