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My Rebuilding Journey

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thehollowaytape
Contributor

My Rebuilding Journey

I'm going to use this thread to document my journey.

 

I've done a lot of stupid things in the past, and finally they are beginning to drop off from my CRs. I had signed up for the myFICO community last year, but was unable to make much headway. In February I started getting pre-approval offers from Capital One for their Platinum card, so I applied. To my surprise, I was approved for an unsecured major CC on 02/03/2016. I read up on here a bit after, and applied for the Quicksilver One and got approved for it as well. I had some extra funds, so I went ahead and got the Discover it Secured Card with a $200 limit. Before these, I was an authorized user on my mom's QS1 and I had a Visa with a $500 limit through my CU. So, now I am up to $2000 in CLs. In the past few weeks (02/23 to 03/10), my scores have increased from:

EQ546 / TU533 / EX580 to EQ571 / TU558 / EX595. (Will be keeping scores current in sig.)

 

Here is how my CRs look as of today (03/10) (updated) 04/19/16:

Equifax

- 16 Inquiries
 - Collections

    ERC - Due to fall off 08/2016

 

    Phoenix Mgmt - Due to fall off 10/2016

 

- Negatives

    ECSI - 180 days late reporting monthly - Should be paid off before 2017, rehabbing w/ 9 mo. on-time payments

 

    Capital One QS1 (AU) - 1 30DL from 08/14 Account removed 03/24/2016

 

    Sallie Mae - 3 accounts, paid/closed/consolidated - All showing 120DL for Mar/Apr 2010

 

    Perkins loan - paid/closed/consolidated - 30/60/90/120DL showing from Jul-Oct 2010 - Shows DoFD 05/2010 Disputed on 03/18/2016

 

    Perkins loan - paid/closed/consolidated - 120DL showing Jun 2010, 180DL showing Nov 2012

 


 

TransUnion

- 18 Inquiries

- Collections

    None!! (03/15/2016)

 

- Negatives

    Sallie Mae - 3 accounts, paid/closed/consolidated - All showing 120DL for Mar/Apr 2010

 

    Perkins loan - paid/closed/consolidated - CA 01-04/2013, 08/2012, 12/2012, 120DL 11/2012

 

    ECSI - CA 12/2012-11/2014, 120DL 11/2012 - removal date 10/2016 EE'd 04/15/2016

 

    Capital One QS1 (AU) - 1 30DL from 08/14 Account removed 03/21/2016

 


 

Experian

- 21 Inquiries

- Collections

    ERC - due to fall off 04/2016

 

    EOS CCA - due to fall off 04/2016

 

    Phoenix - due to fall off 06/2016 Zero collections as of 03/22/2016! Smiley Very Happy

 

- Negatives

    ECSI - 180 days late reporting monthly - Should be paid off before 2017, rehabbing w/ 9 mo. on-time payments

 

    Sallie Mae - 3 accounts, paid/closed/consolidated - All showing 120DL for Mar/Apr 2010

 

    Perkins loan - CA 07,08,12/2012; 01-05/2013, 180DL 11/2012

 

If you all have any advice for me, or anything at all, feel free to drop me a line! Thanks for all of the help and I'll bump this thread periodically with more updates!

12 REPLIES 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: My Rebuilding Journey

First of all congrats on the approval and deciding to get your credit cleaned up. It looks like you have some negatives that are going to be falling off in the near future. With those I would not do anything. This process is going to take some time, I know, I've done it before. I think it took me about two years to get my scores where they were considered good scores. Keep making your payments, and try to see if you can get some of the paid ones that are not going to be removed in the next few months off your report. I think that right now patience is going to be good.

Message 2 of 13
thehollowaytape
Contributor

Re: My Rebuilding Journey

Thank you, i'm trying to be! I'm just excited for things to finally start going in a positive direction. I will definitely be trying to do that soon. Navient doesn't seem to want to help me at all, and ECSI hasn't really been helpful either.

Message 3 of 13
thehollowaytape
Contributor

Re: My Rebuilding Journey

Just a small update to say... I'm in the 600 club with Experian!! Smiley Very HappySmiley Very HappySmiley Very Happy AND NOW WITH TRANSUNION!!

