OK. Where to go from here?

[Anonymous]

     Hi everyone, I have been in the process of rebuilding my credit with the help from the wonderful people that visit these boards. Thank you. So far, I have paid off all my credit cards (CapOne 0/4500, HSBC -60/500, Sears 0/350 and Macy's 0/300) and requested CLI on all of them (all did except for HSBC, threatened to cancel and they just refunded AF and one Late fee, balance is like -60)

     I have no judegments or collections, but I have a bunch of lates on my reports on my credit cards that I have attempted to send goodwills for. I sent 9 goodwills, so far Sears (via phone)and Radioshack (closed) have been successful, Macy's has reversed 2 late payments, and the rest so far have been no's, and 1 or 2 got no response. Mortgages and car loans have no lates

     My other open accounts include a mortgage, 2 car payments and 2 student loans. My last scorewatch update shows my Equifax at 663 (still waiting for HSBC to report 0 balance, still shows 356/500). I started off with probably aroudn a 600. (Not 100% sure, did a lot of work before pulling my first report, when car shopping though, they showed me my score at 600).

     So what should be my next move. I don't need a real immediate boost in credit but would like to improve it as much as I can. Should I conitnue with the goodwills even with the places that said no? Should I seek another card to raise available credit and lower util?

[llecs]

Keep sending the goodwills over and over and over and over again until they give in. Never give up on that.

You could also vary the GWs, as you did by calling or try sending to higher up contacts within the company.

The score you saw from the auto lender at 600 is an auto-enhanced score for the auto lending industry and will not match your true FICO score.

Your utilization, assuming these were your only cards, is already very low. You can't improve too much there. Try to get 1/2 of your CCs to report $0 and the other half to report at least $1. Oddly enough, that has helped some. Adding another card can lower your avg. credit history to a point where you may see a score drop. You would also have a drop with the new credit. Your credit mix is good.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. I will continue with the goodwills. Yeah, not much I can do with the utils, already 0% (Once HSBC reports) but I will try to carry a balance on the CapOne since it has the highest limit which I usually do anyway.

The only other thing besides lates that may be hurting my score is amount of new credit/credit inqs. I got two auto loans within the last year in which the dealer without my knowledge ran my credit like 8 times. Unfortunately, I think I recall signing something later (after he ran it 8 times) that allowed them to. Probably will not be able to get any of those off.

Thanks for the great advice. Any other ideas?

[llecs]

I can't offer anything else, maybe others can chime in.

Auto and mortgage inquiries pulled within a 30 or 45 day period all count as one inquiry for FICO scoring purposes and should not be hurting you any. They also a lesser impact over time and no longer hurt you at all after 1 year.

[Anonymous]

blauter78, Late payments do not hurt after 2 years. If the GWs are for old lates I wouldn't kill myself over them.

[Anonymous]

Hello Happy Days, you say lates do not hurt after 2 yrs, but I have a 90 late in may 2001, do you think it still hurts? should it fall off next month?  Thanks

[Anonymous]

Thanks HappyDays. Some are from over two years ago so I will focus on re-sending goodwills for the more recent ones.

[Anonymous]

Here is a question. Two of my more recent serious lates were 30 days and 60 days in nov-dec 2006. These are the only two lates on the account. My question is, This company (Macy's) already responded to my first goodwill by removing 8 LATES only leaving these two. Is it worth sending a second good will letter even though the first was very successful? Any danger in them re-listed the other negatives? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

They (2001) will drop off this year!   all baddies will drop the month of the 7 year. That is correct  after 2 years late pay do not hurt.    As time goes by all baddies stop hurting as much....this is why you should not bring attention to them by disputing or anything that will update the TL