Where do i go from here...

[mcranch720]

Oh man. Just got off the phone with Experian, trying to locate the lates of an old express card. Apparently they are showing lates from Dec 07 all the way through Apr 08, brought back current may/june 08; and then lates Jul 08-to Jan 09 when it was charged off. What the heck was I doing?? no activity till January 2012, where I paid $7.80 and closed the account. I did this when I noticed the account was still active through my pulled report 02/04/12 and immediately went to local express and asked to pay balance (yep, balance was just $7.80). I am trying to go through my history and make things accurate, so I disputed this, as well as asked for statements from Comentity archives (sent in the mail a couple days ago). I have read a ton on this site, and am so grateful to have such a great source of info as I try to educate myself. Any advice or light shed on situations like this is appreciated!! apparently the date of charge off is january 2009 according to Experian.

[Drsgwld]

The best thing to do is payoff small bills first and get them gone. Then tackle the ones that are large. Do not pay a min payment. Keep it within your budget. Don't let good creditors slide to kill a beast. Just chop away. Ask the lender if they will do a goodwill if you pay them off. Once they have zero balance, ask those lenders who did not give you a good will. Also, any errors of any kind you can ask to be removed. If dates or balances are wrong, dispute with the bureaus they have reported. Be patient and keep whittling a way. You will be free!

[mcranch720]

thank you so much for the advice and encouragement!!

I have no accounts due cc wise - just $40,000 in student loans (graduating this weekend!) that i plan to start paying off next month. The main issue Im having is correcting my history. Two cc accounts closed, zero balances, but with a bunch of lates. Need to look around forum to formulate GW letters, just trying to validate the occurences at this point due to the length of time that has passed. Kicking myself for closing them, since now my only 2 ccs I just app'd for last week. Looking forward to progress though! Read all 36 pages of P-'s credit journey, very inspiring.

You are all AMAZING and i am so thankful to have such a great resource!

[spike69]

If the COs are paid in full and zero balance take a look on CR to see DoFD. They may be falling off soon. My understanding from reading the boards is that Commenity can be a tough nut to crack... That said you could still try to GW them to delete. In the mean time, build new positive trade lines- if your scores are very low that may mean secured cards while you build some positive history with the cards and your SL payments.

best to you in your rebuilding journey!!

[mcranch720]

Thank you so much!! I am really looking forward to an accurate CR.

If validation confirms, DOFD looks to be Jul 08 - so another year. Comenity has been great over the phone so far- talked to multiple staff levels trying to figure out all the confusion on the account. Not a fan of being the middleman for EX and cc, but being positive about it.  That being said, I have yet to ask for lates removals since I am trying to figure out what happened to the account. The guilt in bringing up old accounts gets to me (anyone else ever struggle with this?) Guess I need to be patient, wait and see the statements then go from there.

The only other account that has lates is one I know about - occurred this last fall. Credit1 Bank... anyone have luck with GWs on closed accounts? I paid it of without knowing you could PFD. Also requested it to be closed, yet is reporting closed by credit granter. How bad does this affect CR? (gonna look in forums) Also, did I even have a choice in asking it to be closed since it was late (90 days)?

another issue I need to research and work out is ulilization of new cc's (350 VS and 500 Barclaycard). Would rather pay entire balance after every use, but not sure if thats the most effective in terms of CS?

[spike69]

You will have to wait to know what Commenity has before knowing what to do with he old credit. I've seen mixred outcomes with Credit One- some have gotten GW removals. For current credit use as need but keep utilization unde 10%. The trick is to know when the CCs report. I have two Cap One accounts. One is new. I thought the cut/ report on the same date but I was wrong. Will take a hit as the cut/report date had me at 50% utilization. Lesson learned. Utilization and revolving credit is a large portion of the FICO scoring model.

[mcranch720]

Thank you for the reply!

Is it pretty standard for cc to report at the time of statement date? A little hesitant to leave balances on cc's, my plan was to pay PIF after transactions (keep 6-7% on one card as balance), but if I were able to PIF a week before statement date that would reduce a lot of effort on my part. Then again, rebuilding is ment to take effort!

How are you able to determine their report date if its different than statement date?

[buildafico]

if comenity was reporting you a bunch of lates for an $8 balance, I would probably call them and try to GW for them to remove them, i suspect that any new credit you apply for a recon call and a manual review will probably be your best friend.

[cobbson]

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@mcranch720 wrote:

Thank you for the reply!

Is it pretty standard for cc to report at the time of statement date? A little hesitant to leave balances on cc's, my plan was to pay PIF after transactions (keep 6-7% on one card as balance), but if I were able to PIF a week before statement date that would reduce a lot of effort on my part. Then again, rebuilding is ment to take effort!

How are you able to determine their report date if its different than statement date?

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I use the Experian "View your report again" tab on their website. They provide you with an updated, to the minute credit report. gratis. for many months after you receive your free annual report from them, showing your balance as  last reported. If it is the same as your statement, you know that they are reporting the statement ending balance. Other than US Bank which reports the balance as of the last day of the month, all my cards report statement balance. Takes a minute to do this. 

Of you're unsure, send them a message or email or telephone call and the lender can give you the answer, no problem.

[mcranch720]

Wow thank you so much for the info!!

Why did I not find this site sooner. You all ROCK!