My credit score is in the poor range like 500 or so. I owe about 1700 in debt. Im about to pay 500 of it now?

the remaining 1200 i will pay monthly hopefully have paid off by october. ( i got 500 back from an old employer ) How soon will my credit score be impacted. Its been a year since my last late pay. I just had trouble paying back the overdue debt. I wanna buy a house in a few years 2-3 will i be able to get a good rate and how long will that be? Anyone ? Thanks

Public Comments

1. you're credit won't be fixed completely until 7 years after your last derogatory mark.
2. dona...
3. 7 years is how long it takes for all the bad credit to be erased. However, if you keep paying your bills and credit cards regularly, you credit score should improve.
4. If you pay it off by October and pay ALL bills on time from here on, your credit score should recover pretty well in 2-3 yrs. You want to get it back up to around 700. start saving after you've paid the debts off
5. After you have the bill completely paid off the your credit score will go up with in three months... If you start paying on it and do put down a good chunk like you are doing, it will raise your score a little but slowly... But liked I said as soon as you pay it off it is usually three months and your credit is updated... I hope this helps
6. Trust me my credit rating isn't that great either, BUT,,, the one thing you can do now, is to try and make all of your payments on time... If you can, and belong to a credit uion, see if you can get a personal loan.(I DID).....AND, set up payments to be drafted out of your checking/savings account. That way, you'll never miss a payment (just make sure you keep money in the account. LOL LOL)
7. By the time you buy a house your dredit should be improved if you don't get in trouble again. Pay off your debt as soon as you can, but you still need to use your credit if you want your score to go up. try using your credit card for your purchase of food, gas, etc.. the things you need, but always pay of the balance in full every month. this not only helps your score but you also pay no interest if you pay off the balance in full. You have to control your spending though. Only buy the stuff you need and set the money aside so when the bill gets here you can pay it off. If you can have at least 10,000.00 in a savings account when you try to buy your home this will help you get a better interest rate. I speak from experience, so good luck. Something else to help you out never open any joint accounts with anyone, not even your spouse You may need a co-applicant for a mortgage, but if you can buy on your own credit do so). Never co-sign for anyone. Keep your CREDIT accounts seperate. If you are married and you both have good credit this may save you down the line. Imagine you lose your job, or run into hard times. Your spouse credit if good can bail you out of hard times. Good Luck
8. Good job paying off your debts. You are smart catching it this quickly.....many are in the 10's of thousands before they decide to do something about it. There are several ways to increase your credit score. Google it and read up on what you can do. As long as you are responsible, you can take out credit cards...(DON"T USE THEM) but the credit limit actually raises your credit score. That's just one example. There are many. Read up on it. Good job being responsible.
9. A late payment will stay on your report for usually 7 years. That said, it won't necessarily keep your credit in "poor" for that long...but there are many, many more factors at play here. You're telling how much you're in debt, but that is only part of the picture. If you're 1700 in debt with a credit limit of 1800, for example, its much worse than being that much in debt with a credit limit of 5000. Also, you said you had a late pay, a 30 day late pay is nowhere near as bad as a 90 day late pay, for example. Best thing to help your credit is to pay every bill you get on time and to keep your debt as low as possible. Try to keep your debt at 25% or less of your credit limit, that will raise your score. The best you can do is to put the most positive marks on your score as you can by being as responsible with credit as you can. You won't have excellent credit in 2-3 years, but depending on what factors are at play you will probably be able to bring it up to fair or good. That won't get you the best rate, but it won't get you the worst either.
10. Rebuilding a credit score is a long process. It has taken me around 5 years to build my credit back to a good score (range 680-700). How long you have had credit is an important factor. It doesn't look like you've had that much debt, just late payments, which drastically lowers your credit score. Keep in mind that it takes active work to build your credit rating. Just because you pay off all your debt doesn't mean that your credit rating will rise on itself. You will need to open up credit accounts (only one or two) and charge money and pay it off. It is best to pay them off just after you charge on them. The ability to pay off your debts once you acrue them is something that can raise your credit score. Good luck, you can do it!
11. In order to get 100% financing on a house, lenders are looking for fico scores to be at least a 620. What most people don't know is that by paying off a collection account you can actually lower your score initially because the credit bureaus have no way of distinguishing between a paid collection, or one that is being reported. The thing to do here is to contact your creditor and make an arrangement with them. Offer to pay your debt and in return, ask for them to give you a deletion letter. Upon satisfying the debt and receiving your letter you can submit it to all three credit bureaus and have the derogatory item removed from your history. This will effect your score much faster. Just make sure you pay all of your bills on time from now on. The creditors will only report you as late if you are 30 days past a payment due date.