My husband and I have been applying for an apartment in Mankato, MN and our application has been denied due to a bad credit history and our credit score being below their projected limit!!

The thing is, when we settle up all our debts with the various people that we owe money 2, does that immediately clear our credit history or do we have 2 wait an X amount of years before our credit is in the clear???

Thanks guys!!!

It takes a year or so of making regular payments to everyone before you start to look better (don't be late for one!). It's such a bullshit system in this economy.

Credit is measures by the last 24 months of activity (in general).

Also, do we pay each place seperatly or can we pay through such things as debt consolidators???? Or can we pay our debts right off to clear our credit limit more quickly????

I have totalled up all our debts and they come to $1193, surely that small amount is not worth worrying about when other people owe 1000s, if not tens of 1000s of dollars to people and yet they seem to b accepted for things like housing????
[Edited 11/6/09 11:27am]

Desire2006 said:

It's not how much you owe, it's your payment record that counts.

What others have said is true, they're mostly looking at your on-time payments for the last 24 months. If you have a bad debt (something that goes over 6 months past due) that remains on your record for 7-10 years.

If all of your payments are on time, then they will look at things like how many lines of credit you have, what types (car loan, credit cards, mortgage, whatever) and what your debt to income ratio is. That's when how much you are in debt matters, but it's only a small part.

Keep paying consistently on debts you owe. This will help build up your credit again.

Seven years from the date of the settlement or last payment. Bankruptcies are 10 from date of discharge. I used to work for the credit bureau it's all a scam but you can't get away from it.

Graycap23 said:

That's how the score itself is generated but they can see all activity for 7 years back therefore a creditor can deny you for anything that still appears on your report regardless of the score.

Desire2006 said:

Don't ever use debt consolidators. They don't do anything you can't do for yourself and it looks bad on your report. Pay that shit OFF. Use your cards regularly but pay them off every month.

SCNDLS said:

Correct.

I used to work in a bank, and when I got hired they ran a credit report, to which I understand in a bank cuz you are dealing with money and it may be tempting but to deny someone a job cuz they had some late payments floored me... We had one applicant the branch manager really liked but she had some "questionable" things in her credit report... I just thought it was sad cuz obviously if you cant meet your payments on time you need a friken job!

In the job I have now, they did a background check... now i understand a criminal check but how the hell does my credit score have anything to do with my job in a dialysis clinic???

tinaz said:

Most companies, even those that don't deal with finances run a credit report before they hire. What I want to know is, with the economy as bad as it is and people out of work are they still holding to this standard??? Could you imagine being out of work for months FINALLY getting a job and being denied because you couldn't pay your bills on time BECAUSE you were unemployed??? That's some bullshit.

Desire2006 said:

my husband and i had this problem too when we were moving, we almost gave up on finding a nice place in a safe area. but we didn't give up, and we found a really great place in a nice neighborhood! it's all a matter of meeting the right person that is willing to work with you and have some compassion. we were really blessed to come across the right lady that would help us and give us a chance. we had good reason for our past debts, it truly was beyond our control, and we could show proof that we had paid on them, or were paying them off, that helped a lot!

good luck to you and your family and don't give up, there will be that one person out there that will give you a chance.

SCNDLS said:

Im sayin!!

SCNDLS said:

The whole system is trash.
That is why I don't deal with credit.....on any level.

yeah, but even such things as regular monthly payments on bills, or regular medical payments is all classed now as credit, whether u pay them by credit/debit card, check or cash!!!!

Desire2006 said:

It's not about HOW you pay your bills, it's determined by whether your utilities and other companies you deal with will report your payment record. They have to pay the credit bureaus to report information but chances are anybody you pay is reporting on you regardles of how you pay them.

The whole system is terrible-there are great people who have had bad breaks in life-shit happens. The credit system is used to deny people the dream of owning a home, getting a good job and that is terrible. The system really needs to be looked at and checked.

People need to start rising up and ask the government why corporations get to walk away from debt completely and the average citizen cannot. Even if you file bankruptcy, you are still fucked for 10 years.

nurseV said:

girl tell it! Yes life does happen and they don't seem to care about the ones who are actually trying to turn their credit around. Even if you have paid off a deliquent account, its like you are still paying for it because you have to prove that you can actually pay bills on time. So thats what, two more years of proving after you have paid off something bad on your credit report? Crazy. I use the free credit report.com to check my credit report every year and this year I had my boyfriend check his and he found out that he had a deliquent account on his credit that should had been paid when he was a teenager by his mother! Apparently because of the length of time it has been deliqent it has brought his credit score down tremendously and its the only account!!!!! Once he found out he called his mother ASAP (she lives in another state) and they found that it was an old bill from a patient first visit when he was in high school! Thank God he has just been offered and accepted a new job opportunity for him, so that he can go ahead and pay it off himself. But it was so unfortunate because this was something his mother's insurance was supposed to pay, apparently her insurance didn't pay the whole bill, and it was his mother's responsiblity to pay it, but she didn't either. So in essence, his credit got fucked by this one account and now he has to pay it off and open up a credit card so that he show that he can pay payments on time. And who knows when his credit score is going to go up.

Vendetta1 said:

Thats so true

missfee said:

Before he pays that shit, what was the last date of activity on the account??? If it's been more than 7 years or close to it, I wouldn't pay it. He needs to dispute it with each of the 3 bureaus and have it removed. The minute he makes a payment on it the seven year countdown starts over. So paying it actually EXTENDS the length of time it will appear on his report and does not mean it stops counting as a negative against him. He could also dispute the account as not his to get it removed.
[Edited 11/7/09 6:38am]

SCNDLS said:

I believe it had the year of 2006 on it.

missfee said:

He may want to dispute it as "not mine" with each bureau. If he pays it, it will stay on another 7 years from now.
[Edited 11/7/09 7:04am]

SCNDLS said:

I hear you, but I have a question. How he can he dispute it though if the bill was in his name, though he was a minor at the time under his mother's insurance? Will disputing it fly?

missfee said:

If he was a minor, he shouldn't have been able to enter into any kind of credit/financing contract or agreement. Is HIS signature on the agreement? He "could" say that his mother entered into the agreement using his info, which happens ALL the time. But, last time I checked, if you dispute with EACH bureau online there's a specific list of dispute options and "not mine" is one of them. I would just select that and provide as little extra details as possible. Just say it isn't mine and I'm not responsible for this account. Keep it simple.

Unless they've changed the laws since I worked in the industry, the bureau sends the dispute to the creditor and they have 30 days to respond. If they don't respond in 30 days it must come off, even if they come back with proof after the 30 days, it stays off. Now, since so much stuff is electronic they MAY be able to respond faster BUT my guess is that people still need to process the responses and if that's the case I'd bet there's still a huge delay. When I was at Experian, about 70% of disputes came off because the creditor didn't respond in time. So, it can't hurt to dispute any and everything the worst that can happen is that it stays on.

Also, this is basically what those "credit repair" companies do. There is no way to legally repair your credit. They basically inundate the creditors and bureaus with disputes until something sticks and is removed. They don't do anything you can't do for yourself for free. Another thing they'd do is have someone working on the inside that would clean up people's reports.

I actually wrote the training program for Experian's 1000-seat call center that handles all calls from consumers nationwide. Some of the CSRs would work with these credit repair scammers. That's a federal crime and I've seen the FBI roll up in the joint and escort muthafuckas straight to the pen.
[Edited 11/7/09 7:24am]

SCNDLS said:

SCNDLS said:

Okay, thanks for the advice. I'll definitely tell him that.

Other than that account, that is the only thing on his credit report, he doesn't have any credit cards and he paid for his car in cash. Is it possible that he can apply for a credit card even though his credit score is low? I mean I guess it sounds like a common sense question, but you never know, and so thats why i'm asking. And is it true that if the credit card company rejects his application for a credit card that, that can go against his credit too? He really needs something else on his credit report to show that he can pay bills on time.

PunkMistress said:

Giiiiirrrrrlll, you betta stop.

The good news is you can always improve your credit score. Get a secured credit card and start making on time payments. Don't go above half of the available credit limit, pay extra not just minimum and never have too many revolving credit items (credit cards or lines of credit).

If you have a bankruptcy it is going to affect you for 10 years not 7 because it stays on your credit report for 10 years. After 2 years you can get credit via financial/ or subprime lenders, but banks won't touch you while the bankruptcy shows on your credit report.

I know things happen, but the way people use credit does speak to many things. Just because you have credit available doesnt mean you should use it. It is best to think of credit as a necessity- most have to have a car loan or a home loan, but we don't have to use the credit cards we have all the time. You do need active credit history, so you should use your cards at least every 3-6 months because most banks want to see 2 years worth of credit history on a minimum of 3 credit items for personal credit (personal loans/lines, auto loans, credit cards, etc); and, for mortgages, they want to see 5 credit items open for at least 2 years.

Can you tell I am a banker- and no not a lying, dirty banker, like to types that made bad loans to people who clearly could never pay them back, but one who tells the customer the truth. YOU NEVER WANT TO OVEREXTEND YOURSELF, YOUR MONTHLY DEBTS SHOULD NEVER BE MORE THAN HALF OF YOUR MONTHLY INCOME. IF YOU stick to this you will be ok (barring a medical catastrophe or extended period of unemployment). Credit is a necessity of life and the credit score is a way to gage how a person uses credit. There are necessities in life and then there are those things that we don't need. Most people who get into credit issues don't do so because they lost a job they had for a number of years, or had a medical issue that caused them to be out of work for months receiving little to no pay. The sad fact is most people damage their credit by living way beyond their means, buying & spending on luxuries, not necessities. Of course, most use credit to take a vacation once or twice a year, or maybe at XMAS, but if we stick to the basic fact that we should live within our means, and not put ourselves in the position of having to pay out more than half of our monthly income on debt, we would be ok.

Believe me when I say I am not a snob- I grew up on an Indian Reservation where poverty affected about 50% of the inhabitants and no one to this day is anything but middle class. I think the media and peer pressure lead people into believing they should be living a certain way, wearing certain clothes, living the "american dream" of white house and picket fence when the fact is some people just cannot afford to buy a home and may never be able to afford a home.

If you follow the basic rule of never overextending your debt you will likely be ok- that is barring the major catastrophe- serious medical situation that depletes your life's savings and forces you to live on a third to a fourth of your previous annual income. Or, the loss of a job for months or even a year or more.