The path to a 700+ Credit Score

Anonymous · ‎03-02-2017

Hi everyone! First off, I know this is alot so thanks in advance for reading and providing any advice!

I'll preface with saying, ANY sound advice would help me tons, I have read so many stories and advice here that has been helpful and boosted my confidence in going after a 700 score. At my best (before the economy tanked) I was a 695. I'd like to have an AmEx card in my wallet by 2018 and be in the 700s!

One of my largest questions is surrounding my student loans, I have about 100k worth of student loans and it is my biggest difficulty as the payments are a mix of private, federal and parent loans that total about $1100 a month. I'd love to refi but my scores won't allow it. However, before they were on 3 accounts they were spread amongst 8-10 accounts, AES acquired the loans and in the interim I was not expected to make a payment, but the old debt owner, marked several accounts as 120 days past due, and I can't seem to get them removed. I know this is hurting me even more than my other accounts as it shows that I have 13 derog accounts, which is dragging my TU and EQ scores down. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

I've attached a snapshot of my credit report below. A majority of the mistakes and baddies will be fallin off over the course of the next 12 months. With that in mind, I also want to do my due diligence in increasing my scores. A large part of carried balances is due to recently making a career change, with a 15k salary reduction but more opportunity for commission. As that hasn't begun rolling yet, I have been forced to budget differently but also having to use my CC more.

This info is based on a CR pull on 3/2/17 with several accounts disputed and removed in February. I also have been approved for a secured CapOne Card with $200 limit, will be added in the coming weeks.

Removed accounts

All CB- Two (2) CapOne Collections with Portfolio Recovery- One of which was paid in full, the other with $1000 balance

All CB- Discover CC Charge off for $1000 and Public Record for Tuition Reimbursement

Ally Financial on TU

Equifax-528, Transunion-526, Experian-548

Revolving accounts- 5

FNB Secured CC- Open- Paid on time- opened 07/2014

CL:$1400, current balance: $1314

Credit One CC- Open- Paid on time- opened 06/2016

CL:$450, current balance $458(actually $400)

Chase Bank CC- Closed (set to come off 07/2017)

CL: $400, current balance: $0 (Settled on balance in 2016)

Removed from TU via dispute in 02/2017

Arizona Credit Union CC- Charged Off (set to come off 12/2017)

CL: $1000, current balance: $1000

CapOne/BestBuy- Paid/Closed - never late

Installment accounts

Navient Student Loan- Late 1 time (06/2016- 120 days)

Balance: $55k

Navient Student Loan- 90 days past due - joint account

balance $44k

Santander Consumer Auto Loan- Paid on time- opened 08/2013

Balance: $12k

Ally (GMAC) Auto Loan- Charge Off (set to come off 04/2017) Only on Experian

Balance: $11360

Collection Accounts- 3, 1 paid

Fair Collections (former Sure Deposit)

Paid in Full (assigned 07/2014, so I assume around 2021 when removed)

Century Link- assigned 01/2015

Balance: $215, have been disputing this as it was settled with Century Link

General Revenue Corp (former school debt) assigned 08/2015

Balance: $1,912

Anonymous · ‎03-02-2017

Also forgot to mention that I apllied for and was denied for an Amazon store card. Any other small cards I should consider to build some additional history as alot will be falling off this year.

rmduhon · ‎03-03-2017

Date assigned just refers to when the CA acquired the account and has no bearing on when it will be removed. The credit reporting exclusion date is based on the DoFD (Date of First Delinquency).

Anonymous · ‎03-03-2017

@rmduhon wrote:
Date assigned just refers to when the CA acquired the account and has no bearing on when it will be removed. The credit reporting exclusion date is based on the DoFD (Date of First Delinquency).

Thanks, i've tried to GW it off my report but they are not budging, at the very least it is paid but still a ding that I'd like taken off.

DollyLama · ‎03-03-2017

How many total inquiries do you have on your credit reports? Can you give dates of the oldest to the newest inquiry? ( You mentioned you applied for an Amazon).

