Hi there!
My husband and I are in process of rebuilding.
We have paid everything negative off of hubby's credit. The only things remaining are our two cars (always paid on time), his student loans (there were some late payments in the past but he has been "current" for about two years), and his capital one quicksilver card which we've had 3 months and pay off in full every month. He had a judgement but we just paid that off last month so we expect it to show as "paid" in not too long. We started this journey with him in the high 400's, and right now he is in the high 500's-low 600's but we expect once all of those payments we just made clear it should jump significantly.
My credit was a holy hot mess because I made dumb mistake after dumb mistake my first 2-3 years of college (at one point I had no job and 12 credit cards, all of which I used all the time but almost never paid) then I had a few evictions around that time, a repo, and some utility bills I didn't pay. My credit was in the low 400's and even in the 300's at one point. At this point, we have paid off almost everything, and then a TON of things have fallen off in the last two-ish years. There are 2 things that have not been paid. One is an old cable bill, but the collection agency doesn't have a working number and comcast "can't look up my account number" and the other is from an old book subscription I was a part of. I have contacted the collection agency who says they no longer own the debt, but the original company won't take any payments because they say that it's with the collection agency. Paid off a TON of stuff last month, and waiting on it to clear so it should go up more once those things clear. I have a student loan which is current and I am an "authorized user" for the capital one which again we pay off every month. Current scores are EQ- 610, TU-500 (and it dropped, NO clue why it dropped except that the capital one popped up this last month, but again, we pay it off in full), and EX-608.
Now here's my questions:
-Once everything (totalling about 10K in debt between both of our reports) clears, how much will our scores likely go up?
-I plan to hunt down someone to get the comcast bill paid off this month, but the stupid book club I don't see any resolution? Should I just dispute it at this point?
-Many of the cards that I used to have that have fallen off were store cards. Since I never actually paid those off, they just fell off because they passed the 7 year time to hold me for me, will I be able to apply for cards from the same lender? Comenity owns the victoria secret, pac sun, and several others right? How long have the owned those cards? I had them back in 2005-2006. If I applied at a store backed by comenity once the payments I've made clear and my score jumps, will they deny me because of a history from 10 years ago? Or is it only if I apply at the same stores?
-How long after everything clears should I start hunting for credit?
I've been lurking all day and have learned so much! This forum is awesome!!! Thanks in advance!! 
@Anonymous wrote:Hi there!
My husband and I are in process of rebuilding.
We have paid everything negative off of hubby's credit. The only things remaining are our two cars (always paid on time), his student loans (there were some late payments in the past but he has been "current" for about two years), and his capital one quicksilver card which we've had 3 months and pay off in full every month. He had a judgement but we just paid that off last month so we expect it to show as "paid" in not too long. We started this journey with him in the high 400's, and right now he is in the high 500's-low 600's but we expect once all of those payments we just made clear it should jump significantly.
My credit was a holy hot mess because I made dumb mistake after dumb mistake my first 2-3 years of college (at one point I had no job and 12 credit cards, all of which I used all the time but almost never paid) then I had a few evictions around that time, a repo, and some utility bills I didn't pay. My credit was in the low 400's and even in the 300's at one point. At this point, we have paid off almost everything, and then a TON of things have fallen off in the last two-ish years. There are 2 things that have not been paid. One is an old cable bill, but the collection agency doesn't have a working number and comcast "can't look up my account number". Send the CA a DV certified mail to the address they have listed on your CR, if it comes back dont open it, make copies of both sides of the envelope and send it to the CRA with a letter asking that the TL be deleted as you cannot verify that the TL is reporting correctly. and the other is from an old book subscription I was a part of. I have contacted the collection agency who says they no longer own the debt, then send them a letter asking them to remove their TL since they have no authority to collect on the debt but the original company won't take any payments because they say that it's with the collection agency. Paid off a TON of stuff last month, and waiting on it to clear so it should go up more once those things clear. I have a student loan which is current and I am an "authorized user" for the capital one which again we pay off every month. Current scores are EQ- 610, TU-500 (and it dropped, NO clue why it dropped except that the capital one popped up this last month, but again, we pay it off in full), and EX-608.
Now here's my questions:
-Once everything (totalling about 10K in debt between both of our reports) clears, how much will our scores likely go up?
-I plan to hunt down someone to get the comcast bill paid off this month, but the stupid book club I don't see any resolution? Should I just dispute it at this point?
-Many of the cards that I used to have that have fallen off were store cards. Since I never actually paid those off, they just fell off because they passed the 7 year time to hold me for me, will I be able to apply for cards from the same lender? Comenity owns the victoria secret, pac sun, and several others right? How long have the owned those cards? I had them back in 2005-2006. If I applied at a store backed by comenity once the payments I've made clear and my score jumps, will they deny me because of a history from 10 years ago? Or is it only if I apply at the same stores? Comenity and Synchrony will forgive after awhile of being BL, these are old now and I doubt they would be used against you especially if you are settling them.
-How long after everything clears should I start hunting for credit? You want to have at minimum 3 bankcards and 1 store card ASAP. I see you already apped for 2 stores thats ok too just work on getting your 3 bankcards now if you dont already have them open and reporting
I've been lurking all day and have learned so much! This forum is awesome!!! Thanks in advance!!
@Anonymous wrote:Do you have any bank card reccommendations? For secured there is St Dept FCU, if you get in with this CU and put the funds for the secured card in savings then app for it by phone it will be a sp to open, I would also recommend you check out your local CUs for both secured and unsecured cards CUs are more willing to help than the big banks. FNBO also has the secured Kickstart card. For unsecured try Barclays as long as you have not burned them recently on another account.
You have to wait at least 30 days in between cap1 apps right? No, I believe its you cant get more than 2 cards within 30 days.