Hi Everyone!! I joined this forum six years ago and cleaned up my credit based on the advice from this group right here.
I am back....doing another clean up and experiencing a bit of AA from a few of my creditors. Details below:
Baddies
6/2015 1 30-day late Macys tried several deletion requests...no luck
6/2017 1 30-day late PSECU Auto loan (car totalled; insurance paid late)..won't delete.
2/2018 3 collections hit (predatory loans sent to CA) Sent two rounds of GW deletion requests already...no luck.
- NCB Management - Settled 4/2018
- NCA - Settled 10/2018
- NCA - Settled 11/2018
8/2018 30-day late NFCU Visa I disputed and asked for removal no luck...will try a phone call.
Adverse Actions (so far)
NFCU Visa - 18k/20k opened 10/2013, closed by NFCU 11/2017
Macys 700/800 opened 2013, CL lowered from 2000 to 800 8/2017
Walmart 0/200 opened 2013, closed by Synchrony 08/2018
Victorias Secret 800/900 opened 2003, CL lowered from 1000 to 900 11/2018
Amazon 540/580 opened 2013, CL lowered from 700 to 580 11/2018
Others
Cap1 Quicksilver Visa 7.8k/7.75k opened 2012 (combined cards in 2015)
Barclaycard 1.4k/1.5k opened 2013, transferred to MercuryCard 11/2018
Target 2k/2.1k opened 2013
NavCheck - 15k/15k opened 11/2013
Amex Gold - NPSL opened 2/2014
Amex Blue - 5k/5k opened 2/2014
PEPCOFCU Loan - 3k/8k opened 1/2014
Chase Freedom - 3.5k/3.5k opened 5/2014
PEPCOFCU Visa - 6k/6k opened 2015 (1000 CLI 11/2017)
PSECU Visa - 15k/15k opened 10/2016
PSECU Loan - 5k/10k opened 10/2016
ACEFCU Auto - 15k/18k opened 8/2017
ACEFCU Loan - 8k/10k opened 5/2018
PEPCOFCU Loan - 600/1k opened 8/2018 (quarterly loan, no hp)
PEPCOFCU Loan - 1k/1k opened 12/2018 (quarterly loan, no hp)
As you can see, my util is 99% and because the 20k NFCU Visa is closed....my util is calculated as 120% on some reports. Like everyone else, I am trying to get my credit in order so I can purchase a home this year. I found out that my mortgage scores are a little higher than the others...but they are still bad 589, 619, and 628. BoA and Chase loan officers advised that I get the mid score to 640 and re-apply.
I figured that I could GW the baddies and lower util at the same time, but I am unsure which accounts to pay off first. I paid off Walmart and they closed the account immediately...Amazon is also Synchrony so I was thinking they would probably close if I paid it off as well. I am not touching Amex or Chase since I heard that they are quick to balance chase. I also thought about using my PSECU Visa to transfer a few of the lower balances between statements to avoid any possible balance chasing.
Thoughts? Ideas? Am I going about this all wrong?
012019 Fico8/Mortgage Score: 
@FinStar wrote:
Even with any type of saturation technique to have the negative items GW, if that fails, what's your plan B?
Other than robbing Peter to pay Paul per se with the (PSECU) BT idea, what's the plan of action to reduce your high utilization? Do you have something laid out to get those balances retired?
I am currently working two FT jobs (200k total salary); I get a 10k bonus in February as well as a 6k tuition reimbursement in March. I thought the GW requests would have panned out by now and I planned to use the 10k bonus for a down payment. At this point, I think my Plan B is to use 2k-3k per month, 10k bonus, and 6k tuition reimbursement for pay down (that would give me 26k-31k), then re-apply for mortgage loans in June or July and use a 401k withdrawl for downpayment.
I just don't know which ones to pay first to avoid more adverse action or does it even matter at this point; let Mercury, Chase, Amazon, VS, and Macys close the accounts after I pay them off? VS is one of my oldest cards (2003), didn't want to lose the AAoA. I also thought about using the 2k-3k to pay off the closed NFCU Visa (18k).
Bottom line, I need to move to help take care of my mom....but I have a 6 year old son so I can't move during the school year. My lease ends in July, we could move in with my mom for a year, establish residency and be eligible for some of NY home rehab programs etc. I REALLY didn't want to live with my mom for an extended period of time, but I might have to sacrifice it.
I'll give you my two cents, if you're interested. First, if you look at how credit scores are calcuated, then you see FICO considers utilization and debt load to be about 35% of your scores. That means it is really important and you can see some huge, fast improvement just by paying off debt. Second, your utilization is calculated including the closed account's limit if it has a balance. Once it is paid off, then neither the balance nor the limit factor into your utilization.
