How to improve bad credit score?

My credit score is currently at (570), and has been for about 3 years now. Most of my debt is from Hospital stays and the doctors who saw me during my stay. I had no health insurance at the time because I barely made enough money to survive. I have also had a friend whom I shared an apartment with steal my identity and sign up for credit cards and use them as her own while she went traveling across the country. Up until about a year ago when I went to apply for a loan so I could get a new car I didn't even know these credit cards existed. Apparently I am in about $10,000 worth of debt. My boyfriend and I are moving to TAMPA FL next year and I will need to get my credit score up a little higher if I want to be able to rent an apartment. I make about $1000 a month, $250 of it goes to other bills and I'd say about $500 goes to other living expenses. About $200 a month right now is going towards saving for a car that I need desperately in order to get back and forth to work. I basically have $150 a month to spare as of right now. My dilemma is that I am willing to work with the collection agencies that keep bugging me on a daily basis but all of them seem to want my bills paid in full. Out of the 3 hospital bills $1800, $24000, and $2300 I don't know how I can possibly pay them all off at one time. My question is should I start paying off the $200-$500 bills (My Ex-Friends) debt or should I worry about paying the big bills off first? I making my student loan payments on time which is helping out tremendously, but I am just so confused about how improve my credit score within the next year or so before I move. What is the credit score most landlords find acceptable now adays and what about car dealerships? If I can save $150 a month towards my debt for the time being will it be worth it eventually?

Public Comments

1. You should have gotten a lawyer and contacted the authorities about the friend long ago. As long as you pay the hospital and doctors a little something every month on your bill, the collections company have nothing they can say - and you can send them a letter requesting they cease and desist their collection calls. You can also request a deferment on your student loans based on your current economic situation. You should have also contacted the card companies and informed them of the fraud, and had the cards frozen, you would not have been held liable.
2. Slam Zone is right, but I would add that it may not be too late for you to contact an attorney about getting those debts transferred to the person who fraudulently incurred them. I am not a lawyer, but I know my brother in law was able to do the same when someone did that to his credit, even though it had been some time since the fraud. Hurry on that; call Legal Aid in your area and see if they can help you. The best method I know for the other debts is to pay down the smallest first. I know the agents are stressing "pay in full, pay in full", because that's their job; however, most won't refuse a partial payment when it's sent, so just pick the smallest and chip away at it. The most important thing is to be consistent with payments. If nothing else, you may be able to take Ch 13 bankruptcy and pay what you can afford for three to five years, have it discharged, and be better off -- again, attorneys give the proper advice on your particulars.
3. check here. i hope u find something here.. i know i did http://credit-repair-info-for-you.blogspot.com/
4. You situation is very complex and I am not an expert. One thing is that any payment is better than none. If you can pay the small amounts first that would be good but don't do so such that you have to forgo payments for your medical bills. It would be nice to figure out a way to have your credit card debts that aren't yours written off as fraud. You might have to report the ID theft to the police (where it happened) and press the district attorney to press charges. But this is all beyond my knowledge. Really what you need is something you can ill afford, a good lawyer to guide you. Let me give you an email address. This person, Elizabeth Warren, has written books about people in situations just like yours. She no doubt gets tons of email form people in bad situations so don't be surprised if she doesn't respond but she certainly wont if you don't email her. Send her exactly what you wrote here. Here is her web site: http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/facdir.php?id=82 and here is her email: jwagner@law.harvard.edu Don't be intimidated by her position/credentials. She's one of us.
5. Having a good credit rating, helps a consumer get a loan or credit at better rates and for larger amounts.To know "How to improve credit rating, credit score" plz follow link- http://k7c.info
6. I have some tips to help you out. It's going to take time, money, hardwork and perseverence. Most of all, KNOWLEDGE. Knowledge is in fact power. And what I mean by that is knowing is ½ the battle. First knowing what makes up your score will help you the most because it will give you a better understanding of how credit works and why it works the way it does. Here's a quick breakdown: Payment history 35% Utilization (debt to available credit) ratio 30% Length of time establishing credit 15% Types of credit established 10% Inquiries and New accounts 10% Ok...now that I've explained how it works, let's come up with a magic number: 620. A score of 620 and up will get you approved. Maybe not with the best interest rate in the world, but it will get you in. Plus it's 50 points from where you are right now, and believe it or not, that goal is quite reachable. Having said that let's take a closer look at your situation. Right now, based on what you've said the only open account that you have and paying on is the student loan. This is an installment loan which satisfies that particular portion. You'll need a couple of revolving accounts in order to generate you some positive credit. The easiest way to do this is by getting a secured credit card. You can think of this as building credit with a savings account. A deposit is put upfront which is usually tied to a savings account, that's used for collateral for a credit limit in the same amount of the deposit. For example, a $200 would get you a $200 credit line. The more you deposit, the higher the credit line, the better your report looks. Also the deposit is essentially a savings account so it would gain interest as well. A quick way to get a quick boost would be to take the money that you're saving for your car, use that as a deposit, build positive credit by keeping the balance no more than $20-25/month and paying on time every month. If you continue to add what you would've been saving for the car to the secured card to increase the credit line, keeping the balance around that $20-25 mark and paying on time, usually after a year, the card will either convert to a regular one or you'll get offfered a better one, and the best part of all, YOU'LL GET THE DEPOSIT BACK. With interest. If you're saving up for a car anyway, why not try to build credit with it at the same time? That's what I say. If you follow the formula that I said by keeping the balance around $20-25/month there's no way that you could fall behind and force your collatteral to be used. And when it's said and done, not only you still have you money saved up for your car, but a high-limit unsecured credit card, and an improved credit score. Since you don't have any other positive credit aside from your student loans, it's important to at least have a couple of cards with a decent limit or one with a high limit. Now, let's talk about the negaitves. As for your ex-friend, prepare to prosecute. You should dispute the credit cards she opened up with all 3 bureaus and file for identity theft. It's going to be a process, but keep in mind, you didn't do this, so you shouldn't have to suffer. Now, I would suggest opening up the secured card FIRST before doing this, so that you can have at least one open account . I've posted a link with steps on how you should tackle this problem http://www.creditinfocenter.com/identity/IfYouRAVictim.shtml Now for the medical bills... How long ago did you get these bills? If it was within the past 3 years then chances are you may have to pay close the amount in full, but if not the statute of limitations may have run out. There's the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) statute of limitations of 7½ years of reporting delinquent debts from the date of the last activity or when it went delinquent, and there's a statute of limitations for collecting the debt that varies by state (click here ==>)http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/statuteLimitations.shtml Collection agencies bank of the fact that you along with a number of people that owe in this country are "credit dumb" and don't know your credit rights and make you pay more money that it should. Just by knowing the statute of limitations for colleting in your state can give you much needed leverage against the collectors and ultimately help you negotiate not only a lower payment amount, but also deleted from your report as well. Sounds crazy, I know but the possibility's always there. Matter of fact, here's another link to a page that will help you and give some strategies on how to settle those major medical bills (click here ==> http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/settle_debts.shtml) I touched on some things that you talked about, hopefully mine will make the most sense and help out the most. whatever you do, Good luck!
7. I had the same problem, I have applied online here http://www.financeconsultant.org/creditrepair.html and within couple of days they solved my credit score problems.
8. Very simple answer is to pay your bills on time. Check this resources, http://www.squidoo.com/improvecreditscore this might help you