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My wife's and my data during our credit repair

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CreditPuppy
Valued Member

My wife's and my data during our credit repair

Good morning everyone.  I will be using this thread to document my credit repair journey and the different steps I took with my wife's credit repair.  I am doing this so others (I am looking at you @Anonymous ) will have different data sets to use in their calculations.  There will be a LOT of data and the resulting changes that were seen on the general FICO 8 score for all 3 major CB's.  Since I have had my myFICO account only for a month at this time, but have had my Experian premium account from the month after I started my credit repair (Jan 2020), those will be the reports and scores I will be using.  Also, my wife only has the Experian premium account.  Since I was asked if I would share, and I am a data nerd (math is in my soul), this shall be exhaustive.  Where I can scan reports after redacting personal info, I probably will.  I plan to write and show changes that happened every month with each CB, the resulting score changes, and the negative reason codes for each CB every month.  I will also go over what I did different between my wife and me, though her account regretably did not start at the same time as mine.

I am going to lay this thread out as each month will have its own post.  The first post will go over my ideas at the time for credit repair and some personal data.  Hopefully, I will get this out in the next 7 days.  That will leave me little time to complete this before my credit changes.  I hope this will help others with their journeys, and to maybe help clarify some of the datasets for FICO 8.

Oh, and Birdman7? Something happened last week that was interesting.  I applied for a CLI on one of my NFCU cards.  They pulled FICO 9 from EQ.  It was soft, and not current.  The score they gave me was from 3/4 when they refreshed my FICO score they provide to me.  I find it interesting because according to NFCU in an e-mail they sent to all members in Sept 2020, they had cancelled their contract with EQ for reports to make credit decisions.  They were only going to use TU from then on except for mortgages, when they of course pull all 3.  Before that, it was TU for all things CC's, EQ for installment loans.  I had always found it odd that after they cancelled that contract, they continued to provide EQ FICO 9 for the free score every month.  Now, they used the free score to give me my CLI, which was 684.  Kinda wished they had pulled a new score, though.  According to myFICO, my EQ FICO 9 score was 726 on 3/10.  My new free score from 4/4 agrees with that new number (increase from the whole missed payment that wasn't and not reporting thing - FICO 8 went up too).  Maybe I would have gotten a larger CLI if I had only waited 2 weeks Smiley Happy

Starting Score: 524
Current Score: 721
Goal Score: 785+


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8 REPLIES 8
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: My wife's and my data during our credit repair


@CreditPuppy wrote:

Good morning everyone.  I will be using this thread to document my credit repair journey and the different steps I took with my wife's credit repair.  I am doing this so others (I am looking at you @Anonymous ) will have different data sets to use in their calculations.  There will be a LOT of data and the resulting changes that were seen on the general FICO 8 score for all 3 major CB's.  Since I have had my myFICO account only for a month at this time, but have had my Experian premium account from the month after I started my credit repair (Jan 2020), those will be the reports and scores I will be using.  Also, my wife only has the Experian premium account.  Since I was asked if I would share, and I am a data nerd (math is in my soul), this shall be exhaustive.  Where I can scan reports after redacting personal info, I probably will.  I plan to write and show changes that happened every month with each CB, the resulting score changes, and the negative reason codes for each CB every month.  I will also go over what I did different between my wife and me, though her account regretably did not start at the same time as mine.

I am going to lay this thread out as each month will have its own post.  The first post will go over my ideas at the time for credit repair and some personal data.  Hopefully, I will get this out in the next 7 days.  That will leave me little time to complete this before my credit changes.  I hope this will help others with their journeys, and to maybe help clarify some of the datasets for FICO 8.

Oh, and Birdman7? Something happened last week that was interesting.  I applied for a CLI on one of my NFCU cards.  They pulled FICO 9 from EQ.  It was soft, and not current.  The score they gave me was from 3/4 when they refreshed my FICO score they provide to me.  I find it interesting because according to NFCU in an e-mail they sent to all members in Sept 2020, they had cancelled their contract with EQ for reports to make credit decisions.  They were only going to use TU from then on except for mortgages, when they of course pull all 3.  Before that, it was TU for all things CC's, EQ for installment loans.  I had always found it odd that after they cancelled that contract, they continued to provide EQ FICO 9 for the free score every month.  Now, they used the free score to give me my CLI, which was 684.  Kinda wished they had pulled a new score, though.  According to myFICO, my EQ FICO 9 score was 726 on 3/10.  My new free score from 4/4 agrees with that new number (increase from the whole missed payment that wasn't and not reporting thing - FICO 8 went up too).  Maybe I would have gotten a larger CLI if I had only waited 2 weeks Smiley Happy


@CreditPuppy thank you very much for the page and I'll be looking forward to all of your data. Thank you for taking time to contribute to the Community! 

