topic Re: New Here - Can anyone help me to understand? in Rebuilding Your Credit

New Here - Can anyone help me to understand?

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Nov 2015 15:31:15 GMT

Hello and thank you to everyone who takes the time to read this. I've had bad credit for so long I can't really remember when I didn't. I have two questions but first a little background information, feel free to skip down to the questions:

BACKGROUND

Since August, I've been reading the boards here and fascinated to see so many people here who have managed to turn their lives around. For the past few months I've been attempting to do what others have done here and fix my credit. I've done some good things, but unfortunately I've also made some (MANY) rookie mistakes. Firstly, I'm not even sure what my fico score was when I started the process. I know this is a long post but feel free to skip down further if its too much.

In September I got a First Premier card with 300 limit and opened a Fingerhut account with a credit limit of 500. The First Premier included a 100 fee when I opened and another 50 dollar account fee so I really only had about 150 credit and quickly went overlimit to 323, but paid it fast and have never been late with a fee. I now have a 90 dollar balance on it and will pay that off this month.

I bought something when I got my fingerhut card and quickly went to a 400 dollar balance out of 500 limit, so again I screwed up there too. Again, I haven't missed any payments and now its down to 250. I plan to take that down to less than 100 this month.

Then in late September I got a Capital One secured card with a credit of 200 with a 99 dollar deposit. I added another deposit of 50 to take my credit limit to 250. In October I almost maxed out the account but right now it's sitting at 30 dollar balance.

In October I got accepted for a Walmart Credit card, limit 400, and a Capital One Buypower Mastercard, limit 300 with 0percent APR for one year. Walmart I spent 250 right away but right now it's less than 75 balance. The buypower card I put a few things on and expect to use it as my daily driver but keep it paid down to zero balance.

I do know that my TU and EQ scores were above 600 last month but have plummeted to around 570 this month. I think ONE reason is that I've added about 8 hard pulls in the last month and so far neither of my new Capital One cards has shown up in my credit reports.

I've also used the SCT to add a Victoria's Secret, Venus, and Roamans card, all have low credit limits of course 350, 250 and 250 respectively, but I'm keeping the balances low.

I guess the biggest problem is that none of the later cards have shown up in the CRA files so I have a lot of Hard Pulls with not a lot to show for them yet.

As far as negative remarks, I have no collections, as a lot of negative things fell off my credit report this year. I have zero collections or maybe 1 I'm not sure. Hence my questions

QUESTION ONE:

I have a negative remark from an old credit card from 2008 from Capital One. I made a payoff agreement and it's listed as satisfactorily paid off, but there is a remark to that effect in my credit report made my Capital One. Is there any way to get Capital One to remove this remark?

QUESTION TWO:

My biggest ding is a Citibank private school loan originally for 1600 dollars dating from 2006. (Now 4600 dollars). I have never paid a dime on the account but I did talk to someone from Citibank and promised to start payments in December 2011. I guess this changed my DOLA to 12/2011 but I have no idea what my DOFD is. I no longer have the paperwork (if I ever did, it was an online agreement). So I have no idea when the loan first came due. I know I quite the college course almost immediately because it was a scam from Kaplan University, an online course that was a joke.

So can I write or call Citibank and request a copy of the original loan agreement. I believe that the loan agreement specified I was liable for payment immediately if I quit school, which I did. So wouldn't my DOFD be much earlier than 2012? If my DOLA is 2012? If I do write them I'm afraid it will remind them I exist and theyll come after me, which they havent done even though my name and adress are clearly noted of my credit report.

Thank you for your help and feel free to ask me any questions, as I know I generally don't make sense in issues like this.

Re: New Here - Can anyone help me to understand?

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Nov 2015 15:56:19 GMT

First off, welcome to the boards and congrats on starting your rebuild!

Something of note to remember: Utilization has no memory, but it is also one of the main reasons for score drops. Lower the utilization on your cards and you will see an increase. One of the problems with so many low limit cards is that it is difficult to use any and keep the balance low. Make sure you make multiple payments a month and try to pay before the statement cuts so that your utilization remains low.

As far as your questions go, I will let someone with more experience here deal with that. I know from others experiance that sometimes a GW letter to Cap1 will help.

Good luck on your journey!

Re: New Here - Can anyone help me to understand?

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Nov 2015 16:10:20 GMT

Hello yourself and thanks for taking the time to answer. The utilization thing makes me want to continue applying for credit. I got a prequal for a Cap 1 QS1. But since my TU score has gone down about 35 points this month I'm kind of afraid I'll be denied. It would be great if I could get a higher CL.

Re: New Here - Can anyone help me to understand?

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Nov 2015 16:20:46 GMT

Welcome and you have great questions. Looking forward to reading the responses.

Re: New Here - Can anyone help me to understand?

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Nov 2015 16:41:45 GMT

Thanks for chiming in!

Re: New Here - Can anyone help me to understand?

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Nov 2015 17:02:57 GMT

I would wait to apply for more credit and pay off the balances for the cards you already have and only let 1 report with a balance of less than 10%. That will boost your score. When your new cards report you should get another boost. After about 6 months try for a CLI.

