topic Re: Credit Repair and applying for secured credit cards. in Rebuilding Your Credit

Credit Repair and applying for secured credit cards.

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 14:29:26 GMT

Hello all,

I have been doing by best the past 6 months to have some old credit cards information updated but to no avail. It appears that since the orignal credit cards companies sold off/charged off the debt it cna not be upated with a PIF status, ven though I did pay off settlements amounts to the companies that they sold the debt to. Is there anyhing I can do to improve this or get them to update my charged off status? My current FICO is 582.

Also I have the funds to open opened some secured credit cards and am planning to open three if possible and then begin to may minimum payments. I would like to avoid being charged any large fees, such as a charge to open, annual and monthy fess I have heard some of the credit card companies can charge. I do find payinf a reasonable fee of say 50 or under. Please help if you can as it can be a bit overwhelming trying to make the correct choices.

sincerely,

Pete M

Re: Credit Repair and applying for secured credit cards.

llecs — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:53:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello all,

I have been doing by best the past 6 months to have some old credit cards information updated but to no avail. It appears that since the orignal credit cards companies sold off/charged off the debt it cna not be upated with a PIF status, ven though I did pay off settlements amounts to the companies that they sold the debt to. Is there anyhing I can do to improve this or get them to update my charged off status? My current FICO is 582.

Also I have the funds to open opened some secured credit cards and am planning to open three if possible and then begin to may minimum payments. I would like to avoid being charged any large fees, such as a charge to open, annual and monthy fess I have heard some of the credit card companies can charge. I do find payinf a reasonable fee of say 50 or under. Please help if you can as it can be a bit overwhelming trying to make the correct choices.

sincerely,
Pete M

Welcome to the forums!

I'd suggest reading the following:

Common Abbreviations

Credit Scoring 101 - great for knowing what is in your credit score and to see how your score is impacted.

What Steps Do I Take - great for learning the repair process.

and Example letters - PFDs, GWs, DVs, etc.

If an OC, like a CC company, sells the debt, then they would report as a paid CO, even if you didn't pay anything. If they didn't sell the debt, then they would report a balance owed and report as an unpaid CO, and would assign a CA to collect and bug you for the debt. They CA wouldn't report but they and/or the OC might claim that the CA is the only one you can deal with and make it seem that the CA owns the debt. Many creditors just don't have the staff or budget to collect and they'll outsource claiming the ones they outsourced to are the only ones you can talk to which isn't true.

In your example, you paid the CA right? Are the OCs reporting a balance owed even after settling with the CA? If you settled, the OC must update to $0 and report as a paid charge-off and/or report something like "settled for less than full" which is scored on par as a CO per FICO. They can't report a balance though if settled.

For the secured CC, check out the Credit Cards board. Most secured cards charge an AF. I had a BofA secured and that was $29 which wasn't so bad. If I may make a suggestion...aim for only one secured card. Let that report and age 3-4-5 months, and use that time to focus on repair. Once it reports, ages, and you have some success, then your scores might be well enough to get an unsecured CC. If not, aim for a 2nd, and then you'll be good to go for the 3rd as an unsecured CC.

Re: Credit Repair and applying for secured credit cards.

Shogun — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:27:50 GMT

Hello Pete and welcome to the forums. llecs has given you some good advice. Also you have posted this in the right forum, I've noticed you've made the same post several times and across a couple different threads. Please keep to the one subject/post ratio. That way you keep everything consolidated and easier to manage. Thank you.

Re: Credit Repair and applying for secured credit cards.

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:41:11 GMT

Hi Pete,
Not sure if you've tried to get any cards, but capital one approved me with a 580 for a platinum and a cash rewards card, unsecured, with 1000 and 500 limits respectively. They also up your limit after 6 on time payments.