Help on complicated credit situation

[14IS4]

Hi everyone,

Please forgive me up front as this might be a little long, I hope you can bare with me.

To start off, I have only been lurking for a little while but have already found a lot of very helpful information. I'm in a more unique situation and I hope that someone can shed some light on which direction I should go. I started off my credit journey the day I turned 18 with a secured loan that my Dad backed with a CD for a car that I was purchasing. It was a 2 year note with that I repaid on time. Half way through that loan I opened up a chase checking account and had a Chase Visa card with a $300 CL they opened as an overdraft protection. My Dad is a loan officer for a mortgage company and had always beat good credit habits into my head but I never had a firm grasp on everything that went into determining score. Fast forward a little bit I started making a couple purchases a month and always PIF by the statement date. I received a call from Chase after a couple months of that asking me if I wanted a PC to a different card and they told me the benefits so I said sure. I was sent the card with a $5k CL and wasn't aware that higher limits were good. I used it for about a year, made a couple of purchases and then ended up closing it due to the fact that it had a high CL and again I thought this was bad for my credit score.

A couple months after that in 2010 I ended up opening up a Discover Open Roads card with a $2500 CL and was going to use it for gas. I kept that going until the end of 2011 when I made a large purchase due to the purchase protection vs my debit card. The problem was the purchase was more than the $2500 limit but I had the cash to pay for it. I called Discover and they said I should be able to go ahead with the purchase even though it was over my limit. I ended up making the purchase and there was a problem with it. I ended up making a dispute with Discover and after 3 months was denied the dispute. I wasn't really able to get a hold of the company but I was trying to resolve the issue with them with little luck. I ended up fighting with them for almost 2 years with just making the minimum payment each month, I didn't realize that I had the payment protector on the card so aside from interest I was getting charged $35/month for this. My overall utilization started at 110% but by the end of the 2 years I was at 157% utilization. Again, I wasn't aware that high utilization was bad for my score. I ended up settling with the company then turned around and paid off the card in September 2013 for the item that was in dispute.

Throughout that time I had multiple car loans and I have 100% On-Time payments, no derogatory marks on all of my accounts even my two CC's. I went through 3 cars from 2011-2013 basically a different car every year.

From 2012 until now I have 16 Hard Inquiries mainly because of vehicles. 5 of the Inqs were from 1/21/2012 so they are set to fall off in 6 days and those are all from my car purchase in Jan 2012. 2 of them are from my car purchase last year in Feb 2013. Bill Me Later hit me twice on 6/7/2013 (I have called them and I'm going to get one removed by sending in a letter to their company).

Now onto the bad, not really being on good terms with my Dad I can't really talk to him about it, but with his controlling nature he has been pulling my report through his work without my authorization. It goes through a company called Kroll Factual Data but they mainly deal with mortgages and his MLS number is attached to each pull. I have about 15 total from him but 6 in the past 2 years 5/1/2012, (8/18/2012) twice, 11/2/2012, 1/9/2013, and 11/8/2013. I am not living with him and haven't been since October 2012 and haven't spoken to him much since then. From talking to various people it's pretty clear if I were to send these to Kroll Factual Data as being unauthorized he would be terminated from his current employment and I don't want that to happen to him.

I pulled my report on 12/4/2013 and noticed all of these and now I'm unsure what to do. I have been doing a lot of reading on here and have gotten some good information. My scores were 701, 711, and 718 FAKO from each individual CB's website and when I pulled and my EX FICO from myFico at the same time (still didn't understand the differences between FICO & FAKO) it was showing as 740.

Fast forward to this month, I have been on the forums reading constantly and have since went onto Discover's site and did a SP CLI and asked for $7500 from $2500 and got countered with $6500 with no Hard Inquiry. I PC'd my Open Roads to IT and that is coming at the end of my statement which is on the 19th of this month.

Now after all the back story, I currently have a new car on order that is coming the end of February to early March. I signed up with PenFed and was able to get an account and I was looking at them for possible auto loans. I wasn't aware of the Hard Inquiry that they did when signing up but I was able to get an account with no problems. After reading the forum it is obvious that I need to open some more cards and continue to get my CL's up on all of them.

