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So I've been rebuilding since 2020, but just recently started helping a friend who was clueless on credit and has a thin file at 28 years old.
I got her an 80+ point increase in 2-3 months with simple fixes:
- 2 medical collections under $400 removed (instant removal with disputes)
- 2019 auto loan - She was hit by a driver while sitting still. His insurance was hesitant, but finally paid the loan. Short story, I got the 2 late payments removed from the loan with a goodwill email. Loan shows as fully paid and positive (I think it was American Credit Acceptance).
- She defaulted on a $300 personal loan in Jan of this year before I got involved in her credit. It's PIF now, but the CO is most likely costing her 75 points. Loan was up to date in Dec 2020 and they marked it late 60 days in Jan '21. I'm still trying to get this removed.
- I added her to 3 of my cards as AU. 0% UT, 2-3 years old... just for history.
- Opened 3 new cards of her own (CreditOne, FirstPremier and Kohls)
End of Aug into Sept sitting at 625 TU / 727 EQ / 622 EX (640 auto 8).
We've been having trouble getting her financed for a car $15-$20k, as expected.
The key here was that the CO is not reported on EQ, and the 'paid off' auto loan is on there. We tossed in an app with PenFed after getting denied from a local CU due to the recent job switch. She left a 3 year hospital position to make more at Amazon, and has only been on the job 2.5 months (another hit, I know).
The car we submitted to PenFed was a 2015 Mazda6 with 68k miles for $16.7k from a local Mazda dealer. PenFed comes back to say their underwriting is behind almost a week. So Saturday we decide to go checkout the car to make sure it's what she wants on the app before the underwriter gets to it.
I said we were going to leave after inspecting and driving the car, but the sales guy wanted to 'see what they could do'. I told him, only if you have 1 or 2 lenders who will pull EQ only. The dealer has to do their pull on all 3 of course, but I wanted to see if anyone would approve under 15% APR, then use PenFed as a last option maybe. I told him no Exeter, 25% APR bs, and don't blast the app out there... no more than 3 pulls.
Wells Fargo came back with an approval at 9.8%. I was kinda shocked. $34k/yr income, thin file and she just changed jobs. She did open a checking account with them and put 1k in there 2 months ago to let it sit for a down payment. I'm pretty sure the underwriter knew what that 1k was for
Sorry the post is long, but it might be a good insight for someone. Auto financing with thin or rebuilding credit is a complete pain. I think the approval vs the situation was pretty good, or the underwriter was just having a good Saturday. I'll get her to refi in 6 months to a year to get that 9.8% down.
Last year Wells Fargo beat my offer from NFCU by 2%. I'm not at all averse to HP if it can save me real money, which it did.
@EAJuggalo wrote:Last year Wells Fargo beat my offer from NFCU by 2%. I'm not at all averse to HP if it can save me real money, which it did.
@EAJuggalo I agree wholeheartedly. I don't want to rack of inquiries for no good reason but if I'm going to save enough money, I'll offer up an inquiry or two for sure...without hesitation.