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You can also have certain things removed (that ARE legit) that are negatives. Kind of what Chgoman was getting at, I had 2 instances where a "doesn't hurt if you don't ask" helped me out.
I royally f'd my credit during my college days. Skip a payment one month, make a double payment the next, stopped paying back student loans, etc.
My 2 success stories (which really were my own fault) occurred with a furniture store where I bought a living room set which used a 3rd party lender to obtain my financing. The furniture store went out of business and I was stuck with a loan... but no furniture. I'm thinking "to hell with paying that back, I never got my furniture!" Long story short, I got my furniture, but I also had a 60 day late and a 30 day late for my first 2 payments. The financing company went out of business years down the road (years after it was paid off) so I figured what the hell. I disputed the 2 late charges and nobody refuted my dispute so they dropped off.
The other instance was with an Ultimate Electronics charge account where the bank processed a check for $90 as $9 and I didn't bother to get it fixed for about 3 months so it remained on my account. I disputed that one years later and also got it removed. If I recall those items removed raised my score significantly.
The best way to improve your credit is time. The years I screwed around with my credit also took 7 years to come off and there was no bankruptcy or anything of the like. They just took that long.
If they're seriously in a bind and way behind they can attempt to negotiate their own credit down if they're able to pay it all off. Think... Someone owes 10k and they're habitually late on their minimum payments, maxxed out, etc. The lender may take a lump sum of 5k and call it even to get you off the books. I've heard more than a few stories lately from people in that situation.
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