Another secured or wait?

RobotDR · ‎02-25-2021

I have had a Merrick secured card for 2y 6mos.

I have had a Capital One platinum for 1y 4mos that just got upgraded to quicksilver about 3 months ago

This week I got approved for AMEX delta skymiles gold.

I have a pre-approval from discover for the secured IT card I hear so many good things about. My thinking is, is that it has a good chance of graduating to an unsecured in 7 months. I would like to get my foot in the door with discover and get another unsecured card.

My only other plan is to go into a chase branch ( have about 30k in premier savings, savings, and checking combined) and app in the branch for a Chase card. But I'm still cleaning up 2 remaining collections, and I'm an authorized user on a 20k limit USAA card that was charged off (my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's several years ago and things went down hill).

So I don't see having much luck getting another unsecured in 7 months. That's why I want the discover secured.

What are the thoughts?

thornback · ‎02-25-2021

@RobotDR wrote:
I'm an authorized user on a 20k limit USAA card that was charged off (my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's several years ago

I'm very sorry about your Mom. Alzheimer's is an awfully difficult and heartbreaking disease to tend to.

If you're only an AU on that USAA account, you can easily have it removed from your reports as you are not legally responsible for the debt. A simple dispute with the bureaus would remove the account from your profile. - I think a "not responsible" (or similar wording) reason for dispute exists for all 3 bureaus.

Congrats on the Amex Delta approval!

I think you should just wait - get rid if the AU and handle your collections, and see where you stand. At that point, it's possible you'd have success getting an unsecured Disco and a Chase card.

Which collection agencies are you dealing with?

Personal Aphorism:"Forget What You Feel, Remember What You Deserve"

Starting FICO 8s | 09/2017: EX 641 ✦ EQ 634 ✦ TU 647
Current FICO 8s | 04/2022: EX 796 ✦ EQ 793 ✦ TU 790
Current FICO 9s | 04/2022: EX 790 ✦ EQ 788 ✦ TU 782
2022 Goal Score | 800s

My AAoA: 4.6 years not incl. AU / 4.9 years incl. AU
My AoOA: 9.2 years not incl. AU / 11.2 years incl. AU
Inquiries: EX 0/12 ✦ EQ 0/12 ✦ TU 0/12
Report Status: Clean
Garden Status:

Without patience, we will learn less in life. We will see less. We will feel less. We will hear less. Ironically, rush and more usually mean less.

RobotDR · ‎02-25-2021

@thornback wrote:
@RobotDR wrote:
I'm an authorized user on a 20k limit USAA card that was charged off (my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's several years ago
I'm very sorry about your Mom. Alzheimer's is an awfully difficult and heartbreaking disease to tend to.

If you're only an AU on that USAA account, you can easily have it removed from your reports as you are not legally responsible for the debt. A simple dispute with the bureaus would remove the account from your profile. - I think a "not responsible" (or similar wording) reason for dispute exists for all 3 bureaus.

Congrats on the Amex Delta approval!
I think you should just wait - get rid if the AU and handle your collections, and see where you stand. At that point, it's possible you'd have success getting an unsecured Disco and a Chase card.

Which collection agencies are you dealing with?

Thank you, yes it's an awful disease.

My concern about deleting the Charge off is that it's a 21 year old account that will likely affect my score. Although so is the 20k charge off with 105% utilization. (its kind of confusing how that shows up because in myfico reports, my utilization is calcuated from just my open accounts and is 9% right now.)

Collection agency I'm working with is EOS CCA for some medical bills. I paid for them with my medical FSA card but I didn't realize they didn't go through and I've had some problems staying on top of everything while taking care of my mom. I called both the hospital and CCA. Hospital says they cannot recall the debt and my only option is to deal with CCA. CCA says they will under no circumstances delete the account so I'm still trying to find the right person or find another solution. Haven't paid it yet.

Thanks for the advice! I just bought a car in january so I really don't need my scores high in the immediate future and I still have other old accounts like 9 and 12 years so maybe it wont be so bad if I get rid of the USAA charge off. I have been eyeballing the real estate market to get into a house.. But I imagine they would want that paid off or gone before lending. I think I'll dispute it.

Thanks again.

thornback · ‎02-25-2021

oh... EOS CCA can be difficult. There are some fairly recent reports of successfully negotiating a PFD with them by speaking with a supervisor. So maybe try calling again and kindly asking the frontline CSR to put a supervisor on the line...?

