Rebuilding, take 2...better luck this time!

Anonymous · ‎02-12-2016

After years of not caring about my credit, I started rebuilding last January. I made good progress through May...then got laid off. Took me 7 months to find another job, so everything got put on hold while I lived off credit cards and unemployment. Ran my credit cards up to over 90% utilization to stay on top of my bills during that time, erasing all the progress I'd made towards paying them down. I also stopped all GW/PFD campaigns I had going to try and clean up my reports.

I started all of that back up last month. When I started this process in January 2015, my scores were in the 560-590 range across the three bureaus, I think (I can only find back through May of last year). Current scores are in my sig.

Here is the status of my positive tradelines.

All my credit cards have reported for the month and show me at 72% revolving credit utilization. Here's what they reported, with what I'm planning to pay them down to before the March statements report. I've already gotten my state tax refund and expect my federal next week, and have the refunds earmarked entirely for paying down debt.

USAA Cash Rewards ($2000): Balance of $568 - pay down to $0
USAA Secured ($5000): Balance of $4254 - pay down to $2500
Capital One QS1 ($3500): Balance of $3022 - just paid down to $1500, plan to pay down to $1000
Capital One Spark ($2000): $1199 - just paid down to $0, keep at $0
Carecredit ($2700): $0 - keep at $0
NFCU ($10,000): $9121 - just paid down to $8250, plan to pay down to $7500.

That will take my revolving util down from 72% to 43%. From April onward, I've got approximately $1500/month earmarked for paying down debt, and expect an extra $4000 coming in sometime in April or May (submitted amended 2013 tax return last week that results in an approximate $4000 tax overpayment for that year). That is earmarked for NFCU. Provided I can stick to the plan, I should have all my credit cards paid off by June.

That leaves me with two installment loans, student loans and car loan:

FedLoan Servicing: Balance is $56,305. My unemployment deferment runs out in March, at which point I will pay $1000/month going forward.
Cap One car loan: Balance is $26,313, originally $28,811 when I got the car last August. It's a 72 month, 13.12% interest loan. I'm planning to refi in July. I'm paying almost a double payment at $975/month.

Status of my negative tradelines.

I've got a slew of lates that I just started my 2016 GW campaign for:

FedLoan Servicing: Long story short, I have 180 day lates from June-December 2013 across 11 tradelines. I consolidated them in March 2013 and have been 100% on time since then. I'm requesting GW deletions of the original 11 tradelines (transferred from Direct Loan Servicing in June 2013, so they only go June-March). Sending GW next week
Kohl's/Capital One: Closed by grantor in March 2014, with paid in full balance of $564. A bunch of 30-120 day lates in 2012 and 2013 when I got laid off and was just irresponsible (11 on EX, 13 on TU, 8 on EQ). With so many lates, I haven't figured out the best way to tackle this one. Send a GW for all of the lates? Send a separate GW for the 30s, 60s, 90s, 120s?
Amazon/Synchrony: Closed by grantor in October 2014, with paid in full balance of $1444. A handful of 30-120 day lates in 2012 and 2013, same scenario as the Kohls card. 8 lates shown by EX, 10 by TU, and 7 by EQ. Same boat as the Kohl's card
CareCredit/Synchrony: Open, current credit limit $2700 (down from a $4800 charge and limit in December 2011). PIF in November. Been current since December 2013, but there were a handful of 30-60 day lates in 2013 (3 on EX, 4 on TU, and 4 on EQ). Sent GW two weeks ago, haven't heard back
Paypal/Synchrony: Closed by grantor in September 2013 with PIF balance of $455. There was one 30 day late payment in March 2013 that shows up on EX and TU. Sending GW next week
USAA $25000 personal loan: PIF and closed August 2014 (opened August 2009). Handful of 30 day and one 60 day lates in 2012 and 2013 (9 on all three bureaus between July 2012 and August 2013). Sending GW next week
USAA Amex: $1500 limit, high balance $1575 (fees). Closed by grantor May 2013 (opened January 2009), finally PIF in February 2015. Two 30 day lates show up on my reports in April 2013 and August 2013, though I think there were some 30 day lates before then. Sent GW two weeks ago, got denied last week. Sending again at the end of the month

I've got two major derogative accounts open:

Kia Motors Finance: $8128 charge off. Charged off in August 2012, reported January 2015, hasn't updated since then. I'm going to start a PFD campaign in June, when I have enough money set aside to pay it off.
The Bureaus: $2048 collection, originally a $1734 chargeoff from Best Buy/Capital One. On a side note, the Best Buy/Capital One chargeoff dropped off my report at some point between December/January and hasn't reappeared. Not sure why, but I'll take it! I disputed the accuracy of the collection reporting since I made a partial payment to Best Buy/Capital one back when it was charged off in 2013. Waiting to see the dispute results. Pending that, will start a PFD campaign at the end of the month if necessary.

That's pretty much everything I've got going on. My main focus now is paying off credit cards and staying on top of the GW campaign. I'm getting married in April, so I'm trying to get as much of my financial house in order as I can. We're thinking about buying a house next year, so I'm also trying to clean up as much of my credit history as I can. Gonna be a long, hard slog, but hopefully I won't have another 7 month setback like I did last year!

Anonymous · ‎02-13-2016

I've been playing around with the myFICO score simulators today. I realize they aren't gospel, but it's fun to play around with them and imagine what I can do to improve my scores. I currently stand at 617, 624, and 639 on EQ, TU, and EX, respectively.

Here are the simulated score changes based on several realistic scenarios for the next six months.

Pay off credit card balances: +35 EQ, +20 TU, +15 EX (652, 644, 654)

Raise credit limit by $5000: +5 EQ, +10 TU (622, 634, 639)

Pay all bills on time for 6 months: +15 EQ, +10 TU (632, 634, 639)

Have 4 auto loan inqs in 6 months: +15 EQ, +5 TU (632, 629, 639)

Age credit report 6 months: +15 EQ, +10 TU (632, 634, 639)

Are those score jumps cumulative? That is, would doing all of those things result in a simulated +85 EQ, +55 TU, and +15 EX (really not sure why EX would go up so little!)? If that's correct, I'd love to be in the ballpark of 702 EQ, 679 TU, and 654 EX by the end of August!

Anonymous · ‎02-15-2016

Just got a $2k CLI on my QS1 that raises it to $5500! EDIT: Just got on the chat to see if I could possibly upgrade it to a QS and got it. Booyah!

Rather euphoric over that CLI (best CLI I've ever gotten on anything!), I did something really stupid and applied for another QS1. Got a $1k limit. Oh well, now that it's open, I'll go ahead and get it as high as I can in 6 months, then close and combine the CL with the QS.

Hopefully the hit to my AAoA won't be too bad--I'm going to be closing my 13 month old USAA secured card in the next two or three months, so if my understanding of how AAoA is calculated is correct, the hit won't be terrible. Don't need it anymore (at the time I opened it, my highest limit besides CareCredit was $2000), so I'll cash out the CD and use that cash to help pay off other debt. Current AAoA is 61 months, with my oldest account being opened in January 2007 and my most recent being an auto loan from August 2015.

My current plan is to only apply for new credit once more this year, when I try to refi my car loan in July or August. Besides that, the plan is to garden, only try to get CLIs, and try to get as many negatives as possible off my reports!

Anonymous · ‎02-16-2016

Just called USAA to have them cancel the secured card. Removes $3500 in debt and gives me $1500 extra cash, not too shabby. Although I expect to take a bit of a ding from not having as much available credit, my utilization will drop like a rock over the next month as the March statements report. Should be around 25% total util, with the bulk of that being on the NFCU card, which I should have paid down to around 50%.

All in all, I hope it'll balance out and give me one less temptation to use credit unwisely in the future!

trnl2016 · ‎02-16-2016

Congrats, sounds like you have a solid plan! Best of luck.

Anonymous · ‎02-16-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
Just got a $2k CLI on my QS1 that raises it to $5500! EDIT: Just got on the chat to see if I could possibly upgrade it to a QS and got it. Booyah!

