topic Lost, what can I do to improve? in Rebuilding Your Credit

Lost, what can I do to improve?

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 23:14:35 GMT

Hey everyone, Happy New Year! Had an account back in '15 but completely forgot what the login was.

I'm trying to figure out how to get my score up, obviously besides paying my cards off

I'm an authorized user on an amex card with a 27k limit that is maxed out and citi card with 56% utilization (10k/18.5k).

Back in 2015 I had:

1 30day late on my bank of america card (age of card: 12 years)

1 30day late on my citibank card (age of card: 8 years)

1 90day late on navient student loan which is now paid off

1 90day late on another navient student loan which is also now paid off

I know these should not be haunting me anymore but it seems like they are. When I check my score through my bank of america card it shows 710 but the top reason it shows is serious delinquency and then high revolving balance. Also CK shows my scores very differently 583 TU and 659 EX. I know CK and Bofa are based on different models.

Should I write GW letters to bofa, citi, navient? Just lost on what I can do to improve my score? Remove myself as AU?

Thanks in advance for the advice!!

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

collics — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 00:00:43 GMT

I think the first thing anyone here is going to tell you is to get your real FICO scores and not Credit Karma.

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

OmarGB9 — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 00:25:58 GMT

Yes remove yourself from those maxed AU accounts until they're under control (if ever). Then write GW letters and hope for the best.

Also, as the poster above said, get your true FICO 8s either from here or from Credit Check Total for $1 free 7-day trial and just cancel before the 7da days are up.

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 01:02:06 GMT

Ok I will work on getting my real fico score. But should I remove myself from every AU where util is high?

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

AllZero — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 02:08:55 GMT

Are you benefiting from older account age on the AU cards than your own?

Question is, will the AU cards be reporting single digit % utilization anytime soon?

If not in the foreseeable future, best to remove yourself as AU if you are concerned about score.

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 09:14:09 GMT

The best part when you remove yourself as an AU, is the accounts will show as a positive closed account on your report with a $0 balance AND will show the highest balance on the account. So when you apply for a new account somewhere, their system will see that (and not care that its an AU account) and assume you paid off a big card. It helped me many times in the past.

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

FireMedic1 — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 09:34:30 GMT

Tell the AU cards later. The util is killing you more than anything else for now. Eeven more than average age or older accounts. FICO doesnt care what the name on the cards is. The consumer does. They only care about whats reported %-wise of the credit limit. The lates will have to age. The serious delinquency is the 2 90 days lates. And you can try the GW letter removal process since they are paid you might have a better chance. Good Luck!!!!!!.

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

OmarGB9 — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 14:41:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
The best part when you remove yourself as an AU, is the accounts will show as a positive closed account on your report with a $0 balance AND will show the highest balance on the account. So when you apply for a new account somewhere, their system will see that (and not care that its an AU account) and assume you paid off a big card. It helped me many times in the past.

I don't know about that. In my experience, when you remove yourself as an AU, the TL is deleted altogether.

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

FireMedic1 — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 15:06:49 GMT

"To get started it’s important to know that there are two ways to get authorized user accounts removed from your report:

Request that the card issuer removes them (normally has to be done by the primary account holder)
Request that the credit bureau (e.g TransUnion, Equifax or Experian) removes them

In general it’s going to be much easier to to ask the card issuer to remove the account from a credit report first. This is because if they say yes then they will automatically contact all three credit bureaus and ask them to remove the account. If you contact the credit bureaus, you’ll need to make sure all three remove the account otherwise it might still show on some of your credit reports."

AMEX is a different animal per DOC.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/removing-authorized-user-accounts-credit-report/

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

GApeachy — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 06:54:24 GMT

@OmarGB9 wrote:
I don't know about that. In my experience, when you remove yourself as an AU, the TL is deleted altogether.

Could very well happen that way or you're liable to get a number of different results like I did....who knows:

For me, EQ yes- Gone completely. But the two cards did remain on my Exp and Tu as closed.

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 16:13:11 GMT

Hey guys, sorry for the delay in responding, i was locked out of the account and was told to make a new one. thanks for the replys regarding the AU. So they AU stuff seems to be a bit confusing...should I call AMEX and CITI directly and asked to be removed? They will remove me but it still may be on my credit report, which would then still affect my util?

