Newbie here!!

[Anonymous]

Hello all! Over the past few months I have taken a serious approach to rebuilding my credit. Quickly, a brief background. In 2015 I got severely ill with thyroid cancer and lost my job. Medical bills piled up as well as others. I defaulted on a Walmart cc through Synchrony and I had numerous medical collections on my report.

My wife and I would like to buy a new house next year and I'm really pounding the pavement on trying to rebuild. I use credit karma and just purchased the FICO app and monthly subscription. I have 5 total credit cards. Target, Capital one quicksilver, Capital one Walmart, Amazon and Kohl's. All have a zero balance. I have a mortgage that has been late a lot! I bought my house in 2010 and when i got sick and had no income it killed me. Luckily, we didn't lose the house. I have a car payment that has been late. I've recently paid off a collection from midland credit for the Walmart card and I've paid off 7 medical collections from when I got sick. What else can I do to bump my score? Currently my FICO is 604 eq, 611 tu, 618exp..

Any suggestions would be helpful.

[Anonymous]

In order to truly help you it would advantageous for you to list out everything that's on your reports currently... accounts, status of accounts, lates, derogs, etc. Also, you mentioned wanting to purchase next year; when exactly are you looking to do this? 

Great job so far and I truly hope that your health has improved! Also, I'd post over on the mortgage forum if I were you; it's some real life super heroes over there! 🙃🙃

[Anonymous]

Credit cards:

Amazon- good standing- 0 late

target- good standing- 1 late in 2017

walmart (capital one)- good standing- 0 late

kohls- good standing- 1 late 2018

capital one quicksilver- good standing-4 late, 2 2019, 2 2018

Mortgage:

Wfhm- 28 missed. Haven't been late in over a year. I know this is the biggie!

Car loans:

honda- good standing- 0 late

Honda- good standing- 0 late

closed accounts
honda- 10 lates, closed 2015

honda-15 lates, closed 2018

cc from credit union- 4 lates, still have $2800 balance. 

[mycreditscoreisfair]

Is the charge off from your credit union credit card the only charge off you have?

Do you have any remaining collections? 

Were all of your collections deleted after payment?

[Anonymous]

The charge off is from a Syncrony bank Lowe's card. That is the only charge off on my wife's side. I have a collection for $275. Yes, all have been deleted after payment. These are the only 2 remaining. They haven't been paid as of yet.

[Anonymous]

The credit union card was closed on the banks end. Still carrying a balance but is paid on time every month.

[mycreditscoreisfair]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The charge off is from a Syncrony bank Lowe's card. That is the only charge off on my wife's side. I have a collection for $275. Yes, all have been deleted after payment. These are the only 2 remaining. They haven't been paid as of yet.

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It sounds like you have to take care of the charge off and the collection that are both suppressing your scores. Generally, people see the largest score increases when all their collections fall of their report. The charge off is likely still being factored into your credit utilization.

You could try a goodwill campaign, which basically consists of asking your creditors to help you out by removing your late payments. I wouldn't hold my breathe on creditors doing that but you have nothing to lose.

Other than that, it looks like it's just a matter of time and things falling off your report.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice!

[AllZero]

Here's a good primer for The Saturation Technique: Best GW adjustment odds.