Hi everyone,
I've been browsing the forum here for some time now. I've gathered up quite a bit of information and I believe I understand most of the basics of (re)building credit. I'd like to post a little about my goals with some backstory and see if I can get some guidance from those of you who are more experienced. This is my first post here. Please accept my apologies if I overstep in any way.
Back in 2008 I pretty much lost everything all at once. The housing crash hit me hard and wiped me out. My credit was completely tanked. Foreclosure's, BK, insurmountable late pay's, charge offs and repo's. It was pretty much ground zero and I was severely radioactive! In the time since, I've paid off everything and wiped the slate clean. I pretty much went essentially cash only (No use of credit. Period). Always buying only what I can pay for immediately. I've found it to be difficult at times, but managable.
Flash forward to 2020. I've rebuilt my business and have consistently pulled in over $160K/yr for several years now. Despite the pandemic, my business is thriving without so much as a hiccup. So, income is not an issue for me. I can afford most things that I want. But I'm eyeballing, gulp, buying a house, new cars from the dealership, etc....all by leveraging credit again. This is an incredibly big step for me because I've been absolutely against the idea of using credit for anything at all until only recently. After the steep fall I took back in 2008, to say that I've shied away from credit is an understatement.
Alright, so as of last month (August 2020) I could only access my Experian at the time since I hadn't used credit in well over a decade. Logging into the Experian website was quite easy for me. TU is/was outright locked down (credit freeze - still waiting to crack that one open. Requires dealing with them via snail mail, documentation, etc) and EQ was locked down as well but I have since gained access to it.
AUG 2020
- Both EQ and EX reported 0. Literally ZERO. No tradelines, No Collections, No Inquiries (soft or hard), No Public Records. Zilch! Just a couple of old addresses and my newest one. Amusing....a little sad, too. But a blank canvas to work with!! That's something I can dig into!
- I opened up a new bank account at the local credit union (Redstone FCU). Incidentally, they soft pull EX for Bank Account and Credit Cards and REPORT to all three major CRA's.
- I opened up one secured credit card in the amount of $250. I can increase this limit anytime with an additional deposit from what I understand. I figured $250 would be a good start so I could figure out statement date and reporting date. (28th and 30th, btw)
SEP 2020
- EQ reports 679. 8% utilization on my single secured card ($20 BAL, $250 LIMIT). I've decided to let a small balance show each month (under 10% Utilization), rather than a zero balance. Not sure if that's the way to go yet.
- EX will not report as I have a "thin file" according to them. They suggest 5 or more open accounts before that can score me.
Now, it's a matter of building it all back up again. I am aware of Self Lender, Credit Strong, Kikoff, MJC, NCD, Hutton Chase, OxPublishing and AU/Tradelines. Given my ultimate goals, I know I need to get my score(s) up. Way up. The path I can take to get there is a little confusing to me, though. I'd like to get there with as few HP's as possible. To me, it seems that quality outweighs quantity.
At this point, I was planning on the folllowing:
- Upgrading my security deposit to the $1000 limit Redstone has.
- Adding one or two AU's from family member to get the CL bump and AAoA bump. As of now, my AAoA is pretty much 0 to 1 month old which makes it nearly impossible to even think of anything but secured cards.
- Use the updated AAoA of Credit limits from the AU's to grab one or two primary unsecured cards of my own.
- Bar the AU's and CC's, get another secured card or two instead.
- Use the cards responsibly and let them age for awhile.
What I'm not sure about are the AU's from a family member and installment type tradelines like Self Lender and Credit Strong. I understand that having an installment tradeline or two will help my credit mix, but I'm a bit shy to go there. I know that anything other than a primary tradeline is most likely useless in cases where a manual review of credit is performed (like when you're purchasing a home for instance). So, not sure if the AU will help other than MAYBE giving me the bump to get unsecured cards. That said, I am not at all against putting the money into secured cards if it's a better plan. I'd just need some ideas on who offers the higher limit ones and who, if any, does SOFT pulls.
Can anyone comment on my immediate plans and let me know if it seems like a good idea or maybe offer up a different path/plan for me to follow? Ultimate goal is buying a house/new cars.
@Anonymous - Regarding the SSLs - I was not aware of this tactic. Thank you for the suggestion. I have been looking into joining NFCU, but I have no immediate foot in the door with them. I will search do some more research on SSL's here.
@Anonymous
Thank you for the suggestions.
Regarding the additional secured cards - That makes sense to me. I'll do some searching here on the subject, but do you know offhand if there's an existing list of CU's that offer secured cards and do SOFT pulls? I'm very much of the mindset to limit HP's as much as possible.
Regarding the SSL's - I need to do the research and find the CU's that offer this. I've been trying to figure out a way into NFCU, but it's a no go as of now.
