Definitely! The goal here is to get your debts paid off as quickly as possible. That will help your score the most and be your best course of action to avoid further adverse action. After you pay off each small account, you have the extra money froma payment YOU DON'T MAKE ANYMORE to pay extra on the next account your are paying off. So if you pay off Macy's and the minimum payment is $50, then you apply that $50 to the minimum on Victoria's Secret, plus any extra funds you have and make that payment the next month. So you could potentially pay VC $100 plus any extra money you have. And you just keep going until you are finished. I put the auto loan last, because it is normal to just pay your scheduled monthly payment on it and it is likely at a lower APR anyway.
I am going to be completely honest with you as I have seen many people in this situation. They are looking at your credit report (much more frequently than you might imagine) and looking at your debts, loan amounts, payments, and they are potentially estimating your income and going off of what they have. My credit is on the rebound and I am paying off AmEx on a payment plan. They literally soft pull my credit every 2-3 days, despite my debt going down and my scores improving. Most lenders are pulling onace a month and sometimes twice a month. They are most likely concluding that you will soon be headed for bankruptcy or that you will just stop paying on these accounts. Much of this adverse action is automated and based on algorithms that looks for patterns of building debt, acquiring credit, and compare it with your home value, rent prices, and average slaries in your area. It is very sophisticated, but it appears they have arrived at a pretty accurate prediction, based on all this debt.
Alright. I got this! I just read on the Mortgage scoring thread that the model is based on number of accounts with balances as well as util.....so I just paid my smallest balance with the highest interest (Amazon 25% I think) in full and will see if it helps anything when it updates.
1 down, many to go.
012019 Fico8/Mortgage Score: 
Holy debt batman :-)
It's good that you're taking care of your outstanding debts, and with your salary you should be able to knock out a good chunk of your debt within a year.
It's going to be important for you to manage your expectations and you've acknowled the fact that some companies will take AA and balance chase you. If it happens it happens.. I've known some people in the past who were soured by AA, that they said screw it and stopped paying. No matter how bad your situation looks in the short term.. Your rebuild will happen rather quickly once you get your accounts under control.
Last Inquiry 12/23/2022 Ally Bank Mortgage
@tparks5961 wrote:Holy debt batman :-)
It's good that you're taking care of your outstanding debts, and with your salary you should be able to knock out a good chunk of your debt within a year.
It's going to be important for you to manage your expectations and you've acknowled the fact that some companies will take AA and balance chase you. If it happens it happens.. I've known some people in the past who were soured by AA, that they said screw it and stopped paying. No matter how bad your situation looks in the short term.. Your rebuild will happen rather quickly once you get your accounts under control.
Agreed. It took me a while to figure out how I was going to recover....I decided that a 2nd job would probably make the most sense. I really should have stopped at the forums before pulling the trigger on the mortgage apps, I could have paid a few things off the for the score boost and moved forward with all the debt. Paying over 1k per month in interest is a little gross. I will update the list as I pay them off, this will motivate me to get it done sooner than later. Thanks!!
As of today, one of the paid collections was deleted. Now working on the 30-day late from August as well as continuing my pay down plan.
I think I can get this done...I will keep you all updated.
So my three baddies left are: 2 paid collections (NCA 4/2018) and 1 30-day late (Navy Federal 8/2018). I sent GW removal requests and they were ignored and/or denied. I will continue to send them. I even sent GW letters to the entire executive board at NCA and NO response; when I called, the representative told me that they do not remove information from credit reports EVER. I asked to have my case escalated and she said there was no one that would remove anything....I keep calling back until I get the right person on the right day. As for my pay down, I decided to focus on the revolving credit lines for the next 12 months. Although I was approved for a mortgage loan (terms not so great), I am going to wait to move until my overall UTIL is well below 30%; according to my plan paying them all off in full will take 14 months.
Jan - Amazon 540/580 (balanced chased from 700)
Jan - Victorias Secret 800/900 (lowered CL from 1000)
Feb - Macys 800/800 (balanced chased from 2000)
Feb - Mercury MC 1400/1500 (no AA yet, formerly Barclays...so the switch may have been?)
Feb - Target 2000/2100 (no AA yet- they actually increased from 1700 while others were AA)
Feb - Chase Freedom 3400/3500 (no AA yet)
Mar - Amex Blue 4900/5000 (no AA yet)
May - Pepco Visa 5900/6000 (no AA yet)
Aug - Cap1 Visa 7700/7750 (no AA yet)
Dec - NFCU Visa 18000/20000 (didn't reissue card when expired then closed account)
Feb 2020 - Nov - NavCheck 14800/15000 (no AA yet)
Mar 2020 - PSECU Visa 15500/15000 (sent a letter to ask why my CS was dropping)
The payments for my small installment loans are payroll deductions...so the largest one will be paid in full 2021 on the current schedule.
Pepco 600/1k (doesn't report to EX)
Pepco 1k/1k (doesn't report to EX)
Pepco 3k/10k (doesn't report to EX)
PSECU 6k/10k
ACE FCU 8k/10k
ACE Auto 14k/18k
This is now my official paydown thread....Thanks for the support guys. I needed it. I can't believe I was really going to try to move, buy a fixer upper, and pay to fix it with all my cards maxed to death. SMH.
