<prompt> Human: Hello everyone, first let me say THANK YOU. It is thanks to you that I finally, for the first time in my life, have control of my finances and can breath easier. I wanted to share my story in the hopes that someone else who was in a similar situation as me, might benefit from my experience. I will briefly describe how I raised my Transunion and Equifax scores from the 540s to the 720s in 4 months. Something that I did not think was possible. And it was all thanks to...That subreddit. Seriously. I followed the advice in there to the letter, and it worked like magic. Herees a bullet pointed version of exactly what I did: Downloaded credit karma saw that my score was 546 on Jan 15th was crushed, but felt like I Was finally going to start taking controlGot my full credit report and list of all accounts that had gone delinquent andor into collections.Called EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. First I disputed every account, and over HALF 50 of them could not prove that the accounts were real andor could not prove that they followed the law pertaining to the Fair Credit act, and removed the accounts from my credit report.In 30 days my score had gone from 546 to 620! I was elated, and more determined than ever. I felt like I was on a mission at this point. I applied for and was approved for a Capital One Secured Credit Card. It works like this When your credit is so horrible that you cant get a real credit card to start boosting your credit, you get a secured card. Basically, you pay them 200 for a credit card with a 200 limit.. I put 40 on the card every month, and paid it off completely. I paid off all of my credit card debt.Of the delinquent andor accounts that I had in collections that were NOT removed, I negotiated the debt down at every single one. I called them and basically said, I dont have enough money to pay my full debt, but I will give you X amount right now, usually about half of what the debt was to settle it and remove it from my report. They all had to get their managers approval, but every single one of these debt collectors accepted my offers. The way they look at it is like this We either get half, or nothing After 60 days I was up in the 680s... Couldnt be happier. Then I did something that was not mentioned in the above subreddit..I signed up for a service that sends out letters written on your behalf demanding that they show proof and accuracy of the negative item on your credit report. Basically, you pay them a certain amount per month, and they send out attorney written letters to ALL credit reporting agencies, and debtors on your file, demanding that they prove they followed the law to the LETTER, and demand that if they cannot, then the record must be erased from my credit report. Its basically a team of attornies and paralegals that work on behalf of their clients to remove delinquent and collections accounts from their credit reports. Less than half of the remaining collections could prove that they followed the process, so they removed the collections from my account. I then paid off the remaining 2 accounts down from 17 accounts when I started thisMy credit score as of yesterday from both Transunion and Equifax is now 723. I applied for a real credit card from Chase and was immediately approved for a credit card. And thats my story! TL;DR Call all your debtors, negotiate the debts down. Get credit Karma, be religious about not going over 30 of credit card limit, get a secured credit card.Again, thank you everyone on here who helped make this possible, I really wouldnt have been able to do it without you, and I mean that. Thank you. Edit: One HUGE THING I forgot to mention... I called into my auto loan company and asked them to remove some late payments that were on my report. I had about 4 late payments that were 30 days, and 2 that were 60 days. I asked them to remove some, and they did. Overnight my credit score went up 22 points. Edit 2: WOW. Thanks everyone for the response. I have received many messages from people who were in a similar experience as I was when I started this journey. Thank you so much for your comments and your messages. There are a couple of things I wanted to clear up however.Some people have perceived this guide as not ethical in the way I removed accounts from my credit report. I dont care. You dont have to follow my advice Im just sharing what I did, and it worked for me. I hold no moral obligation to pay third party debt collectors mountains of money with their fees tacked in. I just played the game and I won. Simple as that. You dont have to agree with how I did it, I just wanted to share what I did.  <response>: I know a lot of people dont like Lexington Law, but they worked wonders for me. 