As for the AU -- if it were me, I'd take the age loss (and potential score decrease) and remove the account. I'd much rather have a clean(er) profile - especially if considering a mortgage. TBH, it's really hard to say how your scores will respond - especially because AU accounts are treated a bit differently than primary accounts; with the points gained from eliminating that utilization (it is 104% but the front-end software will often misleadingly exclude that from your utilization even though it counts in scoring) plus the points gained from the removal of a derogatory may be just about equal to any points lost for age - so you break even; or you may only see a loss of a few points if the age points exceed the util and derog points; or a you may gain of a few points is the util and derog points exceed the age points. And, yes, most mortgage lenders will want to see all outstanding debts paid for approval.

Personal Aphorism:"Forget What You Feel, Remember What You Deserve"

Starting FICO 8s | 09/2017: EX 641 ✦ EQ 634 ✦ TU 647
Current FICO 8s | 04/2022: EX 796 ✦ EQ 793 ✦ TU 790
Current FICO 9s | 04/2022: EX 790 ✦ EQ 788 ✦ TU 782
2022 Goal Score | 800s

My AAoA: 4.6 years not incl. AU / 4.9 years incl. AU
My AoOA: 9.2 years not incl. AU / 11.2 years incl. AU
Inquiries: EX 0/12 ✦ EQ 0/12 ✦ TU 0/12
Report Status: Clean
Garden Status:

Without patience, we will learn less in life. We will see less. We will feel less. We will hear less. Ironically, rush and more usually mean less.

Anonymous · ‎02-25-2021

Agreed on what @thornback said as a whole. Dump the AU card. Its history will reflect in your scores. Payment history is the slice of the FICO pie that a chargeoff falls under. That's 35% of your score. Age is 15%. My feeling is you'll see a gain from doing so.

AllZero · ‎02-25-2021

You mentioned USAA. Are you eligible for NFCU? Do you meet the membership requirements?

https://www.navyfederal.org/membership/eligibility.html?intcmp=nav|mbrspmenu|||eligibility|10/19/201...

RobotDR · ‎02-27-2021

@thornback wrote:
oh... EOS CCA can be difficult. There are some fairly recent reports of successfully negotiating a PFD with them by speaking with a supervisor. So maybe try calling again and kindly asking the frontline CSR to put a supervisor on the line...?

As for the AU -- if it were me, I'd take the age loss (and potential score decrease) and remove the account. I'd much rather have a clean(er) profile - especially if considering a mortgage. TBH, it's really hard to say how your scores will respond - especially because AU accounts are treated a bit differently than primary accounts; with the points gained from eliminating that utilization (it is 104% but the front-end software will often misleadingly exclude that from your utilization even though it counts in scoring) plus the points gained from the removal of a derogatory may be just about equal to any points lost for age - so you break even; or you may only see a loss of a few points if the age points exceed the util and derog points; or a you may gain of a few points is the util and derog points exceed the age points. And, yes, most mortgage lenders will want to see all outstanding debts paid for approval.

I disputed the USAA charge off with transunion and equifax and I swear, miliseconds before I hit submit, I had an email from transunion that it was approved and deleted! Equifax is still working on it. This was done on Thursday I believe.

this morning I woke up to a 19 point increase on transunion! We'll see what happens with equifax. Thanks for the push

RobotDR · ‎02-27-2021

@AllZero wrote:
You mentioned USAA. Are you eligible for NFCU? Do you meet the membership requirements?

https://www.navyfederal.org/membership/eligibility.html?intcmp=nav|mbrspmenu|||eligibility|10/19/201...

Yes I've been meaning to do that. My father was in the navy but never set up a membership with NFCU as far as I know. He passed away in '96 so I have to call NFCU with some info. Thanks for the push and reminder.

AllZero · ‎02-27-2021

@RobotDR wrote:
@AllZero wrote:
You mentioned USAA. Are you eligible for NFCU? Do you meet the membership requirements?

https://www.navyfederal.org/membership/eligibility.html?intcmp=nav|mbrspmenu|||eligibility|10/19/201...

Yes I've been meaning to do that. My father was in the navy but never set up a membership with NFCU as far as I know. He passed away in '96 so I have to call NFCU with some info. Thanks for the push and reminder.

Give them a call. CSRs are available 24/7/365. It should be a 15-20 minute telephone conversation to apply for membership. CSR will talk you through the process.

RobotDR · ‎02-27-2021

@AllZero wrote:
@RobotDR wrote:
@AllZero wrote:
You mentioned USAA. Are you eligible for NFCU? Do you meet the membership requirements?

https://www.navyfederal.org/membership/eligibility.html?intcmp=nav|mbrspmenu|||eligibility|10/19/201...

Yes I've been meaning to do that. My father was in the navy but never set up a membership with NFCU as far as I know. He passed away in '96 so I have to call NFCU with some info. Thanks for the push and reminder.
Give them a call. CSRs are available 24/7/365. It should be a 15-20 minute telephone conversation to apply for membership. CSR will talk you through the process.

Thanks will do. I'll get some paperwork together and probably get on that tonight