I need advice on credit card debt?

I have about 2,500 in credit cards that went to collections, what happens if I start over with new means of rebuilding my credit and stay on top of making payments will my credit score go back up or stay low still because of the debt in collections?

OK....lets all stop...take a deep breath...and take a look at Bama's answer.

For you folks who have been here on Yahoo for a while, try to do it without laughing.

OK, THIS is the reason I am here, and why I try to help people fighting with collection agents. What she just posted is complete nonsense! This is what collection agents tell you when trying to scare you into paying your debts.

I was just gonna pass this up until I saw her claim of being a credit card company rep...makes it sound like he/she knows what they are talking about.

Just read the Fair Credit Reporting Act....it will refute all the lies.

1) Debts can NOT say on your credit report longer then 7 years, no matter if they are sold to other collection agents or not.

2) A debt can only be listed more then once on your report. The only person allowed to list a debt is the one who legally has the right to collect it. If it's listed multiple times, you simply dispute the duplicates. If they don't come off, you have grounds to sue them.

Been there...don't that.

OK, now to answer the question which nobody seems to have a clue about, other then to pay the bill.......

The negative mark will stay on your record for 7 years. The longer it stays there, the less impact it will have. So expect poor credit for the next 4-5 years at a minimum.

Remember that your credit score is a measure of your total credit history. You can improve your score by getting other sources of credit. But for the next 5 years it isn't going to make that great a differance.

If you pay the past due bill, as these nice folks are suggesting, it will NOT get the negative item removed. All it does is change the status to "paid" but all negative info is still there, ruining your credit. If you do pay this bill, be sure that the creditor agrees IN WRITING to delete this item once you have paid the debt. Otherwise you just spent a lot of money and didn't do anything for your credit history.

you should check with the collection agency if the account has been reported to your credit reference file. If yes then pay this quickly so that your CBR can be updated positively. You can also settle the account for a lower balance however if you will apply for loan then you might be charged a higher interest rate for settling your collection account. If the collection agency has not reported your account to CBR then ask them how you can prevent ask them if you can pay in partial payment arrangment and pay it off.

your credit score will certainly improve if you pay your debt in collection.

"A debt consolidation program helps to get out of all high interest debts. There are various types of debt consolidation loans.

Home equity loan is one such debt consolidation program where a person can use home to get a loan.

This is a secured loan and the interest rates are low compered to unsecured loans.

Selecting a online debt consolidation is very easy as it allows you to total all your debts into one small payment.

Going for online debt consolidation is a good option, you need to take into account the fee charged by the debt consolidation companies."

i would agree with studly!

For credit card debt elimination generally there are two recommendations the first is controlling the expenditures and the second is consolidating debt. For the recommendations of the two credit card debt elimination this is some of the ways of achieving this.

Controlling the expenditures is to control your urge to spend which is the first step for credit card debt elimination. To explain this it's about the way you make your payments using your credit card. Getting into credit card debt can be due to uncontrolled expenditures using your credit card. To control your expenditures this is a guide that will help in credit card debt elimination.

Controlling The Expenditures

1. Do not buy anything that you do not really need. Step back and go home consider what you are about to buy. Sleep on it and get a better perspective the next day and then tell yourself do I really need to purchase that item. Stay away from attractive offers; remember you are looking into taking steps towards credit card debt elimination not supplementation. Read more about it at: http://www.credit-card-gallery.com/article/126,Two_Steps_To_Credit_Card_Debt_Elimination

It will slowly, but surely, go up if you keep up your payments. It will take approximately 7 years for the collections to go off your record, but if you are consistent from here on out, your overall score will slowly climb. It is a shame that your score can be ruined so easily and so quickly, but with some work you can overcome this. Pay all your bills on time. And don't take on a lot of loans or credit card debt until you KNOW you can pay them off. It is best to only use your credit cards when you already have money in the bank. In other words, don't go into debt at all. Start small and work your way up. It is worth the effort! Good luck!

p.s. And watch out for scams!! There are a lot of things out there that promise to fix your credit. Very, very few of them are legit; especially if they charge a fee. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You are much better off being patient and fixing the problem yourself.

Pay old debts first

At the same time, if you still have a credit card, you can make the bill roll. Pay on time, and your credit score will increase.

good luck !

It will help to have new credit but the debt in collections will effect your score until they are dropped from the credit report. Trust me I know, this happened to me 7 years ago. But I was still able to buy a home etc. so long the collection accounts were paid in full. Even after they are paid in full they stay on your credit report and effect your score.

Good luck!

hey Dude I have been there and it SUXXX. My wife divorced me and things went downhill. I do not mind paying child support but it makes money tight when you pay child support and have seperate living expenses from my child.

I ignored it collection notices, I didn't pay it.

The next thing I know I am not able to sell this piece of property I was living on. I had thought selling the property would help me get going on a fresh start.

The original company got a collector & then the collector sent it back. The put a lien on my property. They did not actually own the property but I coud not sell the property until I paid the lein. The lein as based on the amount I owed plus legal fees & was much more times what the amount originally. I do not know what would have happened to my property if I did not sell the land and pay the lien. A 3,000 loan turned into a 10,000 lein. I ended up with only $2,000 from my land.

If I were faced with the same problem again, I would return the calls and respond to the mail and work something out even if I had to live by eating at the local homeless shelter.

