Credit Scores, Mistakes, and How they affect me

[Nikose Tyris]

So, as many* of you know, I've been house hunting and havin' a grand old time with all that. I finally found one, put in an offer and got a confirmed sale, and I'm really, really excited about that. It's a beautiful house!

They pulled my credit score.

Now, in fairness, my father has done a shitload of damage to my credit score by using my SIN number on all sorts of applications and abandoning it. It's fraud, but he can't be found to be arrested. He's been on the lam for a long while now, and I fought like hell to get that shit cleared off.

Buuuuuuut I've made mistakes of my own. Mistakes like a cell phone bill that I contested, was advised to leave unpaid, that got sent to collections. It was sold to I-QOR and sits at $2728. That cell phone was a terrible idea; Rogers never honored any of the contract changes they were supposed to, did not give me the cell phone plans I asked for and constantly overbilled me because of failure to properly change the plan I was on. [For instance, not changing my phone number to the montreal one like I had requested.]

And then there was my credit card. I got laid off at work, and was living above my means- not much above, but far enough above that I was using my credit card as a balance holder, and ended up averaging about $750 worth of debt on it. And then VOLT VMC downsized and I was let go and released from contract- and instead of doing the SMART thing and using the contract payout to pay off the credit card and cancel it, I let the credit card get worse and go to collections. It's sitting at Partners CR collect, and it's worth about $1,394.

That's my 18-21 mistakes catching up with me already. I'm not soliciting for help or advice here [I know that I can call these companies and begin to make arrangements to pay down/pay off these things with what funds I have; I've spent a lot of time helping people fight against bully credit collectors and dealing with this topic for other people that I'm hopefully going to come out of this relatively unscathed and not the worse for the wear]; I'm posting this primarily to give an open thread of advice to anyone who thinks credit card / cell phone plans are a good idea.

And then when I tried to pay these off like a year ago, I found companies who claimed to have the debt, and paid them. Turns out that those companies had already sold off the debt, and I'd essentially just been robbed. I found that out today on the phone, which sparked me to post all this.

An important thing to note here is that I own these mistakes. They are mine. I am the guilty party here and I have no excuse. I'm just... frustrated. It's going to take me about a year to clear all this debt off my head, if they don't waste my time dragging me to court for bills that I'll be calling around to try and arrange payment plans for.

And now I'm likely going to not get the house I've been bidding on / fighting for, meaning I'll have no money to begin making payments on a payment plan.

I'm apparently too broke to get drunk right now, so at least that won't be an issue.

*many being defined as "those who know me on facebook and twitter

Thread posted as a way to empty stress / blow off steam from all this, to keep from exploding into jellybeans.

[shiney]

Try to settle, and then after the debt is settled, dispute the derogatories repeatedly. I've heard and experienced that there is no repercussion to filing a dispute time and again, and if you are persistent enough you'll win in the end. I guess it can get expensive for the recipient company...

Won't help much regarding your mortgage application, sorry to hear about that, but it's possible to turn around your mistakes at least. Even if you have to really sack up and just remain stubborn.

Advice applies to everyone, really, but targeted toward ole NT.

[Nikose Tyris]

I'm currently seriously considering a 5 year loan, at 5%, for $5,000. Payment would be a little short of $100 a month, but would remove active collections, and be something I'd be capable of doing.

Unsure on it right now. 5% is a pretty good rate, all things considered.

[shiney]

Unsecured? If you already have credit troubles that can be tough. I'd consider a debt consolidation firm, though you would need to do serious research in re: reputability.