Help needed for rebuilding

[Anonymous]

Hi!  So I am new to all of this and trying to figure out how to go about repairing my credit but am getting a little lost on which direction I should take after reading through the forums.  My current credit situation -

Capital One - charge off/balance of $797 - removal date 07.2023

Capital One - charge off/balance of $512 (have been paying on this through a collection agency w/monthly payment but the CA is not listed on my report just Cap One) - removal date 08.2023

Comentiy Bank/Maurices - charge off/balance of $1477 - removal date 05.2023

Credit One - charge off/balance shows $0 but account was sold to LVNV Funding and that IS listed on my report - removal date 06.2023

Credit One - charge off/balance $677 - removal date 06.2023

H&R Emerald - charge off/balance $1090 - removal date 05.2022

I have a couple of things in collections for medical but am working on paying them then those get removed from my report.

Other collections - 

IC Systems - paid in full

LVNV Funding - $587 (haven't paid anything on that yet)

Midland Funding - $366 (have been sending $10.00 payments to them)

I currently have a auto loan through my credit union that is in good standing and is paid on time every month.

I guess i need help figuring out what steps i should take, where i should start, with trying to get some of these things taken care of.  I legit owe these balances so there's no question of that.  I just don't know how to approach these creditors in getting this paid, things removed (if possible) and so fourth.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciate it.  

[Anonymous]

My "Triple Whammy" for credit rebuilding is this:

1. Work on derogatory accounts
2. Build new credit -- 3 secured credit cards from decent banks plus 1 installment loan (Alliant SSL, see my signature) -- you have an auto loan so no need to do the SSL now but if you pay off that loan you should have the SSL set up at least 1-2 months before your final loan payment
3. Saving 10-20% of your paycheck towards a 6-month emergency fund

You really need to do all 3 to properly time your rebuild and protect your financial future.

The derogatory stuff can't really be beated down until you get yourself on a budget ("Live Lean") and figure out how much you have left after paying your minimum living expenses and your 10-20% to savings.  Whatever is left should go to attacking derogatories.

Have you worked on a real budget and cut all the unnecessary spending out entirely?  Did you downgrade your phone service, turn off cable/internet at home and discontinue Netflix or Hulu or Spotify?  Did you look for other incomes you can manage on your off hours like Uber or Instacart or Dolly?

Get all that done first, then start saving each week, then use whatever is left to attack the derogatories one at a time.  First find anyone who will "Pay For Delete" (PFD) and strike those, then go after anything with a balance that is listed as a chargeoff, then go after collections that won't PFD.

One thing to start with step #1 is to go to the searchbar here and type "(creditor name) PFD" to see what others have gotten.  Once chargeoffs are paid, you can also try "(creditor name) GW" or "(creditor name) goodwill" in search to see if you can get the negatives removed once they're paid off.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the quick reply!  I should have stated several off those things in my original post and forget.  We do have savings, i have a weekly budget (based on mine and my husbands pay periods) and there is extra money to start paying down debts.  Not huge amounts depending on which pay week it is but at least $50-$100 each week for paying balances down.  The car loan is pretty new (opened in August $22500) so that revolving account will be there for some time.  I did apply for a Discover Secured card but haven't followed through with the deposit yet as i wasn't sure how much it would really help given the damage on my report.  I've only pulled my TU FICO and that is 579 but obviously gives different scores for auto, home, cc lending, etc.

[Anonymous]

Getting one credit card will help quite a bit just for having it.  The "credit mix" portion of FICO scoring is only 10% of your score but right now you only have a loan reporting.  10% out of 550 possible points is 55 points so you're probably missing out on some.  You want 3 cards to start if you can find lenders who will approve you -- check with your bank or credit union AFTER Discover reports.  I love my Discover secured, I bumped the secured limit to the maximum $2500 and it graduated in month 7 and they mailed me a check back.  AWESOME card because it's 2% cashback the first year (double cashback basically) and 4% on restaurants/gas.  Can't beat that!

You can't rebuild just by removing baddies -- you have to rebuild by building new credit AND removing baddies AND building your savings.  Savings in my opinion should come first, and 10-20% of your income in savings is a minimum I tell people to aim for.  If you can't afford it, look for part time jobs like Uber to get more into savings.  Paying down debt is great and important (and morally right for many folks) but if you don't save now, you'll only be in trouble later.  So savings comes before derogatories in my opinion, so that way in 2 years when your scores are back to "good", you'll never get in trouble again.

[chellie]

Not sure how old your account with Midland is, but if it's more than 2 years from DoFD, it might be worth paying that off first.  Per their site, they stop reporting if these 2 conditions are met:

1. Paid in Full or Paid in Full for less than the full balance; and
2. More than 2 years old based on time since the date of delinquency

From my recent experience with them (and from several others on the boards), once they were paid, the actually removed the collections completely from the CR's.  I paid them off in mid October and by the first part of this month, Midland was completely removed from all 3B reports for me.  It's not much on the advice side, but hope that helps some! 

[Anonymous]

Thank you for that Per the letter I have from Midland the account was sent to them on 02.28.2017. So it's still fairly "new" with them. It's not a large amount though so I would really like to get it paid off regardless. Thanks again!!!