In terms of buying a house, I am going to have to agree with the other posters. You REALLY have to get all that debt paid off beforehand. Mortgages are some of the most difficult loans to qualify for because they look at your file under a microscope. When they see you have so many balances, they could turn you down for how your credit looks as a result of that or simply just your debt to income ratio based on your payments and salary. I was in this situation a couple of years ago. My husband and I really wanted to buy a house. We have a decent income, but we also had a ton of credit card card, student loan, and personal loan debt. It just wasn't happening with out budget and credit scores.
I think your best choice is to either live with family or rent a very cheap place for a year or two until all that debt is paid off. Even if you got the house now, imagine if you had an A/C unit or hot water heater go out. It would be dificult to manage that expense, continue paying all ypour other expenses, and continue getting your debts paid off. The other benefit to getting out of debt first is that you don't have as many bills to keep track of in terms of due dates, amounts, and letters in the mail. I wish you the best of luck on your journey!
@RehabbingANDBlabbing wrote:I'll give you my two cents, if you're interested. First, if you look at how credit scores are calcuated, then you see FICO considers utilization and debt load to be about 35% of your scores. That means it is really important and you can see some huge, fast improvement just by paying off debt. Second, your utilization is calculated including the closed account's limit if it has a balance. Once it is paid off, then neither the balance nor the limit factor into your utilization.
In terms of buying a house, I am going to have to agree with the other posters. You REALLY have to get all that debt paid off beforehand. Mortgages are some of the most difficult loans to qualify for because they look at your file under a microscope. When they see you have so many balances, they could turn you down for how your credit looks as a result of that or simply just your debt to income ratio based on your payments and salary. I was in this situation a couple of years ago. My husband and I really wanted to buy a house. We have a decent income, but we also had a ton of credit card card, student loan, and personal loan debt. It just wasn't happening with out budget and credit scores.
I think your best choice is to either live with family or rent a very cheap place for a year or two until all that debt is paid off. Even if you got the house now, imagine if you had an A/C unit or hot water heater go out. It would be dificult to manage that expense, continue paying all ypour other expenses, and continue getting your debts paid off. The other benefit to getting out of debt first is that you don't have as many bills to keep track of in terms of due dates, amounts, and letters in the mail. I wish you the best of luck on your journey!
+1 to this, some very good advice in this post.
Thanks so much. LMAO @ "Whack a mole".
I will give my mother a call tonight and plan to stay with her until I've paid the debt down and see a significant increase in scores. Starting with tomorrow's pay, I will pay off 1-2 cards at a time and if they close or CLD then so be it. In the next three months, Ill use 24k from pay, bonus, and reimbursement to pay the following:
1. Amazon $540 (1/4)
2. Macys $800 (1/15)
3. Victorias Secret $800 (1/15)
4. Mercury Card $1.5k (2/18)
5. Target $2.1k (2/18)
6. Chase Visa $3.5k (2/18)
7. Amex Blue $5k (2/18)
8. Closed NFCU Visa $10k (3/29)
Remaining revolving credit debt:
15% Closed NFCU Visa $8k ($200 mmp)
15% PepcoFCU Visa $6k (autopay from 1st job) Not including this in my paydown plan.
18% Cap1 Visa $7.75k ($200 mmp)
10% PSECU Visa $15k ($300 mmp)
15% NavCheck $15k ($300 mmp)
If no one closes my accounts, my util should hopefully fall under 80% and I will only have to make mmp+ snowball on five accounts. I won't have any additional money coming in after the March reimbursement and I may have to take classes to defer my student loans during this pay down period. I also have to consider 2018 taxes that will be due in April....2019 taxes won't be an issue, I've changed my exemptions on both jobs to 0+ $100 per pay period ($400 per month).
I will keep at the GW attempts as noted and update this thread with my progress. Now that I've typed all of this, I am still contemplating the benefits of transferring all of the smaller balances to the PSECU Visa 
You make a great point. I would be in deep trouble if ANYTHING went wrong with the house; did I mention I was looking at a rehab lol!!! We've been living in luxury apartments for so long, wasting so much money on rent...I was jumping at the "opportunity" to finally buy a home; cost of living is so much lower in Buffalo, but the rent there is pretty high considering what you get for your money.
Quick question about the closed NFCU Visa and util. Are you saying that the 20k CL is included in my total util or does the CL lower as my balance lowers. Example: The balance is 18k now does it calculate as 100%, 90% or 190%?
@newmomnewme wrote:Hi Everyone!! I joined this forum six years ago and cleaned up my credit based on the advice from this group right here.
I am back....doing another clean up and experiencing a bit of AA from a few of my creditors. Details below:
Baddies
6/2015 1 30-day late Macys tried several deletion requests...no luck
6/2017 1 30-day late PSECU Auto loan (car totalled; insurance paid late)..won't delete.
