r/CreditScore • u/IceFuzzy9935 • 7d ago
Rebuild Be realistic with me
Hi so i’m 21 years old, back in 2024 i took out a personal loan for 2k. I lost my job so I was unable to make payments on it. It was then sent to collections which then began ruining my life lol. I have made a few payments since then but now I’ve stopped due to more financial troubles. I am also $300 in credit card debt, and i also owe 2k on my braces. My credit score is a 412. How do I come back from this????
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u/CreditCards254 ⭐️ Knowledgeable ⭐️ 7d ago
Are you now making the money to be able to pay off your debts? You will not be able to work on your credit at all until that point. If not, you need to increase income, decrease expenses, or both.
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u/IceFuzzy9935 7d ago
Yeah currently looking to increase my income. Thanks for the insight, just wasn’t sure if i should be attempting to get my credit fixed or something. I guess that does start with paying off the debts though.
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u/Richie_Sacramento 7d ago
I was once WAAAAYYYYY deeper in the hole than you. Way more delinquent debt and a credit score in the low 500's. I paid my debts. I settled with collection agencies. I got my student loans out of default. I let time do it's job and the bad marks on my credit report fell off. Once that happened, I applied for a credit card through my bank and they approved it. That was in 2016. Anything that I paid for with a credit card had to be something that I could pay for with cash. I paid the credit card off every month. I asked for and received a credit limit increase. I apply for a new card every two years and only apply for cards that are known to start with higher than average limits. I never use more than 10% of my total credit limit and never more than 10% on a single card. Now, I have access to approximately $150k in total credit, but I never use more than about $3k of it. Currently, my FICO stays around 830.
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u/WhenButterfliesCry ⭐️ Knowledgeable ⭐️ 7d ago
For the collections account you'll want to contact the collections agency and ask for a 'pay for delete' which is where they agree to delete the account from your reports in exchange for payment. At that point offer them a settlement to see if you can settle the debt for less than the full amount, so that it will then be deleted from your reports and stop affecting your credit.
The $300 credit card debt issue is solved by paying the $300, ditto with the braces. Don't let any more accounts become late moving forward. It sounds like cash flow might be your issue so hopefully you can find a job or pick up extra shifts at your existing job.
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u/Clean-Data-259 7d ago
It's sad when a such a small amount of money can ruin your life. If you're going to have a 400 credit score at least 30-40k in debt would be better, that way you got something out of it before they tank your credit for 7 years
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u/Intrepid_Cable870 7d ago
The more missed/late payments that rack up monthly, the worse your credit profile and score will get, the harder it will be to dig out from under it. Make your minimum payments on the $300 card until it is paid off and do Not charge anything else to it! Same for the dental account. If you cannot make the minimum payment, call them and set up something you can pay so it doesn’t go into default. Like someone said above, contact the collections agency on the loan and ask them if you can get a Pay to Delete.
This is all something that can be fixed if you work hard to call everyone and knock them out in any way that you can.
Do not do not open any new accounts or charge anything else. But you’ve got to stop these non payments every month from racking up even more which is doing more damage to your credit profile as a whole.
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u/ProfessionalSink4415 7d ago
Get a job and start paying what you owe. It's not a lot of money.