topic Re: SERIOUSLY? Goal score! in Rebuilding Your Credit

SERIOUSLY? Goal score!

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 01:26:07 GMT

Just hanging out on a Wednesday night, watching TV, occasionally checking if I have new e-mail and I get a ScoreWatch alert. New score.

Wasn't expecting a ton - I paid a lot of stuff down last month / early this month because I got my tax return and a bonus at work. Went from about 55% utilization to around 30%. I had pulled my Experian report recently and had started pondering trying to do something about the judgments on my reports...I sent off some goodwill letters...and part of that 55% to 30% was not just paying stuff down, but also asking for CLIs. Oh, and I got a new car loan at the beginning of February that started reporting.

I was at EQ 676 before I did that stuff. Then I got an alert partly into the paydown...677. Eh. A few days later, 692. This most recent alert? 744!!!!!!!!!

That is the highest I've ever seen any of my scores. Ever. I'm tempted to use the other EQ report to see if one of the GWs did me some good. I've also got QM, so I'm also resisting the urge to pull a TU right now.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting to go anywhere higher than 710. I sailed right past the 700-720 range on EQ. And it was my lowest score when I first started working on this forever ago....and I think it might have been my lowest when I got my house...that's in my .sig, I'll see it in a minute.

I'm in total disbelief right now.

Anyway, you can do it - even if it takes time for stuff to fall off or time to pay down balances...eventually it happens.

Re: SERIOUSLY? Goal score!

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 01:31:40 GMT

Wow, congrats!

Re: SERIOUSLY? Goal score!

shanac — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 01:51:29 GMT

Congratulations! I lost hope yesterday but I'm back on track & inspired today. Thanks for sharing.

Re: SERIOUSLY? Goal score!

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 01:53:30 GMT

Really great news - kudos!!

Re: SERIOUSLY? Goal score!

llecs — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 02:05:01 GMT

Congrats!

Re: SERIOUSLY? Goal score!

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 02:07:20 GMT

Wow!!

Re: SERIOUSLY? Goal score!

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 02:13:47 GMT

GW letters for the win - I just pulled my EQ from EQ (more on that in a second) and then compared to November's report. 2 paid collections gone, thanks to a basic GW letter to UCB. Plus, my utilization is listed at 25%.

So, November report has 2 collections, dated in 2009, a 30 day late from 2008, and 35% utilization (my utilization went up after that) Score 686

Now, 0 collections, late remains, 25% utilization, and a 1-month-old car loan, score 744.

Score had dropped to 676 with the 55% utilization, rebounded to 692 like a week ago, and is now where it is. So loving UCB right now.

Re: SERIOUSLY? Goal score!

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 02:15:48 GMT

Oh yeah, and the free report was due to Capital One denying me a credit limit increase. Thanks, Capital One! Hopefully the EO will help me out with that, but either way, thanks for the report! (Their pulled score was 676)

Re: SERIOUSLY? Goal score!

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 02:19:40 GMT

I bet if you can get that ultilization down a bit more you might see a few more points even!

Re: SERIOUSLY? Goal score!

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 02:30:35 GMT

That's going to take a while. Well, less if Discover and Capital One decide to up my limits.

My main goal right now is to get my house refinanced - I only got it 2 years ago, but my payments have gone up $250/mo because of the property tax hikes affiliated with property transfer. Basically, the previous owner had it for years and the raising of the taxable value was not keeping pace with the assessed value...and the assessed value became my new taxable value. Property taxes went up 29%. Between that and my low appraisal and my rehab loan, I'm also paying $115/mo in PMI. Oh, and my rate is 5.125%.

I just went in last week to appeal my taxable value (if my house were worth what they say it is, I wouldn't be paying PMI for the next 15 years).

Once I feel comfortable with letting an appraiser in (minor fixes, some cosmetic stuff, but mainly I need to clean), a refi to today's rates if I can get a high enough appraisal should lower my mortgage by $200-$300/mo even with rolling in closing costs. A pittance added to that and I finish at the same time...and I have more money to pay down my cards. The reason they got that high was the house anyway - I had to buy all appliances for it, added gutters to keep my basement from flooding again, and I spent a good chunk of change on insulation.

So, yeah, utilization is something I'm working on, but with these balances, the progress is slow. Refi is my priority.

Re: SERIOUSLY? Goal score!

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 02:39:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
GW letters for the win - I just pulled my EQ from EQ (more on that in a second) and then compared to November's report. 2 paid collections gone, thanks to a basic GW letter to UCB. Plus, my utilization is listed at 25%.

So, November report has 2 collections, dated in 2009, a 30 day late from 2008, and 35% utilization (my utilization went up after that) Score 686
Now, 0 collections, late remains, 25% utilization, and a 1-month-old car loan, score 744.

Score had dropped to 676 with the 55% utilization, rebounded to 692 like a week ago, and is now where it is. So loving UCB right now.

Huge congrats man! Great work!

Really surprised your score didn't take a hit from the brand new auto loan. I'm getting an auto loan in July and concerned that it may ding my score at the start. Anyone know how long/after how many payments an auto loan starting working in your favor for your score?

My EQ FICO is at 686 right now, up from 604 eight months ago. Only baddies I've got left is 3 Amex paid CO accounts. They've been paid and all have a $0 balance so I'm trying to GW the heck out of them, but Amex doesn't seem to budge so far. Sadly, unless I get Amex to do it I don't see how I'm going to break 700. I don't have any other baddies, but I only have credit card accounts and no mortgage. Seems like a mortgage boosts one's score by a good 50 points or more!

Re: SERIOUSLY? Goal score!

sarahcatherinemay — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 03:41:59 GMT

Hell yeah!! Good job! That's so awesome .. I'm just waiting for that to happen!!

Re: SERIOUSLY? Goal score!

Shogun — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 03:51:15 GMT

Just wow!

Re: SERIOUSLY? Goal score!

DaBears — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 04:18:51 GMT

Auto loan installments have very little affect on Fico score. If the dealership pulled your reports in under 2 weeks it will only count as one inquiry. I COULD be wrong. don't quote me lol. Look under my post at the blue stickys a lot of good info to learn from. It helped me!!!! Good luck on your credit rebuilding journey!!!!