Ok, once you address the behaviors that landed him in a bad situation then you need to start fixing the report. What we did was make payment arrangements w/ those who would work with us. Then we made settlement arrangements for 2 charged off credit card accounts. We figured his credit was already shot so it was the best option at that time. Plus his income was so low for that year that the tax implications didn't matter. Then we just plugged away at it and made all payments on time going forward. It's been about 3.5 years since we did all this and his credit is already back up to a respectable number. Not awesome, but respectable. The most important thing, I'll say again - is not to band aid the credit issues without addressing the behaviors. Make sure you tend to both or you'll find yourself here again. Good luck.
Thanks for this. DH actually isn't bad with money, but he only deals with cash now. This all happened 6+ years ago when he was 21-23. He was also making poor choices involving partying and drugs, but he has done a 180 since then. We have discussed how he will use the cc that I just added him to, and we have a plan.
Ok we won't pay or contact them. I know how this board responds to things like banangate, so I fully expected to hear "omg you must pay your debt!!!!!" We have never been contacted by collections knock on wood. Our home, car, and bills are in my name. DH only has a debit card on his checking account which I'm also on, and now he is an authorized user on my cc. We aren't making any big purchases anytime soon, but building his credit is still important to us.
So DH was irresponsible in the past and has horrible credit. His score is currently 610. He wants to raise this. He pulled his report. He has 3 medical bills for a total of about $1200 in collections. We should go ahead and just pay these off right? I believe he has had other things in collections but they have fallen off his report. It has been more than 6.5 years since he made these mistakes.
If these are paid off then his score will go up slightly? I'm hoping to get it to upper 600s eventually, so he can apply for his own card. I just added him as an authorized user on my card, but reading what Dr. girlfriend said to the other poster regarding her husband's lack of credit, I'm going to look into adding him as a joint user as well.
Anything else we should do? Everything (house and car) is in my name and has been the 6 years we have lived together.