Hello. I apologize again for the length, but I got hit with a sudden situation that I would like to seek input for, from practical advice to moral support. It may be that I’m more worked up about it than I should be because it’s late at night and I’m usually worse with things at that time, as I’m sure many can relate.
I live a fairly normal life with what I've believed to be no debts or profligate lifestyle, and in recent times I checked my credit score and saw that it was good. This was nice to see since for a bit there was sort of a dip when I was dealing with medical debts from a seizure that had made me unable to drive and thus reliant on things like Lyft to get me to work.
Then just a while ago tonight (technically last night) I was looking online for something else, thought I’d drop by and check my score again, and saw...It was 4. I found this right as I was about to go to bed for the start of the work week, which I’m already a bit anxious about for different reasons. Of course I’m shocked because I don’t see why it would suddenly be that. That’s hundreds of credit score points lost in what seems an instant.
But apparently the problem is that I was looking on my mobile app, and for some reason that one hasn’t updated my credit score in months despite updating all other information and me having logged out and in repeatedly for it to refresh. So it was actually dipping this whole time and I didn’t know until I saw it on my laptop computer. I therefore tried a bit ago to get that online free credit report thing to see what I might owe to who but they couldn’t identify my information and may think I live at an older address. So I’ll have to make a call sometime next day to try and get the address stuff sorted out so that I can get my credit report to try and find out what the issue is, hoping I don't have to go through all the trouble of filling out a form and mailing it. I don’t know if this is related to some medical thing that I didn’t know I didn’t pay off or what. But the mobile app reported my credit score as good in the summer, and something seems to have been discovered in the meantime that took away all the credit progress I’ve made over the last couple of years and then some, to where it’s the worst it’s ever been.
Remembering that I fairly recently got what I then believed to be scam voicemails asking for money (I get all sorts of dreck like that, from random "we knew each other!" people to bots pretending to be the FBI), I searched online and found that one of these seeming scammers is an actual collections agency who had left me a couple nondescript voicemails and then stopped. I did some research online about them and about how to handle collection calls in general, and I’m not sure what to do because the reports are conflicting. There are some saying (whether in regards to this specific agency or any agency) to call them and go through specific steps to make them identify the debt, some say not to call them because they’ll get you on the hook for something for as much money as they can extract, some say you can get on a very doable payment plan and others say they’ll just make things worse than warranted. Some of these sources seem like they’re trying to sell their own service. This particular agency who called me I notice many online have horror stories about, but I don't know if that's just the nature of the beast or what. What’s clear enough in any case is that I’ve got to get that credit report so I know definitively where I stand.
Does anyone have experience in this kind of stuff and know what to do and what to expect? I know a lot of people here are so at least in part because of dire financial peril.
I don't mean to catastrophize or blow anything out of proportion, but I'm very scared that I've messed something up that I don't know about and have put myself in a position where the progress I've made to try and be a stable adult is about to be undone. I don’t know what could happen or if I somehow owe someone thousands upon thousands of dollars that I don’t have (I have around $10,000 and am not starving or unable to keep up with the payments I know about), or who that would be. I’ve never dealt with this stuff before and I understand I may be very naive about it especially for my age, but I’m trying to learn this stuff a mile a minute and I’m just kind of overwhelmed.
At nearly 30 years old it has taken me so long to get a combination of my own place with my own job (I wasn't able to get beyond mainly entry-level labor jobs until last year) and not have to move back in with one of my parents, and I've only been living in this place away from my mom's (as well as completely on my own without roommates, it's a studio apartment) for less than a year. I really, really want to be a stable adult and not bungle essential things or wind up in a bad place that takes all my money. If my credit score is in the toilet, it will take so long to build it back and I may have way more limited options as far as getting another apartment. I know it won’t be impossible, but I’m getting paranoid.
I’m feeling insecure enough about not being able to succeed at dating or making and keeping substantive friendships without this dropping on me. I’m also aware I’m kind of spoiled and hypersensitive and tend to have something like a “house of cards” syndrome where I’ll be feeling fine and then with one disruption to my known world I feel like it’s crumbling. When I saw that tanked credit score, I ended up defaulting to a bad coping mechanic of hating myself, thinking it must be because I stupidly missed something that virtually no one else would miss, and hitting myself in the dark. But I need to find a way out of this and take whatever necessary precautions that it doesn’t happen again.