 

I believe the score from Navy is from fourth Tuesday of the preceding month. So don't think it's current as of the date you get it or it states, they relay it late every month. Maybe they are keeping the monthly EQ scores and using those for CLIs only? I do not know. But it was not from March 4, it will be from the preceding month, the fourth Tuesday I believe. 


thank you again, we look forward to your data!

Message 2 of 9
CreditPuppy
Valued Member

Re: My wife's and my data during our credit repair

OK, so this section shall cover some personal data and some of the differences between my wife and me.  

 

First on the similarities.  My wife and I had gotten married in 2008.  She was a co-signer on a mortgage with nothing else on her credit, and I had a clean slate since everything had fallen off naturally.  Starting in 2009, we were having financial trouble, so we had used payday loans to get by.  No one at that time was willing to give us a loan.  Thankfully, they don't report, but they also don't fix anything, just make it worse.  Since we were unable to get ahead of them, we went to multiple CFA's for loans.  Better for the rate, but just as predatory.  And all of them did report.  The problem was we were naive as to what we were doing.  Every 3 months, we would reapply to each loan company because if you did that twice, they would give you a higher limit.  We thought we were increasing our scores by doing this.  We both would go to the loan places and renew.  We both had individual loans out with them.  There were 6 companies we were doing this with.  So, that was reporting 24 new loans every year, for 4 years, for each of us.  CFA loans.  In 2013, due to an accounting error by a local bookkeeper doing our taxes, we received 18k more on our tax return.  In 2014, the IRS wanted 40k in overpayment, interest, and fees.  We filed Chap 13, which was officially filed in June of that year.  The BK, which was a joint filing, was stated paid in November 2019 (it was ACTUALLY pd in July, but the waiting period for creditors to dispute, then final court date, then waiting period for disputation made it Nov).

 

Was going to do me next, but this is a perfect segway into what the heck has been happening with my wife.  The mortgage on the house once we filed the BK, stated on her report pd in full and in the comments that it was part of a payment agreement or bankruptcy.  No kidding, that is exactly what it said.  It was reported in closed accounts.  I decided to clean up our accounts since some were showing as charge-offs and late payments on her report when they were actually part of the BK.  I did the same with mine.  I got her first tradeline up in March 2020.  I was fairly conservative with hers, relatively speaking, with apps.  She now has 10 primary tradelines opened in the past 14 months (one that I will talk about shortly), and 3 AU tradelines. She has 7 HP's in the past 14 months, most of them in the past 6 months.  I will go over her reports month by month in later posts.

 

Now for the one tradeline I mentioned, and something weird that happened this month.  In late March, we made the house payment like we had all of this time since filing when we told them that we were going to set up auto-pay from now on, and how do we do that.  We have not enrolled yet as of this date and are planning to do it this weekend online.  That was March 28th.  Again, the mortgage had been showing paid and part of BK, which it wasn't.  A couple of years ago, we had asked about that when making a payment over the phone and the rep had told us that it was a mistake they had made when we originally filed the BK.  Apparently, we were supposed to sign a letter of intent (?) stating we still wanted the house.  To this day, we still have yet to sign that, but within 7 days, my wife's credit score on Experian FICO 8 went from 685 on April 2nd to 677 on April 3rd.  There were 3 changes.  First, the mortgage was now reporting as open with 22% paid.  Second, it now reported payments to March 2021 with 6 30 day late payments, the last one 6/17.  Third, the BK that was due to be taken off in June of this year was gone.  It is still reporting on mine BTW.  I will know on 4/12/21 if it dropped off the other 2.  Her score dropped by 1's and 2's until it hit 673 on 4/6.  Then on 4/9, it went back up to 681 (that will be for April 2021's post).  Now, her slider instead of saying she can hit 736 in 18 months now says she can hit 785 in 3 months if she can dump enough on her revolving debt.  @Anonymous , did she just hit a clean card?

 

So, now on to me.  I currently have 17 primary tradelines, 4 AU tradelines, 1 short installment loan (24 months, 62% pd off), 1 long installment loan (72 months, 7% pd off).  I have 11 HP's EX in the past 15 months, 6 in the past 12 (2 are auto).  The BK still reports on me on all 3 as of 4/9/21.  I received most of my accounts in the past 6 months.  Now, the reason I want to record this journey is that as of right now, I am on a dirty, mature scorecard.  In July 2021, I will be rebucketed to clean, thick, mature, new account.  In Feb 2022, I will again be moved to clean, thick, mature, no new account.  So, I am about to go on a rollercoaster ride with my credit.  I am gardening and have been for 2 months.  I plan to keep it that way for the next 22 months.  Oh, and my slider states I can hit 750 in 12 months (new accounts/HP's?).

