The waiting is the hardest part! Dangit.

[Anonymous]

Hello! 

I'm brand new to posting here and just wanted to spitball some thoughts and talk about my journey.  This forum has been such a wonderful tool to gain insights on anything I ever had questions or concerns about. 

I started really trying to understand my credit after getting denied a place to live when I was a bit younger.  That was a slap-in-the-face realization about how important credit could be into an individual's life, health and well-being.  I was shocked and terrified to find out that not paying my student loans was going to prevent me from finding a place to live.  What?  How?  F*$#!!  Even my own mother who has always been incredibly budget-savvy, and money-concious just floated the idea of 'just don't pay them' when I spoke about my student loan debt (~50K).  Even a financial advisor floated that same idea to me if I was not morally objected to it; a financial ADVISOR!  Bonkers.  I just could not believe that despite NEVER, not once, ever coming up short, or late on rent that I could face being denied a place to live.  Obviously not paying these loans landed me in default and added some very significant baddies to my reports.

I started using Credit Karma about five years ago to essentially try to see how I might 'game the system' in order to get my credit scores up.  I know that folks don't put a lot of stock in CK because they provide scores that no lenders use, but even so, I found that if I could move the needle up from my CK scores, that I was also, likely, bumping up the needle for my FICO scores.

I opened up some new trade lines, started out with couple of secured cards, always PIF, disputed some accounts from Dept of Ed., kept my utilization down below 9% (honestly at 1%), asked for CLIs and just kept on keeping on.  Some of the cards (and other services like Discover Scorecard) I opened up allowed me to gain access to real FICO scores where I could see real, meaningful results. 

Now my goal is to have the best score I can have so that I'll come out on top on any rental application and to secure the best interest rates for any necessity.

For the past few months, I have found that I have hit a plateau with my scores because I don't have any more tricks to manipulate my credit profile.  I expected this, and it is a good thing; I have inflated my scores just as much as I can while still holding onto some baddies.  I am within just a few months of these delinquent 120s falling off my credit report.  I have been gardening for just shy of a year.

I have been so hawk-eyed regarding my credit for these past five years and now that I'm where I'm at, I find that the waiting (to garden and for delinquencies to age off) is the most difficult part.  It was easier to use simulators to guide me on how to increase my scores but now that the last remaining thing for me to accomplish is to sit on my hands and do nothing is driving me crazy!   Why can I not perform an ACTION to net me RESULTS?!  aaaahh!  WTH.

I don't have a question per se about my circumstances, but has anyone felt similar here? 

Another reason for this post was to express gratitude to fellow contributor's here who have asked the questions that I ask myself and to the folks who graciously respond to these questions.  Y'all are a fountain of knowlege and it amazes me how an internet forum exists in today's world with an absolute minimum of snark and nastiness.  Thank you!  Thank you internet!

Best wishes,

MJ

[GApeachy]

Can't wait to hear back from you once those baddies fall off.  Plz update those scores.  Keep sitting on your hands

[Anonymous]

Good work fighting back through the morass and fixing things. A thought - you say the lates will fall off within months. Have you looked into Early Exclusion? The bureaus will typically delete early if you ask, as follows:

TU - 6 months early
EX - 3 months early
EQ - 1 month early

Just call up, tell the CSR “I’m calling to request an early exclusion and I understand that only supervisors have the privileges in your system to grant this. Could you please connect me to a supervisor?” They will, and then request the deletion of those lates or that Account (if you can afford the AAoA hit), and they can do it on the spot.

[dynamicvb]

OP, I know exactly where you are coming from. It's fairly easy for most to make some decent gains early on when rebuilding. As you remove baddies, get new credit lines reporting, then you see some pretty good gains, but then its only time that can help. Several 120-day lates is going to be quite a penalty, so as others said getting and EE on those would be very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the words of encouragement.  Can't wait to share the new and improved scores once the delinquencies fall off!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Good work fighting back through the morass and fixing things. A thought - you say the lates will fall off within months. Have you looked into Early Exclusion? The bureaus will typically delete early if you ask, as follows:

TU - 6 months early
EX - 3 months early
EQ - 1 month early

Just call up, tell the CSR “I’m calling to request an early exclusion and I understand that only supervisors have the privileges in your system to grant this. Could you please connect me to a supervisor?” They will, and then request the deletion of those lates or that Account (if you can afford the AAoA hit), and they can do it on the spot.

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Thank you for this info.  I have considered this and will get on the phone with TransUnion and Equifax post haste! 

Experian has automatically removed the delinquents since I seem to be right at the 3 month mark.  Thanks for these tips; your input is extremely helpful.

Best!

[800FICOGoal]

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@Anonymous wrote:

....but now that the last remaining thing for me to accomplish is to sit on my hands and do nothing is driving me crazy!   Why can I not perform an ACTION to net me RESULTS?!  aaaahh!  WTH.

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Learning how to go about your life instead of constantly obsessing about credit scores is a facet of credit rebuilding that isn't addressed that  often here. If you plan on going into the garden for an extended period of time, it helps to have other things to occupy your mind. 

I'm almost halfway into a two year gardening session. I have tons of projects that I do around the house in addition to work that keeps me from spiraling into FICO-psychosis.

[CreditInspired]

Hi OP and welcome

Congrats from being the crab at the bottom of the barrel. You’ve clawed your way back. Kudos to you.

Yes, waiting is hard but the garden is real cool! You’ll notice a lot of us have spades to the bottom-right of our posts. So, go to the garden and get your seedling and set a goal. You’ll see mine at the end of this post.

I actually enjoy seeing the changes in spade. On 3/21, I’ll get my silver spade. It’s silly, yeah, but I’m hyped about it. I’m so focused to go the whole 24 months to claim the diamond, you’d think it was an engagement ring.😂🤣

You’ll see. You’re not by yourself in the garden. Good advice and camaraderie abound. Go ahead, set your goal.

[Anonymous]

Yup, I have a long wait ahead having just come out of chapter 7. I'm almost at the point where I've done all I can do for now and just have to wait for time to do the rest. In a month or so, I'll app for a third card and hopefully get spouse his last two cards. At that point, there is no point applying for anything else or doing anything else for 2 years or so. 

As soon as I'm done with that, I'm going to cancel my score monitoring and resume in about 18 months. 

There does come a point where the only missing ingredient is time. At that point, it's healthier to move onto a different hobby. 

[Anonymous]

I feel ya! I am not to gardening yet but All my current cards come to 1 year old by May of this year. I haven't app'd for anything since August which is my youngest account, i closed it due to it not being what I'd hoped. I have different sights in mind down the road after our mortgage closing. We have been rebuilding. I am itching to see my CC uti go down and working to find a way to get my last baddie paid and off my report. I want to get to the 700 club by end of this year. My last unpaid collection will help a lot once its gone but getting there is so hard. Right now my scores are still climbing but I have a mortgage in sights in the next 2 months so my scores are my obsession right now. Once we close on a house I will be gardening(the real kind lol) and working on sewing to occupy my mind while my accounts age into another year. Its hard to wait when you are actively working on your credit or have a credit need/want in mind that your scores are keeping you from. Excited for your baddies to fall off and gift you that score boost!