Desperately in need of Rebuilding Help

[Anonymous]

Hello all!
I’m new to the forum and hoping to gain some great insight on how I can enhance my life and my credit. Ofcourse I fall into the category of someone that has lacked the education of what exactly credit is and have just been learning things along the way, but now I want to fully dedicate my efforts/time/money into improving my credit and furthermore enhancing my life....quite frankly I’ve reached a point where I’m just sick and tired of the denials. (Me: 29yo finishing nursing school in a month, working full time as well)

Anywho some insight on where I currently stand:
10/26/19: EX 603 (have to wait 9 more days for all reports to be avail, I’m an experian member...but my scores have jumped)
1. Capital One Quicksilver 1 card: $125.62/300 limit
2. Cap One Plat card: $260.58/500 limit
3. Fiancé added me on two cards as authorized user: AMEX and NFCU (AMEX limit = 10k, NFCU = 25k, both hovering around 20-25% usage)
4. Santander Auto loan: 7k left on 9,288 loan, 3 late payments (30days) aged about 1 year ago, so paid on time since
Negatives(Collections):
- Cap 1 CC: $398(1st CC I had with them about 9yrs ago, was ignorant and let it become maxed out at 300)
- AMSHER AT&T: $735, tbh not even sure what this is, going to call and get clarification on this. Dated 3/1/19
- Skyone FCU personal loan, co signed with mom: $3,545 (again, was Ignorant and didn’t understand importance of paying this back, purchased first car with this about 10yrs ago.)

So this is the sum of my credit and the history, I’m hoping it’s not TOO bad but with that said, after getting my CC’s down a bit more to be under 20% usage i just don’t know what I can do next to enhance my score....look into secures card? Small loan? Would appreciate any and all input that would help. Thank you guys!

[Hut1]

Hi and Welcome!

Your credit definitely is workable and pretty straight forward with a rebuild start. 😊 As you stated, you'll need to get your QS1 & Platinum utilization down. You want it under 30%,  but ideally, if you can get it under 8.9%, that would be better. Make sure you PIF each month & practice the AZEO method. In case you're not aware of what that is, it means "all zero except one". So, pay every card down to zero before it reports to the credit bureaus, but let one card report a small balance under 8.9%. That will give you optimum scoring from FICO. That will take care of your current credit. 

Now, let's talk about your past credit. Two of the accounts you listed were 9-10 yrs ago. They should be due to fall off your report after 7 yrs. Can you look on your credit report and tell us the opening date? That will tell us how to proceed. 

and yes, call to find out what the AT&T collection is for. If it's not yours, you can dispute it with all 3 bureaus and the collector will be forced to validate the account. If it is yours, you're probably going to need to pay that off since it's so new. Otherwise, it will sit on your credit for the next 7 years causing damage. 

Forgot to add! You don't need another loan or even a secured card. You have a good credit mix with your current cards and car loan. Your scores will jump when the collections fall or are paid off. After that, you may be able to get an unsecured card. Discover is probably going to be the best place to start, but you have to practice patience and work on one item at a time. Set small attainable goals so you're working towards something. Similar to -

1. Call & find out what AT&T account is. 
2. Pay extra $25.00 on QS1 until paid off (depending on your income)

3. Pay extra $XX.XX Platinum until $10 balance. 
4. Check for opening date on 2 collection accounts

Make sense? Keep asking questions... we're all happy to help. 😁

[Anonymous]

@Hut1

Wow, thank you sooo so very much for this reply!! I really appreciate this and will definitely get to work.

[Anonymous]

Not sure of the ethics rules here, but why not just dispute all negative reporting closed accounts, collections, and judgements?

I was surprised by how many either didn't respond or who didn't provide adequate proof of account.

Is it ethical to just pay what you owe? Sure.

But , in my case for example Sprint had turned a $300 last bill into a $2,100 collection

I chose not to call them because I didn't want them to be able to list recent activity because of my inquiry.

I disputed and it dropped off .

[Anonymous]

@JeremySK

I wondered the same as well. Though I wouldn't mind paying my Cap 1 collection of 398, especially if the company works with me and settle on a discounted amount AND will definitely report to have it removed from my account, the others I would rather see if I can possibly dispute. How would one go about doing this, would I just call each bureau and dispute (noticed that collections cant be disputed online)?

[Anonymous]

You can get form letters online pretty easy using google.

And I agree - in your shoes, I'd want to take care of the cap 1 differently too. No sense burning a big bank over a couple hundred bucks that might haunt you later

Between my fiance and myself, I was able to remove over 30 negative accounts completely from our reports.

I tell you that just so you know that sending disputes online or by hard copy does work and is worth the time and effort.

Most of my disputes essentially said "it's not mine" and I'm guessing because the amounts were low the creditors didn't waste the time to research or didn't provide adequate proof to the agency they sold it to.

In most cases, I saw them drop off withing 2 credit updates

My only regret was waiting until everything was cleared before starting to rebuild, so if you have good tradelines or have an opportunity to get one, treat it like gold.