Please review my credit rehab strategy, your help is appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Thank you in advance for reading this. I'm a fairly recently divorced first year law student with some major credit issues. I want to be able to be approved for a mortgage within the next 3 years. My credit karma transunion score is 679 and my other two reports have been frozen for the past year. I don't have any current tradelines (I'm excluding my student loans that are currently in deferral) because all of my old accounts were either closed because of inactivity or charged off. My charged off credit card debt totals ~$4,200 (Citi Forward - $3k, Amex Zync - $600, Cap One -$600, Ray and Flann $1k). My job this summer will allow me to pay off these debts in full next month and I'm trying to figure out what step I need to take to put myself on better footing credit wise.

I applied for new cards a couple of days ago. My Barclays Rewards Master Card was declined but I was approved for a $1,500 Discover IT card and a $400 Banana Republic Card (store card, not the Visa). I'm thinking about getting a 3k secured Visa or Mastercard when I start working at the end of the month, is this a good idea? Is there anything I should be doing other than this to fix my credit situation? Thank you again for your help!

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you in advance for reading this. I'm a fairly recently divorced first year law student with some major credit issues. I want to be able to be approved for a mortgage within the next 3 years. My credit karma transunion score is 679 and my other two reports have been frozen for the past year. I don't have any current tradelines (I'm excluding my student loans that are currently in deferral) because all of my old accounts were either closed because of inactivity or charged off. My charged off credit card debt totals ~$4,200 (Citi Forward - $3k, Amex Zync - $600, Cap One -$600, Ray and Flann $1k). My job this summer will allow me to pay off these debts in full next month and I'm trying to figure out what step I need to take to put myself on better footing credit wise.

I applied for new cards a couple of days ago. My Barclays Rewards Master Card was declined but I was approved for a $1,500 Discover IT card and

a $400 Banana Republic Card (store card, not the Visa). I'm thinking about getting a 3k secured Visa or Mastercard when I start working at the end of the month, is this a good idea? Is there anything I should be doing other than this to fix my credit situation? Thank you again for your help!

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Before you run off and pay off all those COs you need some strategy here.. How old are those COs?? Are they past your states SOL?? Any CAs involved with them??

On the Barclays if you didnt call the backdoor number you need to do so and recon that denial, be prepared to answer questions on your negatives and current financial profile. Its goot you got the other 2, I might get one more secured card but the fact that you already can get unsecureds I might just wait on it..

[Anonymous]

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@gdale6 wrote:

Before you run off and pay off all those COs you need some strategy here.. How old are those COs?? Are they past your states SOL?? Any CAs involved with them??

On the Barclays if you didnt call the backdoor number you need to do so and recon that denial, be prepared to answer questions on your negatives and current financial profile. Its goot you got the other 2, I might get one more secured card but the fact that you already can get unsecureds I might just wait on it..

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Thanks for your reply! The COs (Charge Offs?) are two years old so the SOL has not passed and there are no collection agencies are involved with any of the cards. Is there any way I can get my old inactive cards reopened? I could use a credit line with some history. I did call the backdoor number for Barclays (twice) and they said they wouldn't be able to approve me until they saw new activity on my account. 

[Creditaddict]

You might be able to get a rehab account from amex

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@gdale6 wrote:

Before you run off and pay off all those COs you need some strategy here.. How old are those COs?? Are they past your states SOL?? Any CAs involved with them??

On the Barclays if you didnt call the backdoor number you need to do so and recon that denial, be prepared to answer questions on your negatives and current financial profile. Its goot you got the other 2, I might get one more secured card but the fact that you already can get unsecureds I might just wait on it..

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Thanks for your reply! The COs (Charge Offs?) are two years old so the SOL has not passed and there are no collection agencies are involved with any of the cards. Is there any way I can get my old inactive cards reopened? I could use a credit line with some history. I did call the backdoor number for Barclays (twice) and they said they wouldn't be able to approve me until they saw new activity on my account. 

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Ok, I would try PFDs for full payment but they are so new they might not agree. I would only contact them one at a time as you have the funds to PIF. Since they are not past the SOL there isnt much working room here. You are not going to be able to reopen any of those accounts you would have to apply for new accounts after they are PIF if you want cards from those banks. As stated by creditaddict you can get a rehab account from AMEX if you want to deal with them and they will backdate to your original MSD.

Adding: You will be using GW letters after you PIF in an attempt to get them removed if PFD fails.

[fot1]

If getting a house is the overall goal, then pay the CO's, PFD when or if possible. and add one more credit card.. Three years from now the Co will have aged enough to no longer kill your score and the 3 positive tradelines will be more then enough to re-establish your credit for lenders.

[pizzadude]

Moving to Rebuilding

[Anonymous]

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@Creditaddict wrote:

You might be able to get a rehab account from amex

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What's a rehab account?

[Anonymous]

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@gdale6 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@gdale6 wrote:

Before you run off and pay off all those COs you need some strategy here.. How old are those COs?? Are they past your states SOL?? Any CAs involved with them??

On the Barclays if you didnt call the backdoor number you need to do so and recon that denial, be prepared to answer questions on your negatives and current financial profile. Its goot you got the other 2, I might get one more secured card but the fact that you already can get unsecureds I might just wait on it..

---

Thanks for your reply! The COs (Charge Offs?) are two years old so the SOL has not passed and there are no collection agencies are involved with any of the cards. Is there any way I can get my old inactive cards reopened? I could use a credit line with some history. I did call the backdoor number for Barclays (twice) and they said they wouldn't be able to approve me until they saw new activity on my account. 

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Ok, I would try PFDs for full payment but they are so new they might not agree. I would only contact them one at a time as you have the funds to PIF. Since they are not past the SOL there isnt much working room here. You are not going to be able to reopen any of those accounts you would have to apply for new accounts after they are PIF if you want cards from those banks. As stated by creditaddict you can get a rehab account from AMEX if you want to deal with them and they will backdate to your original MSD.

Adding: You will be using GW letters after you PIF in an attempt to get them removed if PFD fails.

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How does PFD work? I would just call them up and try to negotiate an arrangement with them or would this be done through correspondence? 

[Shogun]

I usually start by snail mail.  Offering payment for deletion.