Working Towards 700 Club

[rebuildingincb]

Journey To A Mortgage:

Hi all, I just joined last week and am on a journey to refinance my home.

Current Scores: EQ: 566 TU: 604 (as of 5/6/13)

A few years ago, I lost a business in the home building industry. My truck was repossessed, and I had numerous accounts go into collections. I am finally starting to rebuild, and purchased my condo last month. It is owner financed but I want to refi in 12-18mos.

Here are a few facts about my credit as of now:

6 accounts in Collections totaling $1643. I recently paid one of them off, had another removed due to them not being able to verify the account, and am working on verification of the others. All of these are cell phone, insurance, utility, and medical type bills.

I also have to civil judgements in PR. Both were for suppliers I had accounts with who got the judgements after I lost my biz. One is dated 11/06, the other is 3/07. From what I understand, these will fall off my credit soon. I realize I will still owe the debt, but my main goal is to get my score to 700 asap. These total $5600

Current Cards in my wallet:

Credit One Bank: CL: $400 Balance: $304 Opened 3/12 no late payments
Helzberg (Cap1): CL: $2100 Balance: $1555 Opened 12/12 no late payments
First Premier: CL: $300 Balance: $0 (just paid off last week) Opened 7/12 no late payments
Capitol One Secured: CL: $200 Balance $136 just opened, not on my report yet

My plan is to get all collections verified (I think one is a duplicate), try to negotiate PFD's, and pay them all off. Also, I am going to get my CC utilization down to 10% or less asap.

I am in the market for a vehicle, but am unsure if getting a new $20k loan on my credit will hurt or help me. I assume over time it will help if I pay on time as agreed.

I am shooting for 700 so I can get a good rate on my mortgage. Any advice will be much appreciated.

[rebuildingincb]

Update: Just paid off Credit One Bank balance $306. This brings me to approx 56% utilization. :-)

Next up will be attacking Helzberg $1500 balance, hoping to pay this down over a few months (maybe 4) as well as pay off some of my collections (after verifying and requesting PFD of course)

[rebuildingincb]

Update:

Had added the new secured card with a $201 limit, used $179 of it. Just paid that off before the statement came out (actually nothing has been reported to CR yet) and added $99 deposit to it, bringing my limit up to $300. Along with other recent payments, my utilization is now 47% according to my math. :-)

[txmomma26]

Congrats on your progress so far!

[rebuildingincb]

Thanks! Looks like you made fast progess on yours with similar scores as a starting point. Care to share what you did to climb quickly over only a few months? (looking at your signature I assume that was this year?)

[txmomma26]

Mine wasn't too awful - I had 4-5 collections on each report that I was able to PFD and were all small amounts.  I have 2 COs and a repo from 2007-2008 time frame.  The COs were paid back in 2009, so there's very little I can do there with the lates or charged off accounts.  I'm working to GW them to death, but not having any luck.  The repo has the OC and had a CA/Junk Debt Buyer. The repo is showing a $0 balance because they sold the debt.  The JDB that was listed no longer owned the account and the new CA that had purchased it hadn't reported yet.  The old JDB deleted when I complained to them, as I was paying the new CA. I paid that (settled for less) and they agreed not to report.  I also went on a major app spree and opened up a bunch of new cards.  I had been cash only since 2007, so I took a pretty decent hit for inquiries and such, but since everything is now 3-6 months old, my scores are on the climb. Now it's just waiting til late 2014 for the 2 COs and the repo to fall off.

[rebuildingincb]

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@txmomma26 wrote:

Mine wasn't too awful - I had 4-5 collections on each report that I was able to PFD and were all small amounts.  I have 2 COs and a repo from 2007-2008 time frame.  The COs were paid back in 2009, so there's very little I can do there with the lates or charged off accounts.  I'm working to GW them to death, but not having any luck.  The repo has the OC and had a CA/Junk Debt Buyer. The repo is showing a $0 balance because they sold the debt.  The JDB that was listed no longer owned the account and the new CA that had purchased it hadn't reported yet.  The old JDB deleted when I complained to them, as I was paying the new CA. I paid that (settled for less) and they agreed not to report.  I also went on a major app spree and opened up a bunch of new cards.  I had been cash only since 2007, so I took a pretty decent hit for inquiries and such, but since everything is now 3-6 months old, my scores are on the climb. Now it's just waiting til late 2014 for the 2 COs and the repo to fall off.

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Very similar situation. I have a repo from about the same time, with 6 collections (disputed one and they are removing). Sent 3 PFD (one replied to remove the collection as they could not verify), the other 2 only verified. Paid another off already (was electric bill and never thought to ask for deletion just paid it so I could get new service

[rebuildingincb]

Updated my score last night hoping for a boost, EQ was only up 3 points. 569. My new balances aren't reflected yet, and my new card isn't on it yet either. Going to pay off one of the collections this coming week, then put a couple hundred on that Helzberg balance next week.

I did a credit score from Credit Sesame for Experian (FAKO I know), and it was 646. My TU (myFICO) is still 604 as of 5/10.

[rebuildingincb]

UPDATE:

I haven't had a personal bank account since I lost everything back in 2007-2008 (housing crisis, lost my business). I opened a business account a little over a year ago because I have a small side business I build websites, do SEO, and manage social media for a few clients.

Anyway, I found I was eligible to get an account with Corning Credit Union (my employer has commercial accounts with them). So I went in and opened a share and a checking account. It is amazing how something so simple can be so liberating!

I talked to the lady that opened my account(s) and she informed me they have business accounts as well, so I may move my business accounts to them as well. I made an appointment to meet with their loan officer to talk about my goals. He was very nice, and very helpful. We went over my credit report (EQ, which BTW was exactly the same score as myFICO reported, 569) and what steps to take next. I am going to put some funds in my share (savings) account and open a secured card from them over the next few weeks. Then I will continue working towards paying and/or removing all collections and lowering my utilization.

Overall, the experience was very good. I am looking forward to a continued relationship with my credit union.

[kywymy]

Congratulations on the new bank account.  All progress forward is a good thing.