@HRZ780 wrote:Hi everyone,
I've been browsing the forum here for some time now. I've gathered up quite a bit of information and I believe I understand most of the basics of (re)building credit. I'd like to post a little about my goals with some backstory and see if I can get some guidance from those of you who are more experienced. This is my first post here. Please accept my apologies if I overstep in any way.
Back in 2008 I pretty much lost everything all at once. The housing crash hit me hard and wiped me out. My credit was completely tanked. Foreclosure's, BK, insurmountable late pay's, charge offs and repo's. It was pretty much ground zero and I was severely radioactive! In the time since, I've paid off everything and wiped the slate clean. I pretty much went essentially cash only (No use of credit. Period). Always buying only what I can pay for immediately. I've found it to be difficult at times, but managable.
Flash forward to 2020. I've rebuilt my business and have consistently pulled in over $160K/yr for several years now. Despite the pandemic, my business is thriving without so much as a hiccup. So, income is not an issue for me. I can afford most things that I want. But I'm eyeballing, gulp, buying a house, new cars from the dealership, etc....all by leveraging credit again. This is an incredibly big step for me because I've been absolutely against the idea of using credit for anything at all until only recently. After the steep fall I took back in 2008, to say that I've shied away from credit is an understatement.
Alright, so as of last month (August 2020) I could only access my Experian at the time since I hadn't used credit in well over a decade. Logging into the Experian website was quite easy for me. TU is/was outright locked down (credit freeze - still waiting to crack that one open. Requires dealing with them via snail mail, documentation, etc) and EQ was locked down as well but I have since gained access to it.
AUG 2020
- Both EQ and EX reported 0. Literally ZERO. No tradelines, No Collections, No Inquiries (soft or hard), No Public Records. Zilch! Just a couple of old addresses and my newest one. Amusing....a little sad, too. But a blank canvas to work with!! That's something I can dig into!
- I opened up a new bank account at the local credit union (Redstone FCU). Incidentally, they soft pull EX for Bank Account and Credit Cards and REPORT to all three major CRA's.
- I opened up one secured credit card in the amount of $250. I can increase this limit anytime with an additional deposit from what I understand. I figured $250 would be a good start so I could figure out statement date and reporting date. (28th and 30th, btw)
SEP 2020
- EQ reports 679. 8% utilization on my single secured card ($20 BAL, $250 LIMIT). I've decided to let a small balance show each month (under 10% Utilization), rather than a zero balance. Not sure if that's the way to go yet.
- EX will not report as I have a "thin file" according to them. They suggest 5 or more open accounts before that can score me.
Now, it's a matter of building it all back up again. I am aware of Self Lender, Credit Strong, Kikoff, MJC, NCD, Hutton Chase, OxPublishing and AU/Tradelines. Given my ultimate goals, I know I need to get my score(s) up. Way up. The path I can take to get there is a little confusing to me, though. I'd like to get there with as few HP's as possible. To me, it seems that quality outweighs quantity.
At this point, I was planning on the folllowing:
- Upgrading my security deposit to the $1000 limit Redstone has.
- Adding one or two AU's from family member to get the CL bump and AAoA bump. As of now, my AAoA is pretty much 0 to 1 month old which makes it nearly impossible to even think of anything but secured cards.
- Use the updated AAoA of Credit limits from the AU's to grab one or two primary unsecured cards of my own.
- Bar the AU's and CC's, get another secured card or two instead.
- Use the cards responsibly and let them age for awhile.
What I'm not sure about are the AU's from a family member and installment type tradelines like Self Lender and Credit Strong. I understand that having an installment tradeline or two will help my credit mix, but I'm a bit shy to go there. I know that anything other than a primary tradeline is most likely useless in cases where a manual review of credit is performed (like when you're purchasing a home for instance). So, not sure if the AU will help other than MAYBE giving me the bump to get unsecured cards. That said, I am not at all against putting the money into secured cards if it's a better plan. I'd just need some ideas on who offers the higher limit ones and who, if any, does SOFT pulls.
Can anyone comment on my immediate plans and let me know if it seems like a good idea or maybe offer up a different path/plan for me to follow? Ultimate goal is buying a house/new cars.
I would tread slowly rather than rush into adding new accounts.
I say ok on adding to your deposit for the Redstone secured card.
Regardless of what you were told by a CSR at EX, I believe you will have credit scores with all 3 bureaus by January or February, even with just the one card. Once you have your scores you can reassess your game plan. I would recommend getting a 3 bureau report from MyFICO because that's the only way to get an up to date and comprehensive view of your credit picture.
I would hesitate to get involved with relatives, to load myself up with secured cards that will be useless within a year, or to take out installment loans that will also prove useless. Because you don't need them. IMHO the only loan that would be worth getting is to take out a share secured loan with Navy Federal for > $3k for 60 mos [and then pay it down to 9%], because that helps your FICO 8's for 5 years.
