What else can I do?

[Anonymous]

I am new to this credit score thing. I am a fairly new immigrant (from late 2015). MY FICO 8 Scores TU 677 and EQ 654. Experian doesnt show anything yet.

I have a secure CC from CAP 1 with $200 credit line and only let it report $10 a month, I also recently acquired a Chase Amazon rewards card with $1000 credit line and plan to only let it report more or less similar amount.

I have 2 baddies on my report both medical from an emergency room visit i had a month after moving here and my insurance from South Africa refused to pay it and my husband's insurance had not added me at the time. One is for $3.7k reporting only on TU and the other is for $370 reporting on EX and TU.

I have no other credit cards or installment loans. I just joined Penfed and plan to apply for a secured loan maybe in 6 months time.

I want to at least reach 750 is that possible with my baddies ? Should i make a plan to pay them? they are both with American Credit Collections.

I need to finance a car soon and wonder if its better to let my husband (753 across the board score) finance it or should i co-finance with him? Would it hurt if i was a co-signer with my lower scores in terms of interest rates? I do not mind letting him apply for the car loan if it will allow us to pay a lower rate. 

[DaveInAZ]

Well, first of all: Welcome to America, and Welcome to MyFico Forums!

You are a fast learner, you are starting building your credit well. As for the car I suggest you try for the loan with your husband with you as co-borrower. You can ask the lender if the rate would be lower with just your husband as the borrower but I doubt it would be, his 753 score will get the best rate and your scores aren't that bad - it will help your scores with the car loan reporting also on your credit reports.

Sorry you needed an emergency room visit so soon after arriving here. Hopefully others with more experience with collections will reply with suggestions as I have no experience with collections. But I would suggest paying the smaller collection of $370, that will get it off EX and reduce collections to just the one on TU. I assume neither collections shows on EQ? As you spend more time on MyFico you will learn which creditors pull which credit bureau. If you pay the $370 collection you'll have EX & EQ clean and can concentrate on lenders who pull them and not TU. Penfed pull EQ, but your score is a little low for them right now, as I recall the want at least a 670 score for credit.

All the best to you.

[Anonymous]

It's possible to achieve 750+ scores with major baddies present, but it isn't easy and requires your other FICO scoring factors to be in really good places.

Your best bet is to try and get those 2 negative items removed.  It's only 2, which is a lot less than many people have.  If I were you I'd check out the rebuilding forum and look into goodwill letter writing.

[Sloedough]

I have a some experience with both medical and other collections. However, everybody's situation is different. So my advice may or may not work.

First things first, you need to pay the collections, if you haven't already done so. I advise to pay them in full, don't opt for the reduced amount if at all possiable. If you negoiate a reduced balance, the collections agency may report a charge off, which is not good, even if you have 700+ credit scores.

If you don't pay off collections debt, they can take you to court. If they do that and you loose the court case, you could have jusdments added to your reports. If that happens, there is nothing you can do until they are paid, and then you will have judgments on your reports for 7 years. In other words, collections are bad, but they can get worse.

Then after the payments post, log into CK and dispute the collection accounts. CK will only do this for TU, and is some cases EQ. You can file EX disputes through their site and EQ throuh their site. myFICO may be able to file disputes to all 3 reporting agencies, but I don't use myFICO. If you are asked why you are filing a dispute, state that "You are no longer liable for this account".

Once you dispute the accounts they may drop off after 30 days. Mainly because collections agencies tend not to reply to disputes, especially if they are paid. If they don't reply, the account will be removed from your report.

I used this method when I started to think about buying a home. In a little less than 1 year, I went from a 550 to 710 score. I got my mortgage and 2 years later, I'm at a 798 score.

I hope this helps, and again everybody's situation is different, and this might not work for you. However it doesn't hurt to try. I wish you luck on your credit journey.

One side note. If you do get an auto loan, at a subprime rate. You can always refinance once your credit score is better, and get a better rate. However you will need to keep the principal lower than the trade-in value of the car.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for the replies. I will look into paying the medical collections one at a time and then see where it takes me