topic Re: This dormant flower is ready to be replanted in Rebuilding Your Credit

This dormant flower is ready to be replanted

Azeliea — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 18:29:30 GMT

I’ve lurked around here in the past... reading bits of this & that. You guys truly inspire me & I love how you all come together & help each other out with no nonsense advice. Strait truth that is very much lacking in todays world! Quite refreshing!

The wealth of info contained within this community is invaluable! Thank you for that!

Finally I’m ready to quit dragging my feet & join in. Its time!

My credit was crap for a really long time. I had many poor decisions in the past that contributed in that. But now almost all that has dropped off. First glimpse of any score ever was about 8 months ago using quizzle. 560 depressing so I turned away..

Now I check again just the other day and it reports 579 & few BADDIES dropped off. Yay! So I start reading... I see that Quizzle isn't a real score... hmm so off I go to MyFico to order a score. It reports back that it can't give me a score. So, I call & find out that if I haven't had any accts reporting to CRA in the last 6 months they will not be able to pull a score. I search on here & others have experienced the same.

I also read here that If I were to try & apply for a home loan that I would most likely be declined for same reason, No Score.

I really really really want to own my own home. I’ve paid more than $50,000 in only 4 years on something that belongs to someone else! (i don't wish to think about all the previous years or i’ll just cry)

My current Credit Picture...
@1000-1300 in collections accounts are 6-7 yrs old. It is my suspicion that the dates they are reporting may be incorrect. But i’ll have to look that up, not certain..
I have a paid off car loan account reporting no lates.
I have one credit inquiry from a couple of months ago (declined by barclays for not enough revolving accounts)
Thats It!

I read here about a couple of other credit monitoring sites: Creditkarma.com & Creditsesame.com. I went to both & checked with them just to see what scores they come up with since in actuality i have no score....
CreditKarma Transrisk=621, CreditKarma Vantage=636 CreditSesame=668 So Quizzle reports the lowest at 579.

Not good, but it could be worse. Thankfully, yall have helped me see how to make it better- Thanks!!

Today I took the 1st step into my new positive credit future. I applied for a Secured Visa thru Delta Community Credit Union where i bank. I just went with the minimum $500... I should find out by Tuesday if i’m approved.

Please lend me further wisdom o great ones!

Re: This dormant flower is ready to be replanted

scarrollprint — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:00:23 GMT

Good work on getting the secured CC through your bank. You might have tried to get an unsecured with them since you already bank with them, but alas you already applied so it might be too late. Secured cards are obviously easier to get because they are guarenteed at least the same amount of money as you spent if you bounce out on them.

Keep that card for 6months or so and then ask them if you qualify for them to unsecure it (it will look much better than secured on a mortgage app or any other app for that matter.) Also work on building up that deposit - higher deposit equals an automatic higher credit limit. Hopefully it won't report as secured but either way, bump it up as high as you can go. I've heard some banks put it in a CD or something that will earn interest that you get to keep when it unsecures or when you close the account. So every month try to put $100 or whatever you can afford towards the deposit and build it slowly.

This will help two ways - 1 it will help lower your credit utilization which with 1 card at only $500 means that if you spend more than $50 your over 10% utilization which will hurt your score. Utilization only matters when your going to apply for credit since it changes every month but its still a sound practice to make sure no more than 9% posts.

Builiding your credit limit also shows other lenders that you can handle that amount of money. If you keep it at $500 for 10 years other banks will look at it say "why didn't they ever give her more? they will be reluctant to give you a higher credit limit. If you get it over 1000 that will start to make it easier to step up the CC ladder which will in trun help your utilization as well.

After a couple months of building up that credit limit, check where your scores are at. your file will still be pretty thin with only 6 months age, but its better than nothing. But go and app for a couple cards (at that point switch over to the CC forum here on myfico and give your current situation and they will let you know what cards to think about and what ones to not even try). apply for 1 or 2 cards 6-12 months from now and hold onto those cards if you get them for another 6-12 months and let them grow. By that point you will have shown you have experience with credit on mutliple tradelines, hopefully your auto loan will still be reporting and that 1-2 years will help you save up much more for a down payment. If you can wait another year or two beyond that and keep your nose clean (credit wise) then you'll have a solid portfolio.

Just remember keep the apps for credit down new credit drops your average age of accounts - since its an average (duh). So once you get a card, let it age a bit then when you add 1 or 2 let them age for a bit and just be patient.

Re: This dormant flower is ready to be replanted

Azeliea — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:49:23 GMT

I never wanted a secured card, but after my 1st attempt at a real card was declined, I figured this was the safer bet. I didn't want to risk 2 more possible hard pulls & preferred just the one for now.

I did ask how long I could be considered (if approved) for unsecured. - In 6 months I can submit a request.

