You know you have bad credit when.....

[Anonymous]

Let's see.... I was asked to provide a co-maker for a Secured Credit Card. This was 2 weeks ago.

Today I was turned down for a Share Secured Loan because of my credit. Well, **bleep**, Sherlock - if I had good credit why would I even be asking for a Share Secured Loan? It was a request for a $2,000 loan and I have $7,500 on deposit in that Credit Union.

75 days to go before all the baddies age off my credit report and I still can't even borrow my own money.

[MrsCHX]

Do you know why your scores have dropped so much in a month??

So you only have 3 derogs that are all pretty much 7 years old and are stuck below 600?? So weird. Do you have lots of installment loan debt?

Have you called and asked for early exclusion on the derogs? 

[Anonymous]

That was going to be my next question - how do I go about getting EE? I don't see anything anywhere on the CRA sites for it.

Why are my scores so low and why did they drop all of a sudden? Those are both good questions. There was a 40 point drop in 2017 because I paid of my car loan 2 years early with never a late payment. The drop before that was 60 points in early 2016 when I paid off my mortgage (7 years early) with never a late payment. The derogs are all from 2010 when my financial world collapsed. I have had lots of threads looking fort the why and how my scores only seem to go lower and lower. I even tried the SSL and Secured Credit Card things - my Credit Union wants a comaker on the Secured Card (with 110% of the credit limit in the account giving the security) and just turned me down for a secured loan.

In summary, when I owed $90,000 on a mortgage and car loan my scores were 100 points higher than today when I owe nothing. The fcat that I owe nothing just means I won't be making a payment on either next month and am therefore a bad risk of defaulting.

[MrsCHX]

Ah. You're being dinged for not having an open installment loan. It stinks. 

As for EE, I think one of the bureaus may have a dispute option that it's obsolete or too old to be on file. Otherwise you have to call, ask for a supervisor, and ask for early exclusion. Go for all of them regardless of the dates. You never know! 

I had 2 judgments and 1 was within 6 months and I asked TU to delete that one and they deleted both.

[enjoimorenow]

you can get shared secure loans without a credit check through some credit unions like navy federal for example.  You can also use self lender and they don't run a credit check.

Have you tried to apply for a capital one card?  How about discover secured?

If you truly can't get a secured card then you can do open sky which does not run a credit check.

The reason your scores went down is because you have no accounts open, which hurts your scores.  Yes it is dumb, but having no debt is as bad to your credit score as having too much debt.  In order to increase your scores you need some open accounts reporting.  I'm sure you will get a pretty good bump if you open an installment loan and get a revolving account reporting.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

That was going to be my next question - how do I go about getting EE? I don't see anything anywhere on the CRA sites for it.

Why are my scores so low and why did they drop all of a sudden? Those are both good questions. There was a 40 point drop in 2017 because I paid of my car loan 2 years early with never a late payment. The drop before that was 60 points in early 2016 when I paid off my mortgage (7 years early) with never a late payment. The derogs are all from 2010 when my financial world collapsed. I have had lots of threads looking fort the why and how my scores only seem to go lower and lower. I even tried the SSL and Secured Credit Card things - my Credit Union wants a comaker on the Secured Card (with 110% of the credit limit in the account giving the security) and just turned me down for a secured loan.

In summary, when I owed $90,000 on a mortgage and car loan my scores were 100 points higher than today when I owe nothing. The fcat that I owe nothing just means I won't be making a payment on either next month and am therefore a bad risk of defaulting.

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As others have noted, you're being caught in the classic "how do I get a loan without having the credit, and how do I get the credit without having a loan" issue.

Fortunately, the solution is simpler than you think - you're using the wrong credit union

Alliant Credit Union should be your go-to for the SSL - we have details here on exactly how easy they are to work with

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I think you might want to concentrate on adding an installment loan to your credit profile.

Probably https://www.selflender.com/ is your best shot. I believe they do not even require any score to open an account.  It is a loan but they hold all funds till its paid and it will add an installment loan to your report.

Good luck

[Anonymous]

I will also throw in my 👍 for Self Lender. I couldn't qualify for a traditional loan, and didn't have the cash on hand for Alliant. I've been VERY pleased with my experience with SL, and the bump it gave my scores. I can also vouch for Open Sky...it is a solid card, and no HP. If you get those and let them age for a few months, it should put you in a decent position for a Discover or Cap One secured (both of which graduate with good history) or a Credit One unsecured. Just a few options!

[Anonymous]

Selflender is a great option if you don't have $500 that you can tie up for about a month to work the SSL...the disadvantages being that you'll pay more in interest and have a LOT higher payments over the life of the loan vs. the Alliant SSL

[Anonymous]

Everyone encouraging him to get a SSL - that is what he is talking about in his OP that he was denied for.