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My rebuilding journey from the mid 500s

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onepointatatime
Contributor

My rebuilding journey from the mid 500s

Hello all, I thought I'd start my own 'diary' of sorts to share my rebuilding experience.  I'll put what has transpired thus far all in this one post, then update as things change...

 

Baddies :

1) 40K credit union card CO'd, DoFD in 2009.  Scheduled to purge in Jul 2016

2) 9K AMEX revolver card in collections, went to a 3rd party CA for a while, now owned by the OC (AMEX) again, DoFD in 2009 (PIF'd as of August 2014). Currently shows as a paid CO.  Scheduled to purge in Apr 2016

3) 5K Chase Freedom card charged off, somehow a credit repair company that I had hired last year managed to get this removed from my CRs - I have no idea how. DoFD 2009

 

Actions taken since the beginning of my rebuilding journey in September of 2013:

9/2013 :

opened a 1K CL secured Capital One card, reports as a regular/unsecured card on CRs

 

12/2013 :

bumped up my secured deposit on the Cap1 card to 2K

opened a $300 CL First Progress secured card, reports as regular/unsecured on CRs

 

2/2014 :

all around the same time, I applied for 6 TLs - a PenFed AMEX card (denied), a Discover card(denied), a Barclays mastercard (denied), a BoA secured for a $500 CL (approved - but unfortunately it reports as secured on the CRs), and a Capital One Quicksilver One unsecured (approved for $500 - this was my first unsecured credit line since 2009!!), and a credit union installment loan (denied).  Since 10% of the FICO score is the "mix" of the account types, I figured it would help to get an installment loan just for the sake of it reporting and slightly boosting my score.

I was just going to go for one card but I kept getting denied, that's why I applied for so many at the same time.  I did suffer a noticeable point drop for all the hard pulls.

 

3/2014 :

approved for a secured credit union installment loan for $500, 18 months. It unfortunately reports as secured on my CRs

4/2014 :

Currently trying to figure out (using this forum)  the best way to proceed with getting off the AMEX blacklist + getting in good terms with them so I can get a new card with them, while simultaneously trying to get the derogs removed so my score is high enough to qualify for a *real* AMEX, not just the Optima rebuilder which the CA just offered me the other day if I PIF.  I'm not sure if this is possible yet.  Currently, a 3rd party CA owns the AMEX debt.

 

6/15/2014:
Due most likely to all my phone calls to AMEX and the 3rd party CA, it seems like the two made an agreement and AMEX took back the old debt.  I think this is good news.  I've now mailed off a letter to AMEX essentially offering 100 cents on the dollar for this old (2009) CO, in exchange for them deleting the derogatory info off of my CRs.  Also, an AMEX rep on the phone told me that removal from the AMEX blacklist is immediate if you PIF an old debt.

 

8/30/2014:

After careful consideration, I decided to give up on insisting to AMEX to PFD.  It seems they just won't budge, at least not for me. So I just did a non-conditional PIF for my old AMEX card, so that should definitely bump my score up soon. Unfortunately the old bad info won't fall off for another 2 years.  I now applied for an AMEX Platinum and a Delta Platinum, and got denied.  The AMEX hard pull showed a score of 607 (Experian).  My CR still looks bad and my score is still quite low, so it was to be expected.

 

9/8/2014:

Got a small $250 auto-CLI on my CapitalOne QuickSilverOne card.  I'm still waiting for the old AMEX payoff to show up on my credit reports.. it should be any day now.

 

9/13/2014:

I succesfully converted my secured BoA into an unsecured after only 6 months.  I failed in getting them to raise the credit limit though, so it's still at $500 for now.  It did cost me 2 HPs

 

9/19/2014:

Closed out my First Progress secured $300 card.  They wouldn't budge on the AF, I didn't want to give them more money for a secured increase, so I'm letting this one go.

 

9/21/2014:

Got a (secured) CLI on my CapitalOne secured card from $2,351 up to $3,000 now.  Total revolving (secured and non) credit now stands at $4,250 ($1,250 of it unsecured)

 

9/23/2014:

Got denied on a recon for the Chase Sapphire Preferred denial.  This time the rep caught that I had an old Chase Freedom card that was written off - oops :-)  I was wondering why they hadn't found that until now.. I mean I even bank with them and it had never come up.

Also, I tried to GW AMEX for my paid charge-off directly to someone in the EO, who wouldn't say yes or no but would get back to me within a couple of days.. fingers crossed!

