Guidance Request - What do I do now?

[Anonymous]

Credit Karma says my credit score is 588 but they haven't registered $350 in payments or any new lines of credit.

Revolving Credit:

Credit One
Limit $300.00 Balance $263.00 Opened 3/1/16 APR 24.40% Yearly Fee $99.00 Rewards 1% cashback
Total Visa
Limit $300.00 Balance $0.00 Opened 7/1/16 APR 29.90% Yearly Fee $75.00 Rewards n/a
First Premier
Limit $300.00 Balance $0.00 Opened 8/1/16 APR 36.00% Yearly Fee $78.00 Rewards n/a
Finger Hut
Limit $300.00 Balance $273.80 Opened 8/1/16 APR 25.40% Yearly Fee $0.00 Rewards n/a
Capital One Platinum
Limit $500.00 Balance $0.00 Opened 2/6/17 APR 24.99% Yearly Fee $0.00 Rewards n/a
NY&C
Limit $400.00 Balance $0.00 Opened 2/6/17 APR ? Yearly Fee $0.00 Rewards n/a
Victoria's Secret
Limit $250.00 Balance $0.00 Opened 2/6/17 APR ? Yearly Fee $0.00 Rewards n/a
Care Credit
Limit $500.00 Balance $0.00 Opened 2/6/17 APR ? Yearly Fee $0.00 Rewards n/a

Revolving Utilization
$536.80/$2850 18.84%

Installment Loans
Satander Consumer USA High: $6,571.53 Current: $4,420.20 Payment: $158.00 Start: 1/1/15
Federal Student Loans High $37,875.57 Current: $37,875.57 Payment: $120.00 Start: 3/4/17

Collections
Portfolio Recovery $765.00 SYNC/AMAZON 10/7/13 Last Payment
SW Credit $109.00 Comcast 10/06/14 Last Payment
Eastern Revenue $480.00 Community College 2/25/14 Last Payment

Inquiries
TU 7
EQ 8
EX 8

I was a screw up during college (at age 25.... eyeroll) but now that I'm out I've been doing really good at paying bills on time and keeping track of things before they are unmanageable. I have an income of $1844 net per month and so far I've saved a few hundred. I've been researching Dave Ramsey and used my tax return to pay off two credit cards with high monthly payments. Before I knew about all of this I usually kept my cards maxed out... But I've reformed! Now I have $67 extra to roll into other things. After I did that, Credit Karma showed my credit went up a whole bunch so I thought I'd try for a care credit card in case my pup ever got sick. That went really easily so I tried for a few other cards and they were all approved.

I am pretty sure I need to close out a few cards that are going to give me yearly fees soon. But I don't know the best way to go about doing this.

During March I am going on a spend fast and, per Dave Ramsey, saving around $1000. I expect to have the FingerHut and CreditOne cards paid off around April. After that, I will be doubling down on my payments to my car note and by tax time next year it should be paid off.

I never knew you were supposed to get credit and NOT use it. Thanks for the insight, guys.

So... where do I go from here?

[Anonymous]

I will be calling the cards that have yearly fees today and requesting that they either change my account to one without yearly fees or close my account. Thumbs up.

[rmduhon]

Is that 1800 after your other bills are paid or before? Do you have any extra money to throw at the cards? Get the $1 trial from creditchecktotal.com for your actual FICO 08 scores, CK uses Vantage 3 scores which very few lenders use.

[Anonymous]

I have $700 left after bills, groceries and gas are covered. I will use CCT when my new zero balances are definitely reporting - I don't want to waste the trial while it's all still up in the air. The credit score itself isn't hugely important right now. I want to buy a car around December 2018 and I'm hoping to use mostly cash.

I am pretty sure I'm what you all call "gardening" right now but I was just hoping for the best advice to do it. 

My first goal is to save $1000 (I have $300 so far) so I don't have an emergency that will cause me to use a credit card again. I plan on accomplishing this by April 1. Once this is done, I have $520 on credit cards to pay and I'm going to space that out over April and May so I can breath for a second before doubling down on my car note. 

After this I'll be using the Capital One card for groceries and paying it down whenever I use it. 

I just called CreditOne and they really didn't want to close the account. They credited me two months of their annual fee and brought the APR down to 18%. I think I am going to use that credit and just transfer the balance to my new Capital One card and then call and close. I plan on closing the First Premier and Total Card also. 

[stargazer25]

The sooner the better on your real credit scores. You can sign up for a monitoring service like my fico to keep updated on the regular with credit scores. 

Once you know your real scores you will be able to see what credit cards (if any) you will be able to qualify for. Consider a secured CC that graduates to unsecured. 

After paying off the CC's aiming for PFD's on those collections would be my next move. Start with Comcast since it's the smallest balance. Having open collections that update can depress your score. 

Do you have late payments in your history as well?

[Anonymous]

No late payments. Well, Amazon/Synchrony is still reporting despite selling the account to Portfolio Recovery. On one report they have 9 lates showing but it doesn't show up on experian or transunion. I am not really sure what to do about that except wait. 

I don't think I want any new credit cards after this round for a while. I was just approved for the four listed above. I am actually going to be closing three opened in 2016 because they have yearly fees. 

Portfolio Recovery does not do PFD. I could try SouthWest Creditors and Eastern Revenue for that, but again, my score doesn't seem immediately relevent without major purchases coming up and with a good emergency savings account. 

Thanks for responding.

[MrsCHX]

PRA does not do PFD however you will be more likely to get this stuff removed when it's paid than trying to get promises for deletion beforehand. 

Overall utilization counts but you're technically maxed on both Credit One and FingerHut. You have to pay those down/off. I would really suggest paying off Credit One and closing it before the annual fee hits again. 

Work on paying off the collections before paying off the car note. Close TV and FP before their annual fees hit. By then you would have received your steps increase on Capital One.

Inquiries are just part of rebuilding and IMO you're not doing that bad. Just get out of those 3 cards. You're going to pay $250 in fees to them. That can pay off the SW collection and 25% of the Eastern Revenue collection.

[Anonymous]

I was thinking about transferring CreditOne to my new $500 Capital One. This way I could close the Credit One before yearly fees accumulate. The other option is paying in full in April and leaving Capital One without a balance until it's my main grocery/gas purchase card (to be paid in full every time I use it). 

[Anonymous]

experian 1 month trial daily update showing 

2/8/17 FICO 8 EX 611.

1/30/17 FICO 8 EX 588

Still not registering $660 in payments or new Captial One or NY&C ($900 total CL) TL.