Credit Repair

[Anonymous]

Hello myFico Community,

I have been battling my dumb decisions when I was 18. I racked up about 4k in debt and did not pay it off. From the time I was 18 to 21 (currently 22)  I did not do anything with my credit. It was embarrasing to say the least to have bad credit. 

It started when I just turned 21 and needed to get a new car the dealer ran my report and came back as a 530. I got a loan with my Mom as the primary on the account. (thankfully she has an 847 credit score) Now, I need to be an adult and get my credit together.

I have had the car for a year and a half and never missed a payment. After the car I got a Capital One student card with a $300 limit and than....

Here are my current cards and limits as well as scores.

CapitalOne Quiksilver $300 initial $3,000 limit now

Wright Patt Credit $500 initial $1,000 now

Merrick Bank $700 initial $1,400 now

Credit One Visa $300 initial $850 now

Credit One Master Card $500 

Chase Amazon Card $500

Current Bureau Score from myFico

TransUnion 636

Equifax 657

Experian 626

My Equifax and Experian have a Tax Lien that has been settled and will be off my report in the next month. It is for $430 from a vehicle I purchased. After 6 month of calling and sending emails it is finally cleared. Attorney General Office is down until at least November 14th. Than the information Ohio Department of Taxation sent over should clear the lean.

My creditkarma TransUnion report shows 4 current accounts in collections one for Global Receivables $263 (Paid) Global Receivables $116 (Paid) Midland Funding LLC $1,899 (Owe $280 been paying $140 every two weeks) Portfolio Recovery $628 (Paid)

The first two accounts from Global Receivables were utility bills I never received. Midland funding was from a barclaycard I had when I was 18. Portfolio Recovery was from World Financial Bank. (Never knew I had a card from them)

Repairing my Credit

I have not missed a payment on any of my new cards. Always paid on time and have been getting increases regularly. 

Now my goal is to get over a 720 in the next year so my fiance and I may purchase a house. I have sent certified letters to the three bereaus for the accounts in collections to have them removed. I started sending the letters in the last month. I know this takes time and hope to have my score over a 700 in the next 6 months. This may seem aggressive but I hope to hear how others have aggressively got items off their credit reports? 

I have been reading forum after forum on what letters to write. I feel like I am just sitting and waiting on my credit to increase. Should I be calling credit bureaus to check on status of disputes? Anything too do especially if its regarding my credit would be great to know being that I am still young.

[Anonymous]

Congrats on getting those scores that's honestly not bad and you could get a house now and just refi it when you're better.

But I'll give you my two cents anyways. So while showing paid is better than unpaid it's still not removed. So write Goodwill letters to all collections you've paid. Sending certified letters to the Credit bureaus requesting removal of these accounts is actually probably going to aggravate the collections agencies rather than help you. Goodwill letters are your best option because they're already paid if they were unpaid I'd say do a PFD, pay for deletion.

It'll be very hard to get to 720 with those collections still on there. Aside from what I've already said I would strongly recommend keeping your Utilization all only on 1 card and keeping that under 10% that will maximize your scoring.

Let me ask how'd you go from $300 to $3,000 with CapOne in a year?

[Anonymous]

Matt,

I have been putting everything on my Capital One card. As it has the best rewards to me.

Thankfully, my mom has me as an authorized user on one of her CCs with a very high CL that she never uses so my utilization is always low.

I went from 300 to 3050 in under a year actually. I used the card maxed it out paid it off about every two weeks. They kept raising it and raising it. It's weird because my fiancé makes more money than me has much better credit (700+) and I have a higher capital one limit.

[Anonymous]

I never requested a limit these were all automatic on Capital One.

I didn't know I could do PFD until after I already started a payment plan on the Midland Funding. I only owe $280 out of $1900 so I don't think they'd be willing to do that now?

[Anonymous]

You stated that you requested the CRA's to remove the collections, CRA's are not going to just remove them simply because you ask them to. You also referred to them as disputes what specific inaccuracies were you disputing. As Matt mentioned after the collections are paid good will letters are your best chance of getting them removed.

[Anonymous]

I did not live at the address where the utilities went to collection. I paid what I thought was the last month of utilities before moving in with my fiancé. Had change of address done and never received a final bill.

I have had good luck with transunion in the last 6 months removing items off my credit report just by disputing them online. Currently have had 3 items removed.

I will try good will letters to the companies that show collections on my account. Anything is worth a shot.

[Anonymous]

My Equifax score also went up 8 points today to 665 for no apparent reason. 🙂

[Anonymous]

I got a CLI from Capital One again about a week ago through their mobile app. They upped my CL to $5050 now.

I was also approved for an Amex everyday card. With a $1000 credit limit.

I have completely paid off Midland Credit Management now. However it says they reported 21 days ago and my balance is $840? I haven't owed $840 for nearly three months now. I disputed it with Transunion via CreditKarma. Maybe they will remove it altogether... Hopeful thinking.

Now if you are wondering how I keep getting credit limit increases on my capital one card I generally carry a small balance enough for them to make a few dollars. I spend a lot of money a month. So it sees on average $2,000 a month. My income is above average by far for my age group. I ask for a limit increase every few months. Capital One has not done a hard pull since I first applied for my card.



Here is where I need help I would like to get those two pesky utility bill collections off my credit report. I am finding very little information on Global Receivables. Out of all the things on my report this is genuinely a Debt I did not know about.