Next step to take? advice and help needed,new

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Like I said about I am very new to this and trying to learn everything I can so I dont repeat my past mistakes. I been reading and realized I went about a few things wrong so I kinda am confused as to what steps I should take next.. My goal is to improve my fico and build good credit history, hopefully to get a home loan in the next year or so.

I pulled my fico's today and are EQ-572 , Ex--631 got this as member of PSECU, Tu--644.  EQ and Tu scores from here(myfico).

I had some baddies on my report

Transouth Financial auto loan

date of first delinq 4/2005 this is  a CO but then later paid in full (I know it is still killing me , I didnt know back then to ask for delete) this states it should fall off next month.

psnc ---old gas bill 48  paid in full and trying to dispute it .

two old medical bills one for 128 and one for 218

again i paid them in full with original creditor and disputed with the collection company listed in the report.

original creditor never listed just sold to CA.

( I know I did this the wrong way and may have to live with it if I have no luck with disputes.)

those are the negative I am wrestling with...

I only have one postive line and that is a Cap one secured with a tiny limit of 250.00 but have had it over 1 year and no lates and 12 percent uliti , gonna to cut that down to 7 percent. I also make sure to never carry a balance

my income is small at 39000 a year.

So where do I go from here?

1. Should I work to increase the limit on the card that I have with cap one?

2. get another secured card to have at least two trade lines open?

3. How or if there is anything else I can do with the baddies besides disputes or wait it out?

I feel so ashamed by my report, for years now I simply tried to avoid debt and buy cash but i just wasted alot of time I  could of been rebuilding my credit!

Any help or advice? Thanks

[casmith1980]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi,

Like I said about I am very new to this and trying to learn everything I can so I dont repeat my past mistakes. I been reading and realized I went about a few things wrong so I kinda am confused as to what steps I should take next.. My goal is to improve my fico and build good credit history, hopefully to get a home loan in the next year or so.

I pulled my fico's today and are EQ-572 , Ex--631 got this as member of PSECU, Tu--644.  EQ and Tu scores from here(myfico).

I had some baddies on my report

Transouth Financial auto loan

date of first delinq 4/2005 this is  a CO but then later paid in full (I know it is still killing me , I didnt know back then to ask for delete) this states it should fall off next month.

psnc ---old gas bill 48  paid in full and trying to dispute it .

two old medical bills one for 128 and one for 218

again i paid them in full with original creditor and disputed with the collection company listed in the report.

original creditor never listed just sold to CA.

( I know I did this the wrong way and may have to live with it if I have no luck with disputes.)

those are the negative I am wrestling with...

I only have one postive line and that is a Cap one secured with a tiny limit of 250.00 but have had it over 1 year and no lates and 12 percent uliti , gonna to cut that down to 7 percent. I also make sure to never carry a balance

my income is small at 39000 a year.

So where do I go from here?

1. Should I work to increase the limit on the card that I have with cap one?  It definitely doesn't hurt to ask.  I personally haven't had experience with secured cards, but I know others will chime in that have  

2. get another secured card to have at least two trade lines open?  I'd hold off until you can see if any of the baddies fall off first.  Heck, you might be able to get an unsecured card IF the baddies are removed.  Judging by your TU score, you might want to consider app'ing for Barclays.  They've been known to only pull TU and that seems to be your best score (lucky you ).  How many inquiries do you have on that report?  (they are inquiry sensitive)

3. How or if there is anything else I can do with the baddies besides disputes or wait it out?  GW letter after GW letter.  Persistence is key

I feel so ashamed by my report, for years now I simply tried to avoid debt and buy cash but i just wasted alot of time I  could of been rebuilding my credit!  Don't be ashamed   The majority of us have been in your spot or are currently fighting our way through it.  Just be happy that you have made the first steps to make things right   (I wish I would have known the importance of my score 14 years ago).

