Hello everyone. OMG I feel like I have soooooo far to go in building my financial health. I know that there are no quick fixes. Just like there are no quick fixes to losing weight or breaking a bad habit. However, I am so thankful for the doors that God has opened in my favor. In Feb 2015 I filed my taxes and got back enough money to pay off/settle out debts. I didn't get to tackle everything but I mowed down as much of it as I could. A few accounts remain but I will work on them. I was mainly after the ones that were reporting [CO] every single month to the bureaus. I do have a couple concerns that I could use some advice or encouragement about.
- Student loans - I had them in forbearance for a long while and of course they accrued interest over time. They are separated into for different accounts. They were Direct Loans now Mohela. I'm wondering if the added interest has thrown my UTI wayyyyy out of whack. Is there a way to have the interest forgiven that anyone knows of?
- Does anyone know how to dispute late payments effectively?
- Does my income count at all towards a lender's decision to extend me credit/loans? Or will I mainly be judged on my FICO score?
Even if you can't answer the questions, a word of encouragement or stories about how you rose out of the bad credit ashes would add amazing hope to my day.
Thanks! 
Perservere in your decision to get out of debt and get rid of derogatory information on your credit reports which reflect in your FICO score. It is hard work. In February 2014, I started my journey; bad credit reports, low FICO score, could not get a credit card, etc. I wrote my first letter to a collection agency in February 9, 2014, and worked diligently writing letters to other baddies on my reports. Slowly, the derogatory information was removed, my credit reports started looking better, and my FICO score increased. By April I was able to get a AmericanExpress/Costco credit card approved with a very low credit limit. But that did not stop me, I kept working until right now there is only one late payment in December 2008 left on my credit reports (Wells Fargo refuses to remove it and actually the payment was sent in on time, it went to the wrong department, and instead of it being forwarded to the correct department, it was returned to me; therefore, by the time WF received the payment the second time, it ended up being late). Just waiting for it to fall off and then I will no longer have any bad information on my reports.
So dig in, learn all you can from this wonderful group which helped me out so much, and start the baddies falling off. YOU CAN DO IT!
@Anonymous wrote:Hello everyone. OMG I feel like I have soooooo far to go in building my financial health. I know that there are no quick fixes. Just like there are no quick fixes to losing weight or breaking a bad habit. However, I am so thankful for the doors that God has opened in my favor. In Feb 2015 I filed my taxes and got back enough money to pay off/settle out debts. I didn't get to tackle everything but I mowed down as much of it as I could. A few accounts remain but I will work on them. I was mainly after the ones that were reporting [CO] every single month to the bureaus. I do have a couple concerns that I could use some advice or encouragement about.
- Student loans - I had them in forbearance for a long while and of course they accrued interest over time. They are separated into for different accounts. They were Direct Loans now Mohela. I'm wondering if the added interest has thrown my UTI wayyyyy out of whack. Is there a way to have the interest forgiven that anyone knows of? Student loans are installment loans and are not factored into UTI% for scoring purposes.
- Does anyone know how to dispute late payments effectively? Depends on the reason for disputing.
- Does my income count at all towards a lender's decision to extend me credit/loans? Or will I mainly be judged on my FICO score? Yes, lenders will generally factor your income as well as your score in credit decisions.
Even if you can't answer the questions, a word of encouragement or stories about how you rose out of the bad credit ashes would add amazing hope to my day.
Thanks!
Last August I was at ~500 for all three scores when I financed my used vehicle at 18.99% Today I'm hovering around 600. I have gotten my Capital One cards limits increased from 300/500 to 800/1500, opened a Fingerhut account in December for $400 (not used yet) and just got approved yesterday for a Barclays reward card for $1000. Hoping to break 600 with my FICO 04 scores in the next 90-180 days so I can get pre-approved for a VA mortgage.
