EDIT: I renamed the title of my post since it seems like it's more of a rebuild storyline/progress report than me really asking questions...
Hi everyone! Sorry in advance for the long post...
Over the past few months I've become increasingly focused on my credit. Last year I obtained a new car loan, opened a secured card, and paid off a bunch of collections to start improving my credit profile. Now that I've lurked the boards for a month or two, I realize I unknowingly gardened for a year and experienced a number of big-to-me accomplishments that are leading me to believe I'm heading in the right direction:
- Requested my secured 500/500 BOA Cash Rewards card to become unsecured after PIF every month for a year. Not only is my card now unsecured but I was approved for a $2000 CLI!
- Apped for an apartment and for the first time was instantly approved without having to pay a high security deposit
So now, here I am stuck at somewhat of a plateau. I've seen some people here get tremendous boosts from GWs and PFDs so I figured, why can't I have that kind of success too? Since I paid off all of my collections, I went into GW attack mode. I just sent them a few weeks ago so I'm still waiting, but couldn't sit still and got on the phone to call up a few others and had a few more successes!
- Called in about a CO from People's Energy on my TU report for a whopping $7.63. Was informed by the agent that I could just pay it and then dispute it with the CA as paid and they would remove it. She also informed me that since it was a CO they couldn't report anything to the CRAs once it was paid (huh?). I respectfully told her that if they reported it as not paid, they could report it as paid and that I wasn't giving them anything until I could get some sort of confirmation that it would be removed from my report. After asking to speak with a manager and the agent came back on the line a few mins later saying the manager was writing the amount off, marking my account as paid and in good standing, removing the CO, and that it would be removed from my report. Yay!
- Paid off a repo over a year ago and have been battling with the CA to get it updated with Honda Finance so they could change the status of my account from CO to paid. Frustrated, I broke down and called AHF today and they wll be contacting the CA (Receivables Performance Management) and getting to the bottom of everything. Supposed to call back tomorrow to confirm the details and then the 30-45 day wait begins. Once it's marked as paid I'll GW the lates. Thankfully it doesn't show as a repo on my report...
So here's where I stand -
Baddies
AES - a bunch of lates - account currently in good standing - sent GW to remove lates this whole situation is a mess.. this resulted from a loan that was bought out by AES and no one has any answers for me (I was in school and sent in documentation). Still working on them
AHF - CO - waiting to confirm details from CA - expect to see an update in 30-45 days before I start GWing settlement confirmed. update to CRAs pending.. next step GWs - AHF updated the CRA's but one is still reporting as a collection, another payment after CO, and another as a CO. Plan to fax in copies of what's reporting to get them updated
Comenity/Ann Taylor - one 60 day late from 2006 - sent GW to remove the one derog removed - aged off
HSBC Bank - 30, 60, 90, 120 lates from 2008 - will send GW letters but not optimistic - purchased by LVNV LVNV Deleted.. Working on HSBC to update as paid updated as a sold account
LVNV - CO from HSBC - paid - sent GW to remove TL since both are showing on report submitted a complaint via BBB - deletion pending - DELETED!!
Peoples Energy - should be removed in the next 30-45 days deletion pending. update: said they won't remove - only remove derogatory info and show account as paid and in good standing. grrrrrr.... will be GWing them. they're bringing down my aaoa - DELETED!!
Sallie Mae - I don't know how to tackle this one.. multiple loans, were transferred but still show up on my CR as negative - want them gone just not sure if it's possible. Any advice? idk what happened but all of a sudden these are showing as paid/never late!
Toyota Motor Credit - paid off car - one 30 day late in 2006 - sent GW to remove the one derog removed - aged off
Local Credit Union - CO from 2010 - moved and they were mailing to the wrong address - paid and sent GW to remove TL - reporting as a bad debt/collection and CO as of 10/13. Plan to call and speak with rep, again. They've been nice, but this one has become frustrating updated to show paid with correct CO date
AllianceOne - paid collection - sent GW letter to remove TL deletion pending - DELETED!!
Glenn Associates - paid collection - sent GW letter to remove TL deletion pending - DELETED!!
Fair Collections - paid collection - sent GW letter to remove TL they're not budging.. 
Note: These are across all my reports. Not all show up on all reports.