So…Input please?
I live a fairly normal life with what I've believed to be no debts or profligate lifestyle, and in recent times I checked my credit score and saw that it was good. This was nice to see since for a bit there was sort of a dip when I was dealing with medical debts from a seizure that had made me unable to drive and thus reliant on things like Lyft to get me to work.
Then just a while ago tonight (technically last night) I was looking online for something else, thought I’d drop by and check my score again, and saw...It was 4. I found this right as I was about to go to bed for the start of the work week, which I’m already a bit anxious about for different reasons. Of course I’m shocked because I don’t see why it would suddenly be that. That’s hundreds of credit score points lost in what seems an instant.
But apparently the problem is that I was looking on my mobile app, and for some reason that one hasn’t updated my credit score in months despite updating all other information and me having logged out and in repeatedly for it to refresh. So it was actually dipping this whole time and I didn’t know until I saw it on my laptop computer. I therefore tried a bit ago to get that online free credit report thing to see what I might owe to who but they couldn’t identify my information and may think I live at an older address. So I’ll have to make a call sometime next day to try and get the address stuff sorted out so that I can get my credit report to try and find out what the issue is, hoping I don't have to go through all the trouble of filling out a form and mailing it. I don’t know if this is related to some medical thing that I didn’t know I didn’t pay off or what. But the mobile app reported my credit score as good in the summer, and something seems to have been discovered in the meantime that took away all the credit progress I’ve made over the last couple of years and then some, to where it’s the worst it’s ever been.
Remembering that I fairly recently got what I then believed to be scam voicemails asking for money (I get all sorts of dreck like that, from random "we knew each other!" people to bots pretending to be the FBI), I searched online and found that one of these seeming scammers is an actual collections agency who had left me a couple nondescript voicemails and then stopped. I did some research online about them and about how to handle collection calls in general, and I’m not sure what to do because the reports are conflicting. There are some saying (whether in regards to this specific agency or any agency) to call them and go through specific steps to make them identify the debt, some say not to call them because they’ll get you on the hook for something for as much money as they can extract, some say you can get on a very doable payment plan and others say they’ll just make things worse than warranted. Some of these sources seem like they’re trying to sell their own service. This particular agency who called me I notice many online have horror stories about, but I don't know if that's just the nature of the beast or what. What’s clear enough in any case is that I’ve got to get that credit report so I know definitively where I stand.
Does anyone have experience in this kind of stuff and know what to do and what to expect? I know a lot of people here are so at least in part because of dire financial peril.
I don't mean to catastrophize or blow anything out of proportion, but I'm very scared that I've messed something up that I don't know about and have put myself in a position where the progress I've made to try and be a stable adult is about to be undone. I don’t know what could happen or if I somehow owe someone thousands upon thousands of dollars that I don’t have (I have around $10,000 and am not starving or unable to keep up with the payments I know about), or who that would be. I’ve never dealt with this stuff before and I understand I may be very naive about it especially for my age, but I’m trying to learn this stuff a mile a minute and I’m just kind of overwhelmed.
At nearly 30 years old it has taken me so long to get a combination of my own place with my own job (I wasn't able to get beyond mainly entry-level labor jobs until last year) and not have to move back in with one of my parents, and I've only been living in this place away from my mom's (as well as completely on my own without roommates, it's a studio apartment) for less than a year. I really, really want to be a stable adult and not bungle essential things or wind up in a bad place that takes all my money. If my credit score is in the toilet, it will take so long to build it back and I may have way more limited options as far as getting another apartment. I know it won’t be impossible, but I’m getting paranoid.
I’m feeling insecure enough about not being able to succeed at dating or making and keeping substantive friendships without this dropping on me. I’m also aware I’m kind of spoiled and hypersensitive and tend to have something like a “house of cards” syndrome where I’ll be feeling fine and then with one disruption to my known world I feel like it’s crumbling. When I saw that tanked credit score, I ended up defaulting to a bad coping mechanic of hating myself, thinking it must be because I stupidly missed something that virtually no one else would miss, and hitting myself in the dark. But I need to find a way out of this and take whatever necessary precautions that it doesn’t happen again.
So…Input please?
