Newbie Here - On a mission to rebuild

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

New to the forum. Been stalking and reading for awhile and decided to sign up. I am on a mission to rebuild my credit in order to purchase the house I already live in. I will list my details below and any advice will be GREATLY appreciated.

Ok here I go...

Credit One bank (opened 2 yrs ago) CL is 1900.

Discover IT (opened 5 months ago) CL $2200. Asked for increase and denied (surprise surprise)

Macys Red Card (opened last week) was denied for Amex version. CL $200 (groan)

Lowes Card (I am authorized user only) opened 10yrs and credit line was $6000. Asked for CL today and approved $17k (woohoo for my mom since she is the main owner) there is a balance of $892 on this card.

Ok the bad...

(4) Portfolio Recovery Collections accounts opened in 2015. They are paidoff and am preparing the goodwill letters to be sent out (wish me luck).

Chapter 7 bankruptcy filed in 2009 and will be ready to come off in 8 months.

Fico Scores (Exp-624) (Equ-640) (Trans-628) pulled from the Experian website (not sure if accurate and I don't trust Credit Karma)

So my question is... How do I improve my scores from here? I have no open installments, do I need one? Do I need more cards? 

Graciassss!

[Meanmchine]

Call Transunion and ask to speak to a supervisor.  Ask the supervisor to see if your bankruptcy is eligable to be deleted early (early elimintion or "EE" )

If he cant, try back 12/1/2018 and if necessary 1/1/2019

You can start trying this with Experian 1/1/2019  Equifax is very hard to get an EE with but you can start trying 4/1/2019

Good luck

[HeavenOhio]

When are you looking at buying the house?

A general rule is not to apply for any new credit for a year before obtaining a mortgage. You're likely to get a nice score bump if your youngest account is a year old.

If I remember correctly, two of the three mortgage scores don't benefit from the presence of a loan. But with your file being on the thin side, another account might be beneficial, and a small share secured loan might be a good fit. Someone else is going to have to chime in on the file thickness factor because I'm no expert on that.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the info! I was going to send a letter but I'm am going to try a phone call first, if not snail mail it is. 

[Anonymous]

I was looking to purchase next year if possible and that's why I am trying to fix things now. I was looking into Self Lender for the loan effect on my credit. I just opened an account with Wells Fargo but I probably have to have time in and raise my score to probably be able to be approved for a 3k loan.

Thank you for the advice, it's much appreciated.