Scores
563 EX; 571 EQ; 563 TU (7/22/12)
671 EX (FAKO - FreeCreditReport monitoring); 617 EQ (4/25/13); 635 TU (BOA 8/5/13)
646 EX; 684 EQ; 708 TU (all FICO 10/13/2013)
Inquiries
EX - 1; EQ - 2; TU - 3
EX - 2; EQ - 3 (possibly 4 if Discover double pulled); TU - 1
Anticipated Next Steps
Pull Credit Report in November to review for updates
Request a CLI from BOA after another 4 months - requesting 6k - will prob end up somewhere between 3.5 and 5k
Apply for Discover IT to increase my cc portfolio (hoping for Dec 1) - after AHF updates and hopefully some GW success denied 10/13/2013 due to accounts showing as CO's even though paid. Plan to contact OC's to have updated but likely won't reapply.
Now that I know I can do something about the negative accounts on my reports I have become so inspired! Am I headed in the right direction? Do you have any advice, recommendations, cautions, or contact info that can help me along the way? Would really like to continue building my credit profile and meet my end of year goals. If I don't think my scores are high enough I'll hold off on apping/requesting a CLI until at least Feb 2014.
Any advice you can give is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Reading through your post, I'm thinking most should be asking you for help.
Seriously, your "ducks" are lined up, and you have your game face on apparently. Don't let up on the GWs, as it only takes one "ok," to fix things.
Thanks for the kind words, @Burned2manybridgesB4!
I don't think I have enough cred to give anyone valuable insight besides try. Even if we fail at some attempts, we can celebrate the successes and try again. I've learned so much reading these forums but I also admit there's likely plenty more I can learn and will take any help I can get. The comraderie I see on this site is beyond words and I just had to be a part of it
I don't think I have enough cred to give anyone valuable insight besides try. Even if we fail at some attempts, we can celebrate the successes and try again. I've learned so much reading these forums but I also admit there's likely plenty more I can learn and will take any help I can get. The comraderie I see on this site is beyond words and I just had to be a part of it
I'm so excited! One of my GW's paid off.. they've requested for the TL to be removed. I seriously cried. Making progress!
EDIT: According to CreditXpert I'm looking at scores of EX 681; EQ 659; and, TU 675. I know that I should take these with a grain of kosher salt but it still feels good to believe things are trending upward
@goal_digger wrote:I'm so excited! One of my GW's paid off.. they've requested for the TL to be removed. I seriously cried. Making progress
You will make good progress!! Lots of those companies have multiple successes on this forum! I have dealt with a handful myself
Just a word of advice, Fair Collections and Outsourcing refute any and all GW attempts... your best bet is to find something wrong with the listing, and try to fight with them.. they are snarky...
-scott
@rckstrscott wrote:
@goal_digger wrote:I'm so excited! One of my GW's paid off.. they've requested for the TL to be removed. I seriously cried. Making progress
You will make good progress!! Lots of those companies have multiple successes on this forum! I have dealt with a handful myself
Just a word of advice, Fair Collections and Outsourcing refute any and all GW attempts... your best bet is to find something wrong with the listing, and try to fight with them.. they are snarky...
-scott
Thanks, Scott! I seriously hope so! I actually emailed FCO a GW attempt this morning... my reason for delinquency was very personal so I hope they don't simply just casually dismiss it. When people said to be honest, I took it literally (don't worry.. I didn't tell them TMI 
)
What are some of the things that could possibly be wrong with it? The only discrepancy I see are the open dates. According to EX and EQ it was opened 3/1/09 and TU was opened 3/10/09. Otherwise it's been settled so I feel like I may not have too many options there.
Wanted to post a quick status update.. Paid for my scores here on myFICO and my EQ score is up to 684 and TU is at a whopping 708. Never thought I'd see a lucky 7 in front of my score, but it's making me want to push that much harder.
After getting denied tonight for the Discover IT and not seeing the inquiry show up, I paid for my EX score. Turns out one of the OC's that updated my status to paid, also has it as a new charge off as of 10/2013. How can something be paid AND a current CO at the same time??? Grrrr... I'll be giving them a call tomorrow because it tanked my score to a 646 and turns out that's what Discover pulled (even though said EQ on the phone.. it was probably both)
LVNV finally deleted, as did People's Energy so YAY! Continuing to make progress...