Re: New Here - Can anyone help me to understand?

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Nov 2015 17:12:13 GMT

Thanks for your input! More information:

I did have yet another collection from Trident Asset Mgmt, for Columbia House (which I never ordered) dating from 2010 in the amount of 75 dollars. I disputed it two days ago and it was removed yesterday, and my TU and EQ scores both dipped another few points. I reckon it was losing a 5 year old account, since I have a thin credit file.

I am disposed to take your advice, but that Quicksilver 1 looks tasty! Ill wait and maybe when my score goes up, I'll get a better limit? I have paid them all down and zeroed out both the Cap 1 accounts. Now I guess I'll put on my cute little apron and gloves and garden a bit! Hope my resolve lasts!

Re: New Here - Can anyone help me to understand?

RobertEG — Sun, 22 Nov 2015 18:15:56 GMT

Question 1

When did the negative item (I presume a settlement for less?)

FCRA 605(a) mandates that any any "other" type of adverse information has a credit report exclusion date of no later than 7 years from its date of occurence.

Question 2.

Regarding the Citibank loan, the DOFD is only relevant if either a charge-off or collection was reported.

The only use of DOFD in credit reporting is to determine the exclusion date of those two varieties of derogs.

So, question 1 is whether either of those two items have been reported to the CRA.

If so, then one can get a general idea of what the DOFD may be from the definition of what DOFD is.

If the loan was charged-off, then the DOFD must, by definition, have preceded the charge-off. When was the CO reported, and if you also have the info, when did they actually take the CO? If the credit report shows a collection, when was it reported? The DOFD must precede both the date the collection was reported and the date they provided as the Open date for the collection, which is the date they received their collection authority.

Additionally, the creditor or debt collector is required to have reported the DOFD to the CRA no later than 90 days after reporting of either a charge-off or collection.

Thus, their determination and reporting of the DOFD must be in your file. If your commercial credit report does not provide the DOFD, then you may be able to get it from a more complete report, such as via annualcreditreport.com or directly from the CRA.

Re: New Here - Can anyone help me to understand?

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Nov 2015 19:24:25 GMT

Thank you RobertEG ! I mean it, I am really mathematically challenged as my boyfriend will tell you.

Question 1

When did the negative item (I presume a settlement for less?)

FCRA 605(a) mandates that any any "other" type of adverse information has a credit report exclusion date of no later than 7 years from its date of occurence....

ANSWER It was indeed a settlement for less. The account is listed as closed. The information was put in I think 4/1/2009. So the remark will stay put until 4/1/2016 ?

Question 2.

Regarding the Citibank loan, the DOFD is only relevant if either a charge-off or collection was reported.

MY ANSWER The account was opened in 2006. There is no DOFD listed but a DOLA of 12/1/2011; it is listed as a chargeoff/collection and the account is still with Citi and has never been sold. On my TU and EQ the account is listed as closed in 2012. TU report says it will be removed in 12/2018. In fact, here is a snippet from the TU credit report I got last month:

Date Opened: 12/11/2006
Responsibility: Individual Account
Account Type: Installment Account
Loan Type: STUDENT LOAN
Date Updated: 08/31/2015 Pay Status: >Charged Off<
Terms: $50 per month for 240
months
Date Closed: 03/31/2012
>Maximum Delinquency of 90 days in 02/2012<

I'm just confused by it because it says closed 3/31/2012 and all three reports say charge off/collection. Although it hasn't been taken to collections officially because my collection is clear on all three reports. I m wondering why was itupdated in August 2015. All three reports says TWO missed payments, but in negatives one of my credit reports says that I have only paid 10 percent on time because there are 50 missed payments from this account. My head is literally spinning! If the account is closed why is Citi reporting 50 dollar missed payments every month all the way up to September of 2015?

Re: New Here - Can anyone help me to understand?

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 04:16:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello yourself and thanks for taking the time to answer. The utilization thing makes me want to continue applying for credit. I got a prequal for a Cap 1 QS1. But since my TU score has gone down about 35 points this month I'm kind of afraid I'll be denied. It would be great if I could get a higher CL.

STOP. You need to let things settle a bit. Forget about any new accounts for the time being, and let all of the recent changes, and new accounts show up on your reports. Two month minimum to let everything settle. Get your utilization under control.

You may be able to get the QS1 card, but most likely you will have to close the secured account first. So I would suggest just waiting 90 days or so, see where your scores settle, and apply - but not the QS1 - it has an annual fee. You want to apply for the No-Fee Platinum card and then after the second statement, ask them to upgrade it to reward status.

Re: New Here - Can anyone help me to understand?

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 07:52:22 GMT

2 months you say? "Gulp" feeling shaky and I sit down for a bit. "I can do that" I stammer hoarsely. /picks up gardening shears and looks about with a mad look on my face. "2 months?! Sure! sure I can do ANYTHING" I murmur in my best Norma Desmond voice!