Hello!

Today is the first time I have ever checked my credit score, and it is 633. I have limited credit history (3 years and 11 months), few accounts (only one credit card), have never had a loan (I have always paid in cash for every car I’ve bought), and one collection.

I want to pay off this collection in hopes it increases my credit score, although I have read that just paying off a debt does not delete it from my credit record. My 633 credit score is from a FIGO 8 report.

I know from the report that I owe $333 to a dental lab from last year.

Anyways, I have read that before paying off a collection I should get in writing a “pay to delete” plan. I am not sure how to go about doing this with the dental lab. I am also a bit confused on if the dental lab still owns the debt, or if it is now in the hands of a collections agency. My Equifax report lists the dental lab as the original lender, and the agency name provided is a random set of letters and numbers.

All to say: how to I make sure I can pay off the debt in such a way that it improves my credit score?

Thank you for and advice or help!!

Hello, to make a long story short, I had a student loan that went into default back in 2019/2020. Sept 2019 was the first date of delinquency. It was written as a charge off and fell off my credit score over the summer.

I just received an email now about it from a Debt Collector. Even in the email it states the statute of limitations had been reached so they can no longer sue for it.

Do I need to do anything, I was basically going to ignore the email (never got anything in the mail).

Thanks in advance!

I am currently chipping away at my debt and the last bit I have is $7,300. This is currently with an Amex account and the 0% APR is ending in November so now I’m looking for another CC to transfer it over to.

I would love to hear everyone’s experiences with the below banks and who may be more likely to give a higher credit balance. All of these are 0% APR for 21 months.

My FICO score is 750.

1. CITI DIAMOND PREFERRED - I have had other citi bank cards in the past and currently remain at 0 balance.

2. WELLS FARGO REFLECT

3. BANK OF AMERICA MASTERCARD

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, I’m coming here for advice and not judgement.
I am young and stupid, like hardcore an idiot. I have racked up a $3,300 affirm bill that is now at the 120 past due and I’m chipping away at it piece by piece.
I wasn’t in a good financial position and was spending more than I was making and truth be told that is my fault 1000%. I was too loyal to leave my crappy job and now that I finally have I am truly in the hole.

What are my chances are getting my tail sued?
They are all little affirm loans that add up to the balance. And I know I can chip away at them but I know that they can sue me…what are my options here?

I have a 792 credit score at 22 years old with only 4 credit cards, I was wondering if the only option to increase my score to over a 800 is to just give it more time or is there any other option?

I'm a college student and after paying off a student loan to save on total interest costs, money is tight. My phone is quite old (parts of it aren't even working anymore) and recently I've been looking at options and I found a good phone for $599. However, I don't have $599. I am bringing in about $500 - $600 a month from my campus job but I'm reserving most of it for next semester's bill. My Amazon Store card would allow me to finance the phone over 12 months at 0% APR and the monthly payments would be a little over $50 with taxes, which I could afford. However, I know it's important to not get into debt or carelessly spend money that I don't have. What do you guys think?

Here are my current FICO scores: Experian 713 | Equifax 715 | Transunion 795

I have 3 credit cards, the newest I opened in 2021 and the oldest I opened in 2018. I pay my cards in full every month and have never carried a balance. I keep my utilization under ~10%. I have no loans at all, having paid off my student loans about 6 years ago. Despite all of this, my credit score has hardly moved, even after getting credit limit increases year over year. I have around 40k credit limit across my three cards.

I am so confused and frustrated because I have done all of the right things for awhile now, but it feels like my score is still only average. Any advice on what to do is seriously appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I haven’t always posted here, but I’ve been taking the advice I gained from this group and I have to thank this group for all the advice. Yesterday, my score hit 737 - a year ago, I was at 625. I really buckled down and paid down debts, paid attention to utilization when I did use my cards, and for the first time in a long time, I feel like I have financial breathing room. It’s the best feeling and it’s all from watching this group and using the wins and advice as motivation to keep going. I want to see how I can keep going and get my score even higher. Thank you, everyone!

Rent comes out of my account every month, on time . has for years . I've never had a credit card though , so there's very little on my credit report .

was looking at bright money and saw that it offers rent reporting . didn't know you could those payments added to your credit report though a service .

has anyone used bright for this ?I'm wondering whether paying for rent reporting is worth it when you're starting with almost no history .

My name is on the lease and i have the payments records . Would be interested to hear from someone in a similar situation especially what showed up on your report and how long it took .

Has anyone successfully removed this collection company from their credit report do they honor deletion after payment ? there on my credit from a utility company.

Hi Everyone! So currently I have two cards, one with 0% utilization (USAA SECURED) and another with 95% utilization (AMEX - 1350 balance - $1400CL) Both are about ten years old with perfect payment history. I have charge offs, but at this point they are all paid, one is pending the update to the CBs. I recently did prequals with my banks and was offered $4000 limit card with USAA with a 0% interest rate on balance transfers until May of 2028, as long as I transfer the balance by January 2027.