Right now your Revolving Credit is at about 100% utilization. You did not mention if you have any excess cash saved and know where to apply it first. Can you let us know any available cash you have on hand?

If you have the available cash, to up your scores the quickest is to pay off the the Credit One CC, do not close the account. Pay the FNB Secured CC down to $130 to be at minimum <9% utilization.

Granted the charged off one will still be on report, but I assumed for your State's SOL being 7 yrs, the biggest pop will be when that drops off in December. I live in one of the states where the SOL is excessively high!

Not savvy in the Student Loans, so I can not comment there.

Anonymous · ‎03-03-2017

Well I would first off pay down your open cards, do not close them but only pay them down. Also General Revenue is decent to get it deleted once you pay it. I had mine deleted once I paid it. Also try to call navient and work out a income based payment for those student loans. So you are paying based off your income so your not killing yourself in payments. I would not try to apply for any lines of credit until you pay off what is open. That alone will bring up your score to possibly allow you to refiance your student loans. My highest in interest rate for my loans are 8 percent. I have mine through Fedloan Servicing and I know sometime soon I will need to refiance. I have about 54k in student loans.

Anonymous · ‎03-04-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi everyone! First off, I know this is alot so thanks in advance for reading and providing any advice!

I'll preface with saying, ANY sound advice would help me tons, I have read so many stories and advice here that has been helpful and boosted my confidence in going after a 700 score. At my best (before the economy tanked) I was a 695. I'd like to have an AmEx card in my wallet by 2018 and be in the 700s!

One of my largest questions is surrounding my student loans, I have about 100k worth of student loans and it is my biggest difficulty as the payments are a mix of private, federal and parent loans that total about $1100 a month. I'd love to refi but my scores won't allow it. However, before they were on 3 accounts they were spread amongst 8-10 accounts, AES acquired the loans and in the interim I was not expected to make a payment, but the old debt owner, marked several accounts as 120 days past due, and I can't seem to get them removed. I know this is hurting me even more than my other accounts as it shows that I have 13 derog accounts, which is dragging my TU and EQ scores down. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

I've attached a snapshot of my credit report below. A majority of the mistakes and baddies will be fallin off over the course of the next 12 months. With that in mind, I also want to do my due diligence in increasing my scores. A large part of carried balances is due to recently making a career change, with a 15k salary reduction but more opportunity for commission. As that hasn't begun rolling yet, I have been forced to budget differently but also having to use my CC more.

This info is based on a CR pull on 3/2/17 with several accounts disputed and removed in February. I also have been approved for a secured CapOne Card with $200 limit, will be added in the coming weeks.

Removed accounts
All CB- Two (2) CapOne Collections with Portfolio Recovery- One of which was paid in full, the other with $1000 balance
All CB- Discover CC Charge off for $1000 and Public Record for Tuition Reimbursement
Ally Financial on TU

Equifax-528, Transunion-526, Experian-548
Revolving accounts- 5

FNB Secured CC- Open- Paid on time- opened 07/2014
CL:$1400, current balance: $1314

Credit One CC- Open- Paid on time- opened 06/2016
CL:$450, current balance $458(actually $400)

Chase Bank CC- Closed (set to come off 07/2017)
CL: $400, current balance: $0 (Settled on balance in 2016)
Removed from TU via dispute in 02/2017

Arizona Credit Union CC- Charged Off (set to come off 12/2017)
CL: $1000, current balance: $1000

CapOne/BestBuy- Paid/Closed - never late

Installment accounts

Navient Student Loan- Late 1 time (06/2016- 120 days)
Balance: $55k

Navient Student Loan- 90 days past due - joint account
balance $44k

Santander Consumer Auto Loan- Paid on time- opened 08/2013
Balance: $12k

Ally (GMAC) Auto Loan- Charge Off (set to come off 04/2017) Only on Experian
Balance: $11360

Collection Accounts- 3, 1 paid

Fair Collections (former Sure Deposit)
Paid in Full (assigned 07/2014, so I assume around 2021 when removed)

Century Link- assigned 01/2015
Balance: $215, have been disputing this as it was settled with Century Link

General Revenue Corp (former school debt) assigned 08/2015
Balance: $1,912

Your plan looks something like this:

Get the joint Navient account caught up, or get the other signer to release your liability. You mentioned it's a joint account, so I assume it's not a loan for your own studies? Recent lateness is going to keep your score down and is more damaging than anything else. You want to get to 12 months in a row without being late for it to stop pulling your score down so heavily.