 

I figure the difference in the forecast that EX is giving me VS my wife is she has already changed to a clean card and the mortgage which was opened in 1999.

 

Well, that's about it for the non-dry section.  The next post should be up this weekend starting with Jan 2020, the start of my rebuilding journey.  Have a good weekend!

Starting Score: 524
Current Score: 721
Goal Score: 785+


Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge

Message 3 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: My wife's and my data during our credit repair


@CreditPuppy wrote:

OK, so this section shall cover some personal data and some of the differences between my wife and me.  

 

First on the similarities.  My wife and I had gotten married in 2008.  She was a co-signer on a mortgage with nothing else on her credit, and I had a clean slate since everything had fallen off naturally.  Starting in 2009, we were having financial trouble, so we had used payday loans to get by.  No one at that time was willing to give us a loan.  Thankfully, they don't report, but they also don't fix anything, just make it worse.  Since we were unable to get ahead of them, we went to multiple CFA's for loans.  Better for the rate, but just as predatory.  And all of them did report.  The problem was we were naive as to what we were doing.  Every 3 months, we would reapply to each loan company because if you did that twice, they would give you a higher limit.  We thought we were increasing our scores by doing this.  We both would go to the loan places and renew.  We both had individual loans out with them.  There were 6 companies we were doing this with.  So, that was reporting 24 new loans every year, for 4 years, for each of us.  CFA loans.  In 2013, due to an accounting error by a local bookkeeper doing our taxes, we received 18k more on our tax return.  In 2014, the IRS wanted 40k in overpayment, interest, and fees.  We filed Chap 13, which was officially filed in June of that year.  The BK, which was a joint filing, was stated paid in November 2019 (it was ACTUALLY pd in July, but the waiting period for creditors to dispute, then final court date, then waiting period for disputation made it Nov).

 

Was going to do me next, but this is a perfect segway into what the heck has been happening with my wife.  The mortgage on the house once we filed the BK, stated on her report pd in full and in the comments that it was part of a payment agreement or bankruptcy.  No kidding, that is exactly what it said.  It was reported in closed accounts.  I decided to clean up our accounts since some were showing as charge-offs and late payments on her report when they were actually part of the BK.  I did the same with mine.  I got her first tradeline up in March 2020.  I was fairly conservative with hers, relatively speaking, with apps.  She now has 10 primary tradelines opened in the past 14 months (one that I will talk about shortly), and 3 AU tradelines. She has 7 HP's in the past 14 months, most of them in the past 6 months.  I will go over her reports month by month in later posts.

 

Now for the one tradeline I mentioned, and something weird that happened this month.  In late March, we made the house payment like we had all of this time since filing when we told them that we were going to set up auto-pay from now on, and how do we do that.  We have not enrolled yet as of this date and are planning to do it this weekend online.  That was March 28th.  Again, the mortgage had been showing paid and part of BK, which it wasn't.  A couple of years ago, we had asked about that when making a payment over the phone and the rep had told us that it was a mistake they had made when we originally filed the BK.  Apparently, we were supposed to sign a letter of intent (?) stating we still wanted the house.  To this day, we still have yet to sign that, but within 7 days, my wife's credit score on Experian FICO 8 went from 685 on April 2nd to 677 on April 3rd.  There were 3 changes.  First, the mortgage was now reporting as open with 22% paid.  Second, it now reported payments to March 2021 with 6 30 day late payments, the last one 6/17.  Third, the BK that was due to be taken off in June of this year was gone.  It is still reporting on mine BTW.  I will know on 4/12/21 if it dropped off the other 2.  Her score dropped by 1's and 2's until it hit 673 on 4/6.  Then on 4/9, it went back up to 681 (that will be for April 2021's post).  Now, her slider instead of saying she can hit 736 in 18 months now says she can hit 785 in 3 months if she can dump enough on her revolving debt.  @Anonymous , did she just hit a clean card?  if it dropped the BK and there's no other derogatory worse than a 30 day, yes!!

