A big thanks and now what?

[slg]

Dear MyFico Community,

I want to thank you all for saving my financial life. I’ve been lurking around this forum since 09/2010 and since then I’ve learned a great deal. Last year i had 6 collection accounts, a repossession and 2 rehabbed student loans with about 10 lates in the past 7 years.

Last August I and my husband started looking into buying our first home and we had never really faced my credit report. I knew it was bad but i really had no clue on what to expect. I pulled all 3 and got hit by a train. My transunion score was 540, equifax was 560 and experian was 520. I realized there was no way i would be able to help my husband with these score to qualify us for a loan so he had to do it on his own. He is in the 800's so it worked out well but it was very disheartening that i could not help with our first home because of my irresponsibility’s.

I started to look into my options. How could i fix this mess? I had never faced my report so thoroughly and obsessively. This report which defines who i am to creditors. I googled, then i read and then i researched. It has become an obsession to me to have perfect credit. Pardon my French but I feel like I grew balls. I have always been scared of this 'report' and I’ve ignored creditors with the best of them.

Since august of last year i feel like I’m reborn. I finagled and nagged and begged and pleaded, i was nice, i was mean; i was whatever I had to be to get these reports as white as possible. I successfully pfd smile care 900.00, T-Mobile for 90.00, RJM for 200.00, Chase, sears fell away. I learned the laws and how i could protect myself against incorrect reporting and I made changes!

In October of 2009 I apped for first premier and orchard and was approved. I paid them on time each month from October of 2009 and still current. Shortly after i applied for capital one and was approved for their no hassle rewards with a limit of 500.00 and with credit steps should be 750.00 soon. Since then i have added a few other credits to my pocket but no real big limits. What should i do next? Should i garden until 2013 when I’m completely in the clear? Should i get a secured card or try with a credit union? I want to make the best decisions now to put me in the best position for 2013 when my last baddie falls off. It's repossession with VW showing zero balance. I have tried to no end to get them to remove it but they are relentlessly inconsiderate. Funny thing is that i do have a balance and its 3000.00 of which I’ve offered to pay. They made it very clear they would never remove it but they report 0 balances so I’m happy. Otherwise i think my score would be lower. My other dilemma is that i have a recent late on my student loans from January of 2011; i thought they were in forbearance but they weren’t and i plan to goodwill them until they crumble.

I’m pretty sure my eq and tu are around 650 with my fico and in may my experian was 622. i was able to get the experian fico from the back of my capital welcome kit but im sure its much higher because 2 things affecting me negativly were adjusted for the better and the experian watxh  fako score shot up to 724 from 640.

 My credit cards and limits are below

500 cap one

300 hooters no af 16.95 %

400 orchard

450 first premier

300 bbrwz 59 af - dumb move to app for this but I was trying to make my score rise by a higher amount of credit available to me. Also, I pif every month.

I feel like I’m doing well but I need some advice on my next move. Please help and Thank you all again for this wonderful forum. I would not have gotten as far as i have with all of your resources.

also, sorry for my mistypes, english is not my first language.

[Wolf3]

You have done well.

Waiting out the baddies is a good idea.  You have enough accounts.

However,   Your First Premiere is very expensive and has no future,   I would close it at the 2 year mark.   

Also, I would consider a secured card with a high limit with someone you want to continue to do business with in the future.   It should help you get bigger limits in the future when your credit is better.  Captial One has a good one.   Many credit unions have them.

[mauve]

Just be prepared that student loans almost never remove negative reporting.

Decide if you want to pay VW or not - determine if you're still within the statute of limitations, and if the amount seems reasonable / fair to you, maybe you should pay it.  If you feel that they're jerking you around, a $0 balance repo isn't going to be any better for your score than a $3k repo, it will just look better on manual review of your reports.  Having it report $0 would also be a good point in recon letters if you need to write them / call places for recon.

Keep all of your cards but one reporting $0 balances, and let one of them report a balance of less than 9% of that card's limit to maximize the utilization portion of your score.

Good luck to you, and good job on getting where you are!