Just need a little bit of advice

[wmcodywilson]

Ive been reading these forums for about 3 months now and I cant begin to thank everyone for their help. It is very much appreciated.

Now I ask for some help

I have gotten 3 credit cards in the last 2 months. All of which are secured. See signature. I also have gotten a new car. My old one needed almost 4k in repairs and I didnt have that available so I just bought another one. So here is my profile. Please feel free to share opinions on what I can do, try to do, and improve on in the future.

Old car loan -TD Bank - 30 derogs, 30,60,90 day lates. Never repod. Balance paid off when I got the new car.

New car loan - CPS - Just got a week ago. Balance $21,000 @ 20.45% Plan to refi in 6 months (hoping).

PNC Secured card - $250.00 Limit - 0.00 Balance - 1and only payment made on time

Capital One Secured - $200.00 limit - 0.00 Balance - Just got it so the statement hasnt closed yet

Navy Fed Secured - $500.00 Limit - ^ Same as Capital One

AES Student Loans - 2 Accounts, Monthly payment $100.00 (Around 20 30,60,90,120 day lates) Just got this one forbearanced for 1 month so it didnt go to collections

Baddies

Capital One - Charged off / Sold to another account - Open 8/2006 - Last activity 7/2007

HSBC (Orchard Bank) - Charged off / Sold to another account - Open 5/2007 - Last activity 11/2007

LVNV Funding Collection Account - Balance $648.00 - Cant remember what this was so I DV'ed. Awaiting response

CitiFinancial - Charged off / Collections (They handle their own collections?) $1198.00 - Denied PFD over and over. Willing to settle but not going down without a fight.

So some friendly advice would be great! Now in addition to this, Ive gotten 4 collection accounts PFD'd and an old Verizon Wireless account GW'd off my CR This forum's advice is nothing short of amazing!

[Booner72]

Hi there.  Great job on getting to work so you can refi that car.  Don't feel too bad, we had a truck for a year at 24.9% for a year until we refi'd.  I didn't even think of refinancing (this was after we bought our house this summer) until my BFF just made me feel so awful by telling me we were so stupid to be paying that.  I called the credit union the next day, and we were approved at 6.9%.  Saving 200 a month - the best feeling ever. 

Could you go into some form of student loan rehabiliation?  That seems like a huge problem with your scores.  The student loan section here can point you in the right direction and let you know what your options are.  I think the premise is you pay on time 8-9 months and they remove the lates.  Hopefully your loan qualifies for that kind of a rehab program.

Just be sure that you leave zero balances on two of your secured cards, and let one report a small balance , 1-9% of it's limit.  You can use them but make sure that before the STATEMENT cuts you have the balances where you want them to be - in fact, you don't even really need to worry about this until the month before you go to get your refinance, because FICO doesn't have memory of previous balances.

And regarding all the charge offs, obviously try PFD.  If that doesn't work, pay then GW.  But if you are going to GW, then settling isn't going to make your chances as high in all probablity, than paying in full - that is a gamble you are going to have to take and decide for yourself.  Are these chargeoffs huge amounts or manageable?  Continue to GW as you work on the PFD's for the one that denied the PFD......

And make sure that you don't let anything else hit your credit (collections, lates, etc).  If you haven't, OPT OUT so old collections (if you have any) can't see what is going on w/ your credit (Though they probably have since you got new cards), but I'd do it just to be sure.

And you will likely need to invest in a credit monitoring service so you have access to your reports.  I used EliminateIDTheft bc it was 18 a month for both DH and myself to pull our reports every day.  There is a CMS guide here that you can use.

Good luck!  And congrats on taking the bull by the horns!  It is a long and hard and stressful thing to rebuild, but once you get there, it is the best feeling of accomplishment in the world!  (I'm still not done, I have a few left, but I'm so far from where I started.  Been doing it for 10 months now).

[wmcodywilson]

Thanks Booner!

Congrats on the refi! When you got your truck do you mind telling me the scores? And what were they when you refi'd? I just cant wait until that time comes. The interest is killer.

How do I opt out? I would love to do that.

As far as a monitoring service I use MyFico and Freecreditscore.com. Yes I pay for both at the time being until I can get everything under control.

The PFD for one is optional but the citi one is just too high at the moment. Ive been taking more hours at work to get OT and am possibly looking to get a second job just to pay it off.

Ive been GW'ing like crazy to my previous car company (TD BANK), as well as Capital one from earlier in life, orchard bank, and my student loans. Although understanding that they may have a rehab program, I may just give them a call tomorrow to find out for sure. As far as the others, I havent gotten an answer yet.

[Booner72]

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@wmcodywilson wrote:

Thanks Booner!

Congrats on the refi! When you got your truck do you mind telling me the scores? And what were they when you refi'd? I just cant wait until that time comes. The interest is killer.  (GGRRR.  I just did this long post to you and then the internet went out.....SO here goes again - when we refi'd it was just after we closed on the house, so my scores are down in my signature.  DH's scores were a bit higher.  If you don't belong to a credit union, go join one now.

How do I opt out? I would love to do that.Google Opt out.  Then do it - then you are opted out for 5 years or write in for life.

As far as a monitoring service I use MyFico and Freecreditscore.com. Yes I pay for both at the time being until I can get everything under control.My opinion only:  I had freecreditscore, too - and now know it was a bad move.  Fake score PLUS the credit report isn't even a real credit score - just their summation of the info on the report.  You can take that 15 bucks and get a CMS that lets you look at all 3 of your reports every day.  Sign up for Credit Karma which is free, to see what's on you transunion report and a FAKO score that in my case is only a few points off my TU FICO, but DH's Credit Karma score is 100 points lower or so, than his TU FICO.  Quizzle gives you a free EX score (same as freecreditscore.com) but only once a month.  Quizzle has freaked me out though bc it changed and I wasn't able to get my real EX FICO so be careful there.  Learn to IGNORE the FAKOs.

The PFD for one is optional but the citi one is just too high at the moment. Ive been taking more hours at work to get OT and am possibly looking to get a second job just to pay it off.

Ive been GW'ing like crazy to my previous car company (TD BANK), as well as Capital one from earlier in life, orchard bank, and my student loans. Although understanding that they may have a rehab program, I may just give them a call tomorrow to find out for sure. As far as the others, I havent gotten an answer yet.

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[Booner72]

PS, my credit union used Equifax so I was only around 630, I think DH was 650 now that I remember.......