Need help stuck rebuilding

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I've spent the last year rebuilding my credit score and I've only been able to take it from EX 630 to EX659. I have three accounts on my credit report that are reporting negative delinquent accounts. These are from 2008. I have done everything I can think of to improve my credit. I opened a credit card last year to build credit. I pay it off every month. The only problem is I could only get a secured credit card with a limit of 300. I have a student loan of about 4000 but no other debt. I make good money and have a low DTI. I have been stuck for several months now and the only thing my credit EX.com suggests is to raise my credit card limit. I have even tried calling the creditors to see if they will lift the negative marks early. They refused to even consider it. I have a very large down payment for a house and am hoping to start building in October. My fiance and soon to be wife has excellent credit EX 780. I am worried my score will not improve by the time we build and I'm looking for any further methods to improve my stagnant score. 

Thanks

Sam

[JayRizzo]

OP, although you were straight to the point in your post, there are still a few things that are pretty vague.  You started rebuilding last year -- Good Deal!  You acquired 1 secured card -- also good, but you left it at $300 instead of increasing it as you "make good money and have some put away for the future house".  We're not talking about $10k credit limits here, we're just saying you should have raised the stakes a bit to make the card look "worthy" rather than a "toy" such as an even $1000 limit.  So, the suggestion that was given to you was correct -- increasing the limit would have helped.  Also, try to leave about $5 on the card until your statement generates, then quickly pay it off.  This shows a small balance on the card for a couple of extra points, Not Tremendous Points, but a few more than what you're getting now.  Since you'll pay it off quickly, little or no interest charges.

Student Loan=$4000 -- enough said because you already know what to do.

You mentioned 3 derogs that you've tried to clean-up without success but at the same time, you've only added 1 new account.  More of the vague part is... do you have any other good accounts to out-weigh the 3 bads?  Just think of a scale, if you have 3 bads on the left, you'll need 4 goods on the right.  These do not all need to be credit cards, but a good mix of things.  While saving money for the house, you could have applied for a 12-month secured loan to yourself through your local CU or bank -- that's just one example for another good Tradeline without having funds tied up forever.

Hold off on any future wedding plans until you get the finances in order -- again, I think you know that already.

Finally, NOW we can talk about real scores.  This is the part where you pull your Equifax and Transunion scores from here at MyFico.com.  Yes, it's going to be costly to get a set of numbers, but these are the numbers the lender will see.

[Anonymous]

Hi sambo526, and WELCOME!!! I'm glad that you found us!

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I've spent the last year rebuilding my credit score and I've only been able to take it from EX 630 to EX659. I have three accounts on my credit report that are reporting negative delinquent accounts. These are from 2008. I have done everything I can think of to improve my credit. I opened a credit card last year to build credit. I pay it off every month. The only problem is I could only get a secured credit card with a limit of 300. I have a student loan of about 4000 but no other debt. I make good money and have a low DTI. I have been stuck for several months now and the only thing my credit EX.com suggests is to raise my credit card limit. I have even tried calling the creditors to see if they will lift the negative marks early. They refused to even consider it. I have a very large down payment for a house and am hoping to start building in October. My fiance and soon to be wife has excellent credit EX 780. I am worried my score will not improve by the time we build and I'm looking for any further methods to improve my stagnant score. 

---

Well, first, it appears that you've purchased what we call a FAKO score (not to be confused with a FICO score). This is one of the most frustrating things about credit score minding. Your Experian score, purchased from Experian is not a score that lenders use in making credit granting decisions, and does not, in any way, correlate to your FICO scores. The score range, and weight given are completely different. For example, your true EX FICO score could be off by as much as 100 points, in either direction. The advice given with those scores should be ignored. Look at the reports... not the advice on how to improve the FAKO score. You can purchase FICO scores (TU & EQ, but not EX) from this website, but nobody has been able to purchase their EX FICO scores for a couple of years now. You have to get directly from a lender, or join PSECU (a credit union in Pennsylvania) to obtain a true EX FICO score.

The very first thing that you should do is pull all three of your reports from annualcreditreport.com (don't buy any scores from there, they'd be FAKOs... just the free reports, if you haven't done so in the last 12 months). Get all three of your reports, and a highlighter. First, look for any tradelines that are not reporting correctly. Next, look at your derogs. You've mentioned three derogatory accounts-- what are they (collection accounts, public records, original creditor accounts with lates reporting?)? Please be specific. If you can, copy and paste the actual tradelines, minus any personally identifying information (your name, address, account number, etc...), here, so we can take a look.

Getting a secured cared is a good idea. However, increasing your credit line isn't what raises your FICO scores. Keeping your debt to credit limit low is what increases your FICO scores. Make sure that you're keeping the *reported* balance at less than 10% of your credit limit. You can use as much of your credit limit as you want, but be aware of when the card issuer reports to the CRAs, and time your payments to control what's reported.  And time is an excellent cure for what ails a FICO score. The further you get from those baddies, they less they'll hurt. But how much less varies by credit profile.

Given that you're planning to build a home this year, you don't want to app for more credit, anyway. And, if any of your baddies are unpaid bad debt, you'll want to consult with your lender before making a move. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves... tell us what the baddies are, and who the CAs or OCs are. If there's one thing you're guaranteed is that you'll get tons of BTDT advice.

Congrats on your impending marriage! Your fiance must be very proud that you've put in so much effort to clean up your credit over the last year.

