Credit History Help

[miguy22]

I have been researching and working hard on rebuilding my credit this last year, though I admit I should not have had the problems in the first place. I hope someone can take a look at my current situation and offer solutions to guide me in the right direction as what I thought I was doing was working but a recent report has shown my score dropped off again.

I'm 24 and currently an unemployed student who ran wild with credit cards the first 2 years of school before I realized what I had done. I recently applied for an auto loan which I was approved for and now have 1 year of on-time payments being reported with another 4 years to go on that loan. I also have 2 credit cards with low balances which are both standard credit cards and 1 store-specific card that has a high limit and currently a high balance that I am working to get down. I believe my credit usage ratio right now is about 77%. I also have student loans on my credit report which are reported as 8 individual loans from the federal government (no private loans). In addition to that, as of 11/2008 I was issued a judgment by one of my credit cards which I recently satisfied. Is there anything I can do about the public record to lessen it's impact on my score?

The following is a snap shot of where I am today:

Transunion (534)                                     Experian (515)                                              Equifax (533)

AE (paid)                                                    AE (transferred)

HSBC (Derogatory)                                 HSBC (Transferred)

Express (open)                                        Express (closed)                                          Express (open)

Capital One (paid)                                   Capital One (paid)                                       Capital One (Derogatory)

Target (open) <<<This account was charged off and closed, also paid off

Chase (Paid)                                           Chase (Derogatory)

                                                                    DTE (closed)                                                 DTE (Derogatory

My first question with the above accounts is should I dispute with the reporting companies that have the wrong account status? For instance, Transunion has HSBC as Derogatory but Experian reports as transferred, should these just say Paid as agreed and be closed? Other accounts report open with one or two and then closed with the third, all these accounts should be paid off and closed, I paid them all last year and earlier.

My Next question is about my total accounts being reported. I'm not sure what to do from here to help my score, there is so much junk on my report where I thought I cleaned it out for the most part, there are still old pieces of information hanging around. The following are the accounts in question and I would like to know what I can do to maybe move forward in cleaning these up:

Transunion

Hol. Video                  $146         opened      10/2010  (Not mine actually, possible Id theft from lost wallet)

RJM                            $779         opened      05/2008  (Also reports to Experian)

Russell Col.             $159          opened      05/2006  (Reports to all 3) 

Portfolio Recov.        Paid          opened      08/2008  Equifax reports this as Derogatory, should I dispute?

AT&T                          $173          opened      08/2010  (Reports to all 3)

Midland Col.             Paid           Opened     06/2009   Equifax reports Derogatory, should I dispute?

RJM (target)              paid             opened    10/2008  Reports Trans, Exper

Medical Bill               paid            opened       03/2006  Reports all 3

Cap 1                        paid            opened       11/2008   Public Record

I know I should pay the past due collections before anything, aside from the Hol. Video  which was not mine but needs removed. But those other pieces are all reporting with different dates and different status issues on each report, I'm just not sure how to move forward with cleaning that up to improve my score.

The Midland company is reporting my account status as 120+ past due thought he balance is paid off and was paid as agreed. The Portfolio company is reporting the exact same and is also paid off and paid as agreed.

Basically I really don't know where to begin or if anything I do will have any impact on my score at this point with everything being reported in pieces.

[llecs]

Welcome to the forums!

I'd suggest reading the following:

Common Abbreviations

Credit Scoring 101 - great for knowing what is in your credit score and to see how your score is impacted.

What Steps Do I Take - great for learning the repair process.

and Example letters - PFDs, GWs, DVs, etc.

Before doing anything, make sure you are in a position to prevent future baddies. In other words, if unemployed, don't even begin repair if there could be future lates because you would be nullifying any accomplishment. Fixing credit can be very expensive because much of what needs to be fixed needs to be paid. Also keep an eye on your SOL for your state. Doing anything to any unpaid debt can result in increased collection activity including being sued. If SOL has not expired on a given debt or you don't have the $$$ to PIF if you had to, then wait to do anything to it.

For your open and active CCs, for max points, get all but one to report $0 and get the other to report a balance of under 9% of the CL. 77% is way too high. Some CCCs will cancel or cut CLs if they see util that high.