Pay those credit card balances down to 0 and keep them at 0. If you let one report a balance, it needs to be negligible... like $10. Score-wise, under 10% is fine, but you have a mountain of debt that you need to climb out from under to focus on currently.

Ignore doing whatever gives you the biggest score boost right now. If you provide the APR's of these cards, I can give you the best plan to pay down that is going to cost you the least amount of money. Even better if you have a budget of what you can put towards the cards now, or in the near future.

Pay General Revenue Corp. Try a pay for delete. If they won't play ball, settle the debt for whatever they are willing to accept and start a GW campaign to get it off your reports.

Start a GW campaign for the paid collection with Fair Collections.

I appreciate your 2018 goal. It's pretty realistic if you can stay on time and nothing else pops up, and get everything paid down. If you have any outstanding debts within the last 3 years that could bite you in the ass, take care of them now, as there's virtually no telling when they could wind up at a CA that reports.

I think you can ignore Ally at this point, April is right around the corner.

Don't apply for any credit until you get to a score that you can close CreditOne and FNB in favor of better cards.

Anonymous · ‎03-11-2017

@DollyLama wrote:
How many total inquiries do you have on your credit reports? Can you give dates of the oldest to the newest inquiry? ( You mentioned you applied for an Amazon).

Right now your Revolving Credit is at about 100% utilization. You did not mention if you have any excess cash saved and know where to apply it first. Can you let us know any available cash you have on hand?

If you have the available cash, to up your scores the quickest is to pay off the the Credit One CC, do not close the account. Pay the FNB Secured CC down to $130 to be at minimum <9% utilization.

Granted the charged off one will still be on report, but I assumed for your State's SOL being 7 yrs, the biggest pop will be when that drops off in December. I live in one of the states where the SOL is excessively high!

Not savvy in the Student Loans, so I can not comment there.

Hello! and thanks for your insight. I have 3 total inquiries, the newest are Amazon(this month), CapOne(this month) and another Amazon(05/2016).

I won't have any excess cash for another couple months, but I did plan to get both outstanding balances down at or below 30% total utilization. I am outisde the SOL for the charge off so that would drop.

Anonymous · ‎03-11-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Well I would first off pay down your open cards, do not close them but only pay them down. Also General Revenue is decent to get it deleted once you pay it. I had mine deleted once I paid it. Also try to call navient and work out a income based payment for those student loans. So you are paying based off your income so your not killing yourself in payments. I would not try to apply for any lines of credit until you pay off what is open. That alone will bring up your score to possibly allow you to refiance your student loans. My highest in interest rate for my loans are 8 percent. I have mine through Fedloan Servicing and I know sometime soon I will need to refiance. I have about 54k in student loans.

Thanks for this! Alot of what you said was in my plan. I'd like to pay off my CC and hopefully the combination of som dropped accounts brings my score high enough to refi my student loans.

I am hoping for some relief with my student loans, having 90k(not including interest) total is a large mountain to climb.

Anonymous · ‎03-11-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Hi everyone! First off, I know this is alot so thanks in advance for reading and providing any advice!

I'll preface with saying, ANY sound advice would help me tons, I have read so many stories and advice here that has been helpful and boosted my confidence in going after a 700 score. At my best (before the economy tanked) I was a 695. I'd like to have an AmEx card in my wallet by 2018 and be in the 700s!