Cards I am interested in:
AMEX BCE, PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature, Chase Freedom or CSP & PC to Freedom before the AF

Credit Info:

Overall Util: 1%
On-Time Payments: 100%
AAoA: 3.9 years
Total Accounts: 8 (2 Open 6 Closed)
Hard Inquiries: 16
Derogatory Marks: 0
Annual Income: $65,000
Total Debt: $22,000 (Auto) $0 (CC)

Questions:
1. Seeing that the cards I am looking at when would be the best time to try and get them? Before or After I get the vehicle that is on order?

2. Would it be best to apply for all of the cards at the same time since I am only looking at 3?

3. I don't want to waste the Hard Inquiry and was wondering since PenFed would be using off of the same pull they already did if it would be okay to apply for that card now?

4. How much are my Hard Inquiries hurting me as far as CC Apps go? I don't have any Inqs for CC's only vehicles and mortgages.

5. What is everyone's suggestion for removing the 6 Hard Inquiries from my Dad?

I know I have a thin file from only being 24 but I'm turning 25 in June, getting married in December and looking to buy a house in 2015. Any advice on my best course of action to take would be greatly appreciated.

[AndySoCal]

As far as the last two items are concerned mortgage inquires made within a 30 day period count as only 1 inquiry.  If you dispute the inquires it may cause a problem for your dad.  I would put a credit freeze on your credit report from all three bureaus.  I would do this after the auto loans and credit card inquires are done. This will stop your dad from pulling your credit report from any source..

[Involver]

Personally I would dispute the HPs your father made with no authorization. This will clean them off your HP and also, presumably, teach him not to engage in such activities anymore. You will not be able to remove them without linking them back to him. However, the only one that will affect your FICO scoring is from 11/13.

[takeshi74]

---

@14IS4 wrote:

I'm in a more unique situation

---

Other than your dad's inquiries it's pretty standard stuff.  Have you talked to him first?  Is that doesn't work you can certainly dispute but success will probably depends on whether or not he has any permissibile cause and there's not enough info in your OP to really determine that.

@14IS4 wrote:

Seeing that the cards I am looking at when would be the best time to try and get them? Before or After I get the vehicle that is on order?

For the best terms for your auto loan after your auto financing is finalized.

---

@14IS4 wrote:

Would it be best to apply for all of the cards at the same time since I am only looking at 3?

---

I'd apply for all at once.  It really depends on your credit and the underwriting criteria of the creditors in question.  PenFed is probably the most conservative and I'd recommend apping with them first but you may want to line up the apps in an order according to your own priorities.

---

@14IS4 wrote:

I don't want to waste the Hard Inquiry and was wondering since PenFed would be using off of the same pull they already did if it would be okay to apply for that card now?

---

Given the first half of your statement the second half makes sense to me.

---

@14IS4 wrote:

How much are my Hard Inquiries hurting me as far as CC Apps go? I don't have any Inqs for CC's only vehicles and mortgages.

---

Underwriting varies by creditor so how much they're hurting you varies by creditor as well.  Some are more inquiry sensitive than others.  Generally the more conservative ones will probably be more inquiry sensitive.  Impact is mostly gone after a year and they fall off after 2.

[Gunnar419]

---

@14IS4 wrote:

Now onto the bad, not really being on good terms with my Dad I can't really talk to him about it, but with his controlling nature he has been pulling my report through his work without my authorization. It goes through a company called Kroll Factual Data but they mainly deal with mortgages and his MLS number is attached to each pull. I have about 15 total from him but 6 in the past 2 years 5/1/2012, (8/18/2012) twice, 11/2/2012, 1/9/2013, and 11/8/2013. I am not living with him and haven't been since October 2012 and haven't spoken to him much since then. From talking to various people it's pretty clear if I were to send these to Kroll Factual Data as being unauthorized he would be terminated from his current employment and I don't want that to happen to him.

It's good of you not to want your father to lose his job. However, if he's pulling anybody's credit without permissible cause, he SHOULD lose his job. This is the equivalent of a cop using a law enforcement database to keep tabs on a girlfriend or a NSA analyst using his power to poke into his wife's cellphone records or emails.

The fact that he's doing HPs instead of SPs makes it even worse because it seems he's damaging your credit just to satisfy his snoopiness.

I see that you have a difficult relationship with him. But he needs to STOP that behavior NOW (even if he had permissible cause, which it doesn't sound like he does, what he's doing would be excessive and damaging). At the very least you should notify him in writing that you know what he's doing and that he should cease and desist. But frankly, in your position, I wouldn't hesitate to dispute those inquiries and let the consequences be whatever they must be.

(Sorry about the screwy formatting; I don't seem to be able to undo it.)