I signed up and got my scores:

EX: 698

EQ: 674

TU: 710

EX has history that goes far back enough to show my late payments. EQ and TU stop in 2015. I added screenshots of my lates:

payments

Those late payments take 7 years to drop off right? However, is it worth writing GW to remove them, at least the student loan 90 day ones that have been paid off?

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

gdale6 — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 22:19:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

Those late payments take 7 years to drop off right? Yes each late in an otherwise current account drops at the 7 year mark.

However, is it worth writing GW to remove them, at least the student loan 90 day ones that have been paid off? Yes

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 01:18:14 GMT

So I have not removed myself from the AU cards yet. Not 100% sure what I should do about that. Seems like people have said to work on removing the late payments from 2013 and 2014 via goodwill letters. I have sent out emails to all the companies. BofA called me 2 hours after sending an email and they said they would look into but if it is accurate it likely wont be removed. They even mention it here:

https://www.bankofamerica.com/help/goodwill-adjustments/

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

KJinNC — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 01:25:09 GMT

I am an AU on a card with a $25k CL. It appears on Experian and does not appear on TransUnion. Otherwise, those two credit reports have the same stuff, so I am in good position to see how it affects my scores. Last month, the AU card had 35% utilization, and my Experian and TransUnion scores were about the same, so I'd say 35% is roughly break-even. This month, the AU card is down to about 24% utilization, and my Experian score is 24 points higher than my TransUnion score. I am not aware of anything else different on the two reports yet (number of inquiries is a bit different, but that hasn't changed recently). My Apple Card isn't reporting on TU yet, if anyone's wondering. Once it does, that will muddy the waters a bit.

I am looking forward to meeting ficoplayer3, ficoplayer4 and the whole ficoplayer family!

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 04:10:24 GMT

LOL hope I do not have to create any more accounts. I believe the AU TL's show up on all 3 CR. But given what you said with the util maybe it would boost my score?

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

KJinNC — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 04:15:55 GMT

Based on my experience, I would guess that it'll be a net negative if the utilization is above 35% and a net positive if the utilization is below 35%. Roughly break-even at 35%. However, that may be profile-dependent, and should only be taken as a guess.

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 04:18:17 GMT

Ok understood, so do you think I should work on goodwill letters to remove my lates from 2013 and 2014 while I am paying down my own cards?

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

KJinNC — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 05:08:03 GMT

As a preface, your scores aren't bad. I think it depends on what you want to achieve with credit over the next few years. If you are, for example, trying to buy a house, that might create incentive to work on the derogatory items. If you just want "decent" credit and you have the credit cards you need, or what have you, that might suggest waiting for the derogs to fall off in a couple years.

Also, I don't know anything about student loans. There are some experts here on that topic who will hopefully chime in.

That said, my thought would be to work on the 90-day-lates via pay for delete and/or goodwill saturation method; to get removed from the authorized user cards if you expect the balances to stay where they are; and to add missing pieces to your profile as required. I wouldn't worry about the 30-day lates for now. Maybe later. 30-day lates are not very severe.

By missing pieces, I mean, you get a scoring bonus if you have at least three bank cards. You get a scoring bonus if you have multiple types of accounts, such as cards + car loan. If you don't have or want a car loan, you can emulate its scoring advantage with a secured installment loan from Self Lender or other lenders.

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jan 2020 02:04:18 GMT

Well applying for a loan to buy a house would be ideal. However, this score may not do me any justice. The 2 90-day lates (Jan 2014) are from navient that are now paid off. I emailed their customer advocate group and got a reponse that basically said when the information is reported accurately the FCRA does not permit navient to reverse or provide courtesy retractions of information to consumer reporting agencies. Not sure, if I should try writing them letters about this. Outside of this I guess I can remove myself from the AU cards since they will not be paid off anytime soon.

Re: Lost, what can I do to improve?

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jan 2020 11:46:39 GMT

Definitely remove yourself from the AU accounts. Their age is likely quite a bit older than the ages of your cards, which is a help, but the utilization in them is killing you, especially the maxed card. Age only accounts for 10% of your score but usage is 35%. The harm from the balances outweighs the benefit from the age. Get ‘em gone.