Hi happy,
I realize the UTIL issue. All CCs are now paid off (but the 0 bals have not hit my CRs yet). Have not had a BK, but rather just stopped paying (due to inability to pay back then). As I said, most of the ‘old CCs’ (amex, citi, ba, etc.) fell off as I ‘waited out’ the 7+ yr period and lived w/o ccs as I needed some extended ‘how to manage $ properly’ courses and also, I didn’t want to fall back into the bad habits of my late teens-20s and just ‘live off credit.’ Since getting ccs in 07, I have not had any lates, over the limits, and 9/10x, all cards are paid off in full every month.
The hsbc ‘baddie’ (chargeoff) happened when I’d attempted to salvage the acct (it was part of my ‘bad cc behavior years ago’), but was unable to save it, so it went into CO. on the TU report from 10/07, it says ‘closed 4/4, date paid 2/4, pay status= charged off as bad debt/purchased by another lender.’ The high bal shows as 570; the bal shows as 0. I live in CA and the SOL is 4 yrs, so it has passed. According to TU, ‘estimated date that this item will be removed= 9/10’. Hsbc hasn’t updated my CR since 1/06 according to TU.
Asset acceptance shows up related to the HSBC and shows a bal of 1155, pay status ‘collection acct/placed for collection’ as of 7/07 (which doesn’t make sense as the card was closed in 04 from HSBC). TU says the item will be removed on 12/10.
*re HSBC/asset acceptance (and the tax lien- my ‘serious baddies’), I do not want to ‘reset the clock’ or have FICO view them as ‘new disputes’. However, I’d like to minimize their negative impact (Though most of the damage is probably already done by now credit score wise?) if possible.
*no ‘new’ baddies are on my CR from late 2006-present and I plan to keep it that way.
The car loan (2 TLs b/c the original bank was bought by another bank) show last updated as of 2002 and 2003, but the lates still show up. car loan was paid off, but I’d like to get the lates (which are from 2002-2003) removed if possible. Perhaps a GW letter will do it? I realize most of the ‘bad impact’ from the lates on the car loan is probably done, but I’d like to remove the lates if possible (but keep the TLs as they are showing up as ‘good TLs’).
Tax lien is from 2003 and another 1 (same years covered in terms of alleged tax liability) is from 2005. not sure how to deal w/'duplicate' entries w/o 'restarting the clock?' TU says it will drop in 2013, but I hope to resolve it positively before then (but that’s a longggg post, so I won’t fill that out). Midland and NCO are not on my latest TU report (they were related to other charged off ccs), so it looks like they finally dropped off (@ least for TU purposes- I am ordering the other 2 reports).
As for cap 1, I applied mainly b/c I think I may need to utilize their auto loan and/or personal loan services @ some point (looks like I may need an auto loan within the next 6-12 mos.), so I thought having a ‘relationship’ w/them would possibly help them ‘favor’ me down the road. I did the same w/BA (99/500 card). I don’t plan on applying for any more CCs as really, I do not like having CCs (they are a necessary evil- e.g., needed for hotels, plane tix, etc.). As I said, since 07 (when I got my 1st ‘new’ CCS- orchard, first premier), I’ve been MUCH better @ using them properly- low UTIL, PIF, no lates, no overlimits, etc. @ this point, I am looking for a ‘strategy’ (beyond the obvious low util, PIF, stop ‘new baddies’) to improve my scores more in 08-09. I’d like to be in the 600s and 1 day hit the 700s. I’d also like to ‘break up’ w/first premier in 2009 (just paid the annual fees, so will keep the card for 2008-early 2009) b/c I’m tired of the monthly/other high fees and by 2009, I’ll have had 2 yrs of ‘perfect’ history w/them. Same w/orchard- while they don’t charge monthly fees, they are a ‘subprime’ card, and I’d like to ‘dump’ them in 2009 if possible and try to get in w/’prime’ lenders like BA, Citibank, etc.
