I can't take it anymore!! Can an expert please give me advice??

[Anonymous]

I have been trying to increase my credit score for years and I am getting nowhere.  According to Credit Karma, my TransUnion is 610 and my Equifax is 624.  I haven't checked my actual Fico to see how accurate Credit Karma is yet.  My reason for this post is because I just fund out my Best Buy credit card issued through Citi Bank has been closed.  All I did was call because the card expired last month.  I made a purchase on it July 17th, so it was active then.  I have never been late on a payment and always made sure to pay more than the minimum monthly payment.  According to the lady I spoke with on the phone, she said the bank reviewed my credit history when the card expired and because we had a couple late payments on our credit report from another account that had nothing to do with this card or any other card and we has an old cell phone bill show up in collections, they decided not to extend our credit and closed our account.  Apparently our stellar payment history with them on their own card meant nothing at all.  Now we have to start over and apply for another card (NOT from Best Buy OR Citi Bank because I refuse to get a card from them ever again), and bby starting over, we will have another credit inquiry show up which will drop our score, AND starting a whole new account will cause our average age of credit history to drop now which will also bring down our score.  I am at a loss and cannot think of what to do to get our score up.  I know several people who have declared bankruptcy within the past few years and are already over 700 credit scores, but yet I have been working hard to make my payments on time for many years and never had a bankruptcy and cannot get ahead at all.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Should I get another card? Should I try something else?  I just want to have a high score for once in my life!!  lol

[Anonymous]

You sound like a perfect candidate for the Rebuilding forum.  That's what the folks in that room love to do.  Help folks just like you.  Would you like us to ask a moderator to move your thread there?

In the meantime, anyone who does want to help you out will need to know some stuff.  Here is a good start on what they will need to know.

List all your credit cards, their current balances, and their credit limits.  You could write it like this:

Card 1.    Balance = _____   Credit Limit = _____

Card 2.    Balance = _____   Credit Limit = _____

Card 3.    Balance = _____   Credit Limit = _____

Also indicate if you are an AU on that card or not.

List all your open installment accounts... like this:

Loan 1.    Balance = _____   Original Amount of loan = _____

List all your derogs.  That includes lates, collections, chargeoffs, liens, public records, judgments, etc.  If it is a late, indicate the "severity" of the late (Day 30, Day 60, Day 90, Day 120) and which account it is connected with.  For all derogs indicate the month/year that the derog happened.

Karma is a great tool, because it is free and because it will let you see fresh copies of your TU and EQ credit reports as often as once a week.  That will be really helpful while you are rebuilding.  You can and should ignore its scores and also what it says about your AAoA.  Your focus at first should be working on your reports -- the scores may not matter right away.  But folks here can suggest some free or ultra-low cost ways of getting true FICO scores.  One nice place would be the $1 trial at Credit Check Total.

[Anonymous]

Thank you CreditGuyInDixie, I would love it if this thread could be moved to the rebuilding forum.  I will take a look at my reports and put together all the info you mentioned in your replay and post it as soon as possible as well.  Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

Here is the information I was able to obtain from my report from Credit Karma and my free annual credit report

Credit Cards-

Capital One Quicksilver = Balance:1587.31  Limit:1600.00 (Authorized User)

Best Buy=Balance: 457.29  Limit: 500.00  (I am primary but it is now closed as mentioned in original post)

Installments-

Planet Home Lending=Balance: 102,581.00  Orig.: 105,666.00 

Ford Credit(Car 1-lease)= Balance:6,521.00  Orig.: 12,355.00

Ford Credit(Car 2-finance)= Balance: 4,669.00  Orig.: 18,740.00

Derogs-

Planet Home Lending- (3)30 day lates- 1/17; 5/16; 6/16 - Opened 7/6/15(refinanced from Green Planet mortgage to lower PMI)

Ford Credit(Car 1)- (1)30 day late- 12/16

Ford Credit(Car 2)- (3)30 day lates- 6/16; 12/16; 5/14

Closed-

Chase Card- Closed 1/28/2010- no lates

Ford Credit- Closed 2/9/2012- no lates

Green Planet Mortgage- Closed 7/1/15- No Lates (Refinanced to Planet Home Lending)

Selene Finance- Closed 5/1/14- (9) 30 day lates in 2013 and 2014(transferred to Green Planet Mortgage)

Flagstar Bank- Closed 3/1/13- (5) 30 day lates in 2012 and 2013(Original mortgage lender and transferred to Selene Finance)

Collections-

General Revenue Corp- $401 - Opened 6/29/16 (Unpaid)

Caine & Weiner- $373 - Opened 4/8/16 (Unpaid)

First Fed Credit Control- $39 - Opened 8/25/14 (Paid)

AFNI- $206 - Opened 9/9/14  (Paid)

Automated Accounts Mgmt- $100 - Opened 12/15/13  (Paid)

Automated Accounts Mgmt- $100 - Opened 8/12/13  (Paid)

[medicgrrl]

First, your cc utilization is hitting your score hard. I would start by working to pay that off. After that, I would work on paying off the remaining collections with a PFD. You can also attempt to have late payments removed via GW. I would start with the most recent lates and work back from there.

While you're paying down the cc's you can start sending goodwill letter's to the collection agencies that are already paid. Request they remove the account from your credit reports.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the input, I will certainly be paying down my CCs and I will begin sending the letters as well.  I was wondering though what you meant by PFD?

[Anonymous]

PFD stands for Pay For Delete, wherein you negotiate in advanace an agreement with the collection agency that you will pay the balance if they agree to delete the bad record entirely from your report.

I have let the moderators know that you'd like your thread moved.

Good luck!

[UncleB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you CreditGuyInDixie, I would love it if this thread could be moved to the rebuilding forum.  I will take a look at my reports and put together all the info you mentioned in your replay and post it as soon as possible as well.  Thanks again!

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Moving thread to 'Rebuilding Your Credit'. 

[Anonymous]

That AFNI and the ones you paid should be asked to be taken off. If you paid them in full or paid them to get rid of them they should be taken off by now.

[Anonymous]

AFNI will ask to pay half. Pay half. They will delete it. I promise.