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Hello MyFico Community
I have been lurking on this site for several months trying to learn as much as possible and now finally I’ve signed up to be able to post a few question on here as so many other new comers before me have.
I would ultimately like to find a few advisors going forward to maximize my goal in obtaining a 730 score first then 780. I seem to have currently hit a wall and would welcome advice on getting closer to the 730 score.
I had a score of 525 about 7 months ago, here are the reasons why:
1 auto loan collections/charge off from 2015 that I made the mistake of paying off for less before learning to have negotiated for them to delate if I pay. O well to late now, going forward I’ll have to have someone advise me on how to get that taken off my report.
I also had about 20+ hard Inquiries spread across the three reporting bureaus.
How I have improved since:
As of this month Dec. 2020 the only inquiries I have are, 2 on TransUnion, 4 Experian, 0 on Equifax.
Credit Card accounts are:
State Department Secured Card: $1000 limit 5 months left to Graduate
Navy Federal Cash rewards: Graduated to this card Dec.30th from $1000 secured to $2000 unsecured
First Progress Credit Card: $600
Loans:
Georgetown University: $5000 remaining always paid on time
Exeter Car Loan: $11,000 remaining, 1 late 30days Dec. 2019, 1 late 30 days Mar. 2020
Current for over 9 months
And my current scores are:
TU 674, EX 682, EQ 672
Credit Usage 8%
Total Debt $16,987
Open Accounts 7
Roughly 157 point increase in seven months.
Please I need help moving forward with a plan of action to achieve the mid 700’s Please....
Hi & welcome to the forums!
You're actually doing quite well - congrats on your progress thus far!
I assume your open accounts are fairly young... are they less than 1 year old?
Obviously, your charged-off auto loan and recent 30-day lates are suppressing your scores so your plan of action is to focus on having them removed by committing to a Goodwill campaign. You can request the original creditors remove (1) the auto loan tradeline and (2) each of the 30-day late payments as an act of good faith.
Goodwills aren't guaranteed but they are absolutely worth trying. You can read about the Goodwill Saturation Technique here: https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/The-Saturation-Technique-Best-GW-adjustment-...
While you work on having your negatives removed, just allow your accounts to age and maintain on-time payments. Your scores will rise over time, just try to be patient.
I responded to your other post.
Rebuilding Your Credit is the appropriate subforum though so the one you posted under General Credit Topics will likely be merged into this one by a moderator.
Unfortunately, you may have 'hit the wall' and already taken care of the 'low hanging fruit' if you will. If you don't have any collections to remove or charge offs that are unpaid, your biggest boost may come from letting time pass and keeping a good payment history moving forward.
Perhaps you could have some luck with the AZEO method that's talked about on this forum quite frequently. But it's not something I (yet) practice so you may want to wait for others to chime in on that.
I think you'll find it very difficult to get an accurate charge off removed from your credit reports. Although a collection is more feasible. It sounds like the lender charged off your auto loan and either sold or contracted your debt to a debt collector? If that's the case, you can try a goodwill letter to the debt collector or dispute it as paid with collection agencies and see if they respond.
@Anonymous wrote:Hello MyFico Community
I have been lurking on this site for several months trying to learn as much as possible and now finally I’ve signed up to be able to post a few question on here as so many other new comers before me have.
I would ultimately like to find a few advisors going forward to maximize my goal in obtaining a 730 score first then 780. I seem to have currently hit a wall and would welcome advice on getting closer to the 730 score.
I had a score of 525 about 7 months ago, here are the reasons why:
1 auto loan collections/charge off from 2015 that I made the mistake of paying off for less before learning to have negotiated for them to delate if I pay. O well to late now, going forward I’ll have to have someone advise me on how to get that taken off my report.
I also had about 20+ hard Inquiries spread across the three reporting bureaus.
How I have improved since:
As of this month Dec. 2020 the only inquiries I have are, 2 on TransUnion, 4 Experian, 0 on Equifax.
Credit Card accounts are:
State Department Secured Card: $1000 limit 6 months left to Graduate
Navy Federal Cash rewards: Graduated to this card Dec.30th from $1000 to $2000
First Progress Credit Card: $600
Loans:
Georgetown University: $5000 remaining always paid on time
Exeter Car Loan: $11,000 remaining 1 late Dec. 2019, 1 late Mar. 2020
And my current scores are:
TU 674, EX 682, EQ 672
Credit Usage 8%
Total Debt $16,987
Open Accounts 7
Roughly 157 point increase in seven months that's as far as I've gotten...
Please I need help moving forward with a plan of action to achieve the mid 700’s Please....
@Anonymous Welcome, you may find the Scoring Primer linked at the top of my siggy helpful and informative. It's pretty big, so get a cup of ☕️ or whatever, have some time, review the table of contents in post 8 and break it down & read it by sections.
As for advice, we need to know profile details, e.g. when did you pay the CA? What's the DOFD? Any closed accounts? Any other derogatories other than the CO and companion CA? AoOA? AoORA? AAoA? What scores are you focusing on? 8/9? 5/4/2? Only 3 revolvers and 2 loans? What is aggregate loan utilization?
