What Else Can I Do To Raise My Scores

[3MV]

I have been rebuilding for a little over a year now and have made quite a lot of progress. I am sort of at a crossroads and not really sure what my next steps should be.

Here is what my current TU report looks like:

Accounts:

First Premier Bank, opened 3/2007, closed 8/2007 $0 balance; Paid Charge Off ($403). Not reporting any lates on TU, but over 120 days on EQ

Springleaf Financial, opened 7/2007, closed 1/2009 $0 balance; Paid Judgement ($1984). 2-60 day lates (8/08, 11/08), 1-90 day late (11/08)

Capital One Bank, opened 1/2012, $22 balance, $300 credit limit; paid as agreed

Chase Auto Finance, opened 3/2011, $16005 balance, $428 pmt, paid as agreed

Affiliated Acceptance Co, opened 7/2008, closed 9/2009 $0 balance, paid as agreed (installment tanning contract)

Affiliated Acceptance Co, opened 2/2007, closed9/2009, $0 balance, paid as agreed (installment tanning contract)

Affiliated Acceptance Co, opened 3/2006, closed 7/2008, $0 balance, 30days late 1 time (5/2008) (installment tanning contract)

Collections:

Asset Acceptance (for Southwestern Bell)

Date assigned 10/2007, balance $250

Scheduled to fall off in December 2012

Public Records:

Civil Judgement filed 8/2008, American General Finance Co, $1257; Reporting as NOT PAID, but I paid in January 2009, have disputed several times and each time it comes back verified???

Paid Civil Judgement

St John Health System, filed 6/2009, paid 9/2009 $528

I am open to suggestions. I realize the judgement showing not paid will not really help my score if it shows paid, but I still want it reporting correctly.

How should I handle Asset Acceptance Collection?

Should I try to get the late payments removed? Will it help my score that much?

I am in the process of a divorce, and luckily we had no joint debt and did not own a home. The bad thing is that my car payment/insurance is killing me. I have tried to get approved for a refinance, but cannot at this point. I am barely getting by and  I have no savings. Advice?

[pengy_wi]

Did you confirm if the satisfaction of judgment was filed for your judgment? My DH paid one off in 2010 and until we applied for a mortgage this year we were never aware that we actually had to get a paper from the lawyer for the place we paid off and then I physically took it to the courthouse to be filed as paid.

[llecs]

Outside of the PR mentioned above, I would GW First premier and Springleaf (it's a CFL) asking for a deletion. I'd GW the lates on Affiliated. I'd DV ASset Acceptance. If they verified and they agreed, then I'd send a PFD.

[Lasardo]

One thing I noticed is that you do not have a lot of "history" the oldest account was 2007 if I am correct? Remember to not close out accounts you have had for a long period. That is a huge way of hurting your score..keep them open even if there is no balance. I increased my score 30 points overnight by having someone add me as an "authorized user" I was able to use his history that went back 10+ years.

[3MV]

The paid judgment was initially garnished from my wages, then I went to American General (springleaf) and paid the entire balance. They filed a "garnishment order of discharge" with  the court to stop the garnishment, and in the body of that it states entire judgement has been satisified. Do I still need to get them to file an actual "satisfaction of judgment"?

I will start sending the GW letters this week. I was just unsure if those few things were bringing my score down a lot since they hapened over 3 years ago.

My history is very short.  I was a stay at home mom for many years and never applied for any credit with my soon to be ex husband since I had no income. When I started working and did get a few accounts, he lost his job and thats where my trouble started with the few accounts I had. I am going to check with my parents on the AU, I did not realize that could potentially help my score so much.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[pengy_wi]

I would check your report and based on how it reports that could be your clue. Now that we filed his, one CBR is reporting the status as satisfied. I don't think it does anything for his score, byt the LO wanted to see it when we applied for a mortgage.