I've actually done very little 'cleanup', my score improvement has mostly been from working on my current credit accounts, getting UTI% low, keeping up on payments and establishing the new accounts. I've actually had the capital one cards for several years now, but they've been maxed out almost from the time I got them.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Hello everyone. OMG I feel like I have soooooo far to go in building my financial health. I know that there are no quick fixes. Just like there are no quick fixes to losing weight or breaking a bad habit. However, I am so thankful for the doors that God has opened in my favor. In Feb 2015 I filed my taxes and got back enough money to pay off/settle out debts. I didn't get to tackle everything but I mowed down as much of it as I could. A few accounts remain but I will work on them. I was mainly after the ones that were reporting [CO] every single month to the bureaus. I do have a couple concerns that I could use some advice or encouragement about.
- Student loans - I had them in forbearance for a long while and of course they accrued interest over time. They are separated into for different accounts. They were Direct Loans now Mohela. I'm wondering if the added interest has thrown my UTI wayyyyy out of whack. Is there a way to have the interest forgiven that anyone knows of? Student loans are installment loans and are not factored into UTI% for scoring purposes.
- Does anyone know how to dispute late payments effectively? Depends on the reason for disputing.
- Does my income count at all towards a lender's decision to extend me credit/loans? Or will I mainly be judged on my FICO score? Yes, lenders will generally factor your income as well as your score in credit decisions.
Even if you can't answer the questions, a word of encouragement or stories about how you rose out of the bad credit ashes would add amazing hope to my day.
Thanks!
Last August I was at ~500 for all three scores when I financed my used vehicle at 18.99% Today I'm hovering around 600. I have gotten my Capital One cards limits increased from 300/500 to 800/1500, opened a Fingerhut account in December for $400 (not used yet) and just got approved yesterday for a Barclays reward card for $1000. Hoping to break 600 with my FICO 04 scores in the next 90-180 days so I can get pre-approved for a VA mortgage.
I've actually done very little 'cleanup', my score improvement has mostly been from working on my current credit accounts, getting UTI% low, keeping up on payments and establishing the new accounts. I've actually had the capital one cards for several years now, but they've been maxed out almost from the time I got them.
One thing that has helped me is the fact that all my reporting issues are either medical debt, or utilities. None of them were charged off credit cards, which depress your scores in multiple ways.
@Anonymous wrote:Hello everyone. OMG I feel like I have soooooo far to go in building my financial health. I know that there are no quick fixes. Just like there are no quick fixes to losing weight or breaking a bad habit. However, I am so thankful for the doors that God has opened in my favor. In Feb 2015 I filed my taxes and got back enough money to pay off/settle out debts. I didn't get to tackle everything but I mowed down as much of it as I could. A few accounts remain but I will work on them. I was mainly after the ones that were reporting [CO] every single month to the bureaus. I do have a couple concerns that I could use some advice or encouragement about.
- Student loans - I had them in forbearance for a long while and of course they accrued interest over time. They are separated into for different accounts. They were Direct Loans now Mohela. I'm wondering if the added interest has thrown my UTI wayyyyy out of whack. Is there a way to have the interest forgiven that anyone knows of?
- Does anyone know how to dispute late payments effectively?
- Does my income count at all towards a lender's decision to extend me credit/loans? Or will I mainly be judged on my FICO score?
Even if you can't answer the questions, a word of encouragement or stories about how you rose out of the bad credit ashes would add amazing hope to my day.
Thanks!
1. As others have said, student loans do not factor into your utilization percentage.
2. What would be disputing? If there's an error, the best way is to have some kind of documentation proving it. For instance, I sent Sallie Mae copies of my forbearance documents for months they have me marked as late, when in fact the loans were in forbearance. If you have no grounds for dispute, the best method is a goodwill letter. This takes time and perseverance, you will likely have to try multiple times and they don't HAVE to do it. So be kind, but persistent.
3. Not sure about this one. But I'd be interested in the answer.
You just have to keep pushing. It's hard and can be deflating at times, but stick around the forums for support and motivation. You can do it.
One would not dispute known accurate credit data, the correct way to go after lates that you know are true would be with the GW letter. http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/GW-letter-Q-amp-A-Examples-and-GW-Success-Sto...
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