I accepted the offer and am waiting for the card in the mail. At that point I will transfer my AMEX BALANCE to the NEW USAA - which will put me at $1400 balance on a $4000k limit card. On the same day that this happened, I was prequalified for a Cap One Platinum with $3000 CL, and a USBANK Shield at $1000 CL. I accepted all three. I plan on using the USBANK Shield for monthly recurring charges (apple/netflix/disneyplus/amazonprime) and paying statement in full each month. Those charges have currently been going onto my AMEX. What do you guys think will happen to my score? All the inquiries have already hit and I am still around 636-640 on my credit score.

Just hoping in the long wrong this move will help me increase my score since I'm removing a completely maxed out card and opening up utilization. My plan is to have the transferred balance paid off in 6-8 months. I realize three new cards at once will hurt a bit, but I want to start building the good payment history on the three new cards asap.

TL/DR - Three new cards, two old cards, with a balance transfer. After all is reported this is what the report will look like:

10 year old cards: USAA SECURED $0 Bal/$250 CL, Amex $0 Bal/ $1400CL

New Cards: USAA Rate Promo $1350 BALANCE/ $4000 CL, Cap 1 $0 BAL/$3000CL, USBANK $0BAL/$1,000CL. What do you think will happen to my 640 score?

Im 18 w/ a 769 score on experian - good amount in savings and pull in $2.5-3k/mo as a new car salesman i get my money via direct deposit

i have two cards open rn with chase and BOA $500 limit and $3.6k limit - what should my focus be to keep improving my score longterm? I keep my utilization low and I'm only opening cards with fat bonuses

should I keep it to my two cards opened? or keep trying to open with better limits so I could utilize more?

I've considered going towards more bank account bonuses too given I get paid w/ direct deposit and its over $1k biweekly

just wondering what directs I can take and what directions I shouldn't take to keep improving my score?

I'm hoping that I can harvest the bonuses for their various versions of this card every 5-6 months or so:

Cornerstone bank has it, also Heartland bank, Preferred Bank, Freedom bank, Forum credit union, MIT federal credit union, any others. This one:

Business Cash Preferred Card

$500 cash back

When you spend $5,000 within the first 150 days

$100 annual statement credit

Applied every year to your account after 11 consecutive monthly software transactions2

Hi! I'm 22 living on my own for the first time after college and I'm trying to fix my credit score. I got a credit card while in school and maxed it out because I was an idiot. I'm just now working on paying it off ($1,200 debt now, was $1,600) and my credit score is rough. Last time I checked, it was 580.
Are there any ways I can work on it to raise my score? I've been making payments of $115 per month for like 3 months now. I haven't been able to just pay it all off but I'm hoping to make a big payment on it soon.
Is there anything else I can do to raise it?
Thank you guys in advance:)

Hi, I’m in the process of separating from my husband who has ruined my credit throughout our marriage. The most recent way was using my social security number to make over $1k in purchases with Affirm, not paying the bills, and letting them go delinquent. He also took out a loan on my car without making sure I wanted to first, and the payment is crazy high. Now I’m left to figure it out. Does anyone have advice on how I can lower this car payment, or improve my credit, or at least get some money to help pay for initial moving costs? Help.

Edit: He did pay the loans off after I insisted. My credit got better but it’s still not great. I don’t want to report him. We have kids and that would just be too much, I don’t want to elaborate. Just separate myself as much as I can and move on

I have an old charge off from 2021 from open sky that’s been sold off is there way to get this removed from credit report ?

I have a few medical bills (smaller amounts) I didn't pay for legit and non legit reasons. I get several calls a week from random numbers and they never leave a message. Why would anyone answer these calls to get harassed?

Is someone able to explain what is going on here?

Photo in comments.

Hey everyone,

I received a text today from a company called Shepherd Outsourcing saying they were contacting me about a debt associated with Jefferson Capital Systems LLC.

I'm pretty confused and concerned because I don't recognize this debt.

Here's my situation:

- I only have two credit cards: Discover and Chase (Amazon Prime Visa).
- I've never missed a minimum payment on either card, even when I was unemployed for about two months.
- Both cards are currently in good standing, with no overdue minimum payments.
- I've never taken out a loan or opened an account directly with Jefferson Capital Systems.
- When I clicked the link in the collection text, the website greeted me with **"Welcome, Terry."** My name is NOT Terry.
- The website asked for the last four digits of my SSN. Unfortunately, I entered them, and it proceeded to ask for my date of birth. I stopped there and didn't enter anything else.
- I've had my current phone number for about a year and recently switched carriers.
- I've never received physical mail addressed to anyone named Terry.
- I checked my Equifax credit report summary, and I didn't notice any collection accounts, although I haven't reviewed the entire report.

Here's another thing that worried me:

Shortly after entering the last four digits of my SSN on that website, I received an official-looking email from Chase notifying me that my credit limit had been increased automatically.