 

So, now on to me.  I currently have 17 primary tradelines, 4 AU tradelines, 1 short installment loan (24 months, 62% pd off), 1 long installment loan (72 months, 7% pd off).  I have 11 HP's EX in the past 15 months, 6 in the past 12 (2 are auto).  The BK still reports on me on all 3 as of 4/9/21.  I received most of my accounts in the past 6 months.  Now, the reason I want to record this journey is that as of right now, I am on a dirty, mature scorecard.  In July 2021, I will be rebucketed to clean, thick, mature, new account.  In Feb 2022, I will again be moved to clean, thick, mature, no new account.  So, I am about to go on a rollercoaster ride with my credit.  I am gardening and have been for 2 months.  I plan to keep it that way for the next 22 months.  Oh, and my slider states I can hit 750 in 12 months (new accounts/HP's?).

 

I figure the difference in the forecast that EX is giving me VS my wife is she has already changed to a clean card and the mortgage which was opened in 1999.

 

Well, that's about it for the non-dry section.  The next post should be up this weekend starting with Jan 2020, the start of my rebuilding journey.  Have a good weekend!


@CreditPuppy OMG, that is crazy about doing the multiple CFAs over and over again. It just goes to show knowledge is power and can you imagine what you could've done had you had the knowledge you have now? Wow. Still it sounds like you've done very well overall for both of you! Congratulations and watching and reading!!

Message 4 of 9
CreditPuppy
Valued Member

Re: My wife's and my data during our credit repair

Sorry for the delay, work got crazy.  I am writing with a little update.  The EX BK dropped off my report on 04/12/21.  It is still reporting on both my wife's and my EQ and TU.  Found out that the annual free reports are still doing weekly reports if you want them.  I got impatient and burned 3 reports for both of us.  I seem to have trouble trying to pull weekly, but no problem with monthly.  Oh well, I will pull one the first week of June instead of May.  My score has been on a rollercoaster ride since the BK fell off.  Not massive swings, but 5-10 points per day, every day.  I think I am on the cusp of a separation line.  One account reports a $53 increase?  Down 10 points.  The next day, an account shows a $5 decrease?  Up 8 points.  Oh, and Experian.com has added another feature this month.  They tell you how many changes have happened since your last score change, what they are, and if they helped or hurt your score.

 

I will be posting my Jan 2020 info tonight at least.  Who knows, might have time to post more.  But at this point, I am tired and need rest (work nights).  I am off for the next 4 days, so I am going to try to get as much done as I can.

 

Have a good day!

Starting Score: 524
Current Score: 721
Goal Score: 785+


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Message 5 of 9
CreditPuppy
Valued Member

Re: My wife's and my data during our credit repair

OK,

 

I think I have FINALLY figured out how to upload PDFs to share.  If you look at the report, this was from Jan 27, 2020.  That is when I got my sub to Experian.  I plan to do this month by month, but I actually have the data from every day I logged in which means I COULD do it day by day for the most part.  Even I would find that tedious but can be arranged.

 

As noted, there are no reported open accounts reporting, 4 late accounts, 19 closed accounts (all CFA's), a lot of CO's reported with almost all on one account (I mean 63 CO's?? On one account?? Was sooo happy to have that taken off), one collection (medical), and of course the BK.

 

Jan 27 is when I got my QS1 card from CapOne.  You can see the inquiry in that section.  Of course, it wouldn't report for a while.  If I remember correctly, what I did that day was prequal for a card from CapOne.  I was expecting to get qualified for their secured card, but lo and behold, it said I could have my pick of the 3.  I chose QS1 for the cashback.  I got all sorts of excited about being approved.  I decided to change my Experian account from free to premiere.  I then applied for Fingerhut on Jan 29th I believe, which if you noticed I had before the BK and excellent payment history.  Was approved again.  The bug bit, and hard.  But that will be for February.

 

Here is the PDF - January 2020 - Redacted 

Starting Score: 524
Current Score: 721
Goal Score: 785+


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Message 6 of 9
CreditPuppy
Valued Member

Re: My wife's and my data during our credit repair

A little addendum to Jan 2020 before we dive into Feb.  Shortly after the 1st, I had decided to start fixing my credit.  I had seen a few YouTubers showing how easy it was, and if you didn't want to DIY you could ALWAYS hire their company to do it.  I took the info they were putting out and came up with my own path.  I was cleaning up EX first and focused on my report from them during Jan and Feb.  I decided to start with EX because, in early Jan, they were reporting a FICO score of --.  In Feb, I started doing EQ and TU together, and wouldn't finish until 4 months later.  EQ was fairly easy to get changes done, but EX was the easiest of the three.  TU was like trying to pull molars out of a grumpy bear.

