topic Re: Just pulled credit, need HELP! in Rebuilding Your Credit

Just pulled credit, need HELP!

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:20:14 GMT

I am new to all this credit stuff, I have been walking through life with my eyes closed until now. My employer is downsizing and I do not think I will be laid off in the near future, but I decided to look at my credit and try to prepare for the worst case scenario. I am lucky- I think- 2nd in Seniority- but I do have some health issues, including a couple of back surgeries that took a toll on my credit. I had excellent, never late on a single bill, credit until 2002, when I had my 1st back surgery and only worked 3 months that year. It has been an uphill struggle since then. Now, 2 kids in college at the same time. I hope I can get help here!

Overview: Fico 05/06/08-573 Fico 10/05/08-641

No. accts that were ever 60 days or worse: 8

No. accts with a missed payment or derog: 12

Ratio of revolving balances to credit limit: 90%

Most recent missed late payment: 3 months ago-wife forgot to pay until it was 31 days late***

Oldest acct opened: 24 years, 5 months

Avg age of accts: 9 years

Total late Pmts: 133 in 24 years

Total balance of revolving accts: $17,106

Installment loans: $14,506

Total No. of Accts: 19

Accts. with balances: 6

No accts opened in past year, no recent inquiries, no collections, no public records.***

The biggie here is a Beneficial/HFC account opened July 1997, $12,901 balance. Acct was Closed by credit grantor during one of the times I was out with my back, payment was continued to be paid and I got the acct. caught up when I was able, wife was late on payment in July 2008, we were late 04/07 and 07/07, late 5 times in 2004. Acct. is now up to date.

I called Beneficial this week and tried to get them to lower my 21.65% apr. but go absolutely nowhere. Talked with 3 different people, including the Branch Super. I told him I had already more than paid this acct. and I was trying to get them to offer me a lower apr so I could try to pay off, he just offered to refinance my house, at a higher rate than I already have!

After this one, I will try to post credit card info. I know now, I should have asked for a PFD on a capit.one cr. card. When will it drop off? Status as of 01/05 Date Opened: 09/2000, DOLA: 01/02, Paid Charge off. Any help would be appreciated. I will try to be shorter in my post next time, right now I am just frustrated!

Re: Just pulled credit, need HELP!

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:44:25 GMT

If I were you I would first start to GW the recent lates. The more recent the more they affect your score. If you are in a position to pay down any of your revolving balances you would see a world of difference. I recommend that you go to the FICO simulator and see what happens when you get your utilization of revolving credit below 50%. Then see how getting it below 10% will affect you.

Re: Just pulled credit, need HELP!

Veee — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:53:35 GMT

I'm taking a shot at this to start you in the right direction. Someone with more knowledge will add more.

Late payments - it never hurts to GW these companies and see if you can get them to remove them due to XXX. Do a search on here for GW (Good will) letters. You can read what others have done and then post if you still have questions.

Revolving balances at 90% - everyone here is going to say ... pay that down! It seems to be that the best % on average for your revolving accounts should be 9% or lower for really good credit.

If any of your marks are MEDICAL related ... read the HIPPA process and ask questions before you do anything!

Hope this helped for now.

Veee

Re: Just pulled credit, need HELP!

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:18:00 GMT

I will be sending GW letters for the most recent lates, I think I will even go back to 2004 after the recent ones. It can't hurt to try.

No medical bills are derogatory, I paid all of them after my health insurance took care of their part. I am blessed to have really great health insurance-group coverage. However, in order to pay them, I had to let the cc be late.

I have the following cc's :

Belk Balance: $0 Acct. status: Inactive- I have not used it since 12/04

Cap One Balance: $464 *Plan on paying this one down right away!

Cap One Balance: $1407*Plan on paying this one 3rd!

Sears Balance: $459 *Plan on paying this one after the Cap One!

Wamu/Prvdn Balance: $1875- Authorized user on wife's acct, but I have never used.

Should I ask to be removed from the Wamu/Prvdn card? Will it help me or hurt me?

Thanks to everyone for your help!

Re: Just pulled credit, need HELP!

Veee — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 15:52:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I will be sending GW letters for the most recent lates, I think I will even go back to 2004 after the recent ones. It can't hurt to try.

No medical bills are derogatory, I paid all of them after my health insurance took care of their part. I am blessed to have really great health insurance-group coverage. However, in order to pay them, I had to let the cc be late.

I have the following cc's :
Belk Balance: $0 Acct. status: Inactive- I have not used it since 12/04
Cap One Balance: $464 *Plan on paying this one down right away!
Cap One Balance: $1407*Plan on paying this one 3rd!
Sears Balance: $459 *Plan on paying this one after the Cap One!
Wamu/Prvdn Balance: $1875- Authorized user on wife's acct, but I have never used.

Should I ask to be removed from the Wamu/Prvdn card? Will it help me or hurt me?
It depends - could hurt losing the age of the account but would help losing that balance. Maybe someone with more exp could help you out with this question.

Thanks to everyone for your help!

Re: Just pulled credit, need HELP!

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:11:25 GMT

Eyesnowopen wrote:
I will be sending GW letters for the most recent lates, I think I will even go back to 2004 after the recent ones. It can't hurt to try.

No medical bills are derogatory, I paid all of them after my health insurance took care of their part. I am blessed to have really great health insurance-group coverage. However, in order to pay them, I had to let the cc be late.

I have the following cc's :
Belk Balance: $0 Acct. status: Inactive- I have not used it since 12/04
Cap One Balance: $464 *Plan on paying this one down right away!
Cap One Balance: $1407*Plan on paying this one 3rd!
Sears Balance: $459 *Plan on paying this one after the Cap One!
Wamu/Prvdn Balance: $1875- Authorized user on wife's acct, but I have never used.

