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Hey guys, this is going to be a somewhat long post. I'm not very good at making things flow with words, more of a straight to the point type of guy, so most of the information I am going to post will be in a bullet format, with my questions at the end. All of my information comes from the USAA credit monitoring service unless otherwise noted.
Current cards/balance/limits/interest
USAA MC / 4950 / 5000 / 11.65+prime
USAA VISA / 660 / 1000 / 18.65+prime
Walmart store card / 120 / 140 / something high
Capital one junk card / 300 / 300 / 0% until 7/14
Current installment debt
USAA auto loan, 12k balance, 16% interest
Subsidized student loan, 7k balance, still in school
First off, I would like to know what the best way to pay off my credit cards is. I will be getting a check for $4100 in ten days. (not my tax return, I wish I got a return like that!) My plan is to pay off the USAA visa (660 balance), the capital one card (300 balance, I know its 0%, but I dont like having that card report as 100% utilization), and the rest of the money will go towards my USAA MC (4900 balance). This should leave me with a 1760 balance on my largest card, and a 0 balance on all of my cards except my Walmart card. The reason I do not plan on paying off the walmart card, is that I would like to keep this account open. Last month I had a 1000 dollar limit on that card, but I am assuming they did a soft pull and didnt like what they saw, so they dropped my CL to 140. I don't use this card often, 138 dollars was the highest balance it had in awhile (I bought a tank of gas and a new battery before a road trip). I really like the free TU fico score, and am hoping that after paying down these balances and possibly good willing some things, they will give me an increase in my credit limit and quit trying to get rid of me. Does anyone think this is possible? Or am I better paying off the card, keeping my fingers crossed they keep it open, and reapplying in 6 months if they do close it?
Secondly, I have 2 negatives listed on my credit report. Here is a copy/paste of the info from my report.
You have 2 Account(s) Listed Negative on your Credit Report. This means that at some point you were late or failed to pay on the account as agreed.
The worst payment status ever listed on your Credit Report was Failed to Pay.
It has been 0.5 Years since the last time negative information was listed on one of your accounts.
INSTALLMENTS | |||
Experian® | Equifax® | TransUnion® | |
Count | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Balance | $19,024.00 | $19,157.00 | $19,024.00 |
Current | 7 | 9 | 10 |
Delinquent | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Other | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Potentially Negative Information An item is "Potentially Negative" when a creditor reports that you have not met the terms of your agreement. This may include late payments, charged off accounts, accounts sent to collection, bankruptcies, liens, judgments, etc. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Is anyone able to look at that and tell me what 2 accounts are being listed as negative? I had no idea I owed the VA anything, and will look further into that. And as far as the bestbuy card, I was late on a couple payments, but never over the limit(limit was 1800). I paid the card off and they closed it soon after. I am still unsure of how I let my USAA card report over the limit. All in all I am just very confused as to which accounts are being listed as negative, and who I need to contact to attempt to GW those accounts.
My ultimate goal is to have a 0 balance on all of my cards, with the exception of the 5k limit USAA card, I want to get that to below 10%.
My second goal is to be able to refinance the terrible interest rate on my auto loan. I obtained that loan 2 months ago, USAA said they only gave me the loan because I have excellent auto loan payment history with them.
I'm sorry if this was hard to read, but I do appreciate the time you took to read it, and appreciate any advice you have. Thanks!
Current TU 623,
I found some more information in my report in regards to which accounts are listed as negative.
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These are the only accounts that are not listed as CURRENT or CURRENT/CLOSED.
It says Government Overpayment, and balance as 0. I'm assuming this is something to do with my tuition assistance I get for being in the military, but do I have any leverage in getting this removed? I had no idea I owed anything or I would have made an attempt to pay it. I have never not paid something, a few lates here and there, but I have never just blantanly ignored the fact that I owed money to someone.
I also would like some contact information for usaa and capital one. Good luck in your endeavors.
@Ferrarif50_1985 wrote:I also would like some contact information for usaa and capital one. Good luck in your endeavors.
I don't know if this information is still current, but here is who I sent a goodwill letter to a few years ago with great success.
USAA
Robert G Davis
Chairman & CEO
10750 Mcdermott Freeway
San Antonio, TX 78288
Mr. Davis actually called me one afternoon and had a half hour conversation about my letter and asking me how things were going in life (I maxed out a card when I was 19 to help pay for some of my mothers medical bills, and explained that in my GW letter). I was so thankful of their generosity, and have been as loyal as possible to them ever since.
@chancep wrote:I found some more information in my report in regards to which accounts are listed as negative.