She also said that increasing my deposit/limit would require a new app but it would be for the same card... She sounded unsure though so I'll ask about that again later. I'm not sure if that mean more pulls?

I thought about the secured loan originally but using the tools available through Credit Karma it advised against it...

Thanks for the advice much appreciated!!!!

More info for anyone curious in the future...

They pull credit report from Equifax only for consideration, but report out to all 3.

Re: This dormant flower is ready to be replanted

Azeliea — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 04:36:31 GMT

I received an email this morning to call the CU about my app for their secured card. I called & they said I was approved but they need me to send income verification (no prob) and proof of paying off 2 of my collections.

Well from what I read here if I attempt to pay off the collections this will re-activate them and cause them to linger longer possibly making my score worse. So I'm unsure what to do now. They are both utility bills that state they were opened 9-6-07 & 12-5-07. I'm not sure the dates the CA lists are even correct. I moved to another state in July of 07 these are from the previous state.... Should I attempt to contact the Collection people or go straight to the utility companies? My CU will hold my app for 30 days.... After that I risk having another hard pull to re-apply with them or others to apply elsewhere.

Advice needed badly pretty plz...

oh... & they will unsecure after a year...

Azeliea — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 04:37:41 GMT

oh... & they will unsecure after a year...

Re: oh... & they will unsecure after a year...

diabla — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:35:30 GMT

I didn't now secured cards ask you to clean up your credit, although I was originally turned down for a BOA secured, even though I bank with them. Later, they offered it to me when I was in the bank doing some other business, so they might be one of the cards that actually relies on your credit. There are other secured cards though, like Capital One, that don't make you clean up your credit to get a card. I don't have one but I have ran the soft pull a few times for others in my family and they always get a good offer. Unless you're stuck on getting your card through your bank, you could look for other highly rated secured cards.

And don't you dare pay those 6-7 year old collections! Verify the dates, how are they reporting? If they are indeed reporting as even 6 years, their SOL might be up so I really wouldn't touch them. If its near 7 years, they're about to disappear anyway!

Oh My goodness!

Azeliea — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 18:18:39 GMT

Today I decided to go ahead & send in the income verification that they requested along with an email asking them to please reconsider making me play those collections.... They called me back & I spoke to them pleading my case that this is only a secured card, etc..........

She sent the app back for re-consideration.

10 min later they called me back & approved me!!!!!

Not only that, but they have approved me for a regular rewards visa, UnSECURED!!!!

I'm so excited I started crying when she told me.

I don't even know my limit but I don't care right now.

Yay!

Re: Oh My goodness!

S7 — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 18:25:49 GMT

YAY!!!! CONGRATS!!!!

Re: Oh My goodness!

Shogun — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 20:10:38 GMT

That's awesome!!! Positve TL and revolving account. Now keep cleaning those reports!

Re: Oh My goodness!

diabla — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 20:26:00 GMT

Hooray!!!!!!!!!!

Re: This dormant flower is ready to be replanted

RobertEG — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 20:39:27 GMT

With the goal to purchase a home, keep the unpaid collections in mind. They will most likely have importance to the prospective mortgage lendor.

Certainly, unpaid delinquent debt that is still within SOL represents continued peril of the prior creditor obtaining a judgment for its repayment, possibly leading to attachment of assets as satisfaction of any court judgment. A real concern for any new, prospective creditor, as it might affect your future risk in repayment of their loan.

Some mortgage lendors have a standard policy of requiring that any old, delinquent paid be paid as a pre-condition for their approval, regardless of SOL status.

That, of course, requires them to obtain knowledge of any old, unpaid delinquent debt. Exclusion of reported items from your credit report, such as old delinquencies, charge-offs, collections, judgments, etc., certainly removes their opportunity to become aware of unpaid debt via a simple pull of your CR, but that might not be the only source of their awareness. Affiliate sharing of information, or even a simple question in your application whether you have any old, unpaid debt, might lead to their awareness.

It's always best to go into a mortgage app process free of unpaid, delinquent debt. If it's still out there, you take your chances that it might bite you.

Re: This dormant flower is ready to be replanted

Shogun — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 20:39:40 GMT

I believe there's another point on this, maybe someone can comment on this. If the loan is for over 150,000 they can pull a more detailed report that would still list some of those that were aged off.

Re: This dormant flower is ready to be replanted

RobertEG — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 21:02:27 GMT

Yes, none of the credit report exclusion periods in section 605(a) are absolute.

FCRA 605(c) enables a creditor to receive a full credit report, including any and all prior derogs, if they are inquring with regard to a consumer initiated request for credit or insurance that involves a principal balance of $150K or more.

However, the creditor must make a specfic request for such a full CR. I am aware of a few situations where they have made such requests, but for the most part, it is not standard practice. I would opine that the chances are very, very slim.