Hi all,
Been following these forums for quite a while now and have received a lot of great advice along the way, so thank you! Sorry for the long story, but we've made a lot of mistakes along the way!
To start at the beginning, my husband and I both got our first credit cards at the age of 18 (my husband actually received his very first in the mail on his 18th bday! Crazy I know!). Neither one of us had even the slightest clue how being irresponsible with our credit was going to affect us years down the road (over a decade later)! We had no idea about credit scores, credit reporting, etc. We of course maxed out every card we ever received, didn't pay on time or not at all. So of course the collection letters starting pouring in, and I ignored them. I actually thought it would be a good idea to finance a car, only to have it repossessed less than a year later! At that point I couldn't get anything on credit and of course I continued to ignore the collection letters (I didn't even open them). A few years later, I had part time, but steady employment, we were paying our bills on time (rent and utilities) and finally were starting to be responsible adults (so I thought). After about a year, I was promoted to a full time position, but it required about an hour commute. Well, my current position was about 5 min from home and I drove a jolopy of a car because my previous one was repo'd. So I had to buy a car. There was no way my jolopy was going to make it on the highway an hour to and from work! With my part time pay, I wasn't able to save much, but could scrounge up enough for a down payment on a used car. So that's what I did. Of course, my interest rate was somewhere near 20% because of my past history, my husband had to cosign (he had crap credit, but no repo) and of course there were conditions on what vehicle I would be allowed to finance. I only wanted to get a used $6000 car, but the lender required me to get a newer vehicle with less than 20,000 miles. That made the price way higher than what I was wanting, but I guess they figured they would have a better chance of recouping their money if I defaulted on my loan. So I felt stuck. Either I stay part time with minimum wage or bite the bullet and accept the crazy terms for a car and get to move to a full time salary position. I thought, OK, this is what happens when you ruin your credit, now I have to pay dearly if I wanted anyone to lend me anything. So, I bit the bullet and chose the latter. We were doing great, my job and income was steady and we were making payments on time (even early). We did this for about 4 years. One day I get a call from my employer stating that he had a court order to garnish my pay! The previous repo had come back to haunt me years later. I think I cried for days. And the garnishment would take two years to pay back! With about 30% of my pay gone to pay an old debt, I couldn't afford to make my current car payments any longer. I tried, but it was just too much. So I lost a car to yet another repo! I was so pissed at myself for ignoring the collection letters. I guess I though the debts would disappear? This experience was very traumatizing to say the least! On the bright side, we did have an older vehicle that we owned outright, so I didn't lose my job. We were back to sharing a vehicle, my husband taking me to work everyday and both having horrible credit. With the garnishment underway and our older, now main vehicle needing maintenance every other week, I felt like we didn't have a pot to piss in. But we made it through it. It was such a relief when I made the very last payment on the garnishment! After that experience, we decided that right after the garnishment was over, we would take that money and start paying off old debts (about 4 years ago). We definitely didn't want that to happen again! This is when I found these forums. And thank the Lord I did. We pulled our reports; both of our scores were in the high 400s, low 500s. That wasn't a surprise at all considering our history. After some research, we were able to get some baddies removed (due to age), some were paid in full and some were removed for inaccuracies. Somewhere in between we both obtained a credit card ($300 limits). I think my husband's was offered to him from a collection agency as an incentive to pay off an old debt, mine was Capital one. Both of student loans have been rehabbed, we were able to make an arrangement to pay for the last repo (still paying, last payment in June woohoo!). We definitely didn't want a repeat!
So with all the above said and fast forward a few years, we never even thought of purchasing a home until recently. We were offered a deal to purchase the home we currently rent for the amount that's owed on it ($59k). The owner (a family member) only has about 10 years left on a 30 year mortgage. With such a good deal offered to us, we needed to pull our credit to see where we stand. With the newer credit, car loan (last year lender pull 603) and all of the above taken care of, I wasn't sure what to expect. So here we go. Signed up for 3 bureau monitoring on MyFico. Below is the starting score last month and refreshed scores included in the monitoring.
Me
2/23/15: EQ 558, TU 582, EX 577 / Mortage fico EQ 524, EX 451
3/19/15: EQ 593, TU 609, EX 628
Husband
2/23/15: EQ 597, TU 590, EX 577 / Mortgage fico EQ 589, EX 570
3/19/15: EQ 624, TU 654, EX 673
I plan to pull a new credit report next week after this month's payments have reported. I'm kind of curious to see how the mortgage scoring will change.
As you can see, my husbands scores especially, have risen quite a bit in just under 30 days. This is all due to paying down credit cards (previously 95% utilized). We've actually paid off a few that havent reported yet! With the rate his scores have went up, we are thinking he will hit 700+ by the time these report.
This is what we have as far as credit cards:
Me Husband
Care Credit $2800/3000 Capital One $414/2000
Capital One $385/1350 Capital One QS1 $385/1350 (Authorized user) *NOTE: Two 30 day lates from 2011and 2012 - reports as negative acct
Credit One $0/600 Credit One $0/600 (Authorized user)
1st Premier $417/500 Credit One $0/400
1st Premier $441/700 Buckle $0/250
Kohls $217/300 Express $0/250
VS $350/600 Capital One QS1 $0/500
Utilization 65% Utilization 15%
We were thinking of having my husband apply for a mortgage because I still have some work to do to pay off my cards. My question is regarding my capital one that he's listed as an authorized user on. This card reports two 30 day late payments that I can't get removed. Not from lack of trying thats for sure! Capital one is very strict on their reporting policies. I have sent letters, emails, online chat and most recently spoke with the EO without success. I have pretty much given up on trying to get these removed. Do you think it's hurting his score having him listed as an AU on this account? Because this reports as a negative, I was thinking that maybe we could remove him and see a jump in scores as all of his accounts are in good standing with no late payments. All these account are fairly new. The oldest account is the Cap1 in question and thats only 4 years old.
Any advice would be appreciated. Sorry for the long post, I could go on forever!
