Monday, March 5, 2012

Annual Credit Report Review

Well it is that time of year to get a copy of our credit reports, and score and see where exactly we are sitting. I actually dread this time of year, mostly I know what it says...........WE SUCK!

No matter what you may think your report says about you though, it really is a good idea to get a copy once a year to review it, see what has changed and what options you may have in order to restore your good name.

So last night I sat down and got our free yearly copies at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp


Yes we do have some debt, I will have to add it all up to see the exact amount but between the 2 of us, it looks like maybe around $5,000. Not great but not bad and very doable to actually pay off. For some reason it looks like my couple judgements I have had for years just vanished. (very high medical bills from a miscarriage I had a long time ago) I have no idea why they disappeared but I knew something was up when I did not get a Michigan state refund garnish paperwork this year and simply got the refund.

But I do still have some open accounts that need to get paid, a goal for this year for sure and due to lack of activity as well this now gives me a poor credit rating of 587.

Hubby actually does not even have a score, while most of his debt is medical from his heart attack a few years back, he has not had any new activity on his credit report for 2 years so there fore no score can be calculated.

So we need a plan of action to raise my score, and get hubby back on the board with a score.

I just found out he did have a choice to have his car payments reported to the credit agencies and he turned it down! It was like really baby? come on!  Fear is what prompted him to do that as he was afraid we would make a late payment and get a bad mark on the credit so he thought no reporting would be better. I really wish he would let me know these things since I do all the finances!

The thing is as I told him, where we got our car is financed through the actually dealership and if we are 1 day late we get our car taken a big fat REPO. So it was like DUH have them report your payments because knowing we can not be one day late, makes it a priority to pay the dang payment and we won't be late! But now he tells me this after over half the payments have been made! UGH UGH UGH.

Hubby get on board please! Love ya but COMMUNICATE!

In any case, we of course need some work in our credit worthiness department, but this is the first time in our life we are actually spending less than what we earn, taking steps to improve our quality of life and there is always hope...............always room for improvements...................always a work in progress...............always a willingness to change what we wronged...............

2 comments:

  1. maybe the old medical debts have dropped off since they are so old, can't remember but it seems like after 7 or 10 years they drop off. Good luck on getting that debt paid in full this year, I know you can do it!!

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    1. Usually yes that is true with just normal collections. But judgments can last forever if they keep going to court every year. Judgements do not usually "just go away" after the 7 years.

      In any case I do not really know why they dropped off as the last one but I am not one to argue :)

      Thankyou for the encouragement, after crunching the numbers it is not bad at all, only $1600 between the two of us so I know we can easily get it all paid this year!

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