Rebuilding from rock bottom

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

I'm brand new here. I'm 26 and have been making awful credit decisions for most of my adult life, and am now paying the piper.

My scores range from 450 - 595 across all three bureaus.

I have 8 collections ranging from $60 to $315, half are medical copays and half are balances from payday loans, car insurance etc. All are 1-5 yeas old, most 24 months or so.

I also have a charged off Cap1 secured card balance of $270. 

I was just approved for a secured Citi card (they are my bank) with a $200 limit. Opened CU accounts with Logix and PenFed also.

I have a ton of inquiries from my fruitless attempts to get a car loan this month. Finally got approval for a down payment I can't afford, but that's another story.

Where do I go from here? Is there any way to get the Cap1 account deleted or back in good standing? What utilization should I keep the Citi card at?

Should I try to get the accounts deleted? Paid in full?

Would that money be better put to use opening another secured account to increase my revolving credit?

My time is ticking because my current vehicle is dying. I need to get my score up enough to qualify for a loan asap. Of course, I know this is a marathon and there are no quick and easy fixes, I just want to make sure I'm focusing my efforts in the right direction.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

-E.

[Anonymous]

^bump

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi everyone,

I'm brand new here. I'm 26 and have been making awful credit decisions for most of my adult life, and am now paying the piper.

My scores range from 450 - 595 across all three bureaus.

I have 8 collections ranging from $60 to $315, half are medical copays and half are balances from payday loans, car insurance etc. All are 1-5 yeas old, most 24 months or so.

I also have a charged off Cap1 secured card balance of $270. 

I was just approved for a secured Citi card (they are my bank) with a $200 limit. Opened CU accounts with Logix and PenFed also.

I have a ton of inquiries from my fruitless attempts to get a car loan this month. Finally got approval for a down payment I can't afford, but that's another story.

Where do I go from here? Is there any way to get the Cap1 account deleted or back in good standing? Pay off the Cap1 card, once it becomes a CO it forever is a CO. You can reapp for a new Cap1 account 1 year post CO. Cap-1 does not do PFD. What utilization should I keep the Citi card at? If you are going for max Fico score than only 1 card reporting no more than 9% of its CL if not then 30% should be the max that reports, this doesnt mean you cant use the full CL during the month you can and make multi payments if necessary.

Should I try to get the accounts deleted? Paid in full?

Would that money be better put to use opening another secured account to increase my revolving credit? Pay off the Cap1 card first then get more secured, with the Cap1 reporting monthly its keeping your Fico scores depressed. Welcome to the board

My time is ticking because my current vehicle is dying. I need to get my score up enough to qualify for a loan asap. Of course, I know this is a marathon and there are no quick and easy fixes, I just want to make sure I'm focusing my efforts in the right direction.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

-E.

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[Anonymous]

Thanks so much! I'm going to call Cap1 and plead my case just so I feel like I tried, but then I'll pay it off.

Once that one is paid, should I focus on getting collections PTD'd or opening new secured credit? I also enrolled with Shield 360.

-E.

[stargazer25]

A couple of people will probably chime in on this one since there is so much information....

I was in a similar situation with 15 collections.

1) Figure out who will do PFD first. Check the forum for your specific CA and see if anyone else has had luck with them.

2) Go back to the original creditor (doctors office) and see if they are willing to pull it back from collections for a full payment. I did this with 3 of my collections.

3) I had a CO with C1, I paid the CA and then opened a secured card when my scorees were still in the 500's. From my understanding you have to wait at least a year before you can try again with them. I may be wrong with them. If the CA is Portfolio recovery, good luck. I couldn't get anywhere with them to delete. 

4) You can get a few secured cards, small amounts and keep the util low. Thats going to be the most important part. On time payments and low UTI's. Keep the citi under 10%.

5) As those collections fall off your credit score should go up, Do you have any other revolving credit?

6) Once you do get into a position to get a car, try a CU for a loan. 

7) having a Secured LOC will help your credit mix if you don't have any other installment loans. 

It's going to be a lot of work, but you will get there. Good luck.

[CYBERSAM]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi everyone,

I'm brand new here. I'm 26 and have been making awful credit decisions for most of my adult life, and am now paying the piper.

My scores range from 450 - 595 across all three bureaus.

I have 8 collections ranging from $60 to $315, half are medical copays and half are balances from payday loans, car insurance etc. All are 1-5 yeas old, most 24 months or so.

I also have a charged off Cap1 secured card balance of $270. 

I was just approved for a secured Citi card (they are my bank) with a $200 limit. Opened CU accounts with Logix and PenFed also.

I have a ton of inquiries from my fruitless attempts to get a car loan this month. Finally got approval for a down payment I can't afford, but that's another story.

Where do I go from here? Is there any way to get the Cap1 account deleted or back in good standing? What utilization should I keep the Citi card at?

Should I try to get the accounts deleted? Paid in full?

Would that money be better put to use opening another secured account to increase my revolving credit?

My time is ticking because my current vehicle is dying. I need to get my score up enough to qualify for a loan asap. Of course, I know this is a marathon and there are no quick and easy fixes, I just want to make sure I'm focusing my efforts in the right direction.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

-E.

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Welcome to the board!

Good job getting new CCs, you have more than enough to rebuild. Don't try to use them much unless you can PIF. Keep utilization as minimal as possible.

Your number one priority should be to pay off collections as soon as possible.

As for Cap1, pay the balance asap! wait about 6 months or so and apply again! They may send you new prequalified cards also. Keep it in good standing for 6 months and they would remove your old collection by Christmas time.

They tend to do that for their existing customers! They removed 3 of my collection accounts automatically after having a new CC with them for 9 months! They were supposed to be off my CR around year 20 something.

As low as your score is in couple of years you can easy be around 700.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Update: I got the Cap One CO deleted! I was genuinely uncertain whether the card was mine or one of the several that were opened in my name when my identity was stolen over a year ago. I called them asking for a PFD and they referred me to the fraud dept. After a call back checking on it, they investigated and said they would remove it today! This is my only baddie and sadly my only previous account on EQ. I'm assuming that losing the CO and late payments will give me more of a boost than losing the AAoA?
I should be getting a letter confirming this soon, and I got my new Citi secured card today.
Collection Shield 360 is disputing my 8 collections, I'm planning to PFD whatever they can't get deleted.

Any idea what kind of a bump the Cap One removal and new Citi Secured card should give me?

[rmduhon]

Payment history (30-35% of your score) trumps AAoA (15%) almost every time. As for a score increase its impossible to tell what it may be.

[Anonymous]

That's still good news! I sincerely think the CO was what was really depressing my score. My collections were the same a year ago, and CK (Fako, I know) was giving me 640+ scores. I was qualifying for auto loans through roadloans (Santander) albeit at a terrible APR, and they denied me last month for 'delinquency on previous trade', which I can only assume was the Cap One CO.