topic Re: Which to work on first? in Rebuilding Your Credit

Which to work on first?

tayloreat713 — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 00:19:45 GMT

Hello,
I'm working on improving my FICO score and my utilization and CO/collections are hurting my score. Which should I work on first? PFD of my CO's or pay down my current balances?

Re: Which to work on first?

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 01:34:20 GMT

I would work on the CO first, but still stay current on your active accounts. The longer the CO stays on your report, the bigger the damage...

Re: Which to work on first?

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 04:11:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I would work on the CO first, but still stay current on your active accounts. The longer the CO stays on your report, the bigger the damage...

In addition to ScooterMcDoodlebutt's awesome answer, may I know which creditors the charge-offs and collections are from? I ask because some creditors are not very willing to honor PFD requests, and the myFICO community could offer some insight as to how to deal with that.

Re: Which to work on first?

FireMedic1 — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 09:09:46 GMT

Yes get those CO's over with as the other posters said. But whats your cards look like?

CL's vs. Balances. Util %'s?

Re: Which to work on first?

tayloreat713 — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 15:38:32 GMT

Hi!
How do I update my profile to include my scores, balances and creditors as shown on your profile? The credit cards I that that are current are as follows
Comenity bank-Lane Bryant CL $400 balance $280
Comenity-Torrid CL $430, balance $500
Amazon CL $100, balance $30
Merrick Bank CL $1400, balance $1450
Nordstrom CL $2500 balance $1800
Paypall CL $1450, balance $1350
Collections/Charge off's
I have 2 cards in collections and charged off from Capital One. One account (Bal is $3500) has been recently placed with a attorneys office and the other (BAL is $5500l ) is still internally with CapOne. I will be calling both to set up payment arrangements.
Unsecured loan with a credit union charged off in June 2018 Bal is $1800.
Other medical bills arw also in collections.

Re: Which to work on first?

tubbynerd — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 16:23:27 GMT

first thing I personally would do is get all your card balances at 88% or below, and then see what you have left to work with.

Re: Which to work on first?

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 16:23:56 GMT

I'm new at this rebuilding strategy myself, but I would say number one thing to do is get your Comenity-Torrid & Merrick cards under the their CL ASAP! Once you do that, then start attacking your collections.

What I did was make an Excel spreadsheet listing ALL of my debts (incl rent & utilities), then made columns for each pay period. This gave me a visual to see where I needed to allocate my funds each paycheck to pay everyone something. Before I did this it was hard to keep track of who needed to be paid & when. Usually I wound up overcommitting to one creditor, which put me behind on others. Another advantage was by doing this, I could see how much cashflow I would have after all my commitments had been taken care of for that pay period. It's a great peace of mind knowing that you are taking care of all your obligations each pay period and can see how much money you have left over. I can send you my spreadsheet if you would like to see what I did.

You probably aren't going to be ableto take care of all your collections at once, so make sure you put a plan in place where you can start paying off your CC balances while you pay off maybe one or two collections a month. Start with the card that has the lowest balance and pay it off. Once you pay it off, use the money you had allocated to that account and add it to the next card with the next lowest balance. Once that next card is paid off, add what you were paying on that account to the next one, and so on & so on... this is called snowballing & it really helped me pay off a lot of debt in 3 months. Good luck!

Re: Which to work on first?

tayloreat713 — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 21:16:19 GMT

Yes, If you can send me the spreadsheet that would be helpful.

The snowball method is what I'll be using!!

Re: Which to work on first?

tayloreat713 — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 21:18:19 GMT

Thanks! I'll do that this month.

Which to work on first?

tayloreat713 — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 21:18:37 GMT

Thanks! I'll do that this month.

Re: Which to work on first?

Jnbmom — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 21:28:09 GMT

Yes get that merrick card under the limit.

Careful with cap one they are quick to sue and garnish your wages.

Re: Which to work on first?

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 01:57:52 GMT

Get a hard budget and make your payments on time.

Get all credit cards under the CL.

Try and reach out to the creditors and start a dialogue to see what is possible to settle the debt. That way you have an idea of what is owed to them.

Try and not add any more debt to your credit cards as the interest is just taking extra money out of your pocket.

tray and sell some stuff you don't need on CL or eBay. The extra money uses to pay off debt.

What is the AAoA?

Re: Which to work on first?

tayloreat713 — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 02:58:34 GMT

Good tip about Cap One. I'll call them tomorrow.

Re: Which to work on first?

tayloreat713 — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 03:01:31 GMT

Sure, my charge off's are as follows:

SEFCU $1855
Cap One $3500
Cap One $5440
I also have a few medical collections and a previous rental debt my ex left me with. They offered a PFD which I will pay within the next 15 days.

Re: Which to work on first?

tayloreat713 — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 03:03:14 GMT

What is "AAoA"?

Re: Which to work on first?

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 03:17:29 GMT

Average Age of Accounts.

Here’s a link for common abbreviations:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/User-Guidelines-General/Common-Abbreviations/td-p/88458

Re: Which to work on first?

tayloreat713 — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 03:20:05 GMT

Thanks for that!! I believe my AAAoA is 5 years.

Re: Which to work on first?

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 03:50:09 GMT

Budget template sent. Check your email.

Re: Which to work on first?

FireMedic1 — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 09:34:27 GMT

@tayloreat713 wrote:
Hi!
How do I update my profile to include my scores, balances and creditors as shown on your profile? The credit cards I that that are current are as follows
Comenity bank-Lane Bryant CL $400 balance $280
Comenity-Torrid CL $430, balance $500
Amazon CL $100, balance $30
Merrick Bank CL $1400, balance $1450
Nordstrom CL $2500 balance $1800
Paypall CL $1450, balance $1350
Collections/Charge off's
I have 2 cards in collections and charged off from Capital One. One account (Bal is $3500) has been recently placed with a attorneys office and the other (BAL is $5500l ) is still internally with CapOne. I will be calling both to set up payment arrangements.
Unsecured loan with a credit union charged off in June 2018 Bal is $1800.
Other medical bills arw also in collections.

So lets focus on what you got ahead of you. I looked around in the other threads you been in. Right now scores aren't what you should be worried about. The overlimit cards have to get paid down ASAP. Or they will end up maybe like Cap1. Closed and charged off. Then you'll have more CO's and in time more collections accounts. Yes call and make payment arraingements to Cap1. I'd go as far to say. I wouldnt charge anything on your cards. Nothing. You have over 18,000 in debt that needs to be paid first. Get out of debt and then let things start to age off your reports. Then your scores will slowly rise. The damage is done and its time to repair the damage. Dont know your income. But your time is now to fix all that went south. Were here to help you along the way. Try to save what CC's you have left and pay those overlimit cards.

Re: Which to work on first?

tayloreat713 — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 11:40:56 GMT

I agree. I'll pay down Merrick and get it under the limit. I read in another thread to pay $2 or $5 more than the min. Not sure if this tactic would work in my case but I'll at least pay more than my min to get this paid off, and definitely not use any of my cards for a while.
The smaller balance cards with Comenity (Torrid Bal $430, LB $280) are another focus. I want them paid off within the next 60 days. Comenity has either been decreasing my limit or canceling the card once I pay it off. They've done that to 3 of my cards so far. One of them I had since 2011 so that hurt my AAoA.
What is the major difference between a CO and collection, are they the same?