Follow these steps if you have significant debt to pay off. Don't just pay your cards down to zero!
Go to Lending Club or Prosper and apply for a personal installment loan, up to $40,000. Apply online and they will tell you instantly how much you are approved for.
If your credit cards are maxxed out, this is greatly hurting your score, but by transferring your debt to an installment loan, you can transfer the balances while keeping your cards open. 30% of your credit score is based on the balance of open cards versus the limit, but installment loans do not count.
Within three months, your credit score will greatly improve and look like you just paid all of your credit cards off! Once the score has increased, you can shop for a new car, home insurance, or look at refinancing your current home or car loans. Apply the savings to the installment loan to pay it off faster!
Analyze your bank statements and find things you could potentially shop around on and save some money, or that you could delete to continue to pay off your installment loan faster. Before you know it, you will be out of debt!
How to Dispute Collections
Make sure to record the name of the company, who you spoke with, the time and date, the phone number and extension or employee number of who you spoke to (you can ask them for this), and their location.What to say:
"I have an account on my credit report that I am disputing. I will need verification on this. What is the process for receiving verification that I owe this debt?"
If you receive verification...
Call the company back and tell them that you'd like to settle the debt if they are willing to delete it. (If they refuse, call back in 30 days and try again.) Feel free to negotiate the settlement amount; you have the power here.
Looking for more?Visit the Color My Credit Store to book a consultation with Alisa, sign up for the course, or get the book!