credit help

http://www.cccs.org/

 

I dont think that CCCS is not nearly as advantagous as previously thought. CCCS collects fees on a commission basis just as the collection agencies do. CCCS is funded by the credit card industry. Their programs also ignore many non credit card debts such as mortgages and medical bills. CCCS is also put on your credit report and held against you especially if you want to buy a house. It is impossible to get a mortgage if you have used CCCS within 2 years.

That being said, there is no easy way to fix your credit or cookie cutter plan to follow. Time, responsibility (paying your bills on time), and hard work is the only way to fix your credit. You can dispute items on your credit report. When you dispute something on your credit report trough the credit reporting agencies, your creditor has 30 days to validate what you are disputing. More often than not they do not validate the negative item. If it is not validated, the credit reporting agency will send you an updated credit report. If it is validated, you can always dispute the item again.

Get a copy of your credit report and see where you stand. I used
True Credit.

I suggest reading Personal Finance for Dummies by Eric Tyson before you make any decisions on how to fix your credit. It teaches you about everything I have just told you and MUCH MUCH more. It is a great book and was recommended to me by two different people that are both very financially savvy and well off. You learn about credit, spending, saving, investing, retirement, buying a home, and more.

Good luck

 

www.daveramsey.com

 

I think some of the advice that this guy has is really good but some of the things that he discusses I think dont make sense.

1. Pay off your debt from smallest to largest. - What if your largest debt is a $10,000 credit card with 14% interest while you have a $8,000 car loan that is 5%? That doesnt make sense at all. Or what if you have a student loan that has lower interest and the interest is tax deductible? Bad advice in my book.

2. He doesnt go into much detail about how to invest for retirement. Since retirement accounts are generally tax deductible, safe from bankruptcy, and dont count against financial aid for college, why wouldnt you want to fund this first. You also, generally, have ways of pulling this money out for buying a home, funding educational expenses if needed, or making a loan against it in emergencies.

 

This is the way to go if your credit is already shot to hell and you have no other options beside bankruptcy. They only charge you 30 bucks a month if you go on their plan. Less than it costs to drive the tollway to work every day. They lower your interest rates (in most cases), auto-deduct your payment from you checking account, disburse it to your credit card companies (always on time), and best of all they stop all collection calls. Take it from me, it works. But don't do it if your credit isn't already shot. Only as a last resort.

I used it to pay off all my credit cards. I finished a year ago last June. It changed my life. I have zero debt and I pay all my bills in full the same day I get them in the mail. I'll be buying a house next summer.

DO NOT use any of the companies that advertise on TV or radio like Ameridebt. Do a google search on Ameridebt complaints and you'll get the picture. You won't find anything bad about CCCS.

Good luck.

 

Following my divorce, I let a lot of bills go and they ended up getting charged off. A couple of years later, I went back and settled with everybody, most everyone willing to settle the account for an amount smaller than what I had owed them.

But almost none of the companies I settled with reported it to the credit bureau that way. Many didn't report the payments at all. And one even sold off the remaining 20% that was supposed to be forgiven under the settlement to another comany. And I still get letters from them wanting me to pay it off (even though the debt itself is over 10 years old and no longer appears on my credit report at all).

So, I often wonder if it is ever worth attempting to pay people off. I spent close to $10K settling my accounts, and virtually nobody reported that I had paid. And some even continue to harrass me for money on amounts that I should technically no longer owe.

I get the feeling that debt collectors are allowed to lie and make deals that they won't live up to in order to get you to pay them at least some money (the irony being that if these people had not been agreeable to my overtures to settle the debts for less than full amounts, I would've paid them the full amounts. That happened with some of the creditors. So, by lying to me and pretending to settle the accounts, they ended up with less than they otherwise would have and wouldn't be spending the money to attempt to come after me now).

 

If you follow his advice it really works. It is also all from a Christian perspective.

1. His stance is that if you are paying everything you have on the smaller debt, it will be paid off very quickly. The difference in interest is usually very small in the grand scheme of things. This is just one part of an overall financial plan. Also b/c you are NEVER using debt again, it will be the last interest you ever have to pay!

2. He does advocate funding retirement accounts? There is only one short period of time where he does not have you funding them.

Me and my wife have been following his advice for a while now. We are debt free exccept for our house!

 

I have no problem with the guy being a Christian but I dont think someone's religous convictions will make someone more or less qualified to give financial advice. Dont take that wrong, it isnt meant in a bad way. Just my opinion.

When I said that you should want to fund your retirement first, that is of course after your debt is paid off.

Congradulations on being debt free. We are very very close.

 

I hate no edit.

I think that using no debt at all is not always smart also. There are such things as good debt. Investments that will make you money such as education, real estate, and other things such as small businesses require up front money. Sometimes you have to borrow money to make money.

 

So what you are saying is this board has a reputation of having a bad credit history.... interesting....