Not % of the balances, % of your overall limits. Like if you have $5k in balances across all of your cards and $10k in copmbined CLs and you pay off 30% of your overall balances, that is a 15% drop in utilization. And yes, I am sure.
Starting Score: EQ 583 TU04 619 EX 592 (lender pull) 2010
WHOOOOOOO HOOOOOO!!! Just got a phone call from WE Engergies/WI Electric. A lovely lovely (bless her heart, I hope she has the luckiest day today) lady from WE Energies who called to confirm that my old electric account was closed and paid in full (I have a new account since moving and it has always been on time.) She said there's no reason for an account that is paid in full and closed to remain on my account if it's not doing me any good so she is removing the entire tradeline from all 3 credit agencies!!! That's TWO MORE 90 day lates removed! Yes yes yes!!!! I'll keep you updated on score, still no updates from the Chase removal yet. (LOL, it's only been 4 days since the date on the letter they sent.) I've pasted my letter to the electric company since it was a success:
ME
******* St
****, WI *****
February 28, 2013
Regarding Account #: ****
Current Account #: *****
SS# ***-**-****
WISCONSIN ELECTRIC/We Energies
Attention Customer Relations/Customer Service
PO Box 2046
Milwaukee, WI 53201-2046Dear Credit Services Professional,
I am writing to see whether WE Energies would consider making a goodwill adjustment to the credit reporting bureaus on my utility account. I am humbly asking whether WE Energies would remove the adverse late payments reporting from this account in reporting to the credit bureaus.
As many young people do, I learned the hard way how truly important it is to work hard and pay your bills on time. I deeply apologize for the late payments during this time. I currently have a new account with WE Energies and according to my most recent credit report, my balance with WE Energies is paid in full, and I have not had a late payment in over four years. I implore you to please consider my request, as I am in the process of repairing my credit to help buy a new home and the adjustment would definitely help me with my FICO score and this endeavor in home ownership.
Regardless of your decision, thank you for taking the time to read this letter and I plan to continue to do business with WE Energies in the future.
Sincerely,
ME
@Aquinbean wrote:Hello all, I'm new to the forum - this is my first post in my journey to rebuilding my credit. Long story short, I was a dumb kid, and a decade later - guess what? I was still dumb. I truly didn't realize what a big deal being late on credit card payments is, and how much it impacts you for ANYTHING to go to collections. So here I am, 33 years old and wanting to buy a house and realizing I have a FICO score of 584. Ugh! Stupid stupid stupid (bang head on anything available.) After looking at my credit report, I have five negative credit cards, a negative utility, and 4 CA reports. First, all of my accounts are up to date and paid. All CA accounts have been paid for going on 3 years or more, and I'm current on all credit cards and have been for at least 12 months. Holy cow, can you imagine how bad my score was before? Since everything is all paid up to date, the only two options that I've been told I have are to pay down my credit card balances and to wait for more time to pass. Well, within the next month, I will have ZERO credit card balance, so I thought you all might find it interesting on how much it changes my score. I have about $6900 in CC debt. Then I read about Good will letters. SO - in addition, tomorrow's mail will carry away Good Will letters to: Capital One, Bank of America, Credit Bureau Data Inc, Chase/Bank One, Sears, and Wisconsin Electric/WE Energies. Wish me luck! I'll post back and let you know what happens!
Scorewatch alert! I woke up and found my score went from 604 to 610. Scorewatch guesses that it is still from paying down revolving credit, but who knows? I won't pull my report for another month just to keep costs down. Hopefully it is from paying down the balances still and not the removal of lates, since it was such a small jump. Haven't yet heard from BOA, Cap 1, Dell, or the big baddies - paid med collections from CA. Will keep updating! **EDIT** SO I finally had a little time to check out the scorewatch update for my whopping 6 points this is what it says
Your FICO® score has gone up to 610 on March 14, 2013.
Target score alert: Your FICO® score has exceeded your target score of 605.
Your FICO score may have gone up because the following 4 factors are not hurting your FICO score as much as before:
- You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit.
- You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit.
- You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit.
- You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit.
Gee, do you think it's because I've made paid down my revolving credit? LOL.
