Repair Credit Report Help

Trying to repair credit...have a question or two?

I am in the process of reading and following "Credit Repair for Dummies" and I have 2 questions if anyone knows.. 1. I have a student loan thru OSLA and I have previously slow-paid on it, but I have 2 entries showing up as NELNET LOAN SERVICE that are both on my Equifax report. In the comments section it says STUDENT LOAN...they both have 0 balance, 0 credit limit, 0 scheduled payment amount, 0 past due amount and the current status states ACCOUNT IS INACTIVE. What is this and is it hurting me? 2. My mother died in 2003 and apparently had added me to one of her credit cards as an authorized user for emergencies. I never knew this or never had a card. When she died there was a balance of 3600 that was placed and charged off on MY credit report...is there anything I can do to get this removed, or am I stuck with it?

Public Comments

1. Sorry, most entries stay on for 7 years. You can pay a company like Lexington Law Firm to clean up your report, or you can do it yourself by writing to each of the three credit bureaus. When you dispute a charge, they investigate by sending an inquiry to the creditor. If after three times you dispute a charge to each of the three credit bureaus, if their is no reply from the creditor, the item is taken off.
2. There are many factors to consider to effectively repair your credit. All these factors boil down to a few major points designed to ultimately show lenders the type of credit risk you are. They want to see that, i. you pay your bills on time, ii. you do not max out all your credit cards, (for best credit score, you want to spend under 30% of your credit limit at any given time). iii. you want to keep your accounts in good standing for as long as possible. The longer you have an account (in good standing of course) on your credit the more responsible you look to the lenders/ banks, etc. When you are repairing credit, you want to combine these factors among others to your advantage. For example if you have an account in good standing but you do not use, it is wise to keep it open. Such an account helps your overall credit though counter intuitive. If there is no dollar amount attached to your student loans, then at the least it is not hurting your credit. Sorry about your loss Amber, the $3,600 charge off can be disputed.
3. Although there are many Internet sites that claim to be able to do credit repair for you, they cannot. When you ask “How can I repair my credit”, there are many places you can get advice about credit repair<!--but you are the only one that can actually do it. A credit repair guide is one way you can get the information you need about improving a credit score. When you say “repair my credit”, you are asking for help to repair bad credit. http://best-loans.awardspace.com/repaircredit.htm There are many places where you can get the free information you need, but first of all you need to know what your credit score is. You can get this by requesting a free annual credit report from the three major credit bureaus. Since you have bad credit-->then there is a file on you at one or all of these places.Actually no credit is almost as bad as bad credit. If you have never borrowed any money or had a credit card, you will have difficulty getting a loan.
4. I'll answer the questions in the order you asked them 1. As far as the "inactive" account from Nelnet if it's reporting a 0 balance, it's not hurting you. 2. One of the new changes to the scoing system is the nullification of the authorized user. Which means that it won't have any affect on your score.Also, the debt is 5¼ years old, so it's slated to stop reporting in about 2 more years or so. Also, another thing to know is that the statute of limitations(SOL) for open accounts in OK(that's where I'm from) is 3 years. So even if you were a co-applicant, the debt couldn't be legally enforced anyway. Also, you could contact the credit card company and inform them if they aren't aware already that your mother's passing(BTW,my condolences) and provide documentations (death certificates, etc) and they may be able to re-age or re-set the account to where it can be closed properly. This option will take a little more research and work if you're willing to do this, but it will help you out. My suggestion would be to ride it out. If it's been on there this long, it's not hurting your credit as much as you think it is. Activity within the last 2 years or 24 months affect your score the most. Items after that, lose it's negative effect after time until it stops reporting. Hopefully this answer makes sense, if you have any questions, feel free to ask away!