this is wayyy off topic, but does anyone know of a forum/message board that's strictly about understanding and fixing your credit? im at the point in my life where my credit is gonna have a HUGE impact on the rest of my life. I had really good credit until my mother fucked me over, and it has really set me back a long way (im 22). I don't want to have to go through the struggles I went through as a child and I dont want my kids (if i ever have any) to go through them either. Also if anyone can recommend any books on repairing credit or online resources, id appreciate it a lot.

thanks a bunch

if you are going to be buying a house or something large like that, id suggest contacting your lender asap and going through a preapproval(this will tell ur creit), and get suggestions from a professional.

If your having problems with actual credit card debt, I can recommend closing all of your accounts, consolidate them with a non-profit type Debt Service as they will usually get the credit card companies to lower the APR % on your cards while you pay them off in one nice monthly payment. I myself am doing that now and its nice to see that I owe less per month. I spoke with a Financial Advisor and at the time I was about to start, he said if I kept paying my minimum credit card bills with the assumption that something might happen and I force myself to use them, I would be debt free by paying only my credit cards off by the time I was age 59, I was 24 at the time.. I've consolidated them, closed them so I can't use them and I should have them paid off most likely in another 2 years, been paying for a little over 2 years already.. And my credit is only getting better nowadays. So yeah, a little over 4 years of hard work, pay debt is much better pay off than me being in debt for the next 25 years, trying to make ends meet.

And the financial advisor I spoke with.. he mentioned that if your total debt is under 50k, its better to just consolidate, pay and suffer for 4 to 5 years while paying off than declare bankruptsy. If its more, well, see what other options you have but filing bankruptsy should always be the last resort as that goes on your credit history and sticks around for at least 7 years.. and most filings doesn't gaurantee that the creditors can come back to ask for the money you owe them.. I don't blame them, were dumb enough to spend what we don't have anyways.. I've learned my lesson..

And I myself have been screwed over by friends and family to not help with my own financial situations..

Good luck in whatever decisions you make..

well im not neccasarily in credit card debt. i currently only have one credit card balance to pay (again doin shit for family, ill never make that mistake again). My problem is I have like 3 things that went to collection (which I since paid off) but theyre still showing up on my report. Im wondering how I can get them off, someone at a bank told me if i pay it off, in a few months everything would go back to normal. its been a few years since i paid 2 of em, but theyre still there. trickykid, whered u get ur financial advisor from and how much did it cost?

Your actual credit report lasts for about 7 years.. if these collection payoff's were not yours but caused by another family member in which they came after you for collection, really the only way for you to get them officially off your record most likely would be to plead with the credit agencies to get them taken off, I'm sure they'd only do it if you didn't know about the collections until they arrived to you and if you paid them off fairly quickly.

Oh, I was lucky with the advisor I spoke with, it was a guy who went to church with my ex-roomate, did it all for free