Raising my FICO score after bankruptcy

[Anonymous]

My current FICO according to my WAMU credit card company is 599 after getting as high as 630 3 months ago. I filed bankruptcy just before the laws changed in 2005 to get rid of 25,000 in credit card debt after a divorce knowong I could not possibly pay $500+ a month on top of my alimony and child support.

I have 2 credit cards that I have been using under my name and 1 credit card that I am an authorized user on under my mom's name. I have a $2000 balance on 1 with a credit limit of $5,000 and i have $1400 on another with an $8,000 credit limit and the authorized user card I just put on $2,0000 to get a pellet stove last month. I do not have any other loans at this time.

I have $4,000 in cash that i received by selling a stock that I bought last year with my tax return money and did well enough to double the $2,000 tax return money.

I want to use this $4,000 wisely to pay down some cards but I want to make this have as great an impact as possible.

I do not own a home or have any utility bills under my name at this time. I slpit the cost with my brother living in my deceased parents home where the bills are under his name for the phone, the gas, and the electric. I have no car loan but I will need a car by next year as my 1996 Volvo now has 310k on it.

I just took an offer from Capitol One for a new credit card that I hope i can make a few small purchases and then make payments on to keep up my credit. This card has a $2,000 limit but has an annual fee of $19 which i hope to get them to take away once I establish my credit with them.

Any help is appreciated and please tell me if I am going about this all wrong!!!

Marty

[Anonymous]

P.S. I forgot about 1 item on my credit report. After my bankruptcy I had a small bill ($90) that I let go and never paid because i had no money at the time. Should I pay this off and ask the collection agency to remove it or just let it go away over time. I think it is 2 years old now.

Marty

[granny031350]

Doing a PDF for that 1 collection account would help your score increase.  But don't pay it unless they agree to delete in exchange.  Also the guru's here recommend that if this debt is with a CA that you DV them first, then offer to PDF once the validation is received.  Other than that, to raise the score, paying down some of your cc balances will help (keep util under 10 percent total) and you might want to consider using some of that 4000 as a down payment for your vehicle.

[Anonymous]

What do you mean by PDF and DV. Should I also consider opening up a different type of loan other than revovlong credit cards like a small personal loan that I would pay off in 6 months??

Marty

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What do you mean by PDF and DV. Should I also consider opening up a different type of loan other than revovlong credit cards like a small personal loan that I would pay off in 6 months??

Marty

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Hi, Marty, welcome to the forums! Since you're actually out of BK now, and focusing on rebuilding your credit, this thread might do better in General Credit Issues. If you'd like to have the thread moved, please reply here, and I'll be happy to move it, or one of the other mods will, if they beat me to it.

Congrats on getting through your BK, and best wishes for your new life! --hauling

PS --in the meantime, if you haven't done so already, please read Credit Scoring 101, and also check out Frequently Requested Threads. Plus I've included the abbreviations thread:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2654

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=5000

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=Welcome&thread.id=23

Sorry, I'm in Firefox right now, so you'll have to copy/ paste the URL's into your browser windows.