Rather euphoric over that CLI (best CLI I've ever gotten on anything!), I did something really stupid and applied for another QS1. Got a $1k limit. Oh well, now that it's open, I'll go ahead and get it as high as I can in 6 months, then close and combine the CL with the QS. Nothing stupid about that at all.... Its a good idea, in fact.

Hopefully the hit to my AAoA won't be too bad--I'm going to be closing my 13 month old USAA secured card in the next two or three months, so if my understanding of how AAoA is calculated is correct, the hit won't be terrible. Don't need it anymore (at the time I opened it, my highest limit besides CareCredit was $2000), so I'll cash out the CD and use that cash to help pay off other debt. Current AAoA is 61 months, with my oldest account being opened in January 2007 and my most recent being an auto loan from August 2015 Closing accounts does not effect AAoA..

My current plan is to only apply for new credit once more this year, when I try to refi my car loan in July or August. Besides that, the plan is to garden, only try to get CLIs, and try to get as many negatives as possible off my reports!

Anonymous · ‎02-17-2016

Thanks, Norman. That's what I thought about AAoA, but wasn't positive.

In that case, I'm seriously thinking about closing my USAA MasterCard, too. It's my oldest card (opened January 2007), but also the one They've been totally unbending on giving me a CLI in the past 6+ years. I know they're a conservative lender, but apparently my running massive amounts through their cards over the past 2 years with perfect payment history means less than the problems I had in 2013, which didn't affect any of my USAA products. I'm keeping checking/savings/mutual fund with them, but moving on for my credit.

Won't close it anytime soon, but it's going to be sock drawered in March.

Anonymous · ‎02-17-2016

I'd gotten a ton of calls from Credit Control in December and January, but didn't receive any dunning notices from them. I sent a DV/C&D in mid January, and just got a response from them in the mail yesterday.

Looks like they're operating on The Bureaus' behalf for the Best Buy card that was charged off in 2013. They sent a stack of monthly statements from 2013 leading up to the charge off. I defaulted on the card after I was laid off in spring '13. I didn't remember signing up for it, but the statements they sent me show that I was paying for the "Account Shield" service, which is supposed to act as debt cancellation insurance if you lose your job.

If the account shield insurance should have covered the ~$1200 I had on the card at the time I was laid off and defaulted, then I'd love to pursue that route if it's still available. If not, I'm prepared to send The Bureaus a PFD. Is it worth pursuing the account shield insurance coverage, or is it too late now that the account has been charged off and turned over to collection? Or would this be something I'd need to ask a lawyer about?

Anonymous · ‎02-17-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
I'd gotten a ton of calls from Credit Control in December and January, but didn't receive any dunning notices from them. I sent a DV/C&D in mid January, and just got a response from them in the mail yesterday.

Looks like they're operating on The Bureaus' behalf for the Best Buy card that was charged off in 2013. They sent a stack of monthly statements from 2013 leading up to the charge off. I defaulted on the card after I was laid off in spring '13. I didn't remember signing up for it, but the statements they sent me show that I was paying for the "Account Shield" service, which is supposed to act as debt cancellation insurance if you lose your job.

If the account shield insurance should have covered the ~$1200 I had on the card at the time I was laid off and defaulted, then I'd love to pursue that route if it's still available. If not, I'm prepared to send The Bureaus a PFD. Is it worth pursuing the account shield insurance coverage, or is it too late now that the account has been charged off and turned over to collection? Or would this be something I'd need to ask a lawyer about?

I'd definitely pursue it, but my feeling is that they are going to say that it required active initiation by you to be take effect. Worth a shot though.

Anonymous · ‎02-19-2016

Not sure why I didn't do this before, but I just put together a spreadsheet tracking each item of credit/debt I have. I listed the name of the line of credit/debt, due date, minimum payment due, balance, limit, and calculated utilization.

Quite nice seeing all that info in one place! I plan to update it each month just before statements are cut, so I can track how things will play out before I get the report updates from myFICO.

Won't be of much use for cleaning up the derogs on my report, but will definitely help me be more mindful in the future!