Repairing credit and Adastra PFD

[steelholder]

Hello everyone I'm currently working on my credit. Opened a secured cc in March and my scores gone up 120 points since. Almost miraculous to be honest.
There's one collection in my acct Ad astra for 315$
An old pay day loan I remember paying. I disputed with Transunion hope it disappears. Under what circumstances would it NOT be removed?

Btw I'm very ready and willing to pay the 315 if this doesn't work.Heard theyre good with pfds.

My utilization has been 0 since I received cc. I use it and pay whole balance every month but it's at 0 when they report to bureaus. Would you guys recommend 5% balance on the days.before they report, how about getting a second secured? I'm currently at 580 with a capitol one secured. Thank everyone.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried a prequalification for one of Capital One's unsecured rebuilder cards?  

Having $0 balance is not ideal for FICO scoring - leaving a small (<10%) balance on your card one cycle might give you a few points.  This you can easily try, just to see what happens.  In all reality, though, your file is very thin (one account only?) so the FICO scoring system isn't really going to be maximized for you until you grow your file a little more.  

This does not mean that you should immediately get out there and apply all over the place hoping to land a couple more tradelines.

Take a look at the Capital One prequal site, because you are getting into their score range for unsecured rebuilder cards.

Maybe consider a store card (one that you'll actually use, of course) or a gas card - do some research on the approval scores for the cards you would consider.

At that point, you'll have the FICO-preferred three revolving tradelines.  Keeping utilization low on all three and making payments on time, your score will begin to grow, especially once you deal with the collection.

As for the collection, is it only appearing on TU?  If it appears on the others, you need to dispute it with the others too.

Get a scan of your receipt/proof of payment, and attach it when you file online disputes or send e-mails.

If you paid this thing, then it needs to be reported correctly - just be aware that they may simply update the collection they are reporting to "paid-$0 balance" and not delete it entirely.  You may need to work with Ad Astra to arrange for its complete removal, although if you've already paid it and they have no more money coming from you, that might not be as simple as a PFD where you actually still owe them and they want to get paid.

[steelholder]

I doubt I still have proof of payment. I should have gotten a dv before hand. I think I'll try to go that route first unfortunately i already filled a dispute with TU.

I was looking at the Open sky secured card and having one card carry over a small balance and one pay all. I know i need more credit period anything wrong with 2 secured cards? Would that be better than just potentially upgrading capitol one to unsecured?Thanks.

[steelholder]

Couldn't edit my last post to include if I could ask for a dv from adastra although i filed a dispute through TU. can the dispute be cancelled? edit. figured editing now can't be done on mobile version

[Anonymous]

No, if you've already filed the dispute then it will run its course.  If Ad Astra verifies that they (think) they are correct, then TU will just close the case and send you a letter basically saying "it was verified correct."  If Ad Astra decides to adjust the reporting to reflect that you did pay the debt (as they should), then TU will let you know that.

TU cannot simply remove the item from your file.  They can only manage and catalog what information they are given by their reporting creditors - Ad Astra, in this situation - and if Ad Astra will change it, it will change on your report.  If Ad Astra fails to admit you've paid and correct their reporting, then you have to deal directly with them.  You can still deal directly with them, now, anyway, if you want - just contact them and complain to each and every person you get ahold of about how they are improperly reporting a paid collection as still having a balance.

As for credit cards, your Capital One secured card will never become unsecured.  Capital One does not graduate its secured cards.

There is nothing technically wrong with having more than one secured card - but your score has you very close if not already over the threshold for unsecured credit, which is the kind that will grow and develop steadily over time as you use it well.  Secured cards typically do not grow much, if at all, and so for long-term purposes you generally want to move into unsecured credit when you can.  If you aren't there already, you should be once you get the Ad Astra thing cleared up - even if they don't remove the reporting entirely and simply update it to "paid," your credit profile will benefit somewhat from that even if your score doesn't jump.

[Anonymous]

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@steelholder wrote:
Hello everyone I'm currently working on my credit. Opened a secured cc in March and my scores gone up 120 points since. Almost miraculous to be honest.
There's one collection in my acct Ad astra for 315$
An old pay day loan I remember paying. I disputed with Transunion hope it disappears. Under what circumstances would it NOT be removed?

Btw I'm very ready and willing to pay the 315 if this doesn't work.Heard theyre good with pfds.

My utilization has been 0 since I received cc. I use it and pay whole balance every month but it's at 0 when they report to bureaus. Would you guys recommend 5% balance on the days.before they report, how about getting a second secured? I'm currently at 580 with a capitol one secured. Thank everyone.

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Don't even worry about leaving a small balance at this point, what is far more important is establishing perfect payment history and cleaning your files. The UTI tweaking will come later. You will want to pick up two more cards for a total of three. Its been six months since opening the Cap One secured, so what I would suggest is getting a second secured card (SDFCU would be good) and once it shows up on your reports, app for Cap One unsecured.

Do you have any open installment accounts?

[steelholder]

Thanks Ill be looking at a second card and def keeping the payments up to date. Does something put the card you mentioned above the Open sky card? I like the fact they dont run a credit check and I dont mind paying their anual fee. I dont owe anyone anything at the moment. Potentnailly Ad astra if some how I forgot to pay and never got notices(doubt it).

[steelholder]

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@Anonymous wrote:

As for credit cards, your Capital One secured card will never become unsecured.  Capital One does not graduate its secured cards.

There is nothing technically wrong with having more than one secured card - but your score has you very close if not already over the threshold for unsecured credit, which is the kind that will grow and develop steadily over time as you use it well.  Secured cards typically do not grow much, if at all, and so for long-term purposes you generally want to move into unsecured credit when you can.  If you aren't there already, you should be once you get the Ad Astra thing cleared up - even if they don't remove the reporting entirely and simply update it to "paid," your credit profile will benefit somewhat from that even if your score doesn't jump.

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Did you mean that secured cards hit a certain fico score and cease to grow at that point? I had a huge leap in points in a pretty short period but I dont expect one secured card to take me up to 800 (I know im shooting high here)

[steelholder]

Does anyone know of there's limit (fico) to which secured cards reach? Do they lose their usefulness once I'm at a certain score?

[RobertEG]

A dispute only reqires the reinvestigation and either verification of accuracy as currently reported, correction so as to overcome an inaccuracy, or, if neither of those two can be or is done, deletion of the disputed info.  Some info, by its nature, must be reported, so deletion is not always an option.

More specifically, if a dispute asserts an inaccuracy in the current balance, the CRA must either, after hearing from the furnisher, verify that accuracy as currrently reported, correct the balance to that asserted by the consumer, or delete the balance.

Such a dispute would not result in deletion, as if the furnisher fails to respond with verification, the CRA is authorized via its reinvestigation authority to simply update the balance to that asserted by the consumer.  A collection must have a current balance, so deletion would not be an option.

Bottom line is that one should not expect deleteion of an entire collection based on a disputer over accuracy of the current balance.

The CRA would verify or correct.