Should I ask to be removed from the Wamu/Prvdn card? Will it help me or hurt me?

Thanks to everyone for your help!

What are you CL on the cards listed above? Are they all still open?

How old is the Wamu card?

Accounts remain for 7-71/2 years from DOFD.

GW lates, the older they are, the less they hurt.

The more recent the late is, the more it is affecting your score, start by GW'ing them.

Is lates the only negatives you have on your report?

Re: Just pulled credit, need HELP!

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:54:34 GMT

Belk still open, CL $1500

Cap One #1, CL $500

Cap One #2, CL $2000

Sears, CL $1000

Wamu Card is wife's, I am AU CL $2000 Acct is 3 years old, 30 days late 11/07, 02/08-She was out of town helping her sick sister recover from Breast Cancer during these two times and forgot to make payment. Those were only two times late in 3 years.

Since these were recent, I probably need to get them to delete me as AU and try to get them to delete it from my CR, also, getting rid of Wamu balance of $1875 would help me too, from what I have recently learned on these forums.

I have no tax liens, no public records, etc. The other two really BAD accounts is an Individual acct that was with MBNA Bank, now listed as Bank of America on CR.Charged off/past due 120 days $13,631./written off, Opened 03/2000, DOLR 04/2004 Purchased by another lender.

I sold some stocks and bonds that had matured and paid $13531.62 on 10/29/04 after being hounded by Mann Bracken, LLC Attorneys at Law, under Phoenix Accts. I do not have a clue why there was a difference in the amounts of $100. Too bad I did not know about this forum when I paid that large sum. The original amt borrowed was $10,000. I paid $3531.62 in late charges and interest. (I have certainly kept the copy of that check)!

The other acct is a joint acct with FNB Omaha, opened 05/2000, DOLR 11/2004 Statusaid in settlement/Past Due Acct legally paid in full for less than full balance CL 10,000 High Bal $12,573

Settled $7800

I suppose those two really bad ones will just have to ride out their time until they delete. Do you think I can do anything else?

Thanks so much to everyone! We are starting on DW's CR next!

Message Edited by Eyesnowopen on 10-26-2008 11:54 AM

Re: Just pulled credit, need HELP!

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:55:45 GMT

Please excuse the smiley face, I do not know what I hit on here to get that, I tried to delete it, but could not, it should read: Paid

Re: Just pulled credit, need HELP!

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:10:36 GMT

Just finished sending out 7 gw letters.

Working on wife's report now. The FNB Omaha account shows joint account, paid in settlement/past due. Status detail: This acct is scheduled to continue on record until Dec 2010.

This is the account I sold stocks and bonds to pay a settlement amount less than owed.

Should we gw this account for both of us?

What would happen if we asked the 3 credit bureaus to verify it was actually a joint account and not just AU?

Also, we are in SC, since we settled instead of paying balance, can they still sue us for the remaining balance?

Job Update!!!Re: Just pulled credit, need HELP!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:06:49 GMT

Just got out of staff meeting, 10 employees were given their walking papers this morning! Realigned my job territory, more work, more hours, $5000 cut in salary!

Greatful I still have job!!! Not happy about pay cut of course, but it was not a surprise. With the cuts, the company bottom line will look better for year-end and stockholders will be happy!

Now, I just realized that I am not listed on any of the three reports as having a mortgage! The mortgage is in dw's name but I had to sign the papers at closing also, 5 years ago. So no reporting of mortgage payments being made on time for the past 5 years- No mortgage reporting at all! We have a home valued at $190K with mortgage balance of $68,801. Never a late payment on any mortgages in 25 years. The current mortgage is only 5 years old.

Now, should we contact the mortgage co to try to get this added to my reports? I have read that mortgage payments are highly beneficial to your reports. What will this do to my FICOs?

If I should persue, what is the best plan of action?

Re: Job Update!!!Re: Just pulled credit, need HELP!

llecs — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:38:54 GMT

Eyesnowopen wrote:
Now, should we contact the mortgage co to try to get this added to my reports? I have read that mortgage payments are highly beneficial to your reports. What will this do to my FICOs?

If I should persue, what is the best plan of action?

Sorry about the job issue...

Call the mortgage company. What helps your score is the mix of credit and the history. I wouldn't expect a large bump, but it would depend on several factors. If I had to pull a figure out of thin air, then I'd guess 10 points (not based on anything and just a guess).

Re: Just pulled credit, need HELP!

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:08:44 GMT

Update: Called mortgage co- they said just wife signed promissory note, so they cannot add me to mortgage- I was at mortgage closing and remember signing papers of some sort-guess I better go to CU to get papers out of safety dep box to see what exactly I signed back then.

AU status deleted from two of dw's CC's. One we had paid a settlement on and they deleted the TL from our CRA files. That was a biggie- 2-90 days late, 3-60 days late

The other one had 2-30 days late, Oct.07 & Feb.08 so these were my most recent lates-All gone!!!

Still working on the others with gw letters.

Thank you myFico for such informative forums. I never knew it was possible to gw these accounts until I found this site.

Re: Just pulled credit, need HELP!

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:07:04 GMT

What you signed was either a deed of trust or a mortgage depending on what state you live in. This document grants the creditor a security interest in your property. By signing the deed/mortgage, you agree that the bank has the right to foreclose on the property in the event that the debtor defaults on the promissory note. Since you didn't sign the note, you are not legally obligated to pay on the debt(thus this isn't reporting on your bureau), but in the event the debt isn't paid you can lose your house.