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Credit building help

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Anonymous
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Credit building help

I’ve had bad credit for years now and I’m almost to the point of buying a house, so need to fix it ASAP. I currently have 4 collection accounts from two cable companies, a medical bill and a gym (all under 500 each) and a credit card that’s a charge off for 344. I had an unsecured card with capital one last year that went 30 days late so they closed it (0 balance, they used my deposit.) I’m an AU on a family members amex for 10,000, I have a comenity bank store card for 500, and another store card joint with someone for 1500. I just took out a car loan a few months ago and owe about 20,000. I have a TON of inquiries (around 30) as I shopped around for a car a couple of times in the past year before buying. My Fico is 548. What can I do to get it over 600?
Message 1 of 7
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Anonymous
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Re: Credit building help

Where does your utilization currently sit?  That's the only area of immediate [scoring wise] opportunity that you may have.  Aside from that, it's removal of your negative items.  You'd want to start with the most severe/recent and get in contact with that lender and see if they'll work with you on it.  That's really all you can do.

 

When you say you're almost to the point of buying a house, can you put a time frame on that?  Typically you shouldn't be considering a mortgage app if you've applied for credit in the last year, so if you just opened an auto loan 2 months ago I would say you have some waiting to do.  Your scores are probably about 100 points away from where you'd want them to minimally be prior to apping, so I would strongly suggest putting off the mortgage until you can get there.

Message 2 of 7
Anonymous
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Re: Credit building help

My utilization is currently at 17% so not terrible. I hope to get a mortgage by Summer 2019. Do I have hopes of raising my score enough by then?
Message 3 of 7
Anonymous
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Re: Credit building help

That’ll depend on several things. First will be getting in touch with the holders of the bad debts you have and trying to arrange pay-for-deletes. Any that will, you should jump on. Those who won’t will still need to be paid, and you can goodwill them afterward to try and remove their tradelines from your reports.

You should practice AZEO as well. Look it up here in the forum to see the details. As for your AU card, what’s the utilization? If it’s high, it may be harming you more than helping.

Finally, paying your bills and letting your accounts age after the bad stuff is gone is the last step to let your scores rise.
Message 4 of 7
Anonymous
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Re: Credit building help

My Amex that I’m an AU on has a utilization percentage of about 5% so that shouldn’t be hurting it. Is there any way to get the late payment deleted? Other than the collections, I’ve paid my credit cards, auto loan, etc on time every month for at least two years, so that one late payment really sucks
Message 5 of 7
Anonymous
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Re: Credit building help

The other two commenters are suggesting something called AZEO, which stands for All Zero Except One.  It refers to credit card balances.  The remaining card reports a small positive balance, like $15 say.

 

You should implement AZEO as swiftly as possible, and that will give you a baseline of how high you can raise it without getting the derogs eliminated.

 

I am very surprised to hear that Cap One closed your card with only a 30-day late.  Are you certain that the account (as it reads on the report) only says 30 days late?  If so, I wonder whether Cap One got spooked by all your other collections and decided to protect itself earlier than later.

 

The 30-day late is having a small impact on your score compared to the charge-off and collections.

 

As IMD and BBS suggested, you should immediately begin attempting to negotiate Pay For Deletes on all your bad debts.  Work with the people in the Rebuilding forum on how to conduct those negotiations.  Be willing to try repeatedly with multiple reps over at least a few months before you give in and simply pay -- you have leverage now (they want your money) which you will lack once you have paid.

 

After the bad debts are paid (and we hope deleted) you can work on the Day 30 late (Goodwill letter).  The Goodwill attempts for the Day 30 will be more persuasive if you wait until your report looks much cleaner.  The general thrust of a GW letter is "Please help me out, this was a one time accident."  That's a hard sell when your report is riddled with unpaid chargeoffs and collections.

 

When your report is far cleaner you can and should purchase the complete package of all FICO scores, which will include your mortgage scores.  There's no point in doing that, however, until you have made a great deal of progress on the reports.  Use free or ultra-low-cost tools for looking at your reports and FICO 8 scores while you are rebuilding.

Message 6 of 7
Anonymous
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Re: Credit building help

Great post from CGID above.

 

Another point that hasn't been mentioned is that under no circumstance should you apply for credit/open an account in the next 10 months.  Presumably your AoYA is 2-3 months right now, so you're taking a 15-20 point or so scoring penalty for your youngest account being under 12 months old.  Once it hits 12 months, you'll see your scores increase a good chunk on the 1st of whatever month that is.  This factor alone depending on how well you are able to increase your scores between now and next summer could be what pushes you from the "no" zone to the "go" zone, so definitely don't apply for credit!

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