Hi @Anonymous, and welcome to myFICO!
I've merged the replies to your duplicate threads. Please refrain from cross-posting; it's confusing to follow and is against the TOS here.
--UB
Happy New Years!!!!!
Wow you got back to me fast on here. Thank you.
Oldest accounts was open 20 years seven months ago however it got closed for inactivity but still comes up on my credit report?
Average age of accounts three years two months.
All credit card accounts are only 7 months old.
Georgetown University loan is 5 months old
Exeter current car loan 2yrs 2 months
Exeter is the original loan holder it never got transferred to another company even though it was charged off?
I have tried several ways with Exeter however always receive a letter back from them saying that they do not do goodwill on accurate 30 day lates.
Thought on going after other prime tradelines? Should I just go after more credit?
Or buying an AU aged $30,000+ account to run a spree?
HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!
Thanks for the merge I was not sure which place to post it. I'm all set here everyone is very helpful and quick getting back to me.
@Anonymous wrote:
Oldest accounts was open 20 years seven months ago however it got closed for inactivity but still comes up on my credit report?
Accounts closed in good standing will generally remain on your reports for up to 10 years after the closing date (sometimes they drop off a little sooner). They will continue to age and be factored into your average age of accunts (AAoA) as long as they remain.
@Anonymous wrote:Average age of accounts three years two months.
All credit card accounts are only 7 months old.
Georgetown University loan is 5 months old
Exeter current car loan 2yrs 2 months
Exeter is the original loan holder it never got transferred to another company even though it was charged off?
You need to let your accounts age to at least one year -- there's usually a decent score bump once the youngest reaches a year.
So... In your original post you stated that you settled the charged-off loan. So the 2 year old Exeter loan with the late payment a separate auto loan, correct?
An account doesn't have to be transferred to another company if it's charged-off. Lenders often transfer the account to a collection agency, but they don't have to --some prefer to keep the debt in-house.
@Anonymous wrote:I have tried several ways with Exeter however always receive a letter back from them saying that they do not do goodwill on accurate 30 day lates.
Keep trying. You can take a break and try again after the lates age a bit more. When the lates age past their 2 year mark, you should start regaining some FICO points from them as they'll start to hurt your scores less, but they will continue to have an effect until they reach their 7 year mark and drop off completely -- so if you can get them removed before them, that'd be best. You have nothing to lose from continue to try.
@Anonymous wrote:Thought on going after other prime tradelines? Should I just go after more credit?
I think you should wait til your accounts age to at least one year because you'll have better approval odds at that point - you don't want to increase any chances of denial. Several new accounts (anything under a year is considered new) along with recent negative marks may be viewed as high risk to prime lenders -- and there's no point in adding non-prime lenders or those whom you don't intend to keep for the long term just for the sake of adding more. When you reach the one year mark on your youngest account, then seek to add one or two additional (hopefully prime) cards that will be useful and compliment your spending habits -- but I advise to try and take it slow because the more accounts you add, the more you lower your average age of accounts and if you should drop below an age scoring threshold, you could end up losing points and having to wait til you cross back over that threshold to regain them so keep that in mind.
@Anonymous wrote:Or buying an AU aged $30,000+ account to run a spree?
Discussion of purchasing tradelines is against the forum rules. We don't talk about it, let alone advocate for it.
That said - No. You don't need to artificially inflate your report -- the only thing it will do is increase your credit length. Yes, this may give you a boost in score but most creditors ignore AU accounts when making lending decisions - so it won't help you there. The FICO algorithms have also recently began flagging some AU accounts to prevent abuse, causing the account to be completely discounted in scoring - so such a scheme may not even work out for you.
Take the time to build your own profile -- you'll be better off in the long run. High scores don't come overnight so have a little patience and learn all you can about how FICO works - you'll get there.
Also - when you have time, read the post @Anonymous suggested... it's super insightful, you'll learn a lot that will help you navigate this whole scoring thing.
@Anonymous wrote:Happy New Years!!!!!
Wow you got back to me fast on here. Thank you.
Oldest accounts was open 20 years seven months ago however it got closed for inactivity but still comes up on my credit report?
Average age of accounts three years two months.
All credit card accounts are only 7 months old.
Georgetown University loan is 5 months old
Exeter current car loan 2yrs 2 months
Exeter is the original loan holder it never got transferred to another company even though it was charged off?
I have tried several ways with Exeter however always receive a letter back from them saying that they do not do goodwill on accurate 30 day lates.
Thought on going after other prime tradelines? Should I just go after more credit?
Or buying an AU aged $30,000+ account to run a spree?
I would not spend money on buying an AU account. It could easily be discarded by the anti-abuse algorithm (different names/addresses/not related or living with main account holder), depending on the scores you are looking to boost. It is also against the terms for it to be discussed here (buying AU accounts).
I also would slow your roll on adding more accounts. If what you have is only 7 months old, you have enough to build your credit. More credit does not mean better credit. You need to let the inquiries and accounts age. Also apping too much leads to denials/toy limits and makes you look desperate for credit. I would try being patient and letting the accounts not only age, but let those lates age.
Is there a particular goal you have regarding your credit?
Good luck!