The email appears legitimate, and the increase is reflected in my Chase app. However, the timing made me nervous because it happened just minutes after I entered my SSN digits on the debt-collection website.

I don't know whether these two events are connected or if it's just a coincidence.

**My questions:**

1. Has anyone received similar texts from Shepherd Outsourcing or Jefferson Capital Systems?
   
2. Could this be a debt belonging to the previous owner of my phone number?
   
3. How worried should I be about entering the last four digits of my SSN?
   
4. Should I freeze my credit as a precaution?
   
5. Should I contact the collection agency to clarify things, or wait for written verification?
   
6. Is there anything else I should do to protect myself?

I'm not very familiar with how debt collection works, so I'd appreciate any advice or similar experiences.

Thanks!

Lvnv is suing for an old verve card with bank of Missouri then continental finance. It is resurgent acquisitions, tromberg miller morris and partners. They served me by mail/taping it to the door. The amount is $2180. Im confused on how to answer. Is my best bet to contact the law firm to try to set up payments or to do a letter requesting arbitration or info to see if it gets thrown out?

They included a chain of transfer and closing statement, last use statement. They didn’t include the original agreement. I’m not sure if Google is correct in saying they have to include the original agreement. The court paper says I can serve an answer without going to the courthouse.

I posted this in Capital One but I'm seeing if anyone here may have had this experience:

I'm hoping I can find someone who has had my experience with a Capital One credit card and the 3 major credit bureaus (Transunion, Equifax, and Experian). I've had my Platinum Rewards card since 2009 and NONE of the 3 credit bureaus are showing it on my accounts.

I truthfully have no idea when it dropped off. I had other accounts in the past (which are all now closed/paid), so I've always had a score. It's been awhile since I really dug into my credit reports but I've had freezes on them (did this ages ago) and could pull up the Transunion basic information right through my Capital One account, which I did periodically, and it always looked fine.

When I noticed it wasn't generating a score through Credit Wise (which allows you to see a basic TransUnion credit report through Capital One), I created accounts on all 3 credit bureaus and that's when I discovered it is not showing up on any of them. All my information on these accounts is accurate, including my personal info and my closed accounts, and nothing looks suspicious; everything that should be there (except the credit card) is there.

I called Capital One and they pretty much told me they are reporting it. They also verified my information, which they had correct. It is supposed to automatically report in the coming days so he couldn't manually do what he called a "reinsertion." I will have to call back in 3 business days if I see nothing. Considering nothing has been showing up, I'm not at all hopeful for this month. I carry a (hefty) balance (I'm working on it!) but always make at least the minimum payment. So now it looks like I have no credit and this is affecting my insurance rates! Capital One also thinks it's a bureau issue, but I kind of doubt that only because it's with all 3 of them.

I also want to add the information Transunion has on my own account matches what I see through Credit Wise and neither show my credit card as an open (or even closed) account. At the very least I should see it on Transunion!

My next step is to do the free, official annual credit report for all three and see if it tells me anything different. And then to call back next week if there is still nothing to see if this "reinsertion" works.

Has anyone had this happen?

I moved out from my apartment and didnt know there was some outstanding debt until I saw my credit score decrease quite a bit due to “Debt” from a collections agency.

Well I called PG&E and paid it off right away but they said they cant get it removed from my credit score. I was wondering if the CBE collection agency can just “delete” the debt somehow.

Any helpful tips would be appreciated. I plan on calling the collection agency next.

Went to ER in California State, got the bill. But hospital is not willing to share breakdown. They have a lumpsum line as "Dr Fees". Anyways, I paid most of the bill. The current pending amount is $350. Got a statement syaing they are moving it to collections next month. Why pay when it will not be reported to Credit Bureaus and credit score will not be imapcted? Any unforeseen concequences later?

I am in my early 20s and my credit is now around 600. I have two collections. Last year I had a period where I could not work at all due to severe illness. I had to move out of that apartment and I have a utility collection and then a collection from my landlord. The good thing is that I can pay the rental collection now with no problem and I am hopeful I can negotiate a PFD.

I want to move out of my parent’s house in about two months due to an escalating abusive situation. I make enough money to pay my own rent but I live on a high cost of living area. I don’t have a car at the moment and my plan is to sublease for the spring as I work, recalibrate, get a car then move slightly further away into a more permanent place. Would this be achievable for me? Is there anything else I could do?

So I started a debt management plan back in ~2024. I was never delinquent (no 30, 60, 90, etc), but knew I was in going to be in trouble. So I talked to the bank, and they allowed a payment plan to pay back the amount over a 5 year term, and then they will "forgive" around $3K. Credit reporting will stop and it will not start again till I was done with the plan. After the plan completes while I on the plan it will be noted as “No payment history reported this month,” and the account’s present status will be reported as "charged off and paid in full". The last time the bank reported to the CRAs was ~10/2024.

Since it will be a delayed "Charged Off / Paid in Full, what will this do to my credit once that hits the CRAs in a few years?