Jeff's Blog

Tina's Personal Credit Story!

I would like to share my own personal story with you.  Maybe it will be helpful to someone.

I was a bit of an irresponsible young adult.  I obtained some credit cards right out of high school as I began business school, and shortly thereafter a vehicle loan for a sporty little Eagle Talon.  (When I think about it, how crazy is it that I was able to secure this much credit at such an early age!)  Well, needless to say somewhere around 1998-1999 I began defaulting on my credit cards and my car was also repossessed.  Not such a great credit start.

In 2000 I was married and had two wonderful boys.  I stopped working to stay at home.  Somehow, I was smart enough to request a few forbearances and financial hardships to keep my student loans out of default throughout the years.  In 2002, my husband and I purchased a home.  My credit was horrible, and his not much better.  It was pretty hard to find anyone to finance us.  However, we ended up getting financed with 20% down on the house and an outrageously high interest rate (I believe 9.5%).

Unfortunately my marriage fell apart and I was divorced in 2004.  My house was foreclosed on in 2005.  Hmmmm, at this point defaulted credit cards, repossessed car and foreclosed on home. 

Trust me this is not a sob story!  I just want someone out there to realize they are not alone!

I obviously needed to get back to work and also back to school.  I put my sons in daycare and began working for Jeff in 2004 and shortly thereafter returned to school to finish my degree. I started working on his personal injury and product liability cases.  Soon I started to learn about his FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act) cases and FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) cases.  How great was this, to be involved with cases that I actually enjoyed!  It was awesome to help consumers with similar problems and to help Jeff go after sleazy debt collectors.

In March of 2006 I was driving a very old car and needed something more reliable.  Since I worked with Jeff in connection with the FCRA, I realized that some of my old debt hit the seven year mark and should have fallen off my credit reports.

Therefore, I ordered my credit reports and my credit scores from all 3 agencies.  My FICO score was a whopping 492.  Was it possible for a score to go below 500????? 

I reviewed everything and unfortunately it was accurate.  I went through my reports and documented when each and every debt should be taken off my credit report.  I also went through and picked the most recent debt that went into collections and contacted the original creditors to pay off a few recent debts.  If the debt was over four years old, I closed my eyes and pretended it wasn’t there.

I had managed to save some money over the last 2 years (it was easy since I had to go live with my mother again, lol.).  I put money down and purchased my car.  Again, high interest rate!  But hey, you have to start somewhere.  I just made sure that this time I bought something affordable to make sure I try to build my credit back up instead of continuing to tear it down.

In September 2006, I rented my apartment.  Ahhhh, felt good.  Although, again – the apartment complex did a credit check.  Since I had not so great credit, I had to pay first and last months' rent for a security deposit.  OUCH.

I am still working for Jeff – helping him go after debt collectors. I finished my degree, and am planning to continue my education. 

In June 2008, I ordered yet another set of my credit reports. 

Want to know what my credit score is? ……Drum roll please …………It is an overall of 676. 

Not exactly where I want it, but my score jumped almost 200 points in two years.

I still have negative accounts on my credit, but I also have a couple good ones.  There are about 4 more collection accounts that are due to disappear within the next 6 months.  I will definitely have to keep a close eye on that to make sure that is what happens.

I still get a debt collection call once in awhile…….and if the FDCPA is ever violated I will make sure to protect my rights. (Unfortunately, debt collectors can call me in regards to my debt for as long as they like, 20 years even.)

But until then, I will sit back and know that in a couple years, my credit history will finally have a fresh start.

Thanks for listening!  Please feel free to contact Jeff or myself if you ever have any questions. 

Tina.

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