What's next?

[Anonymous]

I've been rebuilding my credit for a little over a year now. I started out in January of last year at 462/474 TU/EQ through Credit Karma (I know that's not a proper FICO, but it's all I have from when I started), with 5 collections, 7 student loans reporting missed payments/default, 3 credit cards charged off, a public record garnishment and a student loan garnishment. 

I've gotten mostly caught up now.

• Both garnishments are handled and the PR removed
• all 3 CCs have been paid off/closed
• all the collections but one have been resolved (the last one is beyond the SOL for collection and I believe close to aging off; so I've left that one alone to avoid poking the bear)
• the student loans have been rehabbed and are now showing as 9 current accounts, although they still have their late payments (Nelnet will absolutely not work with you on that; unless you were in school or military you're SOL with them).

Now I've got one CC of my own, a CapOne that started secured but has gone through the credit steps to go report as unsecured ($500 CL, and they refuse to raise it or change it to an actual unsecured line; they say they don't do that any longer). I'm an authorized user on 2 of my SO's cards (a Chase card and a Best Buy store card, although neither reports on my account and we're not sure why?). My AAOA is 6 years, 7 months because of Nelnet just reopening my SLs with the same account info (which is both a blessing and a curse; a blessing because of my AAOA, curse because of the lates). I have 5 inq on TU and 3 on EQ (plus another dropping in July for EQ).

Right now my utilization is at 0% (it's completely PIF), but I generally flucuate between 0-9% on when it reports. TU reports my payment history at 70.9% and EQ reports it at 100% (I think there's a difference in how they calculate old lates). There's still 1 derog showing on EQ, because while all my collections are paid and cleared, one was paid as a settlement and because of that when I've tried to dispute the account still showing up, the creditor marked it as still open but PAA.

Right now, Credit Karma is showing me 649/677 TU/EQ. EX is showing me 633 from my Discover Scorecard, but I can't seem to do anything to get Experian to clear anything up - their website literally never works for me. I've tried calling them to talk to them directly, and they've just been an absolute nightmare to deal with. I don't think I'm going to be able to get anything else corrected that's not already up to date with them, but that's not the point of my post. 

My question is -- what do I do now? In December I was sitting at 591/622 TU/EQ through CK, and I tried for the Amazon store card. I was rejected for that, and couldn't get anyone to do a recon (I think Sync won't do them for store cards?). The rejection notice said they pulled TU, and that my actual score from their records was 593, so I think the CK FAKO is relatively close in my case. The listed reasons for rejection were:

• SERIOUS DELINQUENCY, AND PUBLIC RECORD OR COLLECTION FILED
• NUMBER OF ACCOUNTS WITH DELINQUENCY
• RATIO OF BALANCES TO CREDIT LIMITS ON REVOLVING ACCOUNTS
• LENGTH OF TIME REVOLVING ACCOUNTS HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED
• NUMBER OF INQUIRIES ON CREDIT REPORT

Since then, I think those are all cleared up as much as possible -- one of my old CC was still unpaid at that point, but it's since been PIF and cleared so my ratio is WAY down and I've had several INQ fall off. I can't do anything else about the lates on the SL accounts or the collection still reporting as open but PAA, or the age of my accounts (I can't magically change how old they are, after all). 

I think I'm at the point where I can't really do anything more aside from keep building new credit. I've got credit I'd like to apply for -- the Amazon Prime Chase Visa, most specifically (now that they've upped the percentage for Prime users I really want it), and to a much lesser extent, the Marvel MC and a Commenity store card for a store I generally like. I'm afraid to apply for any of them and build up more INQs for more rejections, though. Am I likely to be approved for any of these? What should my next steps be? Any kind of advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Your next steps should be determined by your goals. For example, you said you want those cards but is there anything else in the near future? Car in a couple of months? Home loan in a year? It makes a difference in how to proceed. If, on the other hand, you generally want to improve your credit to qualify for better credit over time, that's a different set of recommendations. It all comes down to risk versus reward.

Let's say you have no pending plans but just want to get better credit so you'll be ready for those big plans in a year or two or three. That would mean your strategy is to get to the perfect credit situation and sit on it for a while to accumulate history. If that's the case, you'll need two more cards and a monthly-reporting installment loan. If your student loans are reporting every month, they'll work for your installment.

Your AUs not showing is a concern. If they show, all you need is one more card in your name. If they don't show, you'll need two or three. Comenity's SCT is the easiest way to get one (and ONLY one). Loft, VS, Brylane Home, Wayfair, and J.Crew seem to be the easiest. Make a list of the ones you want the most in order and start going down the list until you land one.

