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reopening old accounts

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haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: reopening old accounts

Sounds like a plan. And I think you'll see some nice score movement when the new CC's report. Since revolving credit is riskier than other forms, you get rewarded accordingly when you have revolving on your credit reports.

How old is the most recent collection? That's a pretty brutal score drop for "just" collections. Maybe you'll get a better bump from the new cards than I thought. (I don't even try to predict numbers any more; I'm hopeless at it.)

Do realize that the USAA AmEx is independent from American Express, so you won't get the "member since" date on that one. You probably know that, but I'm trying to head off confusion for others. The USAA (and Citi, and BofA, and PenFed, etc etc) AmEx card has consumer protections like those of "real" AmEx cards and is processed through the AmEx network, but it's not handled by American Express Corporation. All these are handled by the bank that actually issues them.
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 11 of 14
newstart2010
Blogger

Re: reopening old accounts

I had NO idea about the amex with USAA so that is really a good point!  thanks for letting me know.

 

The most recent collection is about a year old, but basically the ONLY thing on our credit is collections. We have no other credit at all.  The old mortgage was only under my husband, and the cars are the last collection after we voluntarily surrendered them when my job ended.  Nothing since, and nothing much before that.  So the new cards will be the only recent stuff on the reports.  And I am hoping the PFDs and DVs will take care of the majority of the baddies.  Once I see a significant reduction of those trade lines we are going to go to USAA and apply for a used car loan.  We spoke to an underwriter and let them know we were willing to put half down on a small used car loan to get an auto trade line on there that did not end in repossession.  We hope that will help when our current leases (held under my mother's name) come due.  We don't want to be stuck without transportation or needing to rent a car for an extended period of time.

 

But I digress...  I hope that the revolving trade line with show us a large bump in the scores, and I really hope that getting rid of most of the baddies will bring us up into the 700's.  but that is all wishful, and I can only conservatively guesstimate that we will be around 650 by the end of the year.

I live my life like I type, fast and with a lot of mistakes.
Spacebar broken. Watch for finger.

02/04/2015 || TU 08: 728 EX 08: 709 EQ 08: 748

Message 12 of 14
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: reopening old accounts

The year-old collection plus no open tradelines will definitely do a number on your scores.

The new collection will keep the score jump down, I'm afraid, but it will still help to have these new open TL's going.

If you haven't done this already, be sure to have a credit emergency fund established, containing enough money to pay your new cards in full, plus make auto loan payments, for at least 3 months (6 would be better.) It would be heartbreaking to have a new late payment post after you've started building your credit back up. An emergency fund (not to be touched for ANYTHING else) will help keep that from happening.
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 13 of 14
newstart2010
Blogger

Re: reopening old accounts

Oh yeah.  We have had that for a long time.  Sadly with the owner of our home going into foreclosure we have not had a houserent payment to make, so we have a ton of money in savings and ready to use as a down payment on a home.  We put together a 4 month emergency fund that would pay all of our bills, including what our rent would be if we were still paying it.  That is not being touched for any reason.

 

Our cards are only going to be used for the bills and such we already pay each month.  We are so used to living on cash, we do not need to have credit to extend our buying power, but just to clean up the credit.  

 

We will both have 4 new tradel lines with the new credit cards, and eventually the small auto loan for a good auto trade line.  We have a lawyer who is going to work with us on the auto loans that we had to surrender the cars on because the cars were sold and covered the debt owed, but they are not stating that.  So we need to get it cleared up a little better than what it is now.

I live my life like I type, fast and with a lot of mistakes.
Spacebar broken. Watch for finger.

02/04/2015 || TU 08: 728 EX 08: 709 EQ 08: 748

Message 14 of 14
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