@Keliyra wrote:Long story short, I have moved a lot and have spent too many years not paying attention to what I was doing to my credit because I was too busy trying to raise two kids on my own. I’m finally in a stable position in my life and am trying to straighten this all out. I would love advice on my current situation. I’m looking at how to keep increasing my score to get me comfortably to 640ish mid score for mortgage approval. I’m also looking for the best strategy for clearing up the remaining baddies. At this point I have no information on the older ones that are close to falling off so my thought is to let sleeping giants lie but again – I want to get advice because I’ve been someone paralyzed by fear of making my situation worse.
My goal is to be ready to buy a house in the 1st quarter of next year. I have already raised my credit score over a hundred points by taking steps outlined here such as getting a secured card (and not missing any payments. I bought my Washer/Dryer through Aaron’s and have now paid off giving me some positive credit. I’m 2 months out from completed a Fingerhut fresh start which should give me a boost from successfully paying it off and by giving me some additional positive open revolving credit. Also some baddies have fallen off J Baby steps right?
Open Accounts:
Secured Cap One card with $300 limit opened in 05/2013 – No late pays – good standing – CLI in 03/2014 of $100
Unpaid Collections:
- 1. Enhanced Recovery (Comcast = OC) $193; “Placed for Collection” from TU is 8/17/13 – I don’t have a DOFD. Some confusion over the “on record until” date. On Credit karma it’s listed as Jul. 2017; TU says 06/2014; EXP says 04/2014. CreditKarma uses TU, but it's a 3rd party CRA, I'd go with the one you got from TU, should fall off after next month.
Strategy: Start with DV to CA?
- 2. Mid Continent Credit Ser (Cox = OC) $97; “Last Date” = 3/20/2008 – I don’t have a DOFD. Some confusion over the “on record until” date. On myFico it’s listed as Oct. 2014; EXP says 12/2014.
Strategy: Let it fall off
- 3. Cybercollect (Curves OC) $56; “Last Date” = 1/5/2008 – I don’t have a DOFD. Some confusion over the “on record until” date. On Credit karma it’s listed as Jan. 2015; TU says 12/2014; EXP says 10/2014. Again, don't use CK, go by what the actual CRA says, it's old, on life support.
Strategy: Let it fall off
- 4. Afni., Inc. (Dish OC) $530; “Last Date” = 4/1/2014 – I don’t have a DOFD. Listed on myFico & EXP. This was disputed and removed when it was on my report from Dish Network. Apparently they’ve sold it to some random CA who now has more recent dates even through I’ve received nothing from these people and this happened back in 2012. Is this even legal? You should have received a dunning notice from the CA. Send them a DV stating you have had no contact and found this on your CR.
Strategy: Start with DD?
- 5. Credit World Service (school district) $45; “Last Date” = 4/23/2013. These are school fees from when I lost my job and couldn’t pay them. Just like the paid one but for my other kid. Not paid yet. Small amount, it's even excluded in FICO 08 scoring. I'd try a PFD for it.
Strategy: PFD – I know I owe it but would rather not have $45 from when I was out of work screw over my chances of getting a home.
- 6. KS Counselors (Medical OC) original amount = $324, current amount = $0; “Last Reported” = 12/2009 – I don’t have a DOFD. I also have no idea what this is so it’s either, not mine, or some seriously old zombie debt. To the point where there’s not even a doc name for me to see if it looks remotely familiar. You could try a PFD for this one. I had one from them, paid and sent one GW. They responded that they would gladly honor my GW and deleted. Very friendly and easy to work with, for me anyway.
Strategy: Start with DV to CA?
- 7. Unique National Collections (Orange County Library System OC) $82; “Date Opened” = 2/2010 – I don’t have a DOFD. Pay and they will remove.
Strategy: Start with DV to CA?
- 8. Calvary Portfolio Service (HSBC / Orchard Bank OC) $391; “Last Date” = 11/16/2012 – I don’t have a DOFD but should be around 4/2012. Try PFD.
Strategy: I posted specifically about this since it’s showing up twice and will be starting with a DD based on the advice in that thread.
Paid Collections:
- 9. Credit World Service (school district) $40; “Last Date” = 4/23/2013. These are school fees from when I lost my job and couldn’t pay them. I paid this one last week because it had to be paid before my son could graduate (I wanted to do a PFD)
Strategy: Cross fingers and hope they remove it? If not, should I try a goodwill letter on this? Is it worth adding a consumer statement if they don’t/won’t?GW, GW, GW
Charge Offs:
- 10. Arvest $219; Due to be deleted 10/2014Send a GW, it's on life support anyway.
Strategy: Let it fall off
- 11. Capital One $382; “Last Date” = 4/1/2012 which should be the DOFD. This was my 1st attempt at rebuilding that fell apart when I suddenly lost my job. It was originally through Orchard Bank (see HSBC in unpaid collections – same one)GW and hope for the best.
Strategy: Wait for results of DD from HSBC above
July 2013 score: EQ FICO 819, TU08 778, EX "806 lender pull 07/26/2013
Goal Score: All Scores 760+, Newest goal 800+
Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge
Current scores after adding $81K in CLs and 2 new cars since July 2013
EQ:809 TU 777 EX 790 Now it's just garden time!
June 2017 update: All scores over 820, just pure gardening now.