Any help or advice? Thanks

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Judging from the big difference between your EQ and TU scores, are one of your collections only reporting to EQ? 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply

the only difference I see on the Equifax vs the Tu  is equifax is showing the 48 dollar gas bill and TU is not -----everything else is the same. I have had 4 inquiries in the past year.

I been too afraid after being denied for jc penny in june of last year to  try much else.

Great I will try to GW letters 

[casmith1980]

when you say you have 4 inquiries, is that 4 between all 3 reports or 4 on each report?

That one single negative account CAN have that much impact on your score, so I'm not surprised.  Keep GWing   Don't take no for an answer

[Anonymous]

Its showing 5 inq on equifax

                       4 inq on tu

                      5 on experian (3 from capital one and 1 from the psecu and 1 other for mortgage last year)

[casmith1980]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Its showing 5 inq on equifax

                       4 inq on tu

                      5 on experian (3 from capital one and 1 from the psecu and 1 other for mortgage last year)

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That's not terrible, but like I said before, Barclays is inquiry sensitive.  If you don't mind me asking, what are the dates on the inquiries?  if you can hold out until 2-3 of them fall off, I think you would be fine.  You might have to recon with them, but they are the best to deal with EVER.

[Anonymous]

Sure no problem , I am grateful for all the help

EXP----for the capital one on exp they occur about every five months  2/23/2011 ,7/15/2011 , 11/22/2011  then psecu 03/24/2011 and mortgage 10/17/2011.

EQU---ATT for home cable service 08/04/2011, BBT banking 02/01/2011 and the same 3 cap pulls from above same dates

TU-----capital one 07/15/2011 , 11/22/2011 , mortgage pull 10/17/2011 and jc penny 06/18/2011.

so if i understand the earliest any one of these would fall off would be feb or march of 2013? are these gonna hurt me alot? I have really tried not to pull and spend my time on clearing what i have left on my report I was just worried about only having one tradeline open and that limiting my fico and credit.

[casmith1980]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Sure no problem , I am grateful for all the help

EXP----for the capital one on exp they occur about every five months  2/23/2011 ,7/15/2011 , 11/22/2011  then psecu 03/24/2011 and mortgage 10/17/2011.  Hmm....are the capital one soft pulls on a regular basis or are they hard pulling you every 4-5 months?!?!  That doesn't seem right unless you've requested an increase or something

EQU---ATT for home cable service 08/04/2011, BBT banking 02/01/2011 and the same 3 cap pulls from above same dates

TU-----capital one 07/15/2011 , 11/22/2011 , mortgage pull 10/17/2011 and jc penny 06/18/2011.  I could wait until 8/1/12 to apply....by then you will have 1 capital one and 1 mortgage inquiry.  That's not excessive by any means. 

so if i understand the earliest any one of these would fall off would be feb or march of 2013? they stay on your report for 2 years, but they only effect your score for 12 months   no worries!!!  are these gonna hurt me alot? inquirires don't hurt that bad....but they do hurt if a creditor is inquiry sensitive.  I have really tried not to pull and spend my time on clearing what i have left on my report I was just worried about only having one tradeline open and that limiting my fico and credit.  do you remember pulling your credit 3 times with capital one? 

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[Anonymous]

No I havent asked for a credit limit increase at all since it is a secured card , I assumed it would only increase if I added to the deposit on my account. I did talk to them and they said that they check every few months to see if I qualify for their other products, the rep told me they would be soft pulls not hard. Do both types show up ? I dont know much about telling the difference bewtween the two on my report but it shows up under the section as to what creditors see and not under the section that states only I see .

If that is the case, I'll call them and ask if they please not continue to pull.

[casmith1980]

It sounds to me like they are hard pulling you...but without seeing the credit report, it's hard to say.  I'd definitely call them and try to speak to a supervisor of some sort.  Let them know that you pulled your credit report and it appears that they have been hard pulling your report every 3-5 months and it's having a negative effect on your score.  Tell them that you are not allowing any additional pulls on your credit unless you specifically request it