@Grizzygains wrote:Hi All,
I am new to the community and I am looking for general advice on what are the next steps I need to take to achieve an even healthier credit profile.
So far I have subscribed to the myfico paid service and have access to all my scores on a monthly basis. After reviewing my credit reports, I identified the derogatory items and was able to get one removed myself by reaching a settlement offer with the collection agency and agreed to pay for delete.
I have 3 derogatory items remaining on my report, which I have hired a credit Repair company to assist with. My general question is, aside from removing negative items, what are the next steps I should be taking in the meantime while the credit repair company does their work? How do I know what cards, line of credit ect to apply for?
My FICO 8 current scores are EQ 643 TU 657 Experian 628
Any advice is appreciated and I can provide any further info that might help the community help me.
Welcome to MyFico!
I'll start with; there is nothing a credit repair company can do that you can't. A large percentage of credit repair companies receive excessive fees to send one or two dispute letters a month.
If you list the good, the bad and the ugly the members of this forum will help you reach your goals.
When sharing your information, it is helpful to know:
UGLY:
who the original creditor is, who the current collection agency is, amount owed, and Date of First Default-- for your collections.
BAD:
Creditor, date opened, limit, current balance owed, number of lates and severity of each (30, 60, 90 days late) how recent was the most recent?
GOOD:
Creditor, age of account, limit and amount owed.
With the above, great advice can be tailored to your specific profile and goals.
@Grizzygains wrote:Thanks all @Anonymous @chiefone4u @Anonymous
My wife and I have mentally committed to give this repair agency a try for 3 months ish. Mostly due to the sheer number of negative accounts that she has and the time we assumed it would require to do both ourselves.
Now onto my profile, here's what I have:
UGLY
1. Original Creditor: Navient (currently issued to a national enterprise systems collection agency)
Amount owed $17,519 charge off
Date of first default: 10/2016 90days late
Last activity 05/2016 EQ 04/2016 TU
2. Original Creditor: Navient (currently issued to a national enterprise systems collection agency)
Amount owed $11,691 charge off
Date of first default: 09/2016 90days late
Last activity 05/2016 EQ 04/2016 TU
3. Original creditor: Bank of America (closed)
Amount owed: $0 (paid acct/was a charge off)
Date of First Default: 09/2013 30 days late
Last activity: 08/2013
closed date: 11/2008
GOOD
1. Ally financial car loan
Age of acct: opened 09/2019
Balance $27,947
2.Jared galleria
opened 11/2018
limit $5,100
balance $0
3. cap1 auto (closed)
opened 08/2015 closed 09/2019
balance $0
4. Cap1 CC
opened 05/2015
limit $7000
balance $0
5. Top asset solutions
opened 05/2014
balance $0
6. sams club (closed)
opened 10/2011
limit $2000
balance $0
7. cap1 auto
opened 10/2011
balance $0
8. cap1 cc
opened 04/2011
limit $2000
balance $683 (will be $0 before statement close, I've been clearing my cc balances each month for a few months now)
My wife and I recently became NFCU members however we just have savings and checking with them for now.
Your dates look off to me on your BoA charge off. Were you in some sort of repayment plan from 2008 to 2013? I'm not sure where you got your dates from, just looks odd that the account is $0 and your first default was a month after last activity.
On the bright side, if your dates are correct this account will age off this year. You should even be able to call Transunion this month and ask for "early exclusion", requests the same from Experian in July. Don't mess with Equifax as they tend to make it more complicated than it needs to be.
The early exclusion is where paying a credit repair company to fix your credit can be harmful. If the company disputes this account, your request for early exclusion could be denied.
Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, in my opinion you need to get ahold of Navient and rehab those student loans. You should be able to enter a income based repayment plan.
Rehabilitating the student loans will put them in the "good" column after 6 on time payments. If they are federal student loans, they will never actually go away. Sometimes they fall off your reports, but they will haunt you down the road if you try to finance a home.
Keep up the good work on not carrying a balance month to month on your credit cards.
Overall, your profile isn't that bad.
You didn't mention anything about income, or how much you have to toss at debts so I can't say for sure how quickly you'll be cleaned up.
If you rehab those loans, you should be pretty much cleaned up before end of this year. Obviously unless you have $30k available you'll still be paying down the student loans for a few years (those terms should be laid out when you rehab them).
Best of luck!
@CA4Closure wrote:First, now that your accounts went into collections, I would negotiate a repayment plan. Stop using your credit cards except for one. For example, use one card only and your spouse or you pays by cash. You need to work on financial savy. Don't even think of applying for more credit because at this point your APRs will all be in the 18% or higher range and most credit card issuers will not lower your APRs intil you hit the 700s in FICO score.
Second, get rid of financially draining expenses like cable TV just get the basic. If you are paying over $400 on your auto payment, sell it and get a cheaper vehicle.
The only way to fix this is mess is time. Make timely payments on your credit cards and stop living beyond your means.
I have been there except my downfall was lost of a job and a business partner who stole business assets and I got stuck with paying for the loss. I lost my home and was destroyed financially. It took me 4 years to get from FICO 330 to FICO 700. Today my FICO is between 831-850.
Without OP giving any indication of income, or disposable income we don't have enough information to say what is a reasonable car payment.
From what I see OP has roughly $30k in student loan debt, but other than lack of payment we don't know why it went to collections.
I do agree that to clean up their profile quicker it's going to take all available disposable income they can scrape up.
I find it a pretty bold statement of "living outside your means" with what has been shared.
It is possible ignorance got them behind on student loans, then it compounded with not knowing how to fix it later -- so it was just ignored. <-- only speculation as a back story wasn't provided either.
As others have stated you're not in a horrible place with your credit. Yes it will take some cleaning up but starting on it now will get you want to be in the next few years(sooner thanyou probably think). I would suggest checking your pre qualify options for Navy. Good card to have especially if you ever need a balance transfer. Good luck on your rebuild and thanks for being open about your credit. It will help a lot of people who are struggling to rebuild. Again wish you the best of luck.