To many people expect to be cottled and this is wrong. We have all become spoiled and short-sighted. We expect others to clean up our messes, we want to blame it on Big Companies and say that the big companies can afford to take on a loss and clean up your mess. In the end it is everyone that pays because the buck gets passed not only to the consumers at that time but also to future consumers. Why should my kid have to pay for my mistakes. He is inocennt when I am the one who caused the problem.

All of us should be accountable for what we do. If I owe it I got to pay it. Otherwise everyone pays in the long run. Pull yourself up by the bootstraps and pay it off one way or another. No matter what anyone says, that is the right thing to do. You borrowed it so you pay it

The first step of rebuilding your credit is to pay off any outstanding bills in collections. Things are not going to get better until you do, because those will remain on your credit report. Once you have all of that taken care of, get a card with a SMALL limit ($300 or so) and use it only for things that you know you can pay off immediately. Don't allow yourself to carry a balance on your card - always pay it off right away or you will fall back into your old patterns of letting your balance go up. After a year or so of this, your credit should be on the way back. Then, you might think about charging something like a computer on a payment plan and making your payments promptly. Things like this will really help. Don't forget to keep checking your credit report to make sure there aren't any old things on there that are still holding you back.

you need to clean up anything past due first. I would start with whatever is most past due. They will set up a paymnet plan with you if you are earnest, but you must stick to it.

This stuff stays on your credit report for a long time, so start now.

For starters, did you know that accounts in collections can also garnish your wages, garnish your tax refunds & put a lein on your property (let's say you are in the process of buying a house for example,or you own a car)........... and the whole idea that collections will drop off after 7 years... well that is IF & ONLY IF they don't then re-sell your debt,each time they re-sell your debt it is as if it is a new debt all over again on your credit report. so lets you owe "Credit Card A" and were 3 months behind......."A" already sold your debt to "WE CAN COLLECT IT"... and "WE CAN COLLECT IT" failed after 2 years of trying... so they in turn sell it to "DEBTS R US" and "DEBTS ARE US" tried for 6 months to no avail & sold to "KnuckleHeads".. well "KnuckleHeads" tried to & given that they were barely within the original time limit, they sent a request to the courts to grant them the right to garnish.... now, that right to garnish is on your credit reporting as public record.... you begin to notice that 25% of your gross pay-check is gone & you wonder why...well you find out "KnuckleHeads" has seized your income & you wonder why...so you find a number & you call KnuckleHeads & they tell you they dunno, they bought the debt from "Debts are Us".. and then you finally trace it back to "Credit Card A".... well by then you have (1) your money seized, (2) 4.. yes count them 4 collection agencies (instead of 1 or 2) for just one debt, and (3) a public record............. not to mention the corrolating lowered score & the 7 years FOR EACH DEBTOR & SUB-DEBTOR.............not to mention (4) at least 3 companies that show a charged-off debt for something that you owed to only 1 company to start with

DO NOT START OVER UNTIL YOU HAVE PAID THE COLLECTORS........... HUGE MISTAKE

And Studly... yes, I do (Capital One to be exact) and even though the laws say that.. it almost never works out that way & then the time it takes to get it straight is just nuts (although, I side with consumers that FACTA is something that should be followed, it simply isn't and there really isn't anything anyone can or will do about it.

Yes, I have gotten phone calls from people who found out while they were selling thier house that they couldn't because of a lien on thier house from a debt that originated as an unsecure debt

See all things are sort of a trade off... we got FACTA & "they" got the rights to get liens on property to restitue unsecured debt.

Sometimes the truth hurst really bad........ but it is the TRUTH

and I will add this as well.. studly... the other part of facta is the "acurate" part... even if the company said they will remove the debt & even if the collections sent a letter saying they would remove the debt.... that is also a VIOLATION OF FACTA

FACTA --- Fair (sorry, I wish it were so & I hate collection tactics as well... this is why I DON'T WORK IN COLLECTIONS) and ACURATE (as in a business reports, then it reports both the good and the bad) Credit (3 major & a few other credit reporting agencies) Trade (folks who did business with each other) Agreement (as in the original contract that said if you borrow the money, you must the also pay it back)

Folks who don't pay what they borrowed are the folks who cost the responsible people money.... that is also a FACT... if you borrow it, don't depend on the rest of society to take that burden... it affects all kinds of things like stock values... and seeing as your profile said you worked for SBC then you woud clearly know that your defaulting on debt cost your co-workers money because all of your pensions in invested in the stock market, and even though I don't like big business, the reality that as soon as the market was created, we as a society become a slave to that system, even if we as individuals elect not to directly participate........ Remember Black Tuesday & Blue Monday??? Blue Monday was a driect result of folks like you. (people living beyond thier means & not paying & without a savings account to buffer life's disasters along with Kennedy & Rockefeller)..................... (Studly, not this young man fat85crx)

E-mail me I can help, but the other guy was right by saying fix whats bad first then move forward. Also by your accounts going to a collection agency they will be reporting on your credit as well, lowering your score even more. write and i will try to point you in the right direct creditresourcesystems at yahoo dot com

Maybe you should learn how to pay your bills instead.

Are you saying you are going to declare bankruptcy to clean up the debt you owe? I am not sure how else you can "start over". If you talk to the people trying to collect from you, you may be able to make arrangements to pay the bill you owe. That would be better than having just a bad debt listed on your credit history.

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