 

On to February 2020. This is the first month that I am able to get all 3 reports from Experian.  BTW, if you want to know what EX and EQ looked like at the beginning of Jan, look at TU.  All 3 looked like that when I started, including all the accounts that were reporting.  The only difference would be the collection that by this time had been deleted from all 3 reports.  By looking at all 3, you can see EX is coming along well, EQ is about halfway there, and TU is being a butt.  This is when I start seeing EX get rid of swaths of closed tradelines instead of the one tradeline I disputed.  Not complaining, but it is weird.  You will notice that with EQ later in the year.

 

OK, some explanation.  Do you know how in the last post I stated the bug bit and bit hard?  Well, this month you can see the ramp-up.  I went on an app spree.  You will see this in the inquiries section.  And you can see by the inquiries I picked up, I had no clue what the rules for the different lenders were yet.  I also started cycling my QS1 during this month.  Since I got the card mid-Feb, I stayed under the cl for that month.  However, in later months, it was nothing for me to put $700-800 per month through it (my cl was $300 at this time).  Later, you will see that my QS1 never reported more than 15%, and once I got that skill down, never more than 2%.

 

Here we go. 

The first is Experian  https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:6a10ba91-1d23-4f41-9c6b-550cd686b9e9 

Now Equifax https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:7e4b48c2-6aed-4401-8b89-6944157bf1ef 

Finally TransUnion https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:313b4102-7a3b-46d8-95e4-281c8acfd774 

 

I will continue to post as I can redact personal info.  I know it took 2 1/2 hours for this post alone.  I think I will check Adobe's site to see if there is a way to redact faster.  Have a good day!

Starting Score: 524
Current Score: 721
Goal Score: 785+


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Message 7 of 9
CreditPuppy
Valued Member

Re: My wife's and my data during our credit repair

Hello!  Just woke up for some reason and decided to post some of the reports I had been working on.  But first, I forgot to put my wife's EX report on the last post.  She had a free account on EX until Oct 2020, so the only one I can provide for her will be that one until Oct.  Also, I apparently was not as consistent in logging into her account during the first 5 months so there are a couple of months missing.

 

Here is Feb 2020 for her - Experian Feb 2020 wife 

 

Now on to March 2020.  During this month, I opened 2 more accounts.  Every time I was logging in to Experian, I was getting this warning on the main screen that my file was thin with 2 open accounts, and lenders considered that extremely risky until I had at least 6 open accounts showing.  So, I tried for a few more and was approved for 2.  They were a Self loan and an NFCU secured CC.  My app spree was winding down, mostly because lenders were looking at me and saying "8 HP's with 2 open accounts in 2 months?  Do you SERIOUSLY think we will approve you???"  Couldn't argue with that, but it did nothing to scratch that itch.  I would go one more month before forcing myself to stop.  You see, after hearing 30 years of no, it was nice to hear yes, and it was addicting.  Plus, the stupid warning from Experian was getting on my nerves.  Kinda like an alcoholic who is abstaining from the bottle not because they want to be sober but because they can't afford it only to be bombarded daily with ads for Grey Goose or Johnny Walker.  Annoying to say the least.

 

So here are the files

Experian here Experian Mar 2020 

Equifax here Equifax Mar 2020 

Finally, TransUnion TransUnion Mar 2020 

 

Hope you have a good day!  I am back off to sleep.

Starting Score: 524
Current Score: 721
Goal Score: 785+


Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge

Message 8 of 9
CreditPuppy
Valued Member

Re: My wife's and my data during our credit repair

Good morning,

 

This is for April 2020.  We will start with my wife this month.  I had helped her to open a CapOne Platinum card in Feb and a Fingerhut account in March.  This month, I added her to my CapOne QS1 as an AU.  I was trying to go slower with her rebuilding to see if it made any difference.  It did.  Not so much in score, but in SL's.  Understanding more about dirty cards, the difference makes more sense to me now.  I had also noticed our scores were increasing at a similar rate.

 

So here is her report Experian Apr 2020 wife 

 

Now, for me.  If you remember, I had opened my QS1 in Jan, done Fingerhut freshstart program in Feb.  The Fingerhut account had closed in March with the revolving account opening in March.  This month, I added Overstock and Wayfair to my tradelines.  You see, I had learned a nifty trick - the shopping cart trick.  I did Overstock first, did something wrong, and received an HP.  Wayfair worked great with only an SP.  That also would be my 5th and 6th open tradelines.  Experian could quit bothering me about it now.  This would also be where I would start gardening for the first time.

 

Here are my reports

Experian - Experian Apr 2020 

Equifax - Equifax Apr 2020 

TransUnion - TransUnion Apr 2020 

 

Hope you have a good day!  Time for sleep again.

Starting Score: 524
Current Score: 721
Goal Score: 785+


Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge

Message 9 of 9
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