Credit Rebuilding Spreadsheet

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum, but have learned a lot in my weeks here. I wanted to share a tool I created that is proving really helpful in my journey to rebuild my credit:

Columns:

#    CA    OC    Status    $     Last Delinq      Next Steps     Rpts To     Tel#    Address     Date Called     Spoke To     Outcome    Account Notes     myFico Links

^ that's a low res image but you get the idea.

This way I can track progress, next steps, and outcomes. Obviously, add extra columns as you see fit.

Here's how I use it:

• Once I got my tri-merged report from a lender, I added all items. You can also use the ones on annualcreditreport.com (it's worth it to pay $1 for the scores)
• Note: IF YOU ARE APPLYING FOR A MORTGAGE OPT-OUT BEFORE THEY PULL YOUR CREDIT! (If you don't opt-out, creditors will come out of the woodwork like roaches once they see that you have applied for a mortgage.)
• Next, I prioritized the most damaging items. Researched myfico for success stories for each collection agency (CA) or original creditor (OC). I added those links to the final column and carefully reviewed prior to taking any action. I also researched names and contact info on execs and backdoor numbers so I could better plan my communications strategy.
• Every day, I review the Next Steps column to see what I need to do that day. I update the Notes with any actions taken, the Comms collumn with all communication, and strikethrough all items that have been resolved (adding notes detailing the manner of resolution, e.g., "CRAs removed lates on 3/14 (EFX), 3/13 (TU), 3/12 (XPN) per OC request faxed to all 3 CRAs on 3/18. I called and verfified with each 3/19."

I'm improving it as I go along, but hope this is useful to some of you out there. At some point soon, I'm going to create a "rebuilding credit" journal on myfico.com and post my spreadsheet (obviously, omitting all sensitive info like exec names and email addresses. You'll be able to PM me for that info, however).

Hope this helps some of you out there!

[gdale6]

My Fico doesnt allow direct uploads to their servers but you can upload the document to a photo service that is used to host pics and link directly to it that way. Thanks for taking the time on this

[Anonymous]

So glad I'm not the only nerdy one who made a pretty spreadsheet.  The report we're working from is a tri-bureau combined for me and DH, so mine had to note who it belonged to, etc.  I actually did a column for each bureau so that I wouldn't have to repeat lines multiple times.  In the bureau column I note when it was disputed, deleted, etc. So helpful to have it all together!

[Anonymous]

Yep, same here—I put that in the "Rpts To" column. It's very helpful to see the relationship between resolving a baddie and the corresponding increase on that CRA report. I know which of the 3 is my mortgage mid-score so I take that into account when prioritizing which baddies I focus on first. ^_^

[Anonymous]

Our scores are all so close together that any given day, the middle morgage score might be different right now, ha.  We have two reports that are nearly identical and then the third with lots of extra weird stuff on it (like they show up as creditor "N/A" and weird things like that).  Something else I noticed is a domino effect.  I didn't send disputes to all three bureaus at once, so I'm noticing that when one dispute to one wraps up, if they ended up deleting something, the other two follow within a week or so.  That's saving me a lot of paperwork! 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing. This is so useful!