EPT OF VETERANS AFFAI Potentially Negative
More Account DetailsExperian® Equifax® TransUnion® Account Name DEPT OF VETERANS AFFAI VETERAN'S ADMN No Data Returned
For This BureauAccount # XXXX XXXX Account Type Government Overpayment Installment Balance $0.00 Date Opened 10/1/2012 10/1/2012
US DEPT VETS Potentially Negative Closed
More Account DetailsExperian® Equifax® TransUnion® Account Name No Data Returned
For This BureauNo Data Returned
For This BureauUS DEPT VETS Account # XXXX Account Type Open account Balance $0.00 Date Opened 10/1/2012
These are the only accounts that are not listed as CURRENT or CURRENT/CLOSED.
It says Government Overpayment, and balance as 0. I'm assuming this is something to do with my tuition assistance I get for being in the military, but do I have any leverage in getting this removed? I had no idea I owed anything or I would have made an attempt to pay it. I have never not paid something, a few lates here and there, but I have never just blantanly ignored the fact that I owed money to someone.
Hi there! Thank you for your service!
First things first, call the VA and find out what the heck that debt is, and explain exactly the way you did to us where you said: "I had no idea I owed anything or I would have made an attempt to pay it. I have never not paid something, a few lates here and there, but I have never just blantanly ignored the fact that I owed money to someone." Perhaps you'll find someone willing to remove this account from collections with your agreement to pay the bill in full (assuming it IS a debt that you owe)
Secondly: Contact Credit Solutions:GECRB -Credit Solutions 877-379-8173 about your Walmart account and ask them to please restore your limit. Explain to them what you're doing, and that you don't intend to carry balances any longer, and that this was a short term/ one time thing. I hear they are pretty good about giving reasonable limits to people. (you can also try pressing the request increase button on the Walmart site first) That way, if they're willing to help you out, you can pay the bill with out worrying about them balance chasing you.
For the Best Buy account, I don't know what, if any thing you can do about them. You can try to send them a good will letter to remove the lates, but they may choose to remove the entire tradeline all together which could hurt your average age of accounts. (Note, if you try to write to them, they are owned by Citi now, and not Capital One)
Other than that, I like your idea of paying off the small cards, and then applying the rest to your biggest debt owed to get that down. If you can work with Walmart, you're looking at paying 1080 on your little accounts, leaving $2920 for that larger USAA account, which would bring it down to $2030 (I like to put the numbers down for myself, as it helps me gather my thoughts along the way). If you get your account to that, your UTL will drop on that account from 99% (anything over 80% is usually considered maxed out) to 41%. By doing that, your scores should increase by a LOT. More so if you can keep a 0 balance on all of those accounts and let no more than $450 ever report on that USAA account. (that would give you the most optimal mix of balances to get the highest score possible out of your credit cards)
Once you do all of that as you planned, keep an eye on your credit report. You can use free sites such as quizzle, creditkarma.com, creditsesame, credit.com to monitor your accounts to see when your payments post. The scores are junk, but what you want out of those sites is to see when your payments post and update to your credit reports. Once they do, ask for credit limit increases on your accounts. That will help your utilization even more.
Best of luck to you, and please let us know how this all turns out for you!
(Sorry for such a wordy reply as well as any typos/spelling snafus!)
Thanks for the reply Notfancy.
No luck with the walmart cli. I think they may have actually done a hardpull over the phone. Not too happy about how much they DIDNT want to work with me at all. I'm going to pay the card off and if they close it, I could care less at this point.
On the phone with the VA's hold system currently...
@chancep wrote:Thanks for the reply Notfancy.
No luck with the walmart cli. I think they may have actually done a hardpull over the phone. Not too happy about how much they DIDNT want to work with me at all. I'm going to pay the card off and if they close it, I could care less at this point.
On the phone with the VA's hold system currently...
Sorry to hear about Walmart. I hope they didn't do a HP.
Good luck with the VA!
Also, I sent you a private message with some info for you to use later once these accounts are all paid and reported.
Just got off the phone with the VA, I had a debt, but 4 months after the debt was created it was paid off by them with holding benefits I was supposed to recieve the next semester. They told me that the accounts should be listed as "current and paid" on my credit report". I asked them if there was a way that they could correct the information on their end and they said my only option is to dispute it and then they will change it. Does that sound right?
@chancep wrote:Just got off the phone with the VA, I had a debt, but 4 months after the debt was created it was paid off by them with holding benefits I was supposed to recieve the next semester. They told me that the accounts should be listed as "current and paid" on my credit report". I asked them if there was a way that they could correct the information on their end and they said my only option is to dispute it and then they will change it. Does that sound right?
It sounds lazy, but I'd do as they suggested. Also make sure you noted the time, date of the call and who you spoke to in case you need to follow up.
Can anyone look at the information I posted from my report and tell me what exactly is hurting my score and what is not affecting it? My report says I have two 60 day lates and that is all thats negative. Could both of those be the late payment on the bestbuy card 6 months ago? One to experian and one to equifax? Or is one the bestbuy card incident and the other is something else? I'm under the impression that since my negative things are 60 day lates, it couldn't be talking about the VA issue since that never had a payment system in place.