 

9/24/2014:

Contacted Capital One EO, to try and get a CLI on my QS1 the backdoor way.. and also possibly convert my QS1 into a QS.

 

9/25/2014:

Also, AMEX EO called me back and said they cannot delete my derogs early :-(

Also, just app'd for a NASA CU credit card, since they seem to be giving them out like candy at Halloween. :-)  Current status is pending. Update 10/5/2014: I got declined.

I contacted all 3 CRAs to attempt to get my derogs removed with early exclusion - so far, it failed miserably!  Although, I am quite far off for 'early' - I'm 1.5 years away from my derogs purge date

 

9/29/2014:

Cap1 CLI success!!  They increased my Cap1 QS1 from $750 to $2,000.  Although still very small, it's a step in the right direction.  Total CLI on all revolvers is 5.5K now.

 

10/5/2014:

I just noticed that my recently converted BoA card from secured to unsecured, is now reporting as a regular credit card.. the 'secured' mark is off the report! Although I've heard that the FICO scoring model doesn't know the difference, I know it makes a difference on manual review.  Also, I succesfully got this card converted into a Travel Rewards card.

 

11/1/2014:

Added a Self Lender account to increase positive trade lines reporting on my account

 

12/2014:

Closed my First Progress account. I'm going to try and get them to stop reporting this to the CRBs so it doesn't hurt my AAoA as much

 

2/10/2015:

Applied (again) for credit cards.  I applied for an AMEX Platinum, and a Chase Sapphire Preferred.  APPROVED on the CSP for 6K!!  I was very surprised, and excited.  I was denied on the AMEX unfortunately

 

3/2015:

I closed out my 3K Capital One secured card!  I now have ZERO secured credit cards, which is a huge achievement for me! :-)

 

3/2015:

CLI from 2K to 6K - APPROVED! I went through Capital One's EO to ask for a CLI on my Quicksilver from 2K up to 20K.  Without any notification from them, earlier today when I logged in to my Capital One account, I found they increased my limit to 6K! :-)

 

3/26/2015:

App'd for an Amex BCE, denied (EX hard INQ 638).  App'd for a Citi Double Cash, denied (EX hard INQ).  Went for a CLI on my BoA, approved for 1.6K (from $500)

 

4/2015:

App'd for a credit card from a credit union, approved for 2K!

App'd for a Priceline card (issued by Barclays Bank), approved for $0.5K

 

10/2015:

Requested a (soft) CLI from Capital One, approved to $7.5K (from $6K)

Requsted a (hard) CLI from Chase from the current $6K, denied

 



Sep 2013: mid 500s | Sep 2014: myfico: EX 539 | EQ 594 | TU 694 || My Rebuilding Journey
myfico, 12/3/2015: EX 666 | EQ 677 | TU 689 | AAoA : 3y | INQs (12/24) EX 11/13 | EQ 5/9 | TU 4/7
Cards: Chase Sapphire Pref. $6K | BoA Travel Rewards $1.6K | Cap1 QS Rewards $7.5K | Priceline $0.5K | Credit Union $2K | Total (5) Revolving CLs: $17.6K
Goal Score 2015: FICO08 800+
Message 1 of 9
8 REPLIES 8
ExNavyMom
Established Member

Re: My rebuilding journey from the mid 500s

Hard pulls are the worst. Thanks for the info about the CU installment loan. Hadn't thought about trying that to mix up the types of credit that I have. Smiley Happy

EQ: 683 EX: 654 TU: 654 $10500 limits Util: 15% Gardening until 07/15


Starting Score: EQ 562
Current Score: EQ 683 EX 654 TU 654
Goal Score: 700 across the board


Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge
Message 2 of 9
suliabryon
Established Member

Re: My rebuilding journey from the mid 500s

Sounds like you are taking the right steps to rebuild. It may take time, but it will be worth it in the end. From everything I have read here, those secured CC and installment loan will pay dividends for you in re-establishing proof that you will pay, eventually leading to the ability to get unsecured versions. Don't give up. Smiley Happy I'm sure the knowledgable folks here will steer you in the right direction.

Starting Scores (4/1/2014): Mine 654 Ex/639 Eq/ 641 TU DH 650 Eq
Current (4/25/2014): Mine 654 Ex/734 Eq/641 TU
Gardening until April 30th, 2015.
Message 3 of 9
onepointatatime
Contributor

Re: My rebuilding journey from the mid 500s

I just updated my post with the latest updates.  Soon I should only have one major baddy on my CR, which is an old charged off card from NFCU.  I wish there was a way to remove bad stuff immediately after one has done a PIF for an old debt!



