Not sure where to go from here

[Anonymous]

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@derboesekoenig wrote:

I know credit karma isn't transunion/experian, but I used their score simulator, and current score (504) to a 0% utilization shows a jump to 628. So essentially if I did that plus the 2 (well, 3 technically) loan payoffs, it should be 628+ correct?

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One of the other contributors (ImTheDevil) warns that a 0% utilization is not ideal and will hurt your score compared to having a 1% utilization.  I strongly recommend you take ImTheDevil's advice and have exactly one credit card report with a small positive balance.  FICO will round this up to 1%.

[Anonymous]

You mention that your chief interest is in CLIs.  Although there is no harm in seeing if you can get CLIs, bigger credit limits will not in themselves improve your scores at all -- not even one point.  That's just an FYI in case you were thinking that the bigger CLs would improve your score.

[derboesekoenig]

Loan 1.  Balance before payoff =  21,848   Original loan amount = 23,738

Loan 2.  Balance before payoff =   787       Original loan amount =  7639

Loan 3.  Balance before payoff =    845      Original loan amount =  8190

I know that initially it won't improve my score, but I was thinking over a short time period, it would

I left a 1-3% balance on one card. Is that best, or to keep a 1-3% balance on all cards?

And I know the late payments will not go away for a very long time. Is there any way for me to inquire to someone about them to get them to disappear before the 7 years though?

Also, CLIs are not my chief interest. End goal is of course a 790-800 score, and 800+ FICO. I realize this may take years, but I need to learn to be patient. CLIs along the way? Sure, I wouldn't mind...

[Anonymous]

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@derboesekoenig wrote:

Loan 1.  Balance before payoff =  21,848   Original loan amount = 23,738

Loan 2.  Balance before payoff =   787       Original loan amount =  7639

Loan 3.  Balance before payoff =    845      Original loan amount =  8190

I know that initially it won't improve my score, but I was thinking over a short time period, it would

I left a 1-3% balance on one card. Is that best, or to keep a 1-3% balance on all cards?

And I know the late payments will not go away for a very long time. Is there any way for me to inquire to someone about them to get them to disappear before the 7 years though?

Also, CLIs are not my chief interest. End goal is of course a 790-800 score, and 800+ FICO. I realize this may take years, but I need to learn to be patient. CLIs along the way? Sure, I wouldn't mind...

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Thanks.  We also need the current balance and original loan amount for all your open loans.  We can't assess the impact of your loan payoffs without knowing that as well.

Your score will be maximized with all cards at zero except one (AZEO).  The one card should have a small positive balance: $10, $15, whatever.

[derboesekoenig]

Ok so besides those 3 that are listed and all the cards, the fedloans/school loans are as follows:

1. Current balance-   2523      Original loan-  3000

2. Current balance-   3628      Original loan-  4500

3. Current balance-   2568      Original loan-  2986

4. Current balance-   1792      Original loan-  2250

[Anonymous]

After the payoffs....

The total amount you owe on your open loans is $10,511.

The total original loan amounts on the open loans is $12,736.

That means your current installment utilization is 10511/12736 = 82.5%.

Before the payoffs....

The total amount you owed on your open loans was $33,991.

The total original loan amounts on the open loans were $52,303.

That means your installment utilization was 33991/52303 = 65%.

The loan payoffs have caused your installment utilization has to go up, which has probably lost you some scoring points.  Certainly it gained you no scoring points.

Furthermore, if you had kept all seven loans open, but paid the loans down by the same $23,480 amount, then....

The total amount you owed on your open loans would be $10,511.

The total original loan amounts on the open loans would still be $52,303.

That means your installment utilization would be 10511/52303 = 20%.

An IU of 20% would be much better, and you'd be much closer to a TIU of 8.99% where you would get even more scoring points.

[derboesekoenig]

Ah I see. I should've just paid them all down equally and not paid any off. 

Well too late for that. The good thing is that I won't need a loan for at least the next year. Maybe 2ish years. Hopefully it doesn't more than 2 years to get it to at least 750+, if I stay consistent, correct?

[Anonymous]

Here the best next steps for you, in chronological order.

(1)  Have one card reporting a positive balance.  Wait until all three bureaus show all cards at zero except one.  If you need help finding some free tools to pull your three reports, let us know.

(2)  Pull your three FICO 8 scores.  This will give you a baseline of where you are after you have done as much as you can in the short term.

(3)  Develop a financial plan that will prevent you from ever going into CC debt again.  The plan will necessarily involve saving a bunch of money to protect you in case of emergencies.

(4)  After you have been paying all your accounts regularly for several months, start a strong letter writing campaign to have the Day 120 lates removed.  Also the other late, but if it is a Day 30 late you will get no help unless the Day 120 lates are removed.  The Day 120s will severely hurt your score until they are removed.

The letter writing campaign is explained in more detail in posts that describe Goodwill Letters The Saturation Technique.

[derboesekoenig]

Thank you for all the help. I will follow those steps. Just have to be patient

[Anonymous]

Amex will give you your experian fico 8 score in your online account. (free)

You can also request 3x your current limit for an increase.  $1k x 3 = $3000