Where do I start? Trying to fix and build my credit

[RebuildTowardsTheFuture]

Hello Everyone!

New to the board but loving the information I've seen so far!

I'm in the process of repairing my credit and building up my score.

I currently have:  Experian 551    Equifax 575    TransUnion 565

I've recently have 3 collections added to my report. I just sent out vaildation letters to all.

I just rencently got 2 secure credit cards.

1 - Wells Fargo for $500 limit

2 - Captional One for $200 limit

-

I have a open

Best Buy Card with $500 limit but hasn't been used in atleast a year.

Sear's Card with $4,800.00 limit but hasn't been used in years.

What do I need to do next?

Should I start using all credit card keeping it below 30%?

Should I add more money to the Wells Fargo Secure Card?

What can I do to my credit report?

Thanks in advance!

Brandon

[tbucket101]

Curious about the suggestions, in a similar boat....good luck.

[guiness56]

---

@RebuildTowardsTheFuture wrote:

Hello Everyone!

New to the board but loving the information I've seen so far!

I'm in the process of repairing my credit and building up my score.

I currently have:  Experian 551    Equifax 575    TransUnion 565

I've recently have 3 collections added to my report. I just sent out vaildation letters to all.

I just rencently got 2 secure credit cards.

1 - Wells Fargo for $500 limit

2 - Captional One for $200 limit

-

I have a open

Best Buy Card with $500 limit but hasn't been used in atleast a year.

Sear's Card with $4,800.00 limit but hasn't been used in years.

What do I need to do next?

Should I start using all credit card keeping it below 30%?

Should I add more money to the Wells Fargo Secure Card?

What can I do to my credit report?

Thanks in advance!

Brandon

---

Hi and welcome to the forums.

You have plenty of CC.  You need to use them and make on time payments for 6 months to a year.  This will build up good payment history.  Let all but one report 0 balances and the other report at 9% or below.  This gives optimum scores.  You will need to know when your CC report to the CRAs.

Where did you get your scores?  Are they FICO?

Go to annualcreditreport.com.  You get a free report every 12 months from each CRA.

If the collections come back validated, ask for a PFD.

Do you have any late payments?  If so, ask for a GW removal.

Your good on time payment history is what is most of your score.  That and utilzation of your revolving.

[diva_1515]

Hi Brandon,

I'm in the same boat. Your scores are better than a lot of us here, it sounds like you are on the right track. I would suggest using your cards, a lot of comapnies have started closing the accounts of people who don't utilize them.

[RebuildTowardsTheFuture]

If the collections come back validated, ask for a PFD.

PFD format? or What does this stand for?

[RebuildTowardsTheFuture]

Yes.

This is what happen to me and I think it dropped my score by 10-20 points atleast. I have 3 major CC with good limits but never used them so they closed them out on me Now my score is low and I can't get any as of yet. Unless someone here knows differently.

So I should use about 30% of best buy, sears and the 2 CC's? Making on time payments. That's about all I can do?

I have only 4 inquiries for late payments.

I got 2 taken off. I still need to get Captial One off and HSBC off.

How about increase in credit it self? Like auto loan or adding more to the secure cards?

[jgbishop]

Sorry to but in but can comeone help me out... PFD is an acronym I don't recognize. Can someone expand on it a little?

ETA: Scratch that. Just read a little on the above threads

[guiness56]

PFD - Pay for Delete.  You can look at the link in my signature for Common Abbreviations.

You can use all of your CC if you want.  Just have all but one be reported to the CRAs with 0 balances and the other reported at 9% or below.  You will need to know when they report or your statement dates in order to do this.  Once the one is reported at 9% or below, pay it off before the due date to avoid interest charges.

CLs don't help your FICO score by themselves.  FICO doesn't score them.  How a CLI would help is if you had high utilization and the CLI would drop your utilization and bring up your score.  This isn't your case.

It isn't how many cards you have or how high the balances are but how you manage them.

If you have no installment loans, one would help in mix of credit.

What do you mean get Cap1 and HSBC taken off?  You didn't mention those.

[RebuildTowardsTheFuture]

I have a old Cap1 and HSBC card that are closed but they are the only late payments left on my CR.

[guiness56]

If they only have late payments I wouldn't try to get them removed.  It could do more harm than good by messing up your AAoA.

Each late will be removed 7 years from its occurence.  When the last one is removed the TL will become positive again and stay for up to 10 years from the date closed.  The TL could even stay longer depending on the CRA.

If they were 30 or 60 days late they have no impact after about 2 years.