Sep 2013: mid 500s | Sep 2014: myfico: EX 539 | EQ 594 | TU 694 || My Rebuilding Journey
myfico, 12/3/2015: EX 666 | EQ 677 | TU 689 | AAoA : 3y | INQs (12/24) EX 11/13 | EQ 5/9 | TU 4/7
Cards: Chase Sapphire Pref. $6K | BoA Travel Rewards $1.6K | Cap1 QS Rewards $7.5K | Priceline $0.5K | Credit Union $2K | Total (5) Revolving CLs: $17.6K
Goal Score 2015: FICO08 800+
Message 4 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: My rebuilding journey from the mid 500s

No more app, clean up your repor first. So far so good, keep working on our reports. Did you ask Navy if you payoff your charged off accounts in full can you apply for credit with them again?

Message 5 of 9
onepointatatime
Contributor

Re: My rebuilding journey from the mid 500s

No I didn't ask Navy Fed that question...



Sep 2013: mid 500s | Sep 2014: myfico: EX 539 | EQ 594 | TU 694 || My Rebuilding Journey
myfico, 12/3/2015: EX 666 | EQ 677 | TU 689 | AAoA : 3y | INQs (12/24) EX 11/13 | EQ 5/9 | TU 4/7
Cards: Chase Sapphire Pref. $6K | BoA Travel Rewards $1.6K | Cap1 QS Rewards $7.5K | Priceline $0.5K | Credit Union $2K | Total (5) Revolving CLs: $17.6K
Goal Score 2015: FICO08 800+
Message 6 of 9
sjt
Senior Contributor

Re: My rebuilding journey from the mid 500s

Congrats on your progress!

 

FYI- Once you payoff Amex you are off the blacklist and they never sell their debts to a JDB, only assign them for collections. Where you offered the Oasis Card? Also, after you pay Amex off, the tradlines tend to fall off in a year or so.

 

 

 

 

American Express: Platinum Charge, Optima, Business Gold, Delta Business Reserve, Business Cash, Business Plus
Barclays: Arrival+ WEMC
Capital One: Savor WEMC, Venture X Visa Infinite
Chase: Freedom U Visa Signature, CSR Visa Infinite
Citibank: AAdvantage Platinum WEMC
Elan/US Bank: Fidelity Visa Signature
Credit Union: Cash Back Visa Signature
FICO 08: Score decrease between 26-41 points after auto payoff (11.01.21) FICO as of 5.23, EX: 812 / EQ: 825 / TU: 815
Message 7 of 9
onepointatatime
Contributor

Re: My rebuilding journey from the mid 500s


@sjt wrote:

Congrats on your progress!

 

FYI- Once you payoff Amex you are off the blacklist and they never sell their debts to a JDB, only assign them for collections. Where you offered the Oasis Card? Also, after you pay Amex off, the tradlines tend to fall off in a year or so.

 

 

 

 


I was offered it by the CA, but not when it turned back to AMEX.  I tried using the AMEX EO to GW the line off my report, with no luck.  It's scheduled to fall off in 2016, but maybe I can try the EO route again to get it removed early in 2015



Sep 2013: mid 500s | Sep 2014: myfico: EX 539 | EQ 594 | TU 694 || My Rebuilding Journey
myfico, 12/3/2015: EX 666 | EQ 677 | TU 689 | AAoA : 3y | INQs (12/24) EX 11/13 | EQ 5/9 | TU 4/7
Cards: Chase Sapphire Pref. $6K | BoA Travel Rewards $1.6K | Cap1 QS Rewards $7.5K | Priceline $0.5K | Credit Union $2K | Total (5) Revolving CLs: $17.6K
Goal Score 2015: FICO08 800+
Message 8 of 9
sjt
Senior Contributor

Re: My rebuilding journey from the mid 500s

They should still be able to offer you the Oasis Card. Check out the back door numbers for the Oasis Program.

American Express: Platinum Charge, Optima, Business Gold, Delta Business Reserve, Business Cash, Business Plus
Barclays: Arrival+ WEMC
Capital One: Savor WEMC, Venture X Visa Infinite
Chase: Freedom U Visa Signature, CSR Visa Infinite
Citibank: AAdvantage Platinum WEMC
Elan/US Bank: Fidelity Visa Signature
Credit Union: Cash Back Visa Signature
FICO 08: Score decrease between 26-41 points after auto payoff (11.01.21) FICO as of 5.23, EX: 812 / EQ: 825 / TU: 815
Message 9 of 9
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