Rebuilding, IRS Tax Lien, getting personal loan...

[Anonymous]

I stumbled on the forum about a month ago and figured I would get some insight on how to go about a few things. Sorry for the long post.

First a little background. I just finished paying off the tax lien and I filled the 12277 which I am hoping to hear back from in the next 2 – 4 weeks. That will be the last bad thing I have on my reports.

I have 3 CC reporting, one of which is an AU from the wife and the lien that’s it.

Cap1 Plat. that started at 300 CL 01/2015 / Current is 3300 and has been there for the past year. I have only done one CLI that was many months ago. Should I PC to QS and then ask for CLI? Its heavily used and currently at 0% UTL

My other card is a Discover that was a secured because of the Tax lien I had. Its only at 700 CL now from the 500 when it was secured. 3 days ago I hit the button and I’m still waiting on a response for a CLI. This card also is heavily used, making anywhere from 3 to 7 payments per month. It is the only card that has a balance at 28% UTL but will be down to about 10% at cutover. Do you think I should have waiting for the lien to drop off before I tried for a CLI? If they offer something can I refuse it can wait until the lien drops off?

The AU is a Credit One that is our oldest card 3.5 years’ old which is why we still have it. 0% UTL.

I will be buying a jet ski next month. I hope to have the lien off by then but that is not going to stop me from getting the jet ski, since my family has planned it for a while. The lien coming off was the surprise as I was still years away from paying it off. I paid the IRS too much over last year since I adjusted my W2 hoping that this would happen.

My FAKO is 628 from Cap1 and FICO from Discover is 650. I am hoping to get a 100+ point increase because I had a 90+% UTL last month to <5% UTL plus I’m not sure what the lien drop will do too. I’m planning to pull my free report after the lien is off.

What are my chances of an AMEX after the lien is gone and I just opened a personal loan?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I stumbled on the forum about a month ago and figured I would get some insight on how to go about a few things. Sorry for the long post.

First a little background. I just finished paying off the tax lien and I filled the 12277 which I am hoping to hear back from in the next 2 – 4 weeks. That will be the last bad thing I have on my reports.

I have 3 CC reporting, one of which is an AU from the wife and the lien that’s it.

Cap1 Plat. that started at 300 CL 01/2015 / Current is 3300 and has been there for the past year. I have only done one CLI that was many months ago. Should I PC to QS and then ask for CLI? Its heavily used and currently at 0% UTL

My other card is a Discover that was a secured because of the Tax lien I had. Its only at 700 CL now from the 500 when it was secured. 3 days ago I hit the button and I’m still waiting on a response for a CLI. This card also is heavily used, making anywhere from 3 to 7 payments per month. It is the only card that has a balance at 28% UTL but will be down to about 10% at cutover. Do you think I should have waiting for the lien to drop off before I tried for a CLI? If they offer something can I refuse it can wait until the lien drops off?

The AU is a Credit One that is our oldest card 3.5 years’ old which is why we still have it. 0% UTL.

I will be buying a jet ski next month. I hope to have the lien off by then but that is not going to stop me from getting the jet ski, since my family has planned it for a while. The lien coming off was the surprise as I was still years away from paying it off. I paid the IRS too much over last year since I adjusted my W2 hoping that this would happen.

My FAKO is 628 from Cap1 and FICO from Discover is 650. I am hoping to get a 100+ point increase because I had a 90+% UTL last month to <5% UTL plus I’m not sure what the lien drop will do too. I’m planning to pull my free report after the lien is off.

What are my chances of an AMEX after the lien is gone and I just opened a personal loan?

Thanks!

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@Anonymous

Welcome to MyFICO.  I moved your post to the credit cards forum for better exposure and because your questions specifically involve credit card issues.

[tcbofade]

I would wait for the tax lien to fall off of Experian, and make sure that your Experian score is over 660 before you try for Amex. 

I don't think that the tax lien is necessarily a deal breaker, and there HAVE been cases of a sub 660 score landing an Amex, but they are few and far between.  Last I checked, Amex had a prequal site that was pretty accurate... I would wait for the lien to be gone, a 660+ EX score, then try the prequal site.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I have been able to get approved for just about everything I have applied for with an IRS lien once my scores grew through regular rebuilding efforts but once the Lien is withdrawn and off of your reports everything should be easier and your scores will likely grow so I would wait it out.  I filed my form 3 weeks ago and noticed they approved it and already notified the credit agencies as it has dropped off my Transunion. Not sure the real impact but it raised my Credit Karma score by 46 points.  Hope to see that happen on my real TU and the others as it will push me over 700 finally.

[Anonymous]

I should add, don't bother applying for AMEX unless your Experian is over 660, if you are approved it would be at a very low SL which is hard to grow with.  Having said that I had a lien and a 668 Experian and got approved for a AMEX ED at 6k that has grown to 12k.   Can't wait for the lien to be totally behind us.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I should add, don't bother applying for AMEX unless your Experian is over 660, if you are approved it would be at a very low SL which is hard to grow with.  Having said that I had a lien and a 668 Experian and got approved for a AMEX ED at 6k that has grown to 12k.   Can't wait for the lien to be totally behind us.

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I got notice that I was issued a Form 10916A Withdrawal but I havent gotten a copy of it yet. Do I wait for a copy of the 10916A or is the notice stating that i will get one enought to start going to the CRA and start a dispute to get the lien removed?

I'm going to wait a little and more making sure i have 690+ if not something in the low 700s to app for AMEX after the lien drops off.

[Anonymous]

You will need to wait until the IRS actually withdrawls the lein.  Once that is done you will have to send a copy of the withdrawl of notice of federal tax lein to each of the 3 CRA's.   It takes a while, I had 3 of them that I just had removed about 2 years ago.

[someg33k]

Amex approved me for multiple cards with state tax liens reporting, so did Disvoer (not a secured card) Chase and many others.

I did have a CU turn me down until the liens showed paid, after which they approved me.

All my scores are in the 700 range, and all my credit cards have perfect payment history.

Wait for that util% to drop and  then try. Also try their pre-qualify tool and see if that pops anything. Not a guarantee of course but somewhat helpful.

[Anonymous]

just got an alert that TU just showed the lien as paid. Like i said I'm going to wait a little before app to any CCs. But i have tried the pre-qualify tool at the companies i would like to get cards from and i had offers from all but AMEX, i prequalified for Chase, Discover, Cap1, BoA...

[JayTee1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I should add, don't bother applying for AMEX unless your Experian is over 660, if you are approved it would be at a very low SL which is hard to grow with.  Having said that I had a lien and a 668 Experian and got approved for a AMEX ED at 6k that has grown to 12k.   Can't wait for the lien to be totally behind us.

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I'd agree that waiting to apply for AmEx until EX score is higher is a good idea, but you can get in (and grow) sooner.

I got a Delta Skymiles at EX 630 with a minimal $1k line, and I did get a 3x CLI, just not at 60 days -- I think it was 180 days.  My EX is substantially higher now and that probably has something to do with it, but it's not like you're completely stuck if you get in at a lower score.