Need advice on next steps of credit recovery

[Shiva78]

Hi all,

First of all sorry for being long winded but I wanted to be as detailed as possible and thank the members of the forums.

I've been lurking around and reading posts for the past few months and now decided to contribute since I have firm direction and goals

Okay. So i was young and stupid in my 20s.  Didn't make much money ran up credit cards and student loans went info default.

Now early 30s and trying like hell to fix my past mistakes now that I make decent money.  Took me 10 years to get here.

There are a couple judgements on my report from 2011 and 2010.  Both are now paid as of Jan 2014

I have a collections with Midland that is going to fall off in Jan 2015 and pondering disputing since that acct was closed out and last activity was way before 2008.

Over the last couple years I paid my defaulted student loans down from 18K to 9K at 500 per month.  Just this week consolidated 4 loans into one. and plan to pay 200 per month instead of the 85 based on the ICR plan.  I wanted to do this so I have a positive installment trade line instead of all credit cards.

I got a Cap One secured with 500 back in Jan of 2013

So I started my credit repair journey in earnest earlier this year with an avg  FAKO of  583 in March.  I pulled my FICO for the first time in June and they were all around 600.

In Feb, I got a Credit One Bank unsecured with 500.  Increased my Cap One secured to 1000 and then to 1500 in early Sept. and got First Progress secured with 300 in July.  I've been using all three cards and keeping the utilization to a max of 10% on all of them and paying them every 3 weeks consistently.

With myFICO 3B reporting upgrade, My scores were 633 EX, 633 EQ, 629 TU.

I am planning to purchase a new F-150 or Silverado next summer and want to ensure I at least get approved for financing with a decent bank.  I'm setting aside money every paycheck for this.  I plan on having between a 10K to 15K down payment as I expect the cost of the truck will be around 40K.

I also wanted to incease my total credit available credit, but didn want to tie up more cash in the secured cards.  So after reading all the approval post I tried my luck tonight:

Chase Freedom:  Pre-qualifed on website so I applied and approved for 4.5K.  I was speechless

Discover IT: They selected a card but I was denied after they asked for more info

Cap One:  Didn't pre-qualify on the website but tried anyway:  Got a limit of 500 on a Quicksilver One and will have an increase after 5 months of satisfactory payments.

I'm very grateful!  Now it's back to gardening bc I would like these three inquiries to be well aged before buying that truck next summer.  Hopefully my credit lines will increase with the new Chase and Cap One cards.

So that's my story.  Sorry again for being long winded Does anyone have any advice on what to do next???

Thanks so much for listening.

[ms_cora]

Congratulations

[taxi818]

Well you don't need any advice. You are doing it like a pro. Congrats. Yes. Garden until you get that truck. But I question putting 15k down. I would rather have a yeR of payments in bank for emergency. That's me though. I would put 5k down. Remember. You can use that new chase to put 2k down and hold your cash. That card should have 0% interest for 15 months. Treasure your cash and use theirs. My opinion only. Good luck. 

[Shiva78]

Thanks, Taxi.  VERY smart advice.

I was estimating 10-15K in the event a significant down payment is required to get financed.  I hope my established savings and checking account at my credit union through work will help.  They also have an Invest in America discount with GM.  With a lot of work and a little luck, 5K and an improved score from today's score will help secure the financing.

Cash in the bank is always good for the rainy days.  And yes, 0% APR for 15 months...with benefit of cashback/rewards.

[taxi818]

Then in that case. Use 3k cash. 2k on new card. And don't put a dime more than 5k down. They will jump in that. Even if your score in 500s. You are well on way to truck with good rates.