My Crazy Credit Story

[unusuallyconfused]

I've been reading the forums for the past month and from what I read about a lot of the experienced people around here, you guys are going to be horrified. 

I have a crazy credit story and I want to share it with you guys.

First, a little background:

I'm in my late 30's. I lived in the U.S. until 2003. During that time I had only two credit cards:

1. First Premier (secured card with $300 limit)

2. New Millienium (secured card with $300 limit).

That's all I had for "credit".

In early 2004 I moved out of the United States. I paid the bills for both credit cards so there was no balance before I left the United States to not return until 2010.

During that time I was "off the grid" as far as participation in U.S. society. During my time away, I guess the two credit cards got closed down at the card issuer's request .

Between 2010 and now my credit activity was non-existent except for the following:

1. One paid repossession (car was repossessed and I paid the credit granter within 2 days of being repossessed) that's now 3 years old. It's reported on my EXPERIAN REPORT only.

2. Didn't pay Charter (cable/telephone/internet company) and that turned into a closed unpaid collection account that's now 1 year and couple weeks old.

My positive, 2003 closed credit accounts are listed on all three credit bureau reports (Experian, Equifax, Transunion.

The repo is on Experian.

The closed unpaid collection account is on Equifax only.

TransUnion only has the two positive closed credit accounts from 2003.

Recently I decided that I wanted to qualify for a mortgage using my Veteran's Administration Home Loan thingy within the next 3-5 years. But with my credit? Hahahahahaha! Yeah right.

So I went to check my credit reports on February 15, 2013 with that freeannualcreditreport thing. Experian and TransUnion wouldn't let me get the reports online.

But I got my Equifax and the only thing listed on there were the two positive closed credit accounts. I was thinking, "wow, I'm in not so bad shape because the repo is not on there and the money I owed Charter is not on there!".

I know that to have any hope of getting a mortgage 3-5 years from now, I better start building credit history now.

Then I found out that my USAA account had an option to sign up for credit monitoring as well as see your credit scores (not FICO tho...dont' know what my FICO score is right now) and get all 3 bureau reports.

So I got those.

EXPERIAN: 1 unpaid, closed collection account over 1 year old, 2 low limit, closed but positive credit accounts. Credit Score: 679 (again, Experian score, not FICO).

EQUIFAX: 1 two year old paid repossession, 2 low limit, closed but positive credit accounts. Credit Score: 660 (again, Equifax score, not FICO).

TRANSUNION: 2 low limit, closed but positive credit accounts. Credit Score: 749 (again, TransUnion score, not FICO).

I felt that wasn't all that bad considering.

Now here's where you're going to cringe. Remember I said I needed credit accounts right? Well I went crazy. 

Here's what happened:

February 16, 2013:

I started a credit application orgy of destruction. My motto: Credit at any costs. Apply now ask questions later.

Radio Shack Credit Card: DENIED

Capital One Bank: APPROVED ($46 securitiy deposit / $300 limit)

Applied Bank Business Credit Card: DENIED

That was all on Feb. 16.

Two days later, February 18:

Gettington.com/WEBBANK: DENIED

Target Store Card: DENIED

Walmart: DENIED

First Premier Bank: APPROVED ($300 limit, unsecured)

FingerHut/WEBBANK: APPROVED ($200 limit, unsecured)

BestBuy: DENIED

Again, all on the same day. 

So I give up for a while and do nothing....then March 2, 2013 rolls along:

USAA Credit Card: APPROVED ($4,000 limit, unsecured)

Lowe's store credit card: APPROVED ($1,000 limit, unsecured)

Amazon: DENIED

Discover iT: APPROVED ($1,500 limit, unsecured)

Credit One Bank: APPLICATION STILL PROCESSING as of March 5, 2013

Barclayscard: DENIED

Target: DENIED

Kay's: DENIED

Macy's: DENIED

J.C. Penney: APPROVED ($150 limit, unsecured)

Chevron/Texaco Gas credit card: APPROVED ($650 limit, unsecured)

Sears: DENIED

Applied Bank Business credit card: APPROVED (2nd time applied) ($350 limit, unsecured)

Gettington.com/WEBBANK: DENIED (2nd time)

Bank of America Credit Card: DENIED

Horror movie scary hard pulls!

In the end, my boutiful booty:

1.Capital One Bank: APPROVED ($46 securitiy deposit / $300 limit)

2. First Premier Bank: APPROVED ($300 limit, unsecured)
 
3. FingerHut/WEBBANK: APPROVED ($200 limit, unsecured)

4. USAA Credit Card: APPROVED ($4,000 limit, unsecured)
 
5. Lowe's store credit card: APPROVED ($1,000 limit, unsecured)

6. Discover iT: APPROVED ($1,500 limit, unsecured)
 
7. J.C. Penney: APPROVED ($150 limit, unsecured)
 
8. Chevron/Texaco Gas credit card: APPROVED ($650 limit, unsecured)

9. Applied Bank Business credit card: APPROVED (2nd time applied) ($350 limit, unsecured)

10. Credit One Bank: APPLICATION STILL PROCESSING as of March 5, 2013 -- possible success

Why ask why I say?

