Hi all - This fourm has always been a wealth of knowledge and am hoping to get some sound adivse from y'all. I'm restarting my credit rebuild after hitting a bit of rough patch with sick dog and unemployment. While I was doing ok the first time around during my rebuild, one of the things I failed to do was build a savings - which mostly likely would have helped me out during my rough patch. Lesson learned.
Now that I'm getting back on track - I've made sure that I've got at least 6 months worth of bills plus some extra put aside in a savings account. Most of my major banking is done thru NFCU. Back in March of this year, I applied for a secured card with NFCU and was approved for $500. Used it responsibly and paid off balances before they were due. In August, they automatically unsecured the card and upped my balance to $2k.
Have 2 baddies on my CR: Midland $1267 - the OC was GECRB. PRA $261 - the OC was Cap1. Midland has recently been paid off and since it's been over 2 years, per their policy, it will drop off. I've been monitoring Credit Karma and here on MyFico and have verified it's dropped off of one CR. PRA from what I've read up on is the tough one. According to my EX report, DoFD is 3/1/13. I'd like to pay this off since it's just a small amount, but afraid of any negative repercussions it might have. From what I've read up, they don't really do PFD, so I guess I'll be stuck with it until 2020.
I have an account from First Premier - listed on all 3 CRs as Charged Off (but not listed as closed) and still reporting a balance of $991 past due. The orginal balance was $700 so it looks like it's reporting 140% UTL...? Not sure what to do about this one either. DoFD is 2/1/13.
Most of my good TLs come from my auto loans and I have just recently paid the last payment on my current car so that account will shortly be listed as closed. I'd like to think about applying for 1 other card to increase my to establish more good credit and to maximize AZEO. But I'm gun shy and there might be a slight fear of rejection 
Any suggestions? I was either thinking of Discover IT (secured) or maybe going for another card at NFCU. I think one of the reasons why NFCU unsecured my card so soon was because they were able to see I had a sizable savings built in my account with them. It might have made them "feel" good about my creditworthiness. I burnt them before on a checking account and it took FOREVER to get back into their good graces to get another checking account with them. After getting the next card, I'll garden for a bit since my current AAoA is about 3 years.
Thanks for any tips/suggestions/feedback you guys might have!!
Since your car loan is dropping off you may want to look into the secured shares loan technique on here. There is a thread somewhere. Can't find it on the new site grrr...
You have a good credit card with NFCU, so I would check the pre-approval sites of other lenders just to have an additional card reporting. use AZEO only let one of three cards report a balance and that one less than 9%. That will maximize your scoring the most.
As to old stuff, you can try to pay for delete, but if that doesn't work just pay. I have not been able to get anything to delete from my report, but I've paid everything and am a firm believer that deleted collection>paid collection>unpaid collection. So get those things handled and stop that clock and the farther in the past they are then the better off you'll be.
Also visit the Savings playground. ABCD has some great advice there and it is a good place for savings motivation/advice much like the Garden is for folks to not app for new credit. Good luck in your continued rebuild.
Thanks Sandman771 for the tips! I had a unsecured loan thru NFCU a few years ago to help with some past bills, but never thought of getting a secured loan as a way in add a positive TL and not really needing the loan for anything other than that. Although I guess, I could have it do double duty and use it to pay First Premier and I have the money to pay most of the balance off and keep a small remaining balance to pay off to have an active installment loan reporting. I'll search around for the threads for more info.
I wish I could get rid of PRA with a PDF, but you're right, better to pay them and get them to report a balance of zero.
You get so focused on one area of the boards, you forget there's other things out there. Savings Playground is a good call! Didn't even know it existed. I'll be sure to look there as well. Thanks again for the great tips and insight!
I feel like providing an update is a good way to hold myself accountable 
Collection Accounts:
Midland $1267 - the OC was GECRB: Paid the settlement and verified that it dropped off all 3B per their policy since the account was over 2 years old. Win #1
PRA $261 - the OC was Cap1: Paid in Full and it now shows $0 balance on the 3B I pulled on 11/13 for EQ and TU. EX still shows the full balance as due. Will give it some time to see when it finally updates. I know PRA isn't keen on GW's but will try sending a few out anyways. Win #2
Saw a couple of postive points from these 2.
Closed Account - Still reporting balance on CR but is CO'd
First Premier - $991: After some back and forth with FP and their "in-house" CA, First National Collection Bureau, I bit the bullet and settled for half of what was owed. Have to wait a couple of weeks for FP to update and show the payment and then from what I have been told, about 30 days for all 3B's to show the account has been settled. We'll call it Win(ish) #2.5
That takes care of anything negative that is currently on my reports. Don't anticpate anything else popping up as I'm trying to be proactive about everything now.
My auto loan that I recently just paid off finally hit 2 of the 3 CR's.....oh boy, not nice, since it was my only open installment loan. I've got a SSL set up but it wasn't in time for my auto loan to show was paid and closed. As a result, EX took a 32 point dive and EQ score was hit by 50. That put me at sub 600 in both scores. Don't think SSL technique will restore all the points immediatly, but everything is a work in progress right? But anything in the positive is a plus. I'll pay it down to about 9% util and let that sit for a while until I decide when I'll be ready to bite the bullet on a new car loan.
Still only at 1 CC. Still leaning towards the Discover IT secured, but I'm thinking I'll have to wait until I'm back on the plus side of 600 again...? Not sure. Good thing is that I'm still sitting at about 6 months of bills in my savings, so I'm set if any setbacks should occur.
The joys of adulting.....
@Anonymous wrote:I got my Discover IT Secured in March through their prequalification page and IIRC my FICO8s were 550 range (ouch). It graduated at the 7 month mark. I'd get it for sure.
I'd (possibly) wait until the SSL reports -- which might not happen until the first week of December or so. If they prequalify you for secured now, just do it. It's a great card, great cashback rewards, awesome "Discover Deals" section, too.
Thanks for sharing your experience and tip! Went ahead and took the leap and went thru the prequal page for Discover and got the prequal approval for their secured card. Finished the app and gave myself a credit limit of $500. TU finally updated today and is now showing my auto loan as paid and closed and my scores dipped 38 points there. Really hate that the swing on my scores was that huge. So I'm hoping to see some good points over the next 3 to 6 months with 2 cards and the SSL reporting.
Newest update:
Lots of things hit my CR's in the last week or so, but all in a good way! SSL - which I opened with $1500 and then immediately paid down to $400, reported. My Secured Discover card of $500 also showed up. And after almost a month after I settled with First Premier, that balance is being finally reported as a zero balance! All of this brought my util from 37% down to 20%. At time time everything reported, it picked up a balance on my NFCU card that I had paid but it hadn't hit my card yet and that amount had my card at 25% util.
With all of that, I saw a 20+ point jump in my TU score and 30+ for EQ and EX. Going to work now on AZEO, and hopefully see some positive points over the next few months. I'm thinking I should be set for a while with 2 CC's and the SSL. I am hoping I'll have the same luck as others and my Discover card will graduate in about 6 more months. Need to also start GW's for First Premier, PRA and Synchrony Bank/Care Credit. I've been putting those off for a while now and need to start the research on contact addresses and such. We'll see how far I get with those.