2/2018 3 collections hit (predatory loans sent to CA) Sent two rounds of GW deletion requests already...no luck.
- NCB Management - Settled 4/2018
- NCA - Settled 10/2018
- NCA - Settled 11/2018
8/2018 30-day late NFCU Visa I disputed and asked for removal no luck...will try a phone call.
Adverse Actions (so far)
NFCU Visa - 18k/20k opened 10/2013, closed by NFCU 11/2017
Macys 700/800 opened 2013, CL lowered from 2000 to 800 8/2017
Walmart 0/200 opened 2013, closed by Synchrony 08/2018
Victorias Secret 800/900 opened 2003, CL lowered from 1000 to 900 11/2018
Amazon 540/580 opened 2013, CL lowered from 700 to 580 11/2018
Others
Cap1 Quicksilver Visa 7.8k/7.75k opened 2012 (combined cards in 2015)
Barclaycard 1.4k/1.5k opened 2013, transferred to MercuryCard 11/2018
Target 2k/2.1k opened 2013
NavCheck - 15k/15k opened 11/2013
Amex Gold - NPSL opened 2/2014
Amex Blue - 5k/5k opened 2/2014
PEPCOFCU Loan - 3k/8k opened 1/2014
Chase Freedom - 3.5k/3.5k opened 5/2014
PEPCOFCU Visa - 6k/6k opened 2015 (1000 CLI 11/2017)
PSECU Visa - 15k/15k opened 10/2016
PSECU Loan - 5k/10k opened 10/2016
ACEFCU Auto - 15k/18k opened 8/2017
ACEFCU Loan - 8k/10k opened 5/2018
PEPCOFCU Loan - 600/1k opened 8/2018 (quarterly loan, no hp)
PEPCOFCU Loan - 1k/1k opened 12/2018 (quarterly loan, no hp)
As you can see, my util is 99% and because the 20k NFCU Visa is closed....my util is calculated as 120% on some reports. Like everyone else, I am trying to get my credit in order so I can purchase a home this year. I found out that my mortgage scores are a little higher than the others...but they are still bad 589, 619, and 628. BoA and Chase loan officers advised that I get the mid score to 640 and re-apply.
I figured that I could GW the baddies and lower util at the same time, but I am unsure which accounts to pay off first. I paid off Walmart and they closed the account immediately...Amazon is also Synchrony so I was thinking they would probably close if I paid it off as well. I am not touching Amex or Chase since I heard that they are quick to balance chase. I also thought about using my PSECU Visa to transfer a few of the lower balances between statements to avoid any possible balance chasing.
Thoughts? Ideas? Am I going about this all wrong?
I'm going to go ahead and give you my advice on how to pay this down. Iknow there's a name for this, but I can't remember it right now. You'll basically pay the minimum on every single account and take any extra money you have and pay it to your smallest balance. This is how I have gotten out of debt and it works especially well when you have A LOT of different accounts. In addition, the higher number of paid off accounts you have, you will get a bigger score boost than just paying all your extra money to one big account. Why? FICO penalizes you for the number of accounts you have with a balance.
Pay these accounts off in this order:
Walmart 0/200 opened 2013, closed by Synchrony 08/2018 - ALREADY PAID OFF
Amex Gold - NPSL - Pay this off first and don't continue running up a balance on it. Keep it active with Netflix or gum.
Amazon 540/580
PEPCOFCU Loan - 600/1k
Macys 700/800
Victorias Secret 800/900
PEPCOFCU Loan - 1k/1k
Barclaycard 1.4k/1.5k
Target 2k/2.1k
PEPCOFCU Loan - 3k/8k - $10k running total so far - you can pay all the accounts above off fast with your salary
Chase Freedom - 3.5k/3.5k
Amex Blue - 5k/5k
PSECU Loan - 5k/10k
PEPCOFCU Visa - 6k/6k
Cap1 Quicksilver Visa 7.8k/7.75k
ACEFCU Loan - 8k/10k
NavCheck - 15k/15k
PSECU Visa - 15k/15k
NFCU Visa - 18k/20k
ACEFCU Auto - 15k/18k
TOTAL DEBT: $108,340
Here's some fun information: if you average a 10% APR across all this debt, then you are paying $902 a month interest alone. And I know you must be paying more than 10% looking at who some of your creditors are. In addition, the smallest debts listed first typically ave the highest APR, so thi strategy will save you some money.
Ok...ok, so based on your plan, I would include the personal loans in the pay down; I was so focused on the revolving that I forgot about the freaking installment loans.
@RehabbingANDBlabbing wrote:
@newmomnewme wrote:Hi Everyone!! I joined this forum six years ago and cleaned up my credit based on the advice from this group right here.
