Old accounts coming back to spook me for Halloween?

[Anonymous]

Oh! It was closed in 2011. Experian said it will come off of my credit report in July, 2018.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like that Amex account is your only dirty one, so your goal should be to clean it up.  If it was closed in 2011, you'll get a positive AAoA and AoOA boost from it for another 3-4 years.  You should try and work Amex with some GW letters.  I don't know how receptive they are to them, but if you explain the situation with your father I could see them working with you on it.  Worst case scenario is that next July your scores jump up 70-100 points.  It would be nice to make that happen sooner, though, so I'd definitely start hammering them with some GW letters.  I strongly suggest the Saturation Technique, which you can read about at the link below:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/The-Saturation-Technique-Best-GW-adjustment-o...

By the time that old account falls off, you'll have an AAoA in the 3-4 year range which is more than sufficient in the credit world in terms of achieving a top score.  There are people out there with AAoA of 6-12 months with clean reports that have 740-760 scores.  Negative information is far more damaging to your score than a short credit history is.  I don't think that you have anything you aren't seeing that's negatively impacting your scores.  Since your file is thin (4 accounts) there aren't many places to look.  Likely due to the how thin your file is, that one negative account is extremely damaging.  I have one dirty account, but I've also got 23 other positive accounts on my report which results in a thick file that's less volatile to negative items.

Your #1 goal needs to be the removal of the negative information from your Amex account.

[Anonymous]

You only have 1 open credit card. Most recommend arleast 3 cards when rebuilding.

[Anonymous]

Brutal,

Thanks so much. So basically I should have nothing to worry about? I don't necessarily see it as normal, that the score would randomly drop, but maybe the Experian woman was correct in saying it's dropping now, but will go back up incrementally as it comes closer to vanishing from my report? With a big jump, as you talked about, at the end? If so, that does put me more at ease.

The only other thing I could think of, would have been a collection that turned into a judgement from way back in my 20's but I've never seen it pop up on any credit report nor do I ever get any attempts at collecting from any agency and couldn't even remember the last time I would have, but it would have been before I even started trying to rebuild my credit.

I do understand that having three cards is optimum, so with that in mind, do you truly recommend a year between getting another card, or could 9 months suffice? Thinking on it over night, if I did wait for it to fall off of my report, in June/July, would it also be advantageous to get either another secured card (scared to apply for a real one with the recent drop), or perhaps another line of credit which would somehow help? Or would it be too risky? I'm all about the smart play, and have patience, I just want to do the most logical thing.

I read your thread on the GW letters and the satiation tactic, and it's extremely comprehensive and helpful. I have nothing to lose by sending out letters, and already started to pen one this morning.

[Anonymous]

Also, for what it's worth - RE: Judgement from way back, I show zero public records against me on any of the credit reports.

[Anonymous]

I'm glad that thread was helpful and that you started knocking out your first GW letter.

There's no need to wait any set amount of time between credit apps.  Plenty of people do a "spree" where they apply for multiple cards at the same time.  You just want to be sure that you don't apply for anything in the 12 months leading up to a mortgage application. 

I personally think the recommendation for 3 cards (rather than 1 or 2) is a bit overstated on this forum.  Sure it can help your score some to have 1 of 3 cards report a balance (over 1 of 2 or 1 of 1) but the different isn't earth-shattering.  Most people see a 5-10 point ding, maybe 15 points by allowing 50% or more of their cards to report balances.  There are plenty of people out there with 1 credit card and 1 year of credit history that have top tier (740-760) scores.  Now, if they had 3 CCs perhaps their scores are 755-775 instead, but that difference isn't a make or break situation IMO.  Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great idea to have 3+ cards, but I don't throw out the recommendation to people to "get 3" from the start simply because it's going to help your score a little.  I'd more recommend the SSL technique, which yields easily twice as many points with no inquiries.  Of course, that's for someone that doesn't have an open installment loan currently on their report.  What's important about adding credit cards is that they are going to be of use to the applicant, both now and in the future.  You don't want to get a card just to get a card and have it sit idle or end up in your sock drawer. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:


I do understand that having three cards is optimum, so with that in mind, do you truly recommend a year between getting another card, or could 9 months suffice? Thinking on it over night, if I did wait for it to fall off of my report, in June/July, would it also be advantageous to get either another secured card (scared to apply for a real one with the recent drop), or perhaps another line of credit which would somehow help? Or would it be too risky? I'm all about the smart play, and have patience, I just want to do the most logical thing.

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With  your scores in the high 600's you should be able to get unsecured cards. My scores are way lower than that and I have 8 unsecured cards/ Try Cap 1 , Discover, or one of the credit unions. You should have at least 3 cards. Another forum that I visit recommends 5 cards.

By the way, my score increased with the 2nd and 3rd card that I added.

[Anonymous]

I had only 1 credit card for 14 years and during that time my credit score was always in the 780-800 range for as long as I can remember.  Point being, you don't need 3-5 cards to have a top tier score.  Sure adding a couple more cards probably would have pushed my decade-long scores over 800, but there's no real world difference between a little over 800 and a little under 800 scores.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I had only 1 credit card for 14 years and during that time my credit score was always in the 780-800 range for as long as I can remember.  Point being, you don't need 3-5 cards to have a top tier score.  Sure adding a couple more cards probably would have pushed my decade-long scores over 800, but there's no real world difference between a little over 800 and a little under 800 scores.

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Then you need to go around and correct  a lot of folks on this board.

I

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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Then you need to go around and correct  a lot of folks on this board.

I

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Correct them on what?

I have no problem with people suggesting that individuals work their way up to 3-5 cards if they are in fact trying to maximize their FICO score, I just think it's too loosely thrown around on this forum that someone needs 3-5 cards to achieve a top score.  My example above is proof of that.

Furthermore, there are plenty of people that have reported a 760 FICO score with 6-12 months of credit history with just 1 revolver, 1% utilization and perfect payment history and employing the SSL technique.  Within 2 years we've seen an 800 score with the above in place as well.