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Hello there!
Rebuilding for what seems like forever. When I moved out for the first time in 2010, I was ill prepared to handle adulthood. Long story short, I open and defaulted on 3 credit cards. I also steadily missed payments for the next several years. Then I needed to finance a car, and the 22% interest rate finally taught me a lesson. My score was in the 520's at the time.
I have since paid off that loan (perfect paymental history) and have an almost 2 year old consigned loan through USAA for a new vehicle. I have three low credit line cards - a secured USAA ($250), Premeire Bank ($500), and Credit One ($950). I'm trying to keep my utilization below 30% and have been mostly successful. I am a year and a half without a late payment. I have no judgements, liens, public records. I have a small student loan that is also in good standing. I have 3 inquires, 2 in the last 12mo.
The only two negatives (outside some older late payments) are two "paid in full" collections that show a write off as next Jan 2018. Both the original defaulted credit card accounts have already fallen off.
My FICO is a 650 and I suspect it will jump a few as my utilization is <10%.
With that history, what do I do next? I'm getting married in January, and my fiancé is starting from scratch too so I'm trying to rally us into good credit.
QUESTIONS FOR YOU -
Can/should I dispute the charge offs and state the original accounts that correlate with them have already fallen off? I can only imagine that means the DOFD for them has come and gone.
When should I try for a new credit card? I want to up my available credit. What are some good option cards for me?
Is there anything else I should be doing to make my score get where I want it?
Thank you! Your advice is much appreciated.
KW
Oh and my oldest account is 5 1/2 years old!
The DOFD is what dictates when those collections should fall off. So even if the CA didn't get them for another year or so after the DOFD is what it gets backed into.
@rmduhon wrote:
What are your Fico scores? I'd suggest that you try the $1 trial from creditchecktotal.com and see. Without knowing those we aren't going to be able to give accurate advice.
I get access to my 3 reports through USAA and when I ran them last week they all were between a 637-650.
The USAA website states that their scores are Vantage scores not FICO.
@Anonymous wrote:
@rmduhon wrote:
What are your Fico scores? I'd suggest that you try the $1 trial from creditchecktotal.com and see. Without knowing those we aren't going to be able to give accurate advice.I get access to my 3 reports through USAA and when I ran them last week they all were between a 637-650.
@Anonymous wrote:The USAA website states that their scores are Vantage scores not FICO.
@Anonymous wrote:
@rmduhon wrote:
What are your Fico scores? I'd suggest that you try the $1 trial from creditchecktotal.com and see. Without knowing those we aren't going to be able to give accurate advice.I get access to my 3 reports through USAA and when I ran them last week they all were between a 637-650.
Oops, still learning.They charge me $19.99 a month for those...time to change it up. Thanks for the info!
@rmduhon wrote:
GW letters for the lates and the charge offs. Might not get them removed but it's worth a shot. Check the Cap1 prequal page and see what you may qualify for. And you might think about joining NFCU, you might be able to get a card from there. Is there possibly a store card that you'd use?
I tried GW for the charge-offs. It was a no go. I am curious though if DOFD is incorrect since both the original accounts that have plagued me for years have fallen off in the past few months.
Also - I did have a charge off on a Captial One account. It has fallen off. Are they forgiving? I do show as pre-qualified but didn't was the inquiry if I am blacklisted.
Thanks!
I'm am (or was) a dependent. Not sure I'm elidible for NFCU. I'll look into it, thanks!