can anything be done about charge off reporting by OC?

[chadwicks]

I just had a lender pulled score Eq of 489. Shocking! I pulled my reports and there is not a whole lot I can work on. Utilization is about 106%, I have toy limits where basically just using them puts them at the limit so I can pay that off easy enough. An old BK7 with accounts set to start falling off over the next 6 months. No lates within the past year but half a dozen or so 30 day lates last summer.

The only biggies I see that I can work with are 3 charge offs. One is 3 years old and was the overdraft account at my bank. It is long since paid. Then 2 cards that have charged off within the past 6 months & still with the OC. I was on hardship plans and lost track of the days. So they are not showing any lates just boom to charge off. I am making payments to the OC on both and one should be paid off in August. I have no collections at all. Is there anything I can do to get the OC not to report Charge off? Or any suggestions on anything I can do besides paying my cards down to get my score up? Would like to get it over 600. I have 4 open revolving accounts in good standing and one auto account in good standing.

[DaveSignal]

First, start with a good way to manage your payments so this doesn't keep happening.  I use a spreadsheet that shows due dates, statement dates, dates reported to CRA, AAoA, % util, statement util %, etc.   I have all these accounts ordered according to statement date, so I can just glance at it in order and know exactly what is coming up.  I never miss a payment.

For the derogatory reporting, you could try goodwill letters to the OC.

[Scupra]

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@DaveSignal wrote:

First, start with a good way to manage your payments so this doesn't keep happening.  I use a spreadsheet that shows due dates, statement dates, dates reported to CRA, AAoA, % util, statement util %, etc.   I have all these accounts ordered according to statement date, so I can just glance at it in order and know exactly what is coming up.  I never miss a payment.

For the derogatory reporting, you could try goodwill letters to the OC.

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May I ask if you got this spread sheet from somewhere or if you made it? I would love to have something like that! 

[Anonymous]

Dave offers some great advice, with the bankruptcy on your report and high utilization the new charge offs suggest you didn't learn your lesson with credit the first time around to potential creditors. I got some extra check book registers from my bank and made one for each of my cards, I keep it in an envelop along with the receipts for the months purchases to reconcile when the bill comes in. On the front I write the due date, payment address, closing date and online log in information so I always have it handy. Try the goodwill letters it might work, try to get your utilization down to 10% or less and then wait for the baddies to fall off. Your score will start to improve. Best of luck. And get that record keeping system started you will be glad you did. 

[DaveSignal]

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Scupra wrote:

May I ask if you got this spread sheet from somewhere or if you made it? I would love to have something like that! 

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I did make it myself in Numbers for Mac OSX.  The same data can be recorded in Excel too, or pretty much any spreadsheet application.  I know, by means of my spreadsheet, when a certain account is going to report and when statement comes out, so when it gets near that day, I check online for my statement or look at my credit report and then update my spreadsheet data.  Its all pretty straightforward.  None of the caclulations are overly complicated, but if you set out to do this and need a formula, I can give it to you.

EDIT:  another decent tracker as for current account balances is USAA's 'my accounts' page.  For anyone that is a member with USAA, you can set it up to see all of your accounts and current balances with all lenders, all on a single webpage.  I am not saying that everyone should make a spreadsheet like me, just that anyone with multiple accounts needs some kind of systematic method for keeping track of everything so that mistakes aren't made and credit is not ruined.

[apandabear]

I use a spreadsheet on the Google Docs system. I just made it myself. It is a combined budget/payment reminder system.

It shows all my bills for the month, and misc expenses like food and gas. Below my bills, I list my income (after tax) on a monthy and yearly basis. I calculate the difference between my monthly and yearly bills versus income, so I can also see expendable income. 

In the columns to the right of my bills, I keep track of payments. I have every payment for each bill made for the last 6 months (when I started tracking), and the cells turn a color when there's nothing in them. I use a lot of color coding -- colors for checking account draft, versus credit card draft, versus non-drafted payments.

You could probably make something similar to help you keep track of when your bills are due, but at a quick glance I can tell what I have paid for the month and what I haven't yet. 

[Scupra]

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@DaveSignal wrote:

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@Scupra wrote:

May I ask if you got this spread sheet from somewhere or if you made it? I would love to have something like that! 

---

I did make it myself in Numbers for Mac OSX.  The same data can be recorded in Excel too, or pretty much any spreadsheet application.  I know, by means of my spreadsheet, when a certain account is going to report and when statement comes out, so when it gets near that day, I check online for my statement or look at my credit report and then update my spreadsheet data.  Its all pretty straightforward.  None of the caclulations are overly complicated, but if you set out to do this and need a formula, I can give it to you.

EDIT:  another decent tracker as for current account balances is USAA's 'my accounts' page.  For anyone that is a member with USAA, you can set it up to see all of your accounts and current balances with all lenders, all on a single webpage.  I am not saying that everyone should make a spreadsheet like me, just that anyone with multiple accounts needs some kind of systematic method for keeping track of everything so that mistakes aren't made and credit is not ruined.

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I have just filed for chapter 7 and have my trustee meeting on the 16th of this month. I used to have a 700 score and I lost a very good job and accrued a ton of medical bills, due to a condition that hospitalized me for weeks, while not having insurance. I have been reading non stop on how to quickly rebuild credit and these forums have been an amazing help. I had good credit before but never understood the science to what makes it good/bad. I would greatly appreciate maybe a template of what you have (I own a mac and have excel too) Have a great day