So i've had quite a week. We are looking to purchase a new home, and I had some dings on my credit. We moved away from auto pay to my wife paying the bills. This isn't really her fault. I requested paper statements for her, that's what she wanted, they didn't come. So I had built my score up to just shy of 700 (fico 8) and it dropped to mid 5's in the span of a month. years of hard work, gone.
Fast forward a bit, we want to move, but I know credit's going to be a problem. Sure enough, lender looks at Fico 2, and although VA mortgages aren't really score dependent, the loan originators still want 620+ so they can then sell off the mortgage.
So here's what I had:
1 Charge off from 2009
3 30d lates with NFCU
2 30d lates with Cap1
1 30d late with Barclays
1 Collections (medical)
High utilization
Got some good news at the start of the week. As the charge off was coming up on 7 years from DOFD, Experian removed it!
Next, the NFCU issue got squared away. There was a title issue on an auto refinance; the originator didn't provide paperwork, NFCU dropped the ball on paperwork. Next thing you know, the loan converted to an unsecured personal loan at a ridiculous interest rate. Got the title worked out, and NFCU was kind enough to apply the difference in payment to principle! Took 5k off of my principle, and I don't have to make a payment until december. Not only that, the 30d lates related to how NFCU handled billing on the loan. They removed 2 30d lates because of it, and the third was removed because the payment was misapplied! So that's 3 30d lates removed.
When I logged in to Cap1, they were showing the account as current, but the CRAs were showing it as delinquent. Spoke with Cap1, they saw the problem, and claimed to send an update to the CRAs. While I had them, I asked if they could forgive the late payment oversight from March, and they were gracious enough to do it. All this was done via a chat window, BTW. Here's the caveat: Although the agent said they would be sending things immediately, turns out they did not, and it won't get sent until the regular reporting period, which is tomorrow.
Next, Barclays. Asked nicely if they could forgive the late fee from March. Got a thorough tongue lashing about 'you know we have auto payment' 'you know we have statements online' 'at any rate, you've been a great customer, be happy to do this for you.' This was a phone call on my commute home. That updates on the 10th.
The collection account was a medical account, paid it and they reported quickly.
So, since April, and really most of this activity was this week, my score has gone from 547 to 639 so far. Cap1 and Barclays haven't reported yet.
Next week i'm paying the cards off. Since our home is on the market, the plan was to take a good chunk of the net and pay off debt, so to get things moving I took a loan against my 401k to pay everything off, that will be done by wednesday.
I have open disputes currently on Cap1 and Barclays regarding how they did not send me paper statements when requested. But they are sending good standing status updates to the CRAs anyway, so I'm not sure how that will play out. Maybe it will force a mid cycle update?
Fingers crossed that I cross that 620 threshold for the mortgage. i'm feeling fairly confident with no delinquencies, no 30d lates in the last 2 years, and <10% utilization.
So what happens next? How does one tend the garden from here on out?
I have 4 credit cards, don't want any more.
I have a few years left on my car, i'm good.
Hopefully this house will work better for the family and we can stay here 10 years or forever.
My wife and I are planning on each of us using 1 card for incidentals and paying it down to <10% - not off. i'm going to find out the exact reporting date for my lenders to see what day they report, as i've read here that it's not always the statement date. So may be a combination of auto pay and sending an additional small payment on particular dates?
Any other thoughts? i'd like to see my credit lines increase, and my interest rates go down.