I've already paid the First Premier Bank c/c $75 processing fee that was charged to it. I used FingerHut and am waiting for the statement so I can pay it in full and then order something again next month and pay that off on time. 

Similar plan for each of the lines of credit that I now have. I'll NOT purchase over my means, but I will go out of my way to use small portions of the credit to purchase things I was going to buy with cash or debit card anyway.

The short term goal I figure: I have enough lines of credit now to establish a "history". I'm going to let the accounts age, use the credit responsibly, and NOT initiate any more hard inquiries for the next 365 days plus.

During that time, I've contacted the collection company for Charter (the unpaid, closed collection account on Experian) and will attempt to negotiate that off my report.

I've though of a couple of ways I might have success getting the repaid repossession off my Equifax report so I'm on top of that.

In more than a year's time, I'm going to go for an auto loan from USAA, pay that off as fast as I can over time and then see where I'm at with possibly proving that I can handle a mortage and move me and my family into that new house!!!

That's my crazy credit story so far. I'm not saying anybody should do this, I know I went against MANY of the "rules" and common sense stuff regarding applying for credit. Be that as it may, whatever I did here, the damage won't last long (all the hard pulls, new accounts, and so on).

[fishbjc]

At least you got some approvals!  Since different companies pull different bureaus, it's not all that bad.  At least, after a year, they will go....somewhere!

Congratulations on the approvals, use the limits wisely.

[unusuallyconfused]

Thanks a lot for the encourage at the beginning of my rebuidling my credit history. 

I signed up for the Fico Score thing (10 day free trial for the Equifax FICO score and paid $20 to get my Transunion). 

Here's my scores as of March 6, 2013:

Equifax FICO score: 656 (classified as "not good")

TransUnion FICO score: 778 (classified as "great").

Experian, I don't know. I just read you can't get access to your Experian FICO score. 

Since I went on this application spree, I might have some useful, up-to-date information for people who are applying and want to have their strongest score accessed. This info is gathered from my "credit inquiries" from my USAA 3 bureau credit reports:

Bank of America: Accesses EXPERIAN 

WEBBANK/Gettington.com: Accesses EQUIFAX & TRANSUNION

Applied Bank: Accesses TRANSUNION

Cap One: EXPERIAN & TRANSUNION (2 Pulls at same time)

CBNA/Sears: EXPERIAN

GECRB/Chevron: TRANSUNION

GECRB/J.C. Penney: TRANSUNION

Macy's/DSNB: EXPERIAN

Sterling/Kay Jewlers: EQUIFAX

Target National Bank: EQUIFAX

WEBBANK/DFS (Dell Preferred Customer): EXPERIAN

Credit One Bank: EXPERIAN

Barclayscard: TRANSUNION

Discover Financial: EQUIFAX

GECRB/Amazon: TRANSUNION

GECRB/Lowe's: TRANSUNION

USAA FSB CC: EQUIFAX

CAP1/Best Buy: EQUIFAX

WEBBANK/FingerHut.com: EQUIFAX

GECRB/Walmart: TRANSUNION

CBNA/Radio Shack: EXPERIAN

I hope that raw data helps somebody out so that they know which companies are pulling what reports only. I live in Massachusetts and I know some pulls are regional based, but from my list it seems that my region doesn't effect which report is pulled.

[unusuallyconfused]

Okay, not that anybody cares, but an update:

Turns out today I got a letter in the mail from Amazon.com and they wanted me to call a number for more information about my application for credit.

I assumed I was denied for the card back when I applied on March 2.

Well I called and got approved for that card.

Credit limt: $1,700

Amazon/GERCB only pulled my TransUnion credit file (my best file of the three).

As of yesterday I started disputing the two negatives I have on my other two bureau reports:

EXPERIAN: I have one unpaid closed collection account that's more than a year old. Sent a PFD yesterday. Today I'm going to contact the OC who still holds the closed collection.

EQUIAX: Got a paid REPO. Today I sent a GW letter to their credit department, their corporate headquaters and to their CEO and President. Maybe one of them will bite.

If I can get these two negatives off, I will be in credit heaven with my only job having to be aging the new accounts I've got, using them responsibly, getting CLIs then next year moving on the the next phase of my credit plans!

[Shogun]

Excellent work.. Congrats on the new account.

[unusuallyconfused]

thanks for the encouragement!

Actually without you guys I wouldn't have made any of these moves. I'm happy the forums are here and I'm happy that people like you take the time to give the rest of us a hand!!!