Pay the SLs as agreed.

There's nothing you can do to lessen the impact of a PR. There is a way to get it deleted by asking the plaintiff's attorney to ask the judge to vacate the judgment, but I defer to others on that.

Ignore the scores. Those aren't FICO scores. Looks like you used a 3-in-1 service that sells scores, but aren't FICO. Your  FICOs can be higher or lower than your non-FICO scores (we call them FAKOs). There were several times that my FICO was over 100 points higher than the FAKO when pulled the same day. Very unreliable.

Ignore the reporting details of that services too (guessing TrueCredit?). Some of these services mis-report, though the info in general is good. For accurate reporting, get your free reports from annualcreditreport.com. For scoring accuracy, get your two FICO scores and reports from myFICO. The reports from myFICO show how the TL is being scored and offers a little more detail, score-wise.

For any good accounts (e.g. no lates, not reporting negatively, not a CO, etc.), leave them alone. This also applies to any good, closed accounts.

For any paid OCs that were charged-off or were late, your only option is to send GW letters. You'd ask them to delete (if the accounts are newer relatively speaking) or to remove specific aspects of the TL (e.g. lates, CO momment) if older or among your oldest accounts.

I know you'll never ever be late again, but if you have any future COs, your best option to start is to offer PFD letters rather than paying them. If they accept the PFD, then you'd pay it and they'll delete. A $10,000 CO is just as bad as a $0 CO per your FICO score. Same applies to CAs and PRs.

For the paid CAs, all you can do is to send GW letters asking for deletion. You can never get a CA to report positively. You need it off.

For the unpaid CAs, send a DV. If they verify and you agree then send a PFD. Legally, you only have 30 days to send a DV from the date of their dunning letter, but most CAs will respond anyway.

If you are 100% certain, beyond any doubt that Hollywood video is not yours then call the police and file a report for ID theft. Disputing it would likely just result in it being verified. If you enclose a police report, it'll go away. You may want to contact Hollywood video first and get as much info from them as possible.

[RobertEG]

Here is the basic process I recommend.

View your CR in terms of date and severity of each delinquency and derog, and not in terms of accounts.

First list the month/year and date of severity of each and every monthly delinquency reported by any OC. 

Those all drop after 7 years from their dates of individual delinqwuency, due simply to their own old-age.  FCRA 605(a)(5).

The monthly deliquencies that are hurting your FICO score the most are the most recent, and those that were reported as 60+ days late.

Then, list each CO or CA reported to your CR.  For each, using the data you put together under step one, identify the date of your first delinquency in monthly payment on the OC account that immediately preceded the CO or CA.  That is your DOFD.  Add 180-days plus 7 years to that date of DOFD, and that defines, under FCRA 605(c), how long the CO or CA can remain in your CR. 

Dont be confused or too alarmed by updated reporting done by a creditor or debt collector.  They are just, for the most part, a regurgitation of your prior status.

They cant update the dates discussed in steps one and two above, and for the most part, are meaningless.

If you know the dates of each delinquency reported by the OC while your account with them was open, that is the only thing that really impacts your FICO scoring.

[miguy22]

I really appreciate the information. I do have unemployment income coming in as well as being a full time student I receive income from grants all of which I was trying to use in the most efficient way. I figured I should start attacking the outstanding balances first, get them settled, and then move on.

I contacted the company collecting for Hollywood now and it looks like the account is mine but they would like to do a PFD, it is a little costly at $146 when the late fees I actually owed were $45, but they won't negotiate. I'm contacting DTE today to ask about a PFD with them and possibly a settlement offer. In the past, I was able to settle two other credit cards over $2000 in balance with fees down to under $600 PIF, so we will see.

As for the PR, I'm actually a Law Student and I work for the new Judge who replaced the Judge that signed in my PR. I'm curious if I can speak with her and have that PR vacated without contacting the company. I'm going to type up a GW letter for the company attorney just to be safe.

Ultimately, I hope to make some huge improvements this year and eventually in two years when I have my law degree, aside from being a tax lawyer I hope to do credit repair representation. I appreciate the information shared here and hope to pass some of this wisdom on.