Not exactly. If the balances are very small, as you described, that's probably true.

But if the balances are very large, that debt is going to count against you when you apply for a mortgage.

So paying 30 percent on a large balance is going to help somewhat but --- the balance itself is still going to hurt you.

After reading this thread I decided to do some investigating into checking my credit and cleaning it up if necessary, as I want to build a house next summer and I want the biggest house I can get lol. I don't want to pay high interest rates etc.

What I found is that there are FAKO scores (the scores that you get on your credit reports from anywhere else but http://www.myfico.com) and REAL FICO scores.

You need to know your real FICO score which can be bought here http://www.myfico.com they are $12.95/each but it's the most accurate reflection of what a credit card or mortgage company will see when you apply.

Sometimes the FAKO is the same or lower but I found with my reports they were much higher, leading me to believe I had a much better score than I did.

Some boards to help you learn laws, the process on cleaning up your credit etc can be found here

http://www.faircreditmovement.com
http://www.creditboards.com

You'll also find what cards are best to apply for when you have a certain score etc. You can even find out what company pulls what Credit agency report when you apply for their credit cards, etc. Arm yourself with the tools to make sure when you need or want credit in the future you get it!


There are laws that the Original Creditors, Collection Agencies and Credit Reporting Agencies MUST follow and if they don't better for you!

It's not illegal nor immoral to dispute a tradeline that is not 100% accurate and proven that you owe it in the first place. I won't get into specifics here but even if 100% of your report is accurate in your mind, you can get rid of most or all of it :) Read the boards!

You'd be surprised at the mistakes I found on my husbands and my reports and I'm talking legimate innacurracies like him having a $200,000 loan when he's never had a loan in his life!

After reading up on this I found that there was some, not so 100% accurate, information posted here by some well meaning individuals and I just want to give you all the resources to learn what is accurate. There is a formula to everything you just need to do alot of reading to get it right :)

oops forgot to add that at myfico.com you can actually read up on what contributes to your score. What percentage is length of credit, what percentage is debt to income ratio etc.

I was in the same boat a while ago. The bank told me to take out a small personal loan for about 5000$, then pay it back over a year. I put it on automatic withdrawal payments to make sure it was all done on time, and voila! Credit! :) The next year I bought a house and got the mortgage from them.

This is a great place to start.
www.myfico.com

www.equifax.com sells your Fico score and credit report for $12.95

One day someone will stand up to these people. Think about it. They do in fact conspire to make rules across the board. They tell you that you have to have loans and other financial histories, but all of those financial histories cost you money to get. That represents their profit. Basically they are conspiring to force you to pay fees to themselves for you to get loans, and by using these three agencies, they are monopolizing the flow of money.

Someday a lawyer might see some profit in this and take a swing at the system.

Seeing our new Canadian-American webmaster getting screwed because he has no history and is forced to buy a history just twists my gonads.

The only satisfaction I see from this whole process is that bank employees make squat and the only excitement they get all day is talking about last night's Friends episode while standing around a water cooler - A WATER COOLER *I* PAID FOR.

I'm 2/3 finished with Atlas Shrugged and I am learning so many things.

Amazing to see how different your posting style is now compared to in May. You made alot more sense then. Back to step 1 of 12?

This sounds like a plan endorsed by Tom Vu

In Australia you don't get a credit rating - just a 7 year history of enquiries and defaults. If a company checks your record, it generates a new entry explaining the reason for it (eg application for a $10,000 loan). If you default then that also gets listed, even if it is paid off after listing.

It's up to you to prove that a loan which was applied for, was granted and then paid in full.

I recently applied for a home loan so I ordered a copy of my credit report to check that everything was fine. I was surprised to see only a single entry... an enquiry regarding a car loan last year (which I was approved for). In the past 7 years I've signed up with several new utility companies as I moved, signed a couple of mobile phone contracts ('free' phone so they are giving me credit), and applied for two credit cards. None of them were listed.

It's possible that when I applied for the car loan, my credit history for the 7 years prior was completely blank! :Graucho

Oh yeah, in aussieland credit cards are considered a liability too, even if you pay them off without fail each month. It's something like a long term loan, rather than a bunch of short term loans. I pay mine off each month, and instead of getting brownie points with the bank, it gets a $2k monthly liability listed on my app.

Anyone know anything about the firm www.lexingtonlaw.com?

I have heard from some people that they are good, but honestly I am not sure. I wanted to see if anyone had any personal experience with them first.

I am trying to get some things off my record that are hurting it that should not be on there.

Spankstrocko

I've heard good things and bad things. I'd try to do it myself first. There are TONS of resources online to tell you how to do it.

I'm currently using Lexington Law firm, if you're like me and don't have time or want to hassle with disputing they are the way to go.

I've had 4 things completely removed from my credit in the last 30 days from two bureaus. Even if the information on your credit report is "valid" you can still have it removed. I had 3 things removed from Equifax within 2 weeks. Experian took 30 days. Still waiting to hear back from Trans Union.

The fair credit act states, if the creditor doesn't provide proof of the debt back to the bureau within 30 days. The bureau has to remove it from your credit. Most of the creditors don't have the time to respond to disputes or are usually very unorganized. So it's pretty easy to have things removed.

I also know someone who works in one of the bureaus credit dispute section. They said they get so many disputes they don't have time to really investigate each one. They remove 90% of the disputes that come in.

Sounds good. I may give it a go.

Spankstrocko