Attempting to help my mom rebuild..

[WallyxD]

Okay well, for the past 6 months I've decided to get ahead in the whole credit ordeal, now I've decided to help my mom with hers since I'll be gardening for a while.

I've made her an account at CK and CS. As far as CK goes, she has 28k in debt, 25k coming mainly from the two cars. One car was bought 11/2011 and the second car was 8/2012, only one late payment. So she's done well with the cars.

Now, CK shows 3 accounts have been delinquent on payments, one of them was a car payment, the other two were student loans from 2005. It shows that the balance as of today is $0, yet the accounts are still open? Could someone explain that to me?

[Shogun]

Hiya Wally,  your mom is so lucky to have a good son.    Now let's take a look at her situation.  If she only has one late payment on the car, I'm assuming it's just a 30 day late.  That's a minor derog and will fade quickly.  It will lose the majority of it's sting after a year and be just about if not completely out of affecting her score after 2 years.

Now there shouldn't be any late payments showing from 2005.  Lates only last from 7 years from their occurrence, there is no +180 days on them, so they should be off of there now.  I'd check into that.  The account shouldn't be listed as open, it should be closed/paid and should remain as a positive TL on her CR and add to her AAoA for 10 years after paid.

Have you pulled her CRs from www.annualcreditreport.com ?  This will have more up to date information than CK and CS and will give you a better picture.  Also, does she have any revolving TLs?  Those account for up to 35% of scores.

Overall, looks like she's not in bad shape.  Just keep paying those cars on time.  Good Luck!

[WallyxD]

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@Shogun wrote:

Hiya Wally,  your mom is so lucky to have a good son.    Now let's take a look at her situation.  If she only has one late payment on the car, I'm assuming it's just a 30 day late.  That's a minor derog and will fade quickly.  It will lose the majority of it's sting after a year and be just about if not completely out of affecting her score after 2 years.

Now there shouldn't be any late payments showing from 2005.  Lates only last from 7 years from their occurrence, there is no +180 days on them, so they should be off of there now.  I'd check into that.  The account shouldn't be listed as open, it should be closed/paid and should remain as a positive TL on her CR and add to her AAoA for 10 years after paid.

Have you pulled her CRs from www.annualcreditreport.com ?  This will have more up to date information than CK and CS and will give you a better picture.  Also, does she have any revolving TLs?  Those account for up to 35% of scores.

Overall, looks like she's not in bad shape.  Just keep paying those cars on time.  Good Luck!

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For some reason I'm having trouble logging into CS so I can't check what's on her Experian report, unfortunately.

The late car payment was a 30 day late. That happened I think in October, so just 9 more months and that's one less worry we'll have. I know we definitely pulled her reports in 2011, I don't think I have for 2012, but I'm too sure about that. She's in the process of looking to rent a home within the next couple of months, so I don't know if I should wait until next month to pull them or if it'll be okay for me to pull them now? The only thing really on her report are the cars and several inqs and 6 collections. If tradelines are CCs, my mom doesn't have any CC's. I've talked to her about applying for a secured one, but money is extremely tight right now. So she applied for CapOne Platinum but got denied, I can't find the denial letter, but her score was I think 564 or 584, higher than I originally thought it was. I know CK's scores are FAKOs, but it's saying her score is 525, which I know can't be that low. So I'm disregarding CK's score as of now. If you know of any great/good rebuilding cards, I'm all ears. I will make sure she pays those on time. I've seen plenty of times 1-9% will maximize FICO scores, so I'll make sure her reported balance is just that.

As far as collections go, she has one CC with a balance of 190$ from forever ago, and she has 3 more open collections, none of which exceed 200$. After she pays those, could she send them a GW letter to have them removed? And if removed, will her score go up since they'll no longer be on her report?

[Shogun]

I don't put any faith in CK scores myself, IME they aren't even close.  With the collections, I would try a PFD first.  They are small amounts and hopefully they will accept a PFD, if not, I'd pay/settle and then try a GW.  And yes, with those removed she would see a bump in score.

That CC with a balance is hurting her score pretty bad.  It's in collection and couting against her util, that one should be taken care of.  I know that money is tight, but a secured card, no matter what the amount is for, would go a long way in helping her scores.  After getting some of those baddies off, I'd make a post over on our CC threads and ask for what card she should apply for.  Those guys are great over there.

If it's been since 2011 that you've pulled her full reports, you should be good to go.