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the incomplete info. So, far today, I've only run my FICO through EQ 673 and TU672. So right there the score has already gone up from my FAKO scores of EX659 EQ649 and TU640. I have 15 open accounts on my report. Bad news is the FiCO reports are showing 5 derogs. They are listed as follows:

Springleaf Financial Srv 8/2007 $0Paid or paying as agreed -No negative

Hsbc Retail Services11/2006 $0Paid or paying as agreed -showing a 30 day and 60 day derog in june and july 2008   -In store credit card

Gordons 2/2008 $0Paid or paying as agreed - showing one history of 30 day derog in 4/2008              -In store credit card

Us Bank 10/2010 $66Paid or paying as agreed - this is the secured credit card with $300 limit                 -Visa credit card

Capital One Bank Usa Na 7/2001 $0Charged off as bad debt no payment history but I know there were 60-120 derog in way back in 2002-20003   -Credit card

Target National Bank 6/2008 $0Paid or paying as agreed -No negative                       -in store credit card

Chase Bank Usa Na 7/2008 $0Paid or paying as agreed -No negative                       -Visa credit card

Us Bank Home Mortgage 9/2009 $0Paid or paying as agreed -No negative              -home mortgage

Fst Collinsville Bk 1/2009 $0Paid or paying as agreed -No negative                           -??

Clover Leaf Bank 8/2008$0Paid or paying as agreed -No negative                             -personal loan

Nelnet Loan Services Inc  10/2006 $2,423Paid or paying as agreed -No Negative: this is first half of student loan

Nelnet Loan Services Inc 10/2006 $2,011Paid or paying as agreed-No Negative: this is second half of student loan

Lvnv Funding Llc 2/2008$0Payment after charge off/collection no payment history unsure of of severity of derogs              -I believe this was collection agency for the HSBC debt.

Springleaf Financial Srv 1/2008$0Paid or paying as agreed- No Negative                              -I believe this was a personal loan through american financial

Gcs Federal Credit Union 1/2004 $0Paid or paying as agreedOne derog 30 day from 4/2008              -Auto loan

So i have 5 negative accounts that are closed and payed and 3 open accounts that are in good standing and have no derogs. I also am curious if I should completely pay off my student loans now or leave a small percentage on the loans to build credit. I have more than enough money to do it but I always thought it would be bad to close and lose that account. I have no collections or public records. All the above listed accounts are credit cards or loans. If there is anymore info I can provide that would be helpful please let me know. Your help is very appreciated

Thanks

Sam

[mauve]

Paying off the student loans won't help you and may hurt you.

[Anonymous]

---

• Hsbc Retail Services11/2006 $0Paid or paying as agreed -showing a 30 day and 60 day derog in june and july 2008   -In store credit card
• Gordons 2/2008 $0Paid or paying as agreed - showing one history of 30 day derog in 4/2008              -In store credit card
• Capital One Bank Usa Na 7/2001 $0Charged off as bad debt no payment history but I know there were 60-120 derog in way back in 2002-20003   -Credit card
• Lvnv Funding Llc 2/2008$0Payment after charge off/collection no payment history unsure of of severity of derogs              -I believe this was collection agency for the HSBC debt.
• Gcs Federal Credit Union 1/2004 $0Paid or paying as agreedOne derog 30 day from 4/2008              -Auto loan

So i have 5 negative accounts that are closed and payed and 3 open accounts that are in good standing and have no derogs. I also am curious if I should completely pay off my student loans now or leave a small percentage on the loans to build credit. I have more than enough money to do it but I always thought it would be bad to close and lose that account. I have no collections or public records. All the above listed accounts are credit cards or loans. If there is anymore info I can provide that would be helpful please let me know. Your help is very appreciated

---

Some questions--

First, have you pulled all three of your reports from annualcreditreport.com?

LVNV Funding is a collection account. But, this is curious, because you note that you thought it was tied to the HSBC account. The worst delinquency on the HSBC account appears to be a 60 day late. Was it really charged off, or did you pay it before it was charged-off?

Are you saying that the Capital One account was actually charged off in 2003 (at the latest)?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I have pulled my annual credit reports. I may have messed up though. I pulled them and just viewed them without printing them. They provided me with an order number and said I can revisit the reports for a certain period of time. Now I can't seem to figure out how to do that on annualcredit report dot com.  Yes, it is odd. Perhaps the LVNV must be for the Capital one then. Now that you mention it I believe I did pay the HSBC prior to charge off. Sorry for my confusion on this issue as it has been several years since all of this has occurred. That was the worst account of all my derogs. I guess I need to dig up the full reports some where. I am almost certain that LVNV is for the capital one though seeing as it was the most screwed up line of credit i've had. 

Also, after my initial review of my annual credit reports I did not notice any inaccuracies regarding the derogs on any of the accounts. I'm not sure but, is that what you are asking?

[Anonymous]

I have recently read on here the importance of paying down my revolving credit debt to under 10 percent of total balance. I was under the impression that you just had to keep it under 50 percent of total revolving debt. My revolving credit has a total limit of $300. I hade between 60 and 100 dollars on the card at any one time. That puts me between 20% and 33% of my total revolving credit balance. How much of an impact would it have for me to keep my balance at $20 or below which would be 6% of the total available balance? Anyone have an idea?

[mauve]

Really rough estimate: ~ 10 points for each 10% of revolving credit you pay down. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info. I just talked to my bank today and they want a 680 FICO in order to qualify for a mortgage.I have a FICO of 673 and 672 right now, so I need to improve 7 points by september this year. That is when I will be finished saving up the 20% down payment. I just payed my credit card down to around $15 balance out of $300 limit. I also have roughly $4,500 combined in two seperate student loans. From what I've read on here, paying down installment debt has little to no effect on FICO util. rating., therefore, I am going to continue paying the minimum monthly payment on those installment loans and pay them off after I buy my house.  I am also going to send in three GW letters to three of my  five derog accounts that I believe only have one or two 30 day derogs. Since those account are the most minor of the five, hopefully I will have a greater chance of success.  If I am succesful with that it should make a substantial improvement in my overall score. I will be back to report any changes that occur from those actions.