topic Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story in Rebuilding Your Credit

My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 23:04:58 GMT

My starting scores: 527 TU - 507 Exp - 502 EF

So, here I am, 45 years old and rebuilding. Long story short, went through a depression several years ago, lost our business, and made a ton of small, bad choices. That's the bad news. The good news is that I'm mentally stable now with stable income.

My starting numbers are above. I had a repossesion of a vehicle two years ago, and I have several small collections that I will be working on negotiating and paying off. Up until a couple weeks ago, I had zero payments, zero balances on anything (I paid cash for our car), which has hurt my credit. I've gotten myself one secured credit card with a limit of $300, and my credit score jumped 19 points just from that. I also have a bankruptcy that discharged in 2008.

I am considering a very small auto loan - $5000 or so - just to show payments and credit utilization. I make $55K a year, so even with a $200 car payment, I'd be well below a healthy debt-to-income ratio.

So, I'm basically doing this to keep track of my progress, but thought it might be helpful for others, too!

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Mar 2017 01:53:11 GMT

Congratulations on taking control of your rebuild and wanting to move forward.
I know this is more for your benefit of tracking, which is fine, but you can get similar help with a shared secured loan instead of a small auto loan. Look for it here.
Also, I'd look into a local credit union if there is a good one near you. They might be able to help rebuild as well with other options

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Mar 2017 02:08:44 GMT

I want to encourage you. I had a repossession from cap one in oct of 14. After that they gave me three credit cards, and just this month they refinanced my current car. Then once I refinanced with them, I got a settlement offer. $662 on a $4900 pay off. I am amazed how forgiving cap one is. Use them whenever possible. Good luck.

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Mar 2017 16:15:48 GMT

Nice to hear how forgiving Capital One is especially seeing how many different sectors they are in.

OP-good luck I know the feeling and just taking control myself. Good news is you aren't alone. Lot of us out here.

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Mar 2017 20:34:34 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My starting scores: 527 TU - 507 Exp - 502 EF

So, here I am, 45 years old and rebuilding. Long story short, went through a depression several years ago, lost our business, and made a ton of small, bad choices. That's the bad news. The good news is that I'm mentally stable now with stable income.

My starting numbers are above. I had a repossesion of a vehicle two years ago, and I have several small collections that I will be working on negotiating and paying off. Up until a couple weeks ago, I had zero payments, zero balances on anything (I paid cash for our car), which has hurt my credit. I've gotten myself one secured credit card with a limit of $300, and my credit score jumped 19 points just from that. I also have a bankruptcy that discharged in 2008.

I am considering a very small auto loan - $5000 or so - just to show payments and credit utilization. I make $55K a year, so even with a $200 car payment, I'd be well below a healthy debt-to-income ratio.

So, I'm basically doing this to keep track of my progress, but thought it might be helpful for others, too!

I started with this and I really regret it. The cost in interest is not worth it. I would really recommend instead to look for the SSL loan technique: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secure-technique/td-p/4506756

I've experienced a plethora of personal problems and mental illness as well. Happy to hear you are doing better and can handle wrangling your finances as well.

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 18:37:23 GMT

Thanks for the encouragement, and information!

I've just made my first payment on my secured CC and it felt great! Talking with a mortgage lender at 2pm today to come up with a plan.

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 19:39:28 GMT

congrats. What secured cc did you use? Hopfully it will graduate to a unsecured after 6-12 months.

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 23:01:53 GMT

Best of Luck to you. Hang in there.

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

sarge12 — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 23:37:54 GMT

Well if it will help to encourage you any I declared ch.7 in 1996 at an age of 38. My scores have now been between 760 to 825 since 2010. It required changing my credit habits, but after a while it was easy, because it was a habit. I always PIF and would never even consider having debt I could not pay off at any time now. This includes my house, I could pay it off next week if I wished. There is definately light at the end of the credit death tunnel...you have made the mistakes, just learn from them.

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Mar 2017 21:01:05 GMT

The card I have is from Capital One.

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 16:25:05 GMT

3/17/17 My starting scores: 527 TU - 507 Exp - 502 EF

4/25/17 New scores: 570 TU - 532 Exp - 550 EF

Not bad, for only having done one thing...the secured credit card with a $300 deposit, using it, paying it off.

Now that I've seen momentum, I want to do more. I have 12 collections/derogatories. How do I begin to contest those?

I've read that doing the online contest isn't really the way to go, so how do I go about doing the letters? Is there a template to use? Where do I find the addresses to send? And do I send them registered mail so I have proof?

I'm ready to hit this hard, but there is SO much conflicting advice online. I thought I'd be safer to turn to you guys, being that you've done this before...

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 17:09:41 GMT

Congrats!

I am newer to credit clean up too but do NOT use templates. Write up your own stuff as there is software the bureaus use to see if your using a template and they will blow you off.

