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On the road to good credit

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Anonymous
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On the road to good credit

Hello All

 

   In the early stages of my credit restoration. It's been over 15 years since I've had good credit after filing chapter 7 in the late 90's. I started about 90 days ago with scores in the high 400's/low 500's. I did some work on my own by disputing a few items that were removed. I own what is left on my report. I have one charge off for a personal loan with One Main Financial which closed 2 months ago. A few other 30-60 day lates from earlier in the year and 2 small medical collections. All payments are current from August on. I have a mortgage with Chase that is 10 years old and 2 auto loans. Capital One has been very good to me. I have 2 cards with them(1 secured, 1 unsecured) and a recent auto loan with my wife. I am also an authorized user on 3 other cards. My total available credit is about $15k of which I am utilizing roughly 30%. I started lurking on this forum earlier in the month. I learned about the SCT and have been approved for VS($500) and Eddie Bauer($250) through this method. I have tried many other stores but no luck. I was also approved by Walmart($500) and Kohls($300) and opened a secured AMEX with USAA for $500(not reporting yet). This has all happened over the past 2+ weeks. Now that I have an in with Commenity and Synchrony I hope to be able to add more accounts in the near future as my scores improve. My AAOA is about 4 years. My goals are to be able to refinance our home(6.75%) and both autos(16.9 and 18.9) in the next 9-12 months. I just signed up for monthly monitoring through myFico and received my first scores. They are: 583EQ, 586TU and 609EX. I hope to have all 3 solidly in the 600's by March when I can pull scores again. I would love to hear any thought anyone may have on my journey and am open to any suggestions on how I can accelerate my process. Thank you!

 

   Brian

Message 1 of 6
5 REPLIES 5
SunriseEarth
Moderator Emeritus

Re: On the road to good credit

UTIL is a good way to get your scores up.   You'll want to get to below 10% overall; at least have of your CCs should show a zero balance (some even suggest letting only one CC report a balance).

 

As for the baddies, you may want to look into PFD for the collections.   The chargeoff loan is probably the worst baddie, especially since it's recent.   Are you planning on addressing this?   You could try making GW removal requests for the 30 and 60 day lates; there's tons of information in forums on those.   



Start: 619 (TU08, 9/2013) | Current: 809 (TU08, 3/05/24)
BofA CCR WMC $75000 | AMEX Cash Magnet $64000 | Discover IT $46000 | Disney Premier VS $43600 | Venmo VS $30000 | NFCU More Rewards AMEX $25000 | Macy's AMEX $25000 Store $25000 | Cash+ VS $25000 | Altitude Go VS $25000 | Synchrony Premier $24,200 | Sony Card VS $23750 | GS Apple Card WEMC $22000 | WF Active Cash VS $18,000 | Jared Gold Card $16000 | FNBO Evergreen VS $15000 | Citi Custom Cash MC $14600 | Target MC $14500 | BMO Harris Cash Back MC $14000 | Amazon VS $12000 | Freedom Flex WEMC $10000 | Belk MC $10000 | Wayfair MC $4500 ~~
Message 2 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: On the road to good credit

Thanks for the reply Sunrise. I would like to address the chargeoff if I could get a settlement offer. The balance is $6900. As for the collections, they are all less than $200 so paying them is not an issue as long as they are willing to delete. The util will drop next month. It;s higher than usual due to holiday spending. I have gotten used to paying cash since I haven't been able to get credit for so long so I very rarely use credit.

Message 3 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: On the road to good credit


@Anonymous wrote:

Hello All

 

   In the early stages of my credit restoration. It's been over 15 years since I've had good credit after filing chapter 7 in the late 90's. I started about 90 days ago with scores in the high 400's/low 500's. I did some work on my own by disputing a few items that were removed. I own what is left on my report. I have one charge off for a personal loan with One Main Financial which closed 2 months ago. A few other 30-60 day lates from earlier in the year and 2 small medical collections. All payments are current from August on. I have a mortgage with Chase that is 10 years old and 2 auto loans. Capital One has been very good to me. I have 2 cards with them(1 secured, 1 unsecured) and a recent auto loan with my wife. I am also an authorized user on 3 other cards. My total available credit is about $15k of which I am utilizing roughly 30%. I started lurking on this forum earlier in the month. I learned about the SCT and have been approved for VS($500) and Eddie Bauer($250) through this method. I have tried many other stores but no luck. I was also approved by Walmart($500) and Kohls($300) and opened a secured AMEX with USAA for $500(not reporting yet). This has all happened over the past 2+ weeks. Now that I have an in with Commenity and Synchrony I hope to be able to add more accounts in the near future as my scores improve. My AAOA is about 4 years. My goals are to be able to refinance our home(6.75%) and both autos(16.9 and 18.9) in the next 9-12 months. I just signed up for monthly monitoring through myFico and received my first scores. They are: 583EQ, 586TU and 609EX. I hope to have all 3 solidly in the 600's by March when I can pull scores again. I would love to hear any thought anyone may have on my journey and am open to any suggestions on how I can accelerate my process. Thank you!

 

   Brian


First off - DON'T go adding a slew of cards using the SCT. Each additional line you add reduces your AAoA and dings you for a new credit account. Both of those will lower your scores. Your scores really won't grow much faster with 10 lines than they will with 3 and store cards are not scored as strongly as bank cards are. The biggest hindrance to your score growth is those recent lates. That weight will lessen as they age. I would look at a refi in 18 months rather than 9-12. That will give you a solid two years of payment history behind you, but you must maintain a perfect payment history from here forward. Try to negotiate PFD's for the medical collections. If the One Main charge off is unpaid and updating regularly you should try to settle it.

Message 4 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: On the road to good credit

Thanks Norman...appreciate the advice. I plan to work on removing the negatives if possible.

Message 5 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: On the road to good credit

Is Equifax always this evil? I git a few new alerts from myFico today. A new inquiry posted...EX and TU stayed the same while EQ dropped 9 points. Next alert, a new account posted. EX went up 5 points, TU went up 10 points, EQ stayed the same. 《Sigh》
Message 6 of 6
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