Credit Recovery from Divorce

[Anonymous]

As the title suggests, my credit went to **bleep** after my separation and divorce from 2015. At that time, I was a stay at home mom (gave up my 11 year military career for him). It took 4 months to get a job and it paid $10/hr. From 2015-2019, my income was not a living wage income. I could only afford housing, food, utilities.  I couldn't even afford health insurance and my ex refused to add our kiddo. I had no disposal income during this time to pay on any debt. Fast forward to end of 2019, I finally have a job where I'm making a much better wage, have great health insurance and have put a huge dent on charge offs, collections and student loan. I don't feel like my credit is reflective on me doing the right thing and finally paying things off. 

Kohls- charge off- paid in full, shows paid after charge off (I've sent a letter asking if they would delete)

I had one student loan with Nelnet that defaulted and they transferred to the Dept of Education that also defaulted. Now I have 2 studen loan accounts reflecting negative on my reports when I only took one student loan out. This was also paid in full this summer. Are both allowed or suppose to be on my report when I had one student loan? 

I have 2 medical collection accounts on transunion that have been disputed across the board. Equifax and Experian removed when agencies couldn't verify debts but Transunion won't. 

My mom added me as a authorized user to her 13 year old credit card. She gave me a $5000 limit or that's her limit. Not sure. ( I don't use this card but her activity shows up on my report) Does this help my Fico scores?

I got a NFCU secure credit card beginning of September and put $800 towards my limit. It hasn't shown up on my credit report yet.

Credit Karma scores are 658/622

Experian 567

NFCU Fico 9 602

Scores last year this time from Credit Karma were 520. Am I asking to much expecting a bigger jump? I feel like the reward to pay things off hasn't been there. My score dropped a average of 60 points after paying defaulted student loan off before rebounding somewhat. How does that make sense? Anyway,  trying to rebuild and just fill sick that I feel like I still have to be reminded of my divorce whenever I look at my credit report. 

[OmarGB9]

Unfortunately rebuilding credit is a lot slower than tanking it. I understand you're an AU on your mom's card, and while that limit is good, what is her utilization (balance/total limit)? If it is at 50% or more of the total limit consistently, I'd honestly remove myself, because amount of debt is worth twice as much as the age bonus (30% vs 15%), so if the card is always at a high balance, it is negating the age factor. Also, does the card have any late payments on it? If so, those would hurt your credit as well.

Also, yes, both student loan accounts are sadly allowed since the original account was transferred/sold to another lender.

So you have 2 CC's in good standing and nothing else? If so, depending on your answers to my questions above regarding the AU account, you may want to look into getting another card or 2 of your own and implement AZEO (all zero except one), wherein you pay down all cards to zero before statement cut, and the one you let a small balance report on is under 8.9% of the limit.

[Anonymous]

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@OmarGB9 wrote:

Unfortunately rebuilding credit is a lot slower than tanking it. I understand you're an AU on your mom's card, and while that limit is good, what is her utilization (balance/total limit)? If it is at 50% or more of the total limit consistently, I'd honestly remove myself, because amount of debt is worth twice as much as the age bonus (30% vs 15%), so if the card is always at a high balance, it is negating the age factor. Also, does the card have any late payments on it? If so, those would hurt your credit as well.

Also, yes, both student loan accounts are sadly allowed since the original account was transferred/sold to another lender.

So you have 2 CC's in good standing and nothing else? If so, depending on your answers to my questions above regarding the AU account, you may want to look into getting another card or 2 of your own and implement AZEO (all zero except one), wherein you pay down all cards to zero before statement cut, and the one you let a small balance report on is under 8.9% of the limit.

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Omar, 

Thanks for responding. My Mom and Dad pay off the card in full every month but because she charges, a balance does show. This month is showing 18% utilization, which is pretty standard for them. This card has perfect payment history. I would consider it an asset. 

I don't know if I need to wait for my NFCU card to show up on my credit report or mature before trying to apply for another one. I don't want 2 secure cards and would rather wait for my NFCU secure card to mature and grow a bit. I did try for the Apple card because I want to build a relationship with Apple but was denied. (I fell in love with my Christmas present last year- an iPad, and want to get the new iPhone 12 once released) I do agree that I need another card but I don't just want another card to have it. I want to love it and be of use to me. 

[Anonymous]

If I were you, I would wait to apply until all of your accounts are reporting. Once they are, pull your FICO scores from www.creditchecktotal.com for $1 (cancel within seven days to avoid enrollment in a $30/month plan), and post up with your scores, and a breakdown of each account, open or closed, bad or good. Include the following:

creditor/balance/limit/status (on time, late, charged off, closed, etc), and if closed or charged off/in collections, who owns the debt currently

With that information, we can help you chart a course to rebuild your profile. I promise you that on this site, we don't judge. Most of us have been there and we get it - sometimes you get a bad hand and have to play it. What we do is support and help you overcome the derogs and negatives, based on the immense body of experience and data shared by our members and the stats and machinations of the scoring algorithms that have been doped out by some people here, experimenting with their own profiles and figuring out how it all works.

Pleaee follow up as a reply to this post so we can contain everything in one location, and so that those who reply will know when you've updated and can return to dig in and help you. You can take it to the bank that you've found the far-and-away best resource on the internet to repair your credit. Second-best is not even close, guaranteed. Welcome to MyFICO. We'll get you squared away

[Mr_Mojo_Risin]

@Anonymous  said it perfectly.

I came to myFICO with scores in the high 500's and low 600's. Within 7 months I had 770's. 

The members here are extremely knowledgeable and very generous with the time they take to help others.

Stick around here and you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish!