My Divorce Crushed my Credit Score. But I Bounced Back.
Rock Bottom
My divorce was not pretty. In addition to months of negotiations through lawyers and a custody battle, I ended up job hunting for a few months. That caused me to be late on my mortgage payment. If you’ve never gone through something like that, let me tell you … it’s devastating to be in a situation where you cannot afford the roof over your head. It felt like my world was crumbling.
On top of that, there were outstanding medical bills I couldn’t pay, and 2 credit cards that went into default. The medical bills had already gone to collections and I was getting calls from the collection agency. That only added to my stress.
The Impact Divorce Had On My credit
So the late mortgage payment, the medical collections, and the credit cards had put a big dent in my credit history. I went from the 700s to the 500s in less than a year.
As a single mother of 3 children, I literally cannot afford to have bad credit. Every dollar counts and I need to have the smallest monthly payments possible. That goes for my home, my car, insurance, and everything else. You can imagine. Trying to get approved for a down-sized home with a score in the 500s. Not going to happen. The same thing happened when I needed to get a new van. I was not about to pay 200 dollars more per month at a high interest rate.
I was desperate. I needed to get my credit score up. And I needed to do it quickly.
The Turning point
That was 6 months ago.
My scores are now in the high 600s and climbing. How did I do it? The short answer: Will Smith and the team at White, Jacobs and Associates. I found them through a Google search. They had excellent reviews on Google, Facebook, Yelp, and TrustPilot. During our initial conversation, Will was upfront about how the process worked. It turns out, they don’t just send out dispute letters like most companies. Their program is aggressive and backed by an in-house law firm that is actually engaged in the process. And, unlike the “month-to-month” companies, the program lasts a maximum of 6 months.
I got started with Will
I was, of course, still skeptical, but one thing that won me over was that Will would be guiding me through the entire process. And that’s what he did. Every few weeks I would get an update from Will and he would coach me on handling my credit both short-term and long-term. We started seeing items deleted at the 45-day mark and that’s when my score started to go up. Will’s team worked on removing the negative items after the divorce on my report, and at the same time he showed me how to add positive credit. That combination of removing negative & adding positive is why my score is still on the rise.
Redemption!
In two weeks, I am closing on a new home, and I’ve started shopping for a new van. I’m doing this with confidence now that my score has improved tremendously. I feel like my the world has opened up to me. You really don’t appreciate how much a good credit score can impact your life until you experience something like this.
Luckily, there are good people out there who can help. Working with Will and the team at White, Jacobs and Associates was an investment I will never forget.
Learn about the the WJA mission, the WJA process, or look at some Results and Reviews from past clients.