A newbie looking for some advice from the pros. Please help!!

[Anonymous]

Just to add some EE experience here:

For TransUnion, just call and tell them “I’m calling to request an early exclusion on a tradeline on my reports and I understand only a supervisor has the privileges in the system to handle this. Could you please transfer me?” When the supervisor comes on, repeat your request. They’ll put you on hold for a couple minutes to verify dates, and then come back on to let you know it’s been deleted and that they’ll mail you a paper copy of your report showing its removal. CK will alert you the next day that you’ve had an account deleted. And that’s it. TU in my experience is a snap.

Experian - call in and ask for the dispute department. You aren’t actually disputing anything, but EX handles exclusions through that department. When you have them, ask for the supervisor just like with TU. Explain to the supervisor that you’re calling to request EE on an account. Unlike TU, who just delete it, EX opens a dispute (your CK alert will ding, telling you that you have a new open dispute), then they use that as a vehicle to remove the report. They’ll tell you it’s up to 72 hours but in my experience and that of many others, it’s 2-3 hours, and the next day you’ll see that the dispute is closed and the account is gone.

There have been some mixed results for some with EX, but by and large it seems to go well. I had no issues personally the two times I’ve done it.

[thornback]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Just to add some EE experience here:

For TransUnion, just call and tell them “I’m calling to request an early exclusion on a tradeline on my reports and I understand only a supervisor has the privileges in the system to handle this. Could you please transfer me?” When the supervisor comes on, repeat your request. They’ll put you on hold for a couple minutes to verify dates, and then come back on to let you know it’s been deleted and that they’ll mail you a paper copy of your report showing its removal. CK will alert you the next day that you’ve had an account deleted. And that’s it. TU in my experience is a snap.

Experian - call in and ask for the dispute department. You aren’t actually disputing anything, but EX handles exclusions through that department. When you have them, ask for the supervisor just like with TU. Explain to the supervisor that you’re calling to request EE on an account. Unlike TU, who just delete it, EX opens a dispute (your CK alert will ding, telling you that you have a new open dispute), then they use that as a vehicle to remove the report. They’ll tell you it’s up to 72 hours but in my experience and that of many others, it’s 2-3 hours, and the next day you’ll see that the dispute is closed and the account is gone.

There have been some mixed results for some with EX, but by and large it seems to go well. I had no issues personally the two times I’ve done it.

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You're such a treasure, @ImTheDevil   

[Anonymous]

Lol @thornback you've done all the heavy lifting here. All I've done is throw in a few comments! Credit goes to you

[thornback]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Lol @thornback you've done all the heavy lifting here. All I've done is throw in a few comments! Credit goes to you

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Well thanks but I never underestimate the value of personal experience --  your EE post is incredibly helpful. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you - hopefully it'll help now and in the future - for OP, you, or anyone else out here

OP, I should have mentioned before, EQ offers exclusion as well, but they're incompetent and are very likely to screw things up. Since they only state removal 30 days early, you're better off waiting and letting it die a natural death. It's only one extra month and isn't worth a screwup that could take 3-4 months to fix.

[thornback]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you - hopefully it'll help now and in the future - for OP, you, or anyone else out here

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Oh please no I hope never me -- I don't want to ever have to rebuild again.  I plan for my reports to stay clean!   

I asked for EEs before from both Transunion and Equifax.  TU I just requested through a Credit Karma dispute because (at the time) they had the "too old to be reported" reason.  Account was removed in less than 24hrs.    I got lucky with EQ and had an account removed 4 months early; I sent a letter to them by mail requesting removal - and they granted it.   So my personal EE experience seems to rarely - if ever - be helpful to others...

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@thornback wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Lol @thornback looks like we are on the exact same page here!

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haha....  I saw that 

And yes,  OP,  I agree with The Devil regarding Amex -- get your FICO scores first.   Amex may approve you but start you with a $500 limit (their lowest) which could be stuck there a year before they approve a CLI.    Recommend cleaning up your reports first.  Closed accounts with balances and outstanding collections do you no favors.   

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My Experian score came back at 686. Equifax is at 691. Transunion 688. Is this good enough for AMEX??

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If I were you I'd wait until my scores hit 700, and then apply for the Amex BCE.

To get to 700, get your utilization down, and don't apply for any other credit.

[Anonymous]

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@thornback wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you - hopefully it'll help now and in the future - for OP, you, or anyone else out here

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Oh please no I hope never me -- I don't want to ever have to rebuild again.  I plan for my reports to stay clean!   

I asked for EEs before from both Transunion and Equifax.  TU I just requested through a Credit Karma dispute because (at the time) they had the "too old to be reported" reason.  Account was removed in less than 24hrs.    I got lucky with EQ and had an account removed 4 months early; I sent a letter to them by mail requesting removal - and they granted it.   So my personal EE experience seems to rarely - if ever - be helpful to others...

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Thank you both @ImTheDevil and @thornback. I'm anxiously waiting till I get out of work today to call Transunion and Experian for EE. I won't mess with Equifax since I'd rather avoid any mishaps if possible. I don't mind waiting the extra month for it to "die a natural death" as @ImTheDevil put it...lol. While I'm waiting I can just pay off some of my outstanding debt on my other 3 CC's and hopefully that will boost my score to the 700's. Or is that not even possible?  

In your personal opinions and experiences, with the Cap 1/ Best Buy account & the Midland collection falling off — how many points would that usually boost a credit score? And also.... So my personal EE experience seems to rarely - if ever - be helpful to others. (You've been very helpful, for what it's worth ) 

[Anonymous]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@thornback wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Lol @thornback looks like we are on the exact same page here!

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haha....  I saw that 

And yes,  OP,  I agree with The Devil regarding Amex -- get your FICO scores first.   Amex may approve you but start you with a $500 limit (their lowest) which could be stuck there a year before they approve a CLI.    Recommend cleaning up your reports first.  Closed accounts with balances and outstanding collections do you no favors.   

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My Experian score came back at 686. Equifax is at 691. Transunion 688. Is this good enough for AMEX??

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If I were you I'd wait until my scores hit 700, and then apply for the Amex BCE.

To get to 700, get your utilization down, and don't apply for any other credit.

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Will do!!! Any advice on Discover?

[Anonymous]

Discover's prequal is pretty solid - if they say yes you are qualified, AND it shows a solid APR rather than a range (ie, it shows 24.79% and not 21-26%), that's about as solid as it gets.

There really is no set number of points gained that we can say when a derog is cleared because too many other factors go into scoring. Most people during a rebuild see a handful of points for each derog cleared until the last one - when the last one comes off, scores skyrocket. Simply having a derog is why your score is suppressed. A clean file that gets hit by a negative entry can lose 100 points or more. Subsequent derogs only cost a few more each (say, up to 10), because there is a derog already. It's the same in reverse - the fact that any negative entries exist means your scores are punished, so during a rebuild, as you get them removed, as long as more are there, you won't gain a lot. When that last one comes off though, hold on tight - you could leap from 700 to 800 or higher even.