Next steps

[bhenken08]

Hello,

first of all i need to thank everyone on this board for helping improve my score from the low 500's to the upper 600's over the last couple of years.

I'm just now starting to have most of my "bad accounts deleted off of my report"

I'm trying to decide what the next steps I should take to improve my credit even more.

My current Profile

Credit one $0 balance......$90.00 Fees  Open since 5/2013

AMEX Charge $0.00 ( if i would of known it was a charge card i wouldn't of got the card) July 2014

Credit union cash line $400.00 Balance Limit $500 (paying off in full now) Opened May 2013

Credit union CC 1,800 Bal Limit 2,300 Jun 2014

Amazon $100.00 Bal 1,700 limit Jun 2014

Walmart $20.00 Bal $900 limit apr 2014

Lowes $0.00             $300 Limit jun 2014

Wells Fargo Secured

50.00 Bal  Limit $300.00 May 2013\

Mazda Lease

I just started receiving a bunch of pre approvals from Chase and Bank of America

1) chase freedom 22.9 Apr no annual fee

2) Chase Slate 22.9 No Annual Fee

3) BOA Bank Americard 16.99  No annual fee ( but i really hate BOA)

4) Alaska Airlines 14.24 $75.00 annual fee.

What would  you do in this situation??? I'm thinking about possibly buying a house in the next two or so years.

[Anonymous]

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@bhenken08 wrote:

Hello,

first of all i need to thank everyone on this board for helping improve my score from the low 500's to the upper 600's over the last couple of years.

I'm just now starting to have most of my "bad accounts deleted off of my report"

I'm trying to decide what the next steps I should take to improve my credit even more.

My current Profile

Credit one $0 balance......$90.00 Fees  Open since 5/2013

AMEX Charge $0.00 ( if i would of known it was a charge card i wouldn't of got the card) July 2014

Credit union cash line $400.00 Balance Limit $500 (paying off in full now) Opened May 2013

Credit union CC 1,800 Bal Limit 2,300 Jun 2014

Amazon $100.00 Bal 1,700 limit Jun 2014

Walmart $20.00 Bal $900 limit apr 2014

Lowes $0.00             $300 Limit jun 2014

Wells Fargo Secured

50.00 Bal  Limit $300.00 May 2013\

Mazda Lease

I just started receiving a bunch of pre approvals from Chase and Bank of America

1) chase freedom 22.9 Apr no annual fee

2) Chase Slate 22.9 No Annual Fee

3) BOA Bank Americard 16.99  No annual fee ( but i really hate BOA)

4) Alaska Airlines 14.24 $75.00 annual fee.

What would  you do in this situation??? I'm thinking about possibly buying a house in the next two or so years.

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I'd close credit one and pay off the cards with huge balances.  I'd then assess what cards I'd benefit from most based on the pre-approvals listed. But keep in mind, pre- approvals are not set in stone and it will all come down to your entire credit profile.

If those cards are not a need and only want them because you are getting pre-equals, then I'd wait for most of the baddies to disappear from reports.  Thats what I'd do if I were in your shoes.

[MissMoni223]

Step 1: CLOSE Credit One ASAP!!! It'll be the BEST move you've ever made & SAVE you $90 in AF's.

Step 2: Stay in the Garden until all of your baddies have fallen off.

Step 3: Use the Chat Feature to request CLI's on your Walmart, Lowe's, & Amazon cards (these are sp's).

[Anonymous]

MissMoni's advice is generally good; however, I'm going to disagree with #2.

To briefly cover 1 & 3, you're paying fees for a card you don't use. Close it. Additionally, SP CLIs are your friends, if you are responsible with your credit.

You say that your goal is a mortgage in ~2 years. To that end, your goal needs to be getting your utilization down and getting rid of your baddies. For the baddies, go to the rebuilding your credit forum; they're experts at it over there. For the utilization, you need to first get to where you're paying all cards in full, so you can stop paying interest. To that end, I would apply for Slate first. It will give you 18 months of 0% interest and free balance transfers. Transfer whatever cards and loans you can to the Slate, highest APRs first. I'd be okay going to 80 or 90% utilization on the slate this way. I would probably apply for Discover IT second, so you can get in on the double cash promotion, but it is less important than the Slate. You then need to start paying cards off in the following order:

1) minimum payments on ALL cards and loans. If you want a mortgage, you cannot have lates in the run-up to it.
2) Any card that that will have an expiring intro APR in the next 30 days. Note that intro APRs are time to when you APPLIED for the card, not when you received it.
3) Any card that you can PIF. This will reset the grace period for that card, eliminating interest payments for the next month.
4) cards and loans in decreasing order of APR. you want to pay off the highest rates first, as this will give you more money down the line.

The sooner you get to where everything is PIF every month and your loan is closed, the sooner you can start saving for a down payment.

[bhenken08]

Thanks for all of the help!

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the Slate. Approved $3200. I will do a balance transfer to take advantage of the 0%

I also hit the love button on the walmart and amazon. Walmart gave me $300 Amazon didnt give me anything (just had an Auto CLI not to long ago)

I havent tried lowes as i rarely use the card. ( i did just go spend a few bucks on things i would normaly spend cash on anyway) will PIF

[Anonymous]

Congrats on the Slate approval..

[Anonymous]

Congratulations on the Slate approval.

How old are your charge offs and collections? Work on your disputes now.  You may be able to have some success, Don't just wait. 

If you have preapprovals, go for it? Don't try to get the other Chase card though since you got one. 

Once you have apped for the other preapproved solicitations,  then garden. 

With Wal Mart, in October do a CHAT and ask for $3000. Don't hit the cli button. With a $3200 Slate limit, you could see that increase without a problem.

That's my two cents worth.

[bhenken08]

My charge offs are all about 7 years old,

But the collection agency accounts are showing with diffrent dates (about two years newer).

My score is almost 700 as of now.