As of today, I paid the following....its an agressive avalanche/snowball paydown with short term goals (lowering UTIL and home purchase) and long term goal (Improved credit score). I am making payments that bring me down at least one threashold per statement for optimal scoring...I just learned about 88.9 - 8.9 UTIL, # of accounts vs. # of accounts with balances, and statement cuts vs. reporting date.
At first I was worried about AA. But now, I just want most of this debt GONE.
Jan - Amazon 540/580 (balanced chased from 700) PIF 1/4/19
Jan - Victorias Secret 800/900 (lowered CL from 1000) PIF 1/8/19
Feb - Macys 800/800 (balanced chased from 2000) PIF 1/14/2019
Feb - Mercury MC 1400/1500 (no AA yet, formerly Barclays...so the switch may have been?)
Feb - Target 2000/2100 (no AA yet- they actually increased from 1700 while others were AA)
Feb - Chase Freedom 3400/3500 (no AA yet) Paid $600 1/14/2019 to get below 88.9% UTIL
Mar - Amex Blue 4900/5000 (no AA yet) Paid $700 1/14/2019 to get below 88.9% UTIL
May - Pepco Visa 5900/6000 (no AA yet)
Aug - Cap1 Visa 7700/7750 (no AA yet)
Dec - NFCU Visa 18000/20000 (didn't reissue card when expired then closed account)
Feb 2020 - Nov - NavCheck 14800/15000 (no AA yet)
Mar 2020 - PSECU Visa 15500/15000 (sent a letter to ask why my CS was dropping)
The payments for my small installment loans are payroll deductions...so the largest one will be paid in full 2021 on the current schedule.
Pepco 600/1k (doesn't report to EX)
Pepco 1k/1k (doesn't report to EX)
Pepco 3k/10k (doesn't report to EX)
PSECU 6k/10k
ACE FCU 8k/10k
ACE Auto 14k/18k
Thank you @calyx.
After just a few payments made...I got the first one in time for statement cut and report.
My TU went up 2pts today just from paying off the Victoria's Secret $815.
I am excited about the possibilities for Amazon and Macys, the statements cut in a few days and hopefully, I will see another small boost.
Jan - Amazon 540/580 (balanced chased from 700) PIF 1/4/19
Jan - Victorias Secret 800/900 (lowered CL from 1000) PIF 1/8/19
Feb - Macys 800/800 (balanced chased from 2000) PIF 1/14/2019
Feb - Mercury MC 1400/1500 (no AA yet, formerly Barclays...so the switch may have been?)
Feb - Target 2000/2100 (no AA yet- they actually increased from 1700 while others were AA)
Feb - Chase Freedom 3400/3500 (no AA yet) Paid $600 1/14/2019 to get below 88.9% UTIL
Mar - Amex Blue 4900/5000 (no AA yet) Paid $700 1/14/2019 to get below 88.9% UTIL
May - Pepco Visa 5900/6000 (no AA yet)
Aug - Cap1 Visa 7700/7750 (no AA yet)
Dec - NFCU Visa 18000/20000 (didn't reissue card when expired then closed account)
Feb 2020 - Nov - NavCheck 14800/15000 (no AA yet)
Mar 2020 - PSECU Visa 15500/15000 (sent a letter to ask why my CS was dropping)
Happy Rebuilding everyone! If we don't laugh...we will cry. Credit takes so much longer to fix than it does to wreck.
- 8/18 30-day late Removal Request - Called NFCU to speak to supervisor; rep suggested I file a dispute with them; drafting it now.
- 4/17 and 4/18 Paid Collections - NCA a call to see if I can get the name and address of a decision maker; send a GW letter.
- EQ, EX, & TU - Disputed 30-day late, duplicate Macys account, and 2 NCA collections (we will see)
Since I made a few of my Feb payments early, I may be able to squeeze a bigger snowflake for Feb. VS is the only PIF that reported already....and TU was the only CS that changed. I am very happy with 2 points since I only started on 1/4/2019.
Pay down progress below:
Jan - Amazon 540/580 (balanced chased from 700) PIF 1/4/19
Jan - Victorias Secret 800/900 (lowered CL from 1000) PIF 1/8/19 TU +2 pts, EQ +9pts.
Feb - Macys 800/800 (balanced chased from 2000) PIF 1/14/2019
Feb - Mercury MC 1400/1500 (no AA yet, formerly Barclays...so the switch may have been?) PIF 1/17/2019
Feb - Target 2000/2100 (no AA yet- they actually increased from 1700 while others were AA)
Feb - Chase Freedom 2900/3500 (no AA yet) Paid $600 1/14/2019 to get below 88.9% UTIL
Mar - Amex Blue 4250/5000 (no AA yet) Paid $700 1/14/2019 to get below 88.9% UTIL
May - Pepco Visa 5900/6000 (no AA yet)
Aug - Cap1 Visa 7700/7750 (no AA yet)
Dec - NFCU Visa 18000/20000 (closed Dec 2017)
Feb 2020 - Nov - NavCheck 14800/15000 (no AA yet)
Mar 2020 - PSECU Visa 15500/15000 (AR - asked why my CS dropped)