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Help rebuilding

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Anonymous
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Help rebuilding

Im trying to finally take control of my credit and I need some help rebuilding . My fako score are 583 and 590 my fico 8 from discover 632  and citi fico 599.

 

My credit usage is at 54%

I have 17  open accounts 

5 store cards, 3 secured and the rest unsecured.

1 account showing in collections from cach llc (settled this account for less but still showing full balance)

1 account showing in collections from portfolio recovery  (paid in full zero balance)

 

Student loan 3700 ( in good standing)

 

2 closed auto loans    wells fargo 9k and a gmc financial that I co-signed on 14k 

 

closed personal loan 3300.

 

 

I have 22 inquiries (10 are auto) 

98% payment history

54% credit card utilization

2 years average age of accounts

4 account show zero balance and 3 others paid to zero balance but havent reported yet.

I settled the credit account showing a balance for less but they didnt report it. I disputed it and Im writing goodwill letters to comenity for the 2 late payments I show. 

 

As I am paying off my cards my score is dropping. When I simulate my score the max I can pay off and show an increase in points(13pts)  is 500 dollars. Why is this?

 

My auto loan and personal will become past the statue of limitation next month so I am thinking of settling for less.  Maybe I should let it fall off? and just try and hope the gmc loan (huge mistake)  will settle for less around 3k as that one was just defaulted on a year ago and they are pretty aggressive with seeking payment. They sold the car for 4k  and it was only worth 10k and I still owe 14k. sigh!

 

 

Ive opened 4 new accounts in the past 3 months in hopes of helping my utilzation.

 

 

Income after insurance and taxes 54k

Annually expenses 38k

6k annually in cc payments

 

 

honestly cant figure out were the 10k of free money is going.  previous year I would say frivolous spending and eating out.  But so far this year I have been cooking and cutting back. I have been seeing some progress but its been slow. 

 

 

Any and All help/suggestions is appreciated and welcomed. 

 

5 REPLIES 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Help rebuilding

“Ive opened 4 new accounts in the past 3 months in hopes of helping my utilzation.”

“I have 22 inquiries”

Those are a couple good reasons you won’t see as good of a score boost as you were hoping by paying down your cards. Lots of new credit and inquiries on an account with high utilization shows risk. This isn’t a horrible thing as it will go away relatively soon. Not like a late payment or collection.

Unless you have some 0% transfer offers to help you avoid interest while you pay it down, I would concentrate more on paying the balance than worrying about new accounts to help utilization. At this point I imagine their starting limits will be too small to be significant anyways.

Definitely no more new accounts / inquiries.

Contact both the collection agencies you already paid and ask for a goodwill removal. Also start the conversation with the first one by saying the account should be updated to not show the full balance. Be nice, they may help you since they’ve already gotten their money. you can always successfully dispute that last point later.

You said the auto loan is going to be past the statue of limitations. You’re referring to being sued? Around 4 years in most states? Or the 7 years for the credit reporting? If it’s for the credit reporting and it drops off that soon I’d just let it drop
Message 2 of 6
Anonymous
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Re: Help rebuilding

yes, I meant the time frame for them to sue.  Thank you for your response. I will stop applying and pay down the balances. It was just discouraging to see on all of the simulators  that even  with paying off all of my cards my score will continue to drastically decline.

Message 3 of 6
Anonymous
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Re: Help rebuilding

Easiest fix right now get your utilization down below 30 percent. you will see a score increase. Utilization is 30 percent of your score. As well as payment history is 35. So between them they make up 65 percent of your score. You applied for 4 new cards.. which LOWERED your age of credit. Stop applying for new credit. When your age gets lowered it HURTS your score.. especially if you have a young age to begin with. From here on out your goal should be use what you have but dont go over 30 percent utilization. And let everything age. Within a year if you have low utilization and aged account all being paid on time your score should be in 650-700. you should only apply for 1-2 cards MAX a year so it does not hurt your average age of file when you are just rebuilding. If you have lets say 4 cards with 2 years each then you apply and get approved for 4 new cards your file is now averaged at 1 year. Which will drop your score. Not to mention credit lenders penalize you when they see alot of new credit on your file. You cant fix age.. but you can fix utilization and payment history. SO make sure they are the best they can be and your score will reflect that. Keep utilization under 10 percent if you can but no more than 30 if you have to, this shows respect to creditors and you dont look like your going to default leaving them holding the bag. There is a statistic that the closer to maxing the credit a person is the higher the default rate is. Dont let them use that against you. Fly low and stay solid.
Message 4 of 6
Anonymous
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Re: Help rebuilding

totally agree. use what you have pay down balances more than just the minimum payment and get utilization way under 30% then hold. wait for your credit to mature. 6 months to a year before applying for anything else and only when it benefits you and if the offer apr is better than what you currently have. no point in getting an additional card a hit on your credit for same deal you already getting
Message 5 of 6
Anonymous
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Re: Help rebuilding

Ok Im going to keep chopping away at the balances and set a goal for improvement for this time next year. Wow those new accounts/inquiries really hurt. Well... the more you know...

 

Thanks again everyone for your replies. I have some work to do but your responses are helpful and encouraging.

Message 6 of 6
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