I am back....doing another clean up and experiencing a bit of AA from a few of my creditors. Details below:
Baddies
6/2015 1 30-day late Macys tried several deletion requests...no luck
6/2017 1 30-day late PSECU Auto loan (car totalled; insurance paid late)..won't delete.
2/2018 3 collections hit (predatory loans sent to CA) Sent two rounds of GW deletion requests already...no luck.
- NCB Management - Settled 4/2018
- NCA - Settled 10/2018
- NCA - Settled 11/2018
8/2018 30-day late NFCU Visa I disputed and asked for removal no luck...will try a phone call.
Adverse Actions (so far)
NFCU Visa - 18k/20k opened 10/2013, closed by NFCU 11/2017
Macys 700/800 opened 2013, CL lowered from 2000 to 800 8/2017
Walmart 0/200 opened 2013, closed by Synchrony 08/2018
Victorias Secret 800/900 opened 2003, CL lowered from 1000 to 900 11/2018
Amazon 540/580 opened 2013, CL lowered from 700 to 580 11/2018
Others
Cap1 Quicksilver Visa 7.8k/7.75k opened 2012 (combined cards in 2015)
Barclaycard 1.4k/1.5k opened 2013, transferred to MercuryCard 11/2018
Target 2k/2.1k opened 2013
NavCheck - 15k/15k opened 11/2013
Amex Gold - NPSL opened 2/2014
Amex Blue - 5k/5k opened 2/2014
PEPCOFCU Loan - 3k/8k opened 1/2014
Chase Freedom - 3.5k/3.5k opened 5/2014
PEPCOFCU Visa - 6k/6k opened 2015 (1000 CLI 11/2017)
PSECU Visa - 15k/15k opened 10/2016
PSECU Loan - 5k/10k opened 10/2016
ACEFCU Auto - 15k/18k opened 8/2017
ACEFCU Loan - 8k/10k opened 5/2018
PEPCOFCU Loan - 600/1k opened 8/2018 (quarterly loan, no hp)
PEPCOFCU Loan - 1k/1k opened 12/2018 (quarterly loan, no hp)
As you can see, my util is 99% and because the 20k NFCU Visa is closed....my util is calculated as 120% on some reports. Like everyone else, I am trying to get my credit in order so I can purchase a home this year. I found out that my mortgage scores are a little higher than the others...but they are still bad 589, 619, and 628. BoA and Chase loan officers advised that I get the mid score to 640 and re-apply.
I figured that I could GW the baddies and lower util at the same time, but I am unsure which accounts to pay off first. I paid off Walmart and they closed the account immediately...Amazon is also Synchrony so I was thinking they would probably close if I paid it off as well. I am not touching Amex or Chase since I heard that they are quick to balance chase. I also thought about using my PSECU Visa to transfer a few of the lower balances between statements to avoid any possible balance chasing.
Thoughts? Ideas? Am I going about this all wrong?
I'm going to go ahead and give you my advice on how to pay this down. Iknow there's a name for this, but I can't remember it right now. You'll basically pay the minimum on every single account and take any extra money you have and pay it to your smallest balance. This is how I have gotten out of debt and it works especially well when you have A LOT of different accounts. In addition, the higher number of paid off accounts you have, you will get a bigger score boost than just paying all your extra money to one big account. Why? FICO penalizes you for the number of accounts you have with a balance.
Pay these accounts off in this order:
Walmart 0/200 opened 2013, closed by Synchrony 08/2018 - ALREADY PAID OFF
Amex Gold - NPSL - Pay this off first and don't continue running up a balance on it. Keep it active with Netflix or gum.
Amazon 540/580
PEPCOFCU Loan - 600/1k
Macys 700/800
Victorias Secret 800/900
PEPCOFCU Loan - 1k/1k
Barclaycard 1.4k/1.5k
Target 2k/2.1k
PEPCOFCU Loan - 3k/8k - $10k running total so far - you can pay all the accounts above off fast with your salary
Chase Freedom - 3.5k/3.5k
Amex Blue - 5k/5k
PSECU Loan - 5k/10k
PEPCOFCU Visa - 6k/6k
Cap1 Quicksilver Visa 7.8k/7.75k
ACEFCU Loan - 8k/10k
NavCheck - 15k/15k
PSECU Visa - 15k/15k
NFCU Visa - 18k/20k
ACEFCU Auto - 15k/18k
TOTAL DEBT: $108,340
Here's some fun information: if you average a 10% APR across all this debt, then you are paying $902 a month interest alone. And I know you must be paying more than 10% looking at who some of your creditors are. In addition, the smallest debts listed first typically ave the highest APR, so thi strategy will save you some money.