Look for inconsistancies in your report and use that after you send for debt validation. I had 26 derogs (some werent mine, thanks Aunt with same name! ) and I got half wiped out just asking for DV (debt validation) from them. They need to send you a letter showing itemization of everything not just a simple letter saying yes trust us, you owe us.

Because the debt passes so many hands, documents sometimes wont transfer properly and rather than see where the break down happened (especially on older debts) they will just write it off and delete.

MAKE SURE to ask that they do not sell the debt and get EVERYTHING in writing.

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 17:17:45 GMT

I've had pretty good success with the online disputes via each CRA. My latest was a CO that USAA just treated my settlement in writing as a payment. I uploaded the documents via a dispute with each agencies within 2 weeks my CO was updated to a $0 balance which dropped my utilization. Just giving my experience using the digital method. Your results may be different.

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

EW800 — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 17:24:03 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My starting scores: 527 TU - 507 Exp - 502 EF

So, here I am, 45 years old and rebuilding. Long story short, went through a depression several years ago, lost our business, and made a ton of small, bad choices. That's the bad news. The good news is that I'm mentally stable now with stable income.

My starting numbers are above. I had a repossesion of a vehicle two years ago, and I have several small collections that I will be working on negotiating and paying off. Up until a couple weeks ago, I had zero payments, zero balances on anything (I paid cash for our car), which has hurt my credit. I've gotten myself one secured credit card with a limit of $300, and my credit score jumped 19 points just from that. I also have a bankruptcy that discharged in 2008.

I am considering a very small auto loan - $5000 or so - just to show payments and credit utilization. I make $55K a year, so even with a $200 car payment, I'd be well below a healthy debt-to-income ratio.

So, I'm basically doing this to keep track of my progress, but thought it might be helpful for others, too!

Wishing you the absolute best through your rebuild! This site is a true blessing. I recommend that you check-in here often through your process, as there is always a lot of very good advice and encouragement.

My wife and I went through some very ugly financial issues in 2011/2012. As you can see below, our scores have recovered nicely, although we still have another 16-18 months before the bad stuff all falls off our reports. I am thankful to this site and its great members for providing the knowledge and encouragement to get our scores where they are today.

Best wishes!

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 18:03:49 GMT

Thanks RebuildinginSC! That's good information to have! I have thirteen separate collections to send inquiries on, so we'll see!

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 18:09:22 GMT

Wow, your "in my wallet" has inspired me! LOL

Thank you for your post!

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 18:17:19 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
3/17/17 My starting scores: 527 TU - 507 Exp - 502 EF
4/25/17 New scores: 570 TU - 532 Exp - 550 EF

Not bad, for only having done one thing...the secured credit card with a $300 deposit, using it, paying it off.

Now that I've seen momentum, I want to do more. I have 12 collections/derogatories. How do I begin to contest those?

I've read that doing the online contest isn't really the way to go, so how do I go about doing the letters? Is there a template to use? Where do I find the addresses to send? And do I send them registered mail so I have proof?

I'm ready to hit this hard, but there is SO much conflicting advice online. I thought I'd be safer to turn to you guys, being that Iyou've done this before...

Just a word of caution ... don't get overzealous with contesting or "disputing" things on your credit report.

It can have a further negative affect on your reports.

If it's not valid, dispute it. And by all means, send off your DVs if you want.

But if you know the debt is yours, sending off DVs or disputing things is silly. Make a plan to pay them and seek PFDs if possible.

This is a marathon, not a sprint

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 18:24:08 GMT

This is a marathon, not a sprint

Thank you for that reminder!

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

EW800 — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 19:01:29 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

This is a marathon, not a sprint

So very true! It can be so frustrating that in most cases it can take years to get everything cleaned up, but so worth it.

Re: My Credit Clean-Up Story

medicgrrl — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 19:32:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
3/17/17 My starting scores: 527 TU - 507 Exp - 502 EF
4/25/17 New scores: 570 TU - 532 Exp - 550 EF

Not bad, for only having done one thing...the secured credit card with a $300 deposit, using it, paying it off.

Now that I've seen momentum, I want to do more. I have 12 collections/derogatories. How do I begin to contest those?

I've read that doing the online contest isn't really the way to go, so how do I go about doing the letters? Is there a template to use? Where do I find the addresses to send? And do I send them registered mail so I have proof?

I'm ready to hit this hard, but there is SO much conflicting advice online. I thought I'd be safer to turn to you guys, being that Iyou've done this before...
Just a word of caution ... don't get overzealous with contesting or "disputing" things on your credit report.

It can have a further negative affect on your reports.

If it's not valid, dispute it. And by all means, send off your DVs if you want.

But if you know the debt is yours, sending off DVs or disputing things is silly. Make a plan to pay them and seek PFDs if possible.

This is a marathon, not a sprint

Research the SOL on each one, research the CA and see if they do PFD's, look into DOFD and don't call them until you have money to pay them. Make a plan first based on what you find out about each account. Feel free to itemize them on here and ask for opinions etc.