Hello everyone! I wanted to give a quick thanks to all who post their stories and experiences on this forum! I have been utilizing this for a couple years now, and am very grateful for all of the input available! It has all been a tremendous help in my credit repairing journey! I wanted to give the quickest rundown of my situation possible, so here it is.....
I began attempting to fix my credit almost 2 years ago, starting in late 2014, but more diligently in the beginning of 2015. I am 27 years old. My first credit experience was when I was 18, around October 2008, I was working at Boscovs seasonally and they offered us all credit cards, mine had a $300 limit. My boyfriend at the time, who I ended up marrying, ( biggest mistake of my life; he was also 6 years older than me ), had a baby on the way from a previous girlfriend ( and YES i know, I should have ran for the hills! ) So, I would buy some stuff for the baby. (Not to get too personal into my life, but I will put it this way, he had some other problems, and I was a fool for sticking around as long as I did, 5 years ) Well, Boscovs gave cash back for returns, needless to say, we began to use the card irresponsibly. I had a good history with the card for approx.4-6 months?......My next credit activity was around the same time as this credit card, I cannot remember if it was before or after, Im thinking after, but my dad was a member of our local credit union, and got me into it also. As I was saying sometime in 2008 we (my dad and I ) opened up a joint personal loan for 1500, which we almost paid off and then borrowed another 1500 to help out with my wedding, reborrowing on that loan around 05/2011. I had 4 student loans taken out in 2010 for nursing school, 2 with Dept of Edu/ Great Lakes, and 2 with AES/ my credit union. SO, my credit report around that time had;
1. HSBC/ Boscovs Card $300
2. BAECU $1500 personal loan
3 AES/BAECU student loan
4 AES/BAECU student loan
5 USDEPTofEDU/GREAT LAKES student loan
6 USDEPTofEDU/GREAT LAKES student loan
7 BAECU $1700 personal loan
8. BAECU $1500 (i believe 1500) xmas loan cosigned by my mom
this is around 01/11
fast forward to later in the year, and add
8. BAECU auto loan, $12,500 joint account with my dad. (Opened in 03/11)
this auto loan was closed in Aug. 2012, due to a not at fault accident where the other partys insurance had paid off my totaled jeep.
9 Northwest Consumer loan $1000 i think, for the wedding. 04/11 approx. when opened
10. Verizon Wireless line opened in approx. 05/11
So, when I began to work on my credit in 2014/2015, this is what was all on my credit report
My credit karma scores in 2014 when i first began to take charge were approx 450 
!!!
The boscovs card was a collection account then, which had been sold off at least 2 or 3 times, my student loans both had late payments showing, the personal loans were all paid off, each showing one 30 day late payment, the auto loan was paid as agreed, no lates or derogs on that account, northwest consumer was a collection, verizon a collection to a new collection company. ...............As you can tell, my credit report was a mess, a prime example of how not to handle credit!
And this is how my repair has went down, in 09/14, I contacted the collection company, Account Control Technologies, who was servicing my AES student loan, and I entered into the rehabilitation program, which I successfully completed in 06/15...... The student loan I had with Great Lakes never defaulted, and although I had many lates in the past, I began paying on it again regularly and continue to still,....in 10/14, I was finally approved for a credit card, Victorias Secret really got me on the ball when they extended to me a $250 credit line, ( I applied in store and was told they couldnt process it at that time and I would have something in the mail in 7-10 days, a denial, I was certain,....until it came and they needed to verify some info, I called, answered some questions and was approved for it! I was in such complete shock and was ecstatic, there was a chance for me again! ) In 03/15, I obtained a Capital One secured card with a $200 limit, which was what I had funded, $200, so they were not extending me any credit at all!! In 12/15, I against my better judgment gave in to a cashier at JCP, who made me aware of the discounts i could save on my purchase if I applied for the card,.... I had been denied in the past by Penneys and since I was working on my credit and better informed about hard inquiries, I really let myself down when I said Okay, but to my surprise, I was approved for a $300 limit, which was at least not a denial.In 01/16, I began using Sky Bue Repair to help clean up collection accounts that were still reporting due to collection companies redating the HSBC card among other things. I used the SCT and received a $250 buckle card, a $500 express card, used another hard inquiry and obtained a $300 nordstroms card, and a $300 Capital One GM buypower card.
My credit is now a 612 with experian, approx. 600 with equifax and 610 with transunion ( all via CreditCheckTotal.com, as required by my SKy Blue account ) My score flucuates often due to my disputes and stuff coming on and off, I forgot to mention I had approx. 12 medical collections, ranging from $63 to $449, all of which are removed from both experian and transunion, yet remain somehow on Equifax. I guess now my best bet is just to let Sky Blue finish off with their end of things while I garden my new cards to age a bit?
The main thing harming my credit now, is 60, 90, 120 lates on my Great Lakes account from 10/11, 11/11, 12/11, 01/12, 02/12, 03/12, which oddly enough I have recieved a letter right from Great Lakes stating that my account was in forbearance from 07/11 till 06/12, which is my current battle attempting to dispute these lates,.....if successful, I will only have (2) 30 day lates from around 2010 on my credit report,...which are on closed personal loans. Oh, and I guess also a few lates on my AES loans that show now closed, transferred to another lender. I read somewhere though, that after you successfully complete the student loan rehab, that the delinquent notation is removed, but any past lates will still show, but that the previous loan holder can remove the lates if they choose to? Any idea if that info is correct?
Thank you to those of you who go through the boredom reading this whole post, I guess my question is just, whether or not to stay in the garden for a while? And, if I have success in having the Great Lakes lates removed, approx how much do you think my score will jump? My goal is to be in the range to buy a house in when Im 30, ( 3 years away), and to get away from Capital One and move on to a lender like Discover, or American Express, or someone like that....thank you
Your correct about the lates remaining. Perhaps GWing will be successful. Gardening sounds good. You have several Comenity cards that you could work on CLIs through the robotlady. I've been able to utilize that to get my limits up. Congrats on your progress...and your continued success.
Def keep.trying the GWs. Sometimes it takes several attempts but they can be successful.
