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tips on improving score, secured credit cards, secured loan, auto?

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Anonymous
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tips on improving score, secured credit cards, secured loan, auto?

I need advice on building my credit. I have been paying attention to my credit for the past year, opened 2 secured credit cards in Feb (first progress $1000 cl, opensky $400 cl) and then got in financial trouble where I was unable to pay anything until July. both cards ended up going over 90 days late, and first progress up to $1168 and opensky $474. once I realized my accounts were closed, I paid enough for them to be reopened. i noticed that opensky changed from 90 day to 60 day to then 30 day late after paying regularly, and paying to below 20% util on both, while first progress stayed at 90 day late (which is understandable, I was completely unable to do anything at that time).

I was able to remove everything except the 2 current cards with equifax which started at 563, went down around 476 in Aug 2015, and by Oct 2015 is back to 573.
my transunion deleted almost everything except my 2 current cards, an inaccurate $120 ambulance collection, and $1865 Verizon collection which falls off 3/2018. my tu score went from 563 to 487 around August 2015 and back up to 563 as of Oct 2015.
my experian is the hardest one. the score was 568, went down to 410 in July, and up to 516 Oct 2015. it is reporting my 2 current cards, the Verizon collection to fall off 3/2018, the ambulance $120, capital one charge off $1264 falling off 4/2016 and T-Mobile $200 which falls off 4/2016.

I'm looking to boost my score as much as possible because I really need a car before the winter in new england and I'm looking for around $12-15k car with $3-5k down. I'm willing to go up on the car price if I were to get approved with reasonable terms. I've never had a car before. I also want to rebuild my credit because in general I'm tired of being turned down for credit, and in the next 3 years I hope to purchase my own home.

one of my questions is, has anyone had any luck with goodwill letters to first progress and/or opensky?

another question, should I open another secured card to boost my score? I've become credit obsessed since July and I know I wouldnt fall under again because I've been saving my money and have a good emergency fund.

if I raise my credit limit with first progress and opensky, will it show that my high balance is below the new limit? I don't really want to raise them because I hope that I can close them and get my deposit back in the next year, but if it will help my score I'll do it.

I've considered a secured personal loan, but on my chexsystems account I have a serious derogatory mark until 5/2019 so I can't get a bank account and am afraid to try to explain my situation to a credit union. would this be feasible to boost my score or should I stick with secured credit cards?

will it matter if I pay the cards completely off vs 1-9% util vs 10-19% util?

what is the appropriate score to have for an auto loan? I'd rather wait an extra month or two for a boost in my score but if it won't help that much then I would prefer not to wait because I'm disabled and it's hard to get around with public transportation and depending on others.

also just to give a little background, for the past few months (since june) I've been renting cars weekly either privately or through a rental company, and have religiously been paying a minimum of $300/ week for a rental, up to 600/week including deposits, so I can definitely afford monthly car payments and insurance. it's just difficult getting approved.

any help is super appreciated!

 

 

tl;Dr had bad credit, opened secured cards and disputed /deleted items, went bad on new cards 30/90 days, brought back current. score shot down then up to pretty much same area I started, one low 500s, 2 mid/high 500s. need to improve ASAP before winter, need help.

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Anonymous
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Re: tips on improving score, secured credit cards, secured loan, auto?

A third card would help. I would suggest Capital One (try the QS1 card). Your CO with them is very old, they are not going to care about it as long as its over a year old. Don't go tossing more money into the secured cards, just pay down the balances to improve your UTI. Pay one off completely, pay the other down to under 10%.

 

 

A secured personal loan would help as well, but the ChexSystem derog complicates that. I would suggest looking into cleaning up your ChexSystem report, or look for banks that do not use them. There are quite a few banks that don't.

 

 

If you can get your scores up over 600, you should be able to finance a vehicle. The interest rate will not be great, but it won't kill you either. I financed a vehicle with 500 scores at 19%. 600+ scores will likely get you close to single digit rates, depending on who your finance through.

 

Message 2 of 6
Anonymous
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Re: tips on improving score, secured credit cards, secured loan, auto?

thank you! I will try to apply for a card in 2 weeks when my Sept balance has posted. should I take that step to go for an unsecured or stick with secured? I did apply for the secured capital one in Dec 2014 and was denied and my scores were the same as now.

 

okay how do you know what they use? it would be suspicious to ask them outright, right? 

 

will wait til at least 600, thank you! 

Message 3 of 6
Anonymous
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Re: tips on improving score, secured credit cards, secured loan, auto?

I was able to finance a new car nearly 3 yrs ago when my scores were right around 500 and I had all kinds of baddies /active collections on my report. I went to lendingtree.com and submitted my application. They then found several offers and I accepted an offer from Cap One. Granted, my rate was awful but I expected that going in. I was desperate for a car so I didn't care then. Even if you haven't made much progress by the time you need a car, you'll probably still be able to finance it. It's much easier to get that than a CC or anything real estate related, at least from my experience. Good Luck!!!
Message 4 of 6
Yoshi2015
Contributor

Re: tips on improving score, secured credit cards, secured loan, auto?

Santander will finance scores below 600. Try them. Good luck!

Message 5 of 6
Anonymous
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Re: tips on improving score, secured credit cards, secured loan, auto?


@Anonymous wrote:

thank you! I will try to apply for a card in 2 weeks when my Sept balance has posted. should I take that step to go for an unsecured or stick with secured? I did apply for the secured capital one in Dec 2014 and was denied and my scores were the same as now.

 

okay how do you know what they use? it would be suspicious to ask them outright, right? 

 

will wait til at least 600, thank you! 


Cap One does a triple pull, but they go with an EQ score, but its not FICO 8. I believe its the mortgage score (Beacon 5), judging from the denial notice I got when I apped for a QS card in July. They gave me a score of 557, which is a bit higher than my Beacon 5 score was from a couple of months before (555), but lower than the FICO 8 score (566) from a few days before the app.

Message 6 of 6
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