Assuming your AUs don't show, I'd get a Discover secured card. It can graduate in 7 months, sometimes earlier, sometimes longer. Then, sit back, spend a little, make perfect payments, keep a small balance on one card with the others showing zero balances and you'll be fine. You can try prequal card sites every month or two until you land one (which probably won't be for a few months at least).

IF on the other hand you're going for a bigger purchase any time in the next six months, I'd apply for nothing else and call to find out why your AUs aren't showing up. You can still get the Comenity through SCT, but no inquiries until your big purchase. CapOne is a SP for CLI but since it's secured it hasn't worked in the past. However, your "reported as unsecured" situation is new to me. There's no harm in trying for a SP CLI with them.

Again, it all comes down to risk vs reward. As much as you want the Amazon card, I wouldn't attempt until your TU shows over 650. You've taken the right steps to get to a good place. You're ready for the next level. 5% is nice, but not at the expense of your overall credit profile.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Your next steps should be determined by your goals. For example, you said you want those cards but is there anything else in the near future? Car in a couple of months? Home loan in a year? It makes a difference in how to proceed. If, on the other hand, you generally want to improve your credit to qualify for better credit over time, that's a different set of recommendations. It all comes down to risk versus reward.

Let's say you have no pending plans but just want to get better credit so you'll be ready for those big plans in a year or two or three. That would mean your strategy is to get to the perfect credit situation and sit on it for a while to accumulate history. If that's the case, you'll need two more cards and a monthly-reporting installment loan. If your student loans are reporting every month, they'll work for your installment.

Your AUs not showing is a concern. If they show, all you need is one more card in your name. If they don't show, you'll need two or three. Comenity's SCT is the easiest way to get one (and ONLY one). Loft, VS, Brylane Home, Wayfair, and J.Crew seem to be the easiest. Make a list of the ones you want the most in order and start going down the list until you land one.

Assuming your AUs don't show, I'd get a Discover secured card. It can graduate in 7 months, sometimes earlier, sometimes longer. Then, sit back, spend a little, make perfect payments, keep a small balance on one card with the others showing zero balances and you'll be fine. You can try prequal card sites every month or two until you land one (which probably won't be for a few months at least).

IF on the other hand you're going for a bigger purchase any time in the next six months, I'd apply for nothing else and call to find out why your AUs aren't showing up. You can still get the Comenity through SCT, but no inquiries until your big purchase. CapOne is a SP for CLI but since it's secured it hasn't worked in the past. However, your "reported as unsecured" situation is new to me. There's no harm in trying for a SP CLI with them.

Again, it all comes down to risk vs reward. As much as you want the Amazon card, I wouldn't attempt until your TU shows over 650. You've taken the right steps to get to a good place. You're ready for the next level. 5% is nice, but not at the expense of your overall credit profile.

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Thank you for taking the time to write out such a detailed response!

Short-term, I'm just trying to get my credit up because.. well, that's what responsible adults do, and I'm trying to be a responsible adult. Less short-term, but not quite long-term, SO and I would like to buy a house. He's got better credit than me, but I make more than him, so ideally we'd like to get my credit up so it doesn't hurt us too badly while still including my income. Realistically, I think we're looking at roughly a year on that.

My SLs are reporting each month, and 9 of them at a time, so I've definitely got the installment loan covered. I definitely do want to add to my cards, because I know that file is thin. I'll look into the Comenity SCT, but so far I haven't been able to get it to work - but I think the store I've been trying (Torrid) may not do it. I may check the Lane Bryant one though, because I THINK their cards are usable in both locations (they're sister stores, apparently). I'm worried that Comenity has me blacklisted, though - one of the cards that was CO that's since been paid was a VS card. 

As for the Amazon, I've been trying to hold out on it until CK starts telling me that Chase offers are 'good' instead of just 'fair' - I know they don't have any actual bearing, but I figure it's probably a good indicator that my score's moving into the right place. 

[rmduhon]

Before you start applying for cards, get the 7 day trial from creditchecktotal.com for your actual FICO 08 scores to see what they are. SCT can be useful, but quite often they'll leave you in toy card hell which isn't good. Pull your actual credit reports from annualcreditreport.com to see what the DoFD is on each account.

[Anonymous]

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@rmduhon wrote:
Before you start applying for cards, get the 7 day trial from creditchecktotal.com for your actual FICO 08 scores to see what they are. SCT can be useful, but quite often they'll leave you in toy card hell which isn't good. Pull your actual credit reports from annualcreditreport.com to see what the DoFD is on each account.

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DOFD on the SLs is Sept 2014 (through May 2015, if it matters), the others don't appear to be counting towards my payment history since the accounts are closed. I've been pulling one of the three from annualcreditreport every few months while I've been rebuilding, so I'm not eligible to pull any of them right now. I'll look into the creditchecktotal though!