One of my largest questions is surrounding my student loans, I have about 100k worth of student loans and it is my biggest difficulty as the payments are a mix of private, federal and parent loans that total about $1100 a month. I'd love to refi but my scores won't allow it. However, before they were on 3 accounts they were spread amongst 8-10 accounts, AES acquired the loans and in the interim I was not expected to make a payment, but the old debt owner, marked several accounts as 120 days past due, and I can't seem to get them removed. I know this is hurting me even more than my other accounts as it shows that I have 13 derog accounts, which is dragging my TU and EQ scores down. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

I've attached a snapshot of my credit report below. A majority of the mistakes and baddies will be fallin off over the course of the next 12 months. With that in mind, I also want to do my due diligence in increasing my scores. A large part of carried balances is due to recently making a career change, with a 15k salary reduction but more opportunity for commission. As that hasn't begun rolling yet, I have been forced to budget differently but also having to use my CC more.

This info is based on a CR pull on 3/2/17 with several accounts disputed and removed in February. I also have been approved for a secured CapOne Card with $200 limit, will be added in the coming weeks.

Removed accounts
All CB- Two (2) CapOne Collections with Portfolio Recovery- One of which was paid in full, the other with $1000 balance
All CB- Discover CC Charge off for $1000 and Public Record for Tuition Reimbursement
Ally Financial on TU

Equifax-528, Transunion-526, Experian-548
Revolving accounts- 5

FNB Secured CC- Open- Paid on time- opened 07/2014
CL:$1400, current balance: $1314

Credit One CC- Open- Paid on time- opened 06/2016
CL:$450, current balance $458(actually $400)

Chase Bank CC- Closed (set to come off 07/2017)
CL: $400, current balance: $0 (Settled on balance in 2016)
Removed from TU via dispute in 02/2017

Arizona Credit Union CC- Charged Off (set to come off 12/2017)
CL: $1000, current balance: $1000

CapOne/BestBuy- Paid/Closed - never late

Installment accounts

Navient Student Loan- Late 1 time (06/2016- 120 days)
Balance: $55k

Navient Student Loan- 90 days past due - joint account
balance $44k

Santander Consumer Auto Loan- Paid on time- opened 08/2013
Balance: $12k

Ally (GMAC) Auto Loan- Charge Off (set to come off 04/2017) Only on Experian
Balance: $11360

Collection Accounts- 3, 1 paid

Fair Collections (former Sure Deposit)
Paid in Full (assigned 07/2014, so I assume around 2021 when removed)

Century Link- assigned 01/2015
Balance: $215, have been disputing this as it was settled with Century Link

General Revenue Corp (former school debt) assigned 08/2015
Balance: $1,912
Your plan looks something like this:

Get the joint Navient account caught up, or get the other signer to release your liability. You mentioned it's a joint account, so I assume it's not a loan for your own studies? Recent lateness is going to keep your score down and is more damaging than anything else. You want to get to 12 months in a row without being late for it to stop pulling your score down so heavily.

Pay those credit card balances down to 0 and keep them at 0. If you let one report a balance, it needs to be negligible... like $10. Score-wise, under 10% is fine, but you have a mountain of debt that you need to climb out from under to focus on currently.

Ignore doing whatever gives you the biggest score boost right now. If you provide the APR's of these cards, I can give you the best plan to pay down that is going to cost you the least amount of money. Even better if you have a budget of what you can put towards the cards now, or in the near future.

Pay General Revenue Corp. Try a pay for delete. If they won't play ball, settle the debt for whatever they are willing to accept and start a GW campaign to get it off your reports.

Start a GW campaign for the paid collection with Fair Collections.

I appreciate your 2018 goal. It's pretty realistic if you can stay on time and nothing else pops up, and get everything paid down. If you have any outstanding debts within the last 3 years that could bite you in the ass, take care of them now, as there's virtually no telling when they could wind up at a CA that reports.

I think you can ignore Ally at this point, April is right around the corner.

Don't apply for any credit until you get to a score that you can close CreditOne and FNB in favor of better cards.

First off, Thanks for this insightful plan! Everthing seems in line with what I wnt to do, minus the GW campagins. I am expecting 5k bonus in the next couple months, so that will pay off or pay down both my CC, and try to catch up on my student loans, as I forgot to mention I am on deferrment not, however, they still list as being late in this period(the shadiest business practice I've ever heard of).

The PFD on the General Revenue Corp, I needs to make alarge effort in. If you have an example of a goof letter that would be appreciated.