Message 4 of 13
thehollowaytape
Contributor

Re: My Rebuilding Journey

Made some great strides in the past couple months. EX and TU are both in the 600s now, and I'm working on Equifax. Called Cap1 and had them remove me from the AU account. It wasn't reporting on EX. I disputed it on EQ's website and will be calling TU tomorrow to ask to have it removed. I also disputed the Perkins loan with DoFD on my EQ as it is a duplicate account. Will be calling EQ tomorrow as well to try my luck at getting the two collections showing on that report excluded early. (Called 03/22 and no luck, guess I'll be waiting for them to fall off.) I sent a goodwill letter to Navient and an advocate got back with me, she is checking to see if she can backdate my forbearance and get the lates removed from my old Sallie Mae accounts. I also made my first payment towards rehabbing the institutional loan through my school, in November it should be completely clean and I will have it paid off by next February at the latest.

 

I did the SCT and got Victoria's Secret ($350, accepted), Eddie Bauer ($250, accepted), and Buckle ($250, declined). Couldn't get Overstock, J.Crew, etc. to work. I suspect it's because when I enter my zip code it likes to pull up as Oklahoma City even though I live in Midwest City. Even when I manually change it, it switches back on those sites. After my TU went into the 600s, I applied for Walmart (approved for $700), Amazon (approved for $800), and Lowe's (denied). I also called my CU about a PC to their rewards card and CLI since they pull TU, but haven't heard back on that yet. If they HP I'll change my garden starting date and add an inquiry.

 

So, now I will be gardening for at least a year, probably 18 months. I'm hoping to PC my Platinum card with Capital One to a Quicksilver, and then getting as many CLIs as possible before combining the two before the AF comes up again on the QS1 (they are both in the Credit Steps program also). I'll be going for CLIs on the Comenity and Synchrony cards as well. Once I get the balance paid off on my CU card, I plan on adding around $100 per month to my Discover to get the limit up to at least $1000 before it (hopefully) graduates. I'll assess making an app or two next April. At that point my inquiries will be: EQ-9, TU-10, EX-11. If I do apply for anything, it won't be much. I'm hopeful to get in with AmEx and the bigger banks in two years' time.

 

Again, this forum is so helpful. Thanks everyone and I will continue to stick around and help where I can, and update this every few weeks or so.

Message 5 of 13
thehollowaytape
Contributor

Re: My Rebuilding Journey

Updated my reports on CCT today.

EQ 596 / TU 632 / EX 619

 

12% usage across the board, and will continue to drop as I pay off my CU Visa. Rehab due to complete on my ECSI loan in November, and then that should become a positive account. Disputed the duplicate Perkins loan that is showing a balance and past due amount with Equifax, still waiting for their resolution. Probably won't be in my favor, Equifax gives me no love. Hoping for CLIs on my Capital One cards soon. Staying in the garden, hoping for 660+ by January.

Message 6 of 13
RonM21
Valued Contributor

Re: My Rebuilding Journey

Congrats on all of this. You have everything moving in the right direction. As time passes and some of those other negatives fall off, it will only get better.



Total CL: $321.7kUTL: 2%AAoA: 7.0yrsBaddies: 0Other: Lease, Loan, *No Mortgage, All Inq's from Jun '20 Car Shopping

BoA-55k | NFCU-45k | AMEX-42k | DISC-40.6k | PENFED-38.4k | LOWES-35k | ALLIANT-25k | CITI-15.7k | BARCLAYS-15k | CHASE-10k

Message 7 of 13
thehollowaytape
Contributor

Re: My Rebuilding Journey

 Thank you RM21! Looking forward to finally having great credit in a few years.

Hit the luv button today for my Quicksilver (PC from Platinum) and got a $500 increase to $800. When I get my Credit Steps increase in August I'll have my first CC with a 1k+ limit. Also got one of my old student loans removed from TU. Current TU score is 647. Smiley Happy Thanks myFICO/Capital One/TransUnion! Smiley Very Happy

Message 8 of 13
thehollowaytape
Contributor

Re: My Rebuilding Journey

Got some major luv last night and this morning:

Quicksilver One - $500 -> $1500

Amazon Prime - $800 -> $3500

Walmart - $700 -> $3500

 

Smiley Very Happy

Message 9 of 13
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: My Rebuilding Journey

Congrats! 

Message 10 of 13
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