@Aquinbean wrote:WHOOOOOOO HOOOOOO!!! Just got a phone call from WE Engergies/WI Electric. A lovely lovely (bless her heart, I hope she has the luckiest day today) lady from WE Energies who called to confirm that my old electric account was closed and paid in full (I have a new account since moving and it has always been on time.) She said there's no reason for an account that is paid in full and closed to remain on my account if it's not doing me any good so she is removing the entire tradeline from all 3 credit agencies!!! That's TWO MORE 90 day lates removed! Yes yes yes!!!! I'll keep you updated on score, still no updates from the Chase removal yet. (LOL, it's only been 4 days since the date on the letter they sent.) I've pasted my letter to the electric company since it was a success:ME
******* St
****, WI *****
February 28, 2013
Regarding Account #: ****
Current Account #: *****
SS# ***-**-****
WISCONSIN ELECTRIC/We Energies
Attention Customer Relations/Customer Service
PO Box 2046
Milwaukee, WI 53201-2046Dear Credit Services Professional,
I am writing to see whether WE Energies would consider making a goodwill adjustment to the credit reporting bureaus on my utility account. I am humbly asking whether WE Energies would remove the adverse late payments reporting from this account in reporting to the credit bureaus.
As many young people do, I learned the hard way how truly important it is to work hard and pay your bills on time. I deeply apologize for the late payments during this time. I currently have a new account with WE Energies and according to my most recent credit report, my balance with WE Energies is paid in full, and I have not had a late payment in over four years. I implore you to please consider my request, as I am in the process of repairing my credit to help buy a new home and the adjustment would definitely help me with my FICO score and this endeavor in home ownership.
Regardless of your decision, thank you for taking the time to read this letter and I plan to continue to do business with WE Energies in the future.
Sincerely,
ME
@Aquinbean wrote:Hello all, I'm new to the forum - this is my first post in my journey to rebuilding my credit. Long story short, I was a dumb kid, and a decade later - guess what? I was still dumb. I truly didn't realize what a big deal being late on credit card payments is, and how much it impacts you for ANYTHING to go to collections. So here I am, 33 years old and wanting to buy a house and realizing I have a FICO score of 584. Ugh! Stupid stupid stupid (bang head on anything available.) After looking at my credit report, I have five negative credit cards, a negative utility, and 4 CA reports. First, all of my accounts are up to date and paid. All CA accounts have been paid for going on 3 years or more, and I'm current on all credit cards and have been for at least 12 months. Holy cow, can you imagine how bad my score was before? Since everything is all paid up to date, the only two options that I've been told I have are to pay down my credit card balances and to wait for more time to pass. Well, within the next month, I will have ZERO credit card balance, so I thought you all might find it interesting on how much it changes my score. I have about $6900 in CC debt. Then I read about Good will letters. SO - in addition, tomorrow's mail will carry away Good Will letters to: Capital One, Bank of America, Credit Bureau Data Inc, Chase/Bank One, Sears, and Wisconsin Electric/WE Energies. Wish me luck! I'll post back and let you know what happens!
Scorewatch Alert! Gained six more points. I have no idea why. I haven't paid off any more CC debt, other than a min payment on one card, I'm thinking that wasn't enough to get a six point increase. I haven't received any more letters or anything stating anything is getting removed. I'm pretty sure there wasn't anything on it that was falling off this month either. I did check my report after the last six point increase and it was probably due to the Chase TL being removed, baddies and all. (It's been closed for a while now.) Hmm, I think I'll wait for a larger increase before I pull the report again - it's so weird, the last increase was only three days ago? Not complaining, that's for sure!! Does anyone know how often the FICO score is checked for changes without a CR alert?
@Aquinbean wrote:Scorewatch alert! I woke up and found my score went from 604 to 610. Scorewatch guesses that it is still from paying down revolving credit, but who knows? I won't pull my report for another month just to keep costs down. Hopefully it is from paying down the balances still and not the removal of lates, since it was such a small jump. Haven't yet heard from BOA, Cap 1, Dell, or the big baddies - paid med collections from CA. Will keep updating! **EDIT** SO I finally had a little time to check out the scorewatch update for my whopping 6 points this is what it says
Your FICO® score has gone up to 610 on March 14, 2013.
Target score alert: Your FICO® score has exceeded your target score of 605.
Your FICO score may have gone up because the following 4 factors are not hurting your FICO score as much as before:
- You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit.
- You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit.
- You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit.
- You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit.
Gee, do you think it's because I've made paid down my revolving credit? LOL.@Aquinbean wrote:WHOOOOOOO HOOOOOO!!! Just got a phone call from WE Engergies/WI Electric. A lovely lovely (bless her heart, I hope she has the luckiest day today) lady from WE Energies who called to confirm that my old electric account was closed and paid in full (I have a new account since moving and it has always been on time.) She said there's no reason for an account that is paid in full and closed to remain on my account if it's not doing me any good so she is removing the entire tradeline from all 3 credit agencies!!! That's TWO MORE 90 day lates removed! Yes yes yes!!!! I'll keep you updated on score, still no updates from the Chase removal yet. (LOL, it's only been 4 days since the date on the letter they sent.) I've pasted my letter to the electric company since it was a success:ME
******* St
****, WI *****
February 28, 2013
Regarding Account #: ****
Current Account #: *****
SS# ***-**-****
WISCONSIN ELECTRIC/We Energies
Attention Customer Relations/Customer Service
PO Box 2046
Milwaukee, WI 53201-2046Dear Credit Services Professional,
I am writing to see whether WE Energies would consider making a goodwill adjustment to the credit reporting bureaus on my utility account. I am humbly asking whether WE Energies would remove the adverse late payments reporting from this account in reporting to the credit bureaus.
As many young people do, I learned the hard way how truly important it is to work hard and pay your bills on time. I deeply apologize for the late payments during this time. I currently have a new account with WE Energies and according to my most recent credit report, my balance with WE Energies is paid in full, and I have not had a late payment in over four years. I implore you to please consider my request, as I am in the process of repairing my credit to help buy a new home and the adjustment would definitely help me with my FICO score and this endeavor in home ownership.
Regardless of your decision, thank you for taking the time to read this letter and I plan to continue to do business with WE Energies in the future.
Sincerely,
ME
@Aquinbean wrote:Hello all, I'm new to the forum - this is my first post in my journey to rebuilding my credit. Long story short, I was a dumb kid, and a decade later - guess what? I was still dumb. I truly didn't realize what a big deal being late on credit card payments is, and how much it impacts you for ANYTHING to go to collections. So here I am, 33 years old and wanting to buy a house and realizing I have a FICO score of 584. Ugh! Stupid stupid stupid (bang head on anything available.) After looking at my credit report, I have five negative credit cards, a negative utility, and 4 CA reports. First, all of my accounts are up to date and paid. All CA accounts have been paid for going on 3 years or more, and I'm current on all credit cards and have been for at least 12 months. Holy cow, can you imagine how bad my score was before? Since everything is all paid up to date, the only two options that I've been told I have are to pay down my credit card balances and to wait for more time to pass. Well, within the next month, I will have ZERO credit card balance, so I thought you all might find it interesting on how much it changes my score. I have about $6900 in CC debt. Then I read about Good will letters. SO - in addition, tomorrow's mail will carry away Good Will letters to: Capital One, Bank of America, Credit Bureau Data Inc, Chase/Bank One, Sears, and Wisconsin Electric/WE Energies. Wish me luck! I'll post back and let you know what happens!
Ok, here's the skinny on the GW's -
Chase SUCCESS! - Deleted entire tradeline
Wisconsin Power SUCCESS - Deleted entire tradeline
Cap 1 - FAIL- sent me a form letter, called backdoor number (three times, three CSRs) FAIL - same song and dance, repeated GW to a different address on 03/19
4 Collections (same local CA) FAIL - sent me a form letter with diagnostic proof of paid derog, resent honest, heartfelt GW to owner/president on 03/27
BOA - FAIL - Actually got a real signed letter from a real person at the real Executive Office with a real phone number l - think I'm giving up on this one as my baddies will fall off within 2 years and this is my 2nd oldest account. TL removal is probably my only option and it will probably hurt more than help with the baddies as old as they are. My advice to GW seekers? BOA is the devil. Focus your time and energy elsewhere.
@Aquinbean wrote:Ok, here's the skinny on the GW's -
Chase SUCCESS! - Deleted entire tradeline
Wisconsin Power SUCCESS - Deleted entire tradeline
Cap 1 - FAIL- sent me a form letter, called backdoor number (three times, three CSRs) FAIL - same song and dance, repeated GW to a different address on 03/19
4 Collections (same local CA) FAIL - sent me a form letter with diagnostic proof of paid derog, resent honest, heartfelt GW to owner/president on 03/27
BOA - FAIL - Actually got a real signed letter from a real person at the real Executive Office with a real phone number l - think I'm giving up on this one as my baddies will fall off within 2 years and this is my 2nd oldest account. TL removal is probably my only option and it will probably hurt more than help with the baddies as old as they are. My advice to GW seekers? BOA is the devil. Focus your time and energy elsewhere.
EDIT: Oh yeah, on the upside:
CLI Walmart - $600 to $750 Soft